We shuffled our normal schedule around because of our Xmas meal at the Dog & Badger on the 21st, so we were unusally at The Dashwood Arms on this first Wednesday.

It being December, it was inevitable that someone would break the Xmas song embargo. That someone was Simon, with Thea Gilmore's That'll Be Christmas.

As always, it was a pleasure to see and hear Robin, even for those of us who aspire to play the mandolin and had to follow immediately after him. He had planned to play a certain Thea Gilmore song for his second turn and had to change his plan. We therefore heard Ghost Chickens in the Sky, to the tune you'd expect with a chorus that was easy to join in with (if you happened to be a chicken).

Fred was also with us and brought a couple of new parodies - one to (I think) a Bob Dylan tune about the Occupy protests, the other to a John Denver melody and called Annie's Thong. This was not Xmas themed.

Also present were Alan and Liz (back from New Zealand), Dick, John, Dave and Norma, Karen, Martin and Rosie and me.

We're out of sequence again next week and will be at The Prince Albert at Frieth.