As usual the club’s Christmas lunch was a relaxed and social affair, and Café Thyme made us very welcome. Seventeen club members were able to attend (up considerably on last year), and Aileen Logie also made time to join us, which was lovely.

Thanks to Liz H, Loralee and Pam, who came early to nab tables, and help café co-owner Jackie set us up with a long table layout that worked really well. People arrived at times that suited them, gradually filling all the places, with a bit of musical chairs as some left early.

The coffee was good, the food was great, and the company was (of course) excellent. It was really nice to have the opportunity to sit and chat, and get to find out more about who our fellow dancers are off the dance floor.

And it was good to have a range of people there, from first year dancer Pam and second year dancer Isabelle, through to long standing Johnsonville members from the 1980s, such as John H and John M. It was a delightful mix of membership, dancing, and life experience.

The big change this year was that Café Thyme is now a double-vaccinated venue, and we were all required to present our vaccine passes. It was quite a smooth process, with café staff scanning passes in the line, whenever a queue formed at the counter.

It is something we’ll be doing a lot of next year, as all our usual club venues will also require vaccine passes in 2022. That includes Khandallah Town Hall for club nights, Johnsonville Bowling Club for our Summer Ceilidh, and St John’s Church Hall for our mid-winter dinner and dance.

This will give reassurance to dancers who have not been comfortable to dance at Level 2, knowing that everyone on the dance floor is double vaccinated.

Click on the gallery below to see Loralee’s photos of this social occasion:

Commiserations to those club members who couldn’t join us as planned, hopefully they can make it next year. And who knows, we may one day get good enough weather to again sit outside in the sun, as shown in Loralee’s photos from the 2017 Christmas Lunch.

Kristin Downey
11 December 2021