Simply Red…..

The Paluma Community Hall was bathed in red on Saturday night for the Lunar New Year with a large crowd gathering to mark the event. Where else but Paluma could you spend your Saturday evening commemorating Chinese New Year, Water Rabbits, four birthdays and a Scottish poet. But celebrate we did!

There was a banquet of the most amazing food, many Chinese inspired dishes plus an array of other sumptuous treats. My vote for the dish of the night was Tony and Julie’s contribution of roast pork – cooked to perfection and a very generous contribution to the community dinner. Many were heard to comment that the pork crackling was the ‘best they have ever tasted’. Quite a few people tried to ply Tony for his secret in creating the perfect pork crackling, but I don’t think anyone was successful in extracting the secret recipe.

January is filled with Paluma birthdays and so we celebrated with black forest cake and other desserts. Don’s birthday was yesterday (Sunday) and Colwyn’s birthday was last week. Whilst Colwyn couldn’t join us on Saturday night she is ever-present in our thoughts. Mark and Leonie celebrate their birthday mid week – on the same day. A rowdy chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’ echoed from the Hall.

Speaking of singing, Leslie paid tribute to Scottish poet Robert Burns with a rendition of his own favourite Burns poem in song. He belted out a tune, helped along the way by Beth. Burns Night is this Wednesday evening, so a good excuse for a wee dram.

Lynda took over the duty of bar person for the event and ran everything like clockwork. Leslie was able to relax for a change and enjoy his dinner and conversation. Many thanks to Les for all his years of dedicated service as resident Barman at PDCA Socials, a role he has reluctantly decided to pass on to others due to his hearing difficulty. Lynn provided information on ‘Year of the Water Rabbit’ and it turned out there were a few ‘bunnies’ amongst the crowd. No one got rich on the Lucky Scratchies hidden under selected chairs, but that didn’t seem to matter on the night.

Paluma Socials are about fun, laughter, good spirit and community – and this one was no exception.