Hoots mon, it’s a braw, bricht, moonlicht nicht, well and it was such a night when we all arrived at Yorkshire Coast College for a traditional Burns night supper. I STILL don’t understand why the English find the need to celebrate Burns’ night, heavens we will soon have a Dylan Thomas breakfast or a Wordsworth weekend.

Anyway I digress, the evening was well attended with 29 members, including 5 tablers (minus their Chairman and Vice Chairman) present, mostly in dress suits and a small number in skirts. The 4 who did not apologise know who they are and their financial contribution to the evening was very much appreciated by all who attended.

The evening commenced with a piper who piped the haggis in and one of the chaps in skirts said a few words, mostly in a foreign language and then grace was read (?) by the youngest of the visiting Tablers and we all sat down to a 5 course feast.

The starter being smoked salmon with Bellinis, followed by Haggis, bashed neeps (poor things) and champit tatties (no idea what they are but they were delicious).

The main course was venison followed by a plate of miniature Scottish deserts then coffee and petit fours. The meal was beautifully served by the students of the college who year after year still provide a high standard of service.

Once the coffee was finished it was then down to business and our secretary was called upon to report: Caw canny (meaning “Go easy/Don’t overdo it”) was his message so he didn’t overdo it and sat down.

Out from the crowd came “Gie’s a shot then! (meaning “Let me have a turn now”) and it was the finance officer who proclaimed all paid up and then sat down.

Finally it was the catering officer who reminded us all of the next meeting at Tuscany Two on February 12th.

The meeting concluded with RTBI.

And for those of you who did not attend:

“Ye missed yersel last night” meaning “You missed out on a good time last night”

Report kindly submitted by Jim Hughes and translated from the original Welsh by our resident interpreter, Dai Hard-Two.