A Fantastic Meal
The Team at the Yurt treated us royally, bring out great food that was hot and tasty.
The welcoming glass of Prosecco was indeed most welcome and the wines, drinks and 4 courses were all consumed with relish.
Whilst the Yurt was not quite filled by our Region we got close and we were certainly made to feel like specially selected guests.
Special Parking & A Most Convivial Place To Meet Back Up
It was very useful indeed that a Region Committee Member, Martin Crawley works at Nicholson's. He had been instrumental in the organising of the event and it's delivery on the day.
Indeed, he'd taken an unpaid day of leave to manage the car parking and Jaguar Display for us.
On arriving inside the Yurt itself, Members could grab their glass of Prosecco or Orange Juice and catch up with fellow Members. Many attendees are regulars at Region Events, others we see that bit less often. so it was good to rekindle or sustain friendships and further enhance engagement with the Region.
There was no dress code so we saw Suits, Xmas Jumpers, Jaguar Clothing. One wondered if there would be Dress Suits and long dresses but the latter might not have been quite warming enough !
Our Chairman's Waffle Even Scored Applause
Our Chairman, Steve, delivered his usual - somewhat amusing but also with some important and serious content - welcome, state of the Region assessment and notices. This fortunately was appreciated and also led to mass signing-up for the events to be held in early 2025 and lots of completed nomination forms for the Nick Morse Enthusiast Of The Year Award 2025.
Those events include meeting our Club Chairman on January 7th at our Open Night, Our 200th Event and AGM (with free buffet, glass of fizz and slice of 'birthday cake') in March as well as being present in good numbers at the inaugural 'Coffee & Cars' meeting in Newbury on March 8th (amongst a number of others).
The 'Piece de Resistance' was the Free Prize Draw
This draw was arranged to ensure a cross-section of our Subscribers present at the lunch would, most definitely, receive a good payback on their funding of the Region.
Astute randomising of the draw numbers across the tables ensured that the prizes were shared around - even if some ladies ended up going home with car cleaning materials (or possibly worse) !!
This draw was largely made possible by contributions by Andy North (who also took the bulk of these photos for us) and supply of various Meguiars products and some silver leaper cuff links by the Scottish Regional Ambassador - Jim Mann. Jim sought no reward for this, instead asking the Region to make a donation to the Region's 2024 Charity - Crohn's & Colitis UK. We have been VERY pleased to do as we've been asked.
And The Winners Were ....
Privacy prevents us from naming full names and they know who they are, but we can say:
Chris A took away a copy of Nigel Thorley's JEC 40 Years book as signed by Ian Callum at our recent visit to him.
John J claimed the bottle of Rioja.
Phillipa T pleased her husband by opting for the Mk2 Jaguar wheel spinner turned into a paperweight.
Alan R made sure to bag the Mk2 Speedo style clock for his study.
Julie N took the bouquet.
Dave N and Helen S both gained Meguiars polishing kits.
Charlie S now has to use his Wynn's Engine Flush (on his car !).
Our lady guests drew the tickets and Elves 1 and 2 (Chris A and Anthony P) helped out with the distribution. Unfortunately, the photographer could hardly take a picture of himself taking the silver 'leaper' cufflinks and Mike G took away the Bose Noise cancelling headphones before he had picked his camera back up !
Here's to Next Year
Everyone who attended said they had had a great time. As it is hard to think of anywhere that can beat what was achieved yesterday, the Oxfordshire JEC Region is highly likely to return for next year's Xmas Lunch.
But, before that, there's no less than 36 other events to hold, take part in and enjoy.
Will we see you at any of these 37 events in 2025 ? Look at the events area of our Region's part of this JEC website. Then just send a Region Enquiry elsewhere on our area.
Here's to a very Happy New Year and 2025 !!