One of the best things about Rotary is all getting together for a bit of a do.

Take last Thursday... After a very hot day in the garden, I scrubbed up and headed off to “The Holiday Inn” for a cheese & wine Charity do. This was partly to raise money for our charities and partly to raise a glass to Her Majesty on the occasion of her 90th Birthday.

The weather was perfect, the setting was delightful and the place was buzzing with Rotarians from Watford and Hemel along with their guests.

We had four wines to taste, two white, two red, from both France & Italy along with some delicious cheeses. Our Sommelier for the evening was a guy called Duncan Gammie. Duncan has started his own wine education company. When I asked him what made him go down that route, he said he had such a love for wine that he wanted to share his knowledge and educate others on how to choose wines. I think most of us agreed all four wines were delicious (hic). The most surprising thing was, they all came from TESCO and were all reasonably priced.

Throughout the evening we had wonderful music by the Blues singer & Pianist, ERIC RANZONI. The music along with the wine got us all into the right mood for the business part of the evening, RAISING MONEY. Three items were auctioned and along with the raffle we raised in total after costs aprox £800.00 which is a fantastic effort on everyone’s part, and certainly boosts our charity coffers.

Of course this couldn’t have been achieved without Actar’s great organisational skills, and the wonderful buffet that the manager George at Holiday Inn provided free of charge. Proof again that Rotary working with local businesses achieves great things.

There was of course one other item that needed our attention that night. We all raised our glasses to toast Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 2nd on reaching her 90th Birthday.