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The Big Skate!
For anyone who hasn’t yet been down to the Christmas ice rink in Calverley Grounds, Tuesday 20th, from 7.30pm to 8.30pm could well be the ideal opportunity. Bring your friends and family and join the assorted Twuttlers & Twuddlers skating around the rink in a suitably festive fashion (reindeer antlers and Xmas hats are entirely optional). It doesn’t matter whether you’re a dab hand at the triple salchow, or have never strapped on a pair of skates in your life… the event is open to all and suitable for skaters of all abilities.
For more information on the rink, click here to visit their website.
We’re told that hot drinks and food are available down at the rink ~ although we suspect that skating whilst slurping a latte and nibbling a mince pie is probably frowned upon. Actually, there are t&cs on their website, so please take heed of the dos and don’ts.
There is a spectator area for non-skaters to watch proceedings and shout helpful advice from the sidelines.
Next Tuesday evening is also the date for the last Bedford quiz before Christmas. This starts at 8pm and a Twuddle team usually enters, so once the skating is over, it would seem rude not to nip over the road to this most-excellent pub to give them some support. But no help in answering the questions please ~ you wouldn’t want them disqualified would you?
We hope to see you on the 20th! ~ Any questions & queries, please leave a comment below.
PS. There is a discount scheme for parties of 10 or more, so if you are thinking of coming along, please let us know. Get enough people together and we could save some money on the ticket price.
OK OK, so this’ll be 24 hours too late… but what the hell. The idea is simple ~ you beg, borrow, steal (we of course could not condone this), buy or even grow* a suitable pumpkin… and you carve into it a design so fiendishly horrific, that the gathered Twuddlers cannot help be impressed. Or scared witless.
Best design wins. As voted for by those at Sankeys on the evening of November 1st (a regular Tuesday Twuddle night). No prizes (unless a kind sponsor would like to step forward!), just the honour of being the best darn pumpkin carver in Tunbridge Wells!
Candles etc allowed, to illuminate your creation. But please be aware that we will need to light them ~ do NOT do this yourself when you get to Sankeys. We’ll allocate an area for the pumpkins to be displayed, and when the time comes for judging, we’ll light them for you.
*If anyone claims to have grown their own pumpkin, we will be most impressed. But expect to be treated with much suspicion should you make this claim. Especially if your leave the Sainsbury’s price tag on.
A fantastic late edition to the Mad Hatters Tea party, is a local business, “the Waffle Bar”. They are also based in Bodiam, East Sussex and have an amazing van called The Waffle Bar. They began trading at the beginning of summer 2008, selling their homemade waffles (yeast free/cooked fresh on site) and their real dairy homemade ice cream (made by them from local produce to them with no additives or colourings)…the ice cream has a shelflife of approx 3 weeks and is made especially for events, plus all their disposables are bio-degradable.
At present they have a dozen or more ice cream recipes to call upon, all the old faves plus a few new …all made from Northiam Dairy produce and free range eggs from Staplecross. They use no artificial additives, colourings or preservatives. Fruit based ice cream is seasonal of course and made from hand-picked fruit from Maynards at Ticehurst, East Sussex.
Could this be the event of the Summer? ~ a fancy dress picnic in conjuction with those lovely people at Mad Hatters Fancy Dress.
Mad Hatters are throwing open their doors (and the grounds of their lovely house overlooking Bodiam Castle) on Sunday 31st July from noon until 5pm to all Twuddlers, Twuttlers, Cruddlers, Skuttlers, Oakuddlers and their friends and families. This event is open to all, so if you want bring people along with you, they’d be most welcome!
The gardens of the Mad Hatters HQ make an absolutely ideal place to have a Summer picnic… beautiful formal gardens, orchards, fields, a small woodland… even a secluded pond! We’re free to use them to picnic in ~ Mad Hatters are even giving the garden an Alice in Wonderland theme for day ~ just for us! We don’t want to say too much more about this… it’d spoil the surprise.
Then there’s the Mad Hatters shop and storeroom ~ these just have to be seen to be believed, crammed to the rafters with amazing fancy dress costumes of every conceivable description. Have a look at their website for a taster of what’s on offer. And the best bit is we’re free to try on as many outfits as we wish… and to wear them at the picnic!
To make the day even more special, a swing jazz band will be on hand to entertain us… and the local Tunbridge Wells photography group (the ‘Flickrites’) are going to be present to take photographs. Simply ask a photographer to take your photo, and they’ll kindly oblige! No charge… free… gratis!*
Of course, you don’t HAVE to wear costumes, and you certainly don’t have to have your photo taken ~ the photographers realise some people don’t like having their picture taken. We are also aware that some parents don’t wish for their children to be photographed ~ in which case, simply make a member of Mad Hatters staff aware of your objection when you arrive. However, if you do take this opportunity, you’ll have some amazing photographs of you and your family!
You are also welcome to take pics yourself, so please bring your cameras.
Entry to the entire event is 100% free, there’s ample parking on site and Mad Hatters have arranged toilet facilities for us. Please note that some of the fields have horses, chickens and (some very exotic looking) sheep. When we were down there, wild rabbits were running all over the place… it really is lovely place, but because of the farm animals, visitors are asked not to bring their dogs with them.
If you’d like to come to this event, please send an RSVP email to info@madhattersfancydress.com. Although numbers are not limited as such, Mad Hatter’s understandably want to keeps tabs on how many people will be attending. If you have any queries, please leave a comment to this post.
*There is one exception ~ Steve Collins will be setting up his photography equipment to help raise money for charity by taking people’s ‘avatar’ pics. This is your chance to have a stunning avatar on your Twitter or Facebook pages. Whether or not you choose to be photographed in fancy dress is completely up to you!
We look forward to seeing you in Bodiam next Sunday ~ don’t forget your picnic!
For directions please click here.
PS. One further thing to mention. Should the weather on the 31st prove inclement, we may have to cancel at short notice. So if it is raining on the morning of the 31st, please check with the Twuttle website to see if the event is still on or not.
