by WBro. Laurence Hobbs
Boring, uneventful, dreary.
These are three words that have absolutely nothing to do with last Saturday’s meeting at Great Queen Street. Given the choice, three appropriate words would be:
Slick, joyful and fun.
Yes, that’s correct, all three of these words are most definitely applicable. The meeting was truly a lesson in the results you get when doing your homework. It was clearly evident that the brethren had been putting in the hours into the ritual books and it really did pay off. It was a slick third degree and brother Sean Benissa was very fortunate to be on the receiving end of this raising. Looking around the room, one saw a wide range of eccentric pairs of socks but not one set of yawning jowls.
Besides the reflective mood of the third degree, there was also cause for celebration. It was announced by the Worshipful Master, that two former members of the Connaught Club are moving up in the world. Frixos Melas is to become Metropolitan Assistant Grand Director of Ceremonies and Mitchell Merrick-Thirlway is to be appointed to the office of Metropolitan Grand Steward. Hence my choice of the word joyful.
On to the fun part. It’s all well and good to have an efficient and happy meeting but an evening can be quite lop-sided if the festive board doesn’t rise to the same high standards. On this occasion, and I believe this is quite a trend, it proved to be the yang to the meeting’s ying. We dined at the Kenilworth Hotel, at it was worth every penny.
Not only did we eat well, (the duck was pretty tasty) the raffle prizes exceeded expectations. Yours truly walked off with a Dip Dab (not had one of them in years!), but alas, one poor soul won a tin a sweetcorn. Foolishly he chose the unbranded tin in the hope of getting an extra dessert. For those that didn’t have to rush off for a train, the evening the was nicely rounded off at the Museum Tavern. A local pub which we filled to the brim.
If you’ve never been to Burgoyne before, you need to do two things. Get hold of some “interesting socks”, and secondly notify the Lodge’s secretary (Bro. Darren Knight) of your intention to attend. His email address is available on the Facebook group!
The next meeting is Saturday 16th June, put it in your diaries and I’ll see you there.
Laurence Hobbs
Deputy Chairman