The first weekend in February saw us in our home city of Nottingham for their annual Light Night.
This event showcases light installations from artists around the city. There is a route through Nottingham that has various events and you can move between them. A carnival sets off with lots of dancers in various costumes, the samba dancers " Howlers" were particularly brilliant. All the dancers were good though and as the weather was awful with gale force winds and freezing the children were rather brave. The picture above is just after we set up for the night and Rachel was freezing! Despite the weather there was a good turnout from the public and everyone, us included, enjoyed it. See you next year!
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The first week in December 2019 saw us in the beautiful Derbyshire market town of Ashbourne.
I have driven through it many times but rarely stopped and never at night. The day started with light rain so was not looking too promising but luckily around 5pm it stopped. Their was a small food market on the market place with pizza, hot dogs, hog roast etc where we were selling mulled wine and cider and it started to get busy after 5. The lantern parade was truly magical, like a Victorian Christmas. It was so well attended and there must have been hundreds of people carrying lanters of all shapes and sizes. When they reached the memorial beside us they had a small carol service, which again was lovely to see and hear. Everyone, us included had a lovely time and said we would be back again next year! On Sunday 1st December Chin Chin were at the Thurmaston Christmas lights switch on run by the lovely Dawn and Alan ( left 2 in the picture) and the Thurmaston Scouts and Guides.
Everyone did a great job organising all the stalls and rides and Melton Road and the Memorial Hall were heaving by 3pm. There was food and drink, stalls and rides and lots of fundraising for the scouts and guides groups. Here's a pic of the organisers and helpers trying our our wares before the rush. The feedback on our mulled cider was really good! Well done guys....See you all next year! Saturday November 30th saw us at another town, Grantham for their Christmas lights switch on.
Here we encountered this motley crew from the local pantomime, Cinderella at the Guldhall. they very kindly posed for a picture before leading the parade. Thanks guys! On Friday night , 29th November we were asked to provide our bar services at the Borrowash Christmas lights switch on event.
This is a Borrowash community group event and has only been running 4 years but what a great job they are doing. The crowds came out on a crisp , cold evening to sample the food stalls of wood fired pizza, hog roast , burgers and hot chocolate. There was a brass band, fire performers and carols plus craft stalls and tombolas. Chin Chin of course were providing the alcoholic drinks. Our customers loved our mulled wine and warming mulled cider. Our tots of spiced rum, toffee apple liqueur and amaretto in the mulled cider went down a treat , with some customers trying more than one! It was a great night, enjoyed by all....so see you all next year! On Saturday November 23rd Chin Chin and us were at the beautiful Northamptonshire village of Higham Ferrers for their hugely popular annual Christmas Sparkle.
We were really worried mid week as the forecast was for heavy rain and as Chin Chin is open on 3 sides this can often be a problem. As it turned out the rain held off until 4pm and even then it didn't dampen the atmosphere. We set off at 5am in the rain though and it only stopped as we arrived at the event. It was a fairly quiet start until around 11 when we had a few orders for our mulled wine & mulled cider. After 1pm it was all hands on deck as we never stopped all day. We're serving our mulled cider with an optional twist this year....an addition of a shot of rums , liqueurs and spirits. Here at Chin Chin HQ we have been trying them out for a couple of months ( in the name of research of course lol) and narrowed it down to around 8 that sit perfectly with the delicious flavour of the mulled cider. Come and see us at one of our Christmas events and try them for yourself, black spiced rum, creme caramel liqueur, toffee apple liqueur, fig, honey & cinnamon liqueur plus lots more.....See you soon! I was really looking forward to the cycling event we had booked in for late September. I've been through Wetherby before and always thought how nice it looked for a weekend but never stopped there.
We had a steady flow of customers all morning as the weather was gorgeous. I went off at 1.30 and left my friend in charge as I wanted to see the cyclists come through. The first 3 went past in the blink of an eye! After the cycling had finished we had crowds arrive on the bar & we had queues for a while for the prosecco and gins. It was a great atmosphere and Wetherby Council and Jackie the organiser of our event did a great job. Again in September we were at the lovely wedding of Alex and Adam on the edge of the Peak District.
It was a beautiful setting on a farm , very high up in stunning countryside. They had a huge tipi tent set up with lovely touches inside and out arranged by Alex's sister and friends I believe, they did a great job. It was very tasteful. We provided the welcome drinks to the guests after the ceremony and a few drinks before the food was served. After the picnic food the evening guests arrived and the band started up. The drinks started flowing then with a particular group of young men drinking us dry of spiced rum!(lol) A lovely wedding , with lovely people in a lovely setting. What more could you ask for. Early September saw us taking Chin Chin to Lutterworth to help Mark, Jack & Fran celebrate their birthday's with a joint birthday party. It was a fairly last minute booking as they were thinking of providing the bar themselves but realised it would be much easier to get a professional, fun bar in to take care of everything so they could all just relax and enjoy the night.
The party was on the cricket field in the village and most of the villagers were invited. There was singing, dancing, food and drink ( they loved our variety of 80+ gins). Everyone had a great time and it went on longer than expected as it was such a good party. I couldn't get " Cotton Eye Joe" out of my head for weeks! Happy birthday to you all and hope to see you all again as we will be the bar for your parties anytime....we had a blast! Mid August saw us at Southwell Racecourse for their Ladies Day which was rather entertaning!
Around 9000 people converged on the course , mainly groups of ladies dressed up to the nines and out for a good time.....they found us! Our selection of Gins went down a storm and we had queues all day. Every order was different from salted toffee to apple and lavender, you never know what people will order. The day was topped off by Elvis, well a look a likey but he sounded good to me. We all had a blast and can't wait for the next one. |
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