Channel Rotary holds International Burns Night

Channel has had a long standing friendship with the Rotary Club of Mechelen in Belgium and several members of that club came to celebrate with their Rotary friends in the UK. Both the present president of Mechelen Herman Van Pelt and future president Hugo Hondequin were in the party. Whilst a Burns night for the average Englishman is something a bit different from usual for the Belgium friends it was quite an eye opener.

Piper Ben Milberry started the proceedings with a resounding tune on the bagpipes. This was followed by the traditional Selkirk grace. The Haggis was then piped in ready for the all important Address to the Haggis. 

This was enthusiastically performed by Colin Tomson, who would you believe is an Irishman from Belfast. Such was his dedication that he had learnt the speech whilst on holiday in Portugal. The traditional dish of Haggis neeps and tatties was enjoyed by all. There were plenty of opportunities during the evening to toast Rabbie Burns - in whiskey - of course!

After dinner Denis Pepper, local author, delivered the immortal memory recalling many interesting facts about the poet. The evening concluded with readings, an excellent and memorable rendition on the pipes and concluded with an hilarious quiz run by Howard Cocker. Each year he uses the same questions and still nobody gets more than five out ten.

All together a great fun evening with friends from Belgium