Regular FThOTM will be on Thursday 1st from 8.15pm. Come and join us! We'll be around for our usual mix of lively conversation and a good atmosphere. As always, we're at the Millstream, Cambridge Road, Hitchin. Good food and good beer both available! Call me for more details and encouragement. The pub is about ten minutes' walk from the railway station.

Please join us on Thursday 1st for informal chat at our First Thursday venue of Jurys Inn Hotel on Midsummer Boulevard (West). Look out for the Mblem or mag on one of the tables to the right in the foyer.

Join us for our last get together of the year at the Vat & Fiddle pub from 8.00pm on Monday 5th. We'll be in the new Golding's Room to the left of the bar where, for the past few months, we've had the room to ourselves. There will be silly and serious chat, real ale and soft drinks. Pop in briefly or stay all evening. New faces are always welcome. Call me for directions to Queensbridge Road or just look for the Castle Rock brewery illuminated next door.

As a repeat of our successful meal a few years ago, we will be returning to the popular Greek restaurant Santorini's, in Hazlemere, for a pre-Christmas meal on Thursday 8th. Meet us there at 7:30pm. We have been promised free Christmas crackers to go with our meal!

Please ring or email me by Wednesday 30th November to let me know you are coming.

Christmas always reminds me of the good things in life like crackling log fires, roast turkey and buying the LocSec a drink, and where better to fulfil at least one of those ancient traditions than at the Leicester Mensa Third Thursday of the Month Yuletide pub get together thing? The first thing to note is that this will be on the second Thursday of the month to make way for the demands of last-minute panic present buying, works "do's" and even holidays, so we'll be meeting on Thursday 8th at 8:00pm.

Craddock

We'll be at the usual place (http://tinyurl.com/leicsMensaTTOTM) but all the usual stuff applies about giving me a call or emailing for further info, a chat, to wish me a Merry Christmas, and so on.

I hope to see you there, but just in case you can't make it: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

On Saturday 10th we return to Dobbie's Garden Centre in Fenny Stratford, just south of Milton Keynes, for T@3. Look for us in the restaurant from 3.00pm onwards – there are several sections so we may not be immediately obvious, but we'll be there somewhere. It will no doubt be looking very festive so will be worth a visit.

Hopefully the cafe at The Collection in Lincoln will be open again for our usual 2SaOTM, 12.00-2.00pm on Saturday 10th, but do email me in case they are still closed and we have to decamp to elsewhere. Some have lunch, others just drop in for a quick coffee, all welcome for chat and some more serious discussion.

A thinly-veiled excuse to get together for a relaxing evening of chat over a glass of wine, each month you are asked to bring samples (or memories) of your favourite things to share with others - this month, the theme is colours.

A Christmas get-together on Monday 12th at 8.00pm. The usual pre-Christmas festivities, a look back at the previous year - and those mince pies and mulled wine. Last year I plotted a fiendish puzzle which proved quite entertaining - watch this space!

[Address] All warmly invited but please do let me know if you plan to attend as numbers may be limited.

I should point out that our “chicks & flicks” event on Wednesday 14th is aimed at both sexes and not to be confused with “chick flick” aimed just at females! The chicks relates to Nando's peri-peri chicken restaurant where we dine and the flicks bit relates to the cinema where we go later. Meet us at 7.00pm prompt (so that we have plenty of time to eat before a film) inside the doors to the Cornerhouse in the city centre. Contact me in advance if you'd like the film choices and to find out our preference.

Nobody will want to come to a meeting on the usual last Wednesday of the month, as this is only just after Christmas, and in the holiday week, so I am inviting you to my home for a Christmas party on Wednesday 14th at 7.00pm. Please email me if you want to come.

Thank you and All Good wishes

Now that the festive season is here, come and join us by the fireside at Oaklands for a nice cup of tea and some hot mince pies.

Apart from our regular Derby pub meet I am looking to repeat our earlier visit to the Ritz cinema in Belper. The Ritz cinema is a wonderful old fashioned cinema where you can watch a film with a glass of wine or cake in a very comfortable environment as shown on their website http://www.ritz-belper.co.uk/ . I don't yet know what is showing on the 15th but thought it would be a good day to experience the ambience. If you would like to join me please call or email me by Thursday 8th as things get booked up there. Hopefully we will see a good film but the cinema itself is the star with its high levels of comfort, licensed bar and generally homely atmosphere.

Our final event of the year will be a party at my home in Langley Mill from 8.00pm on Saturday 17th to celebrate the festive season. I'll provide a buffet and some music so just bring yourself and whatever you wish to drink. Please let me know if you need directions or plan to come along to help the catering.

Sunday breakfast will be at 10.15am on Sunday 18th at our new winter venue of Brown's restaurant on the front of The Hub (next door to Jurys Inn), which we think is a bit cosier. Feel free to come for a full breakfast, a snack, or just a drink, but if possible please let me know by Saturday 17th so we have an idea what size table to grab when we arrive.

As usual I will be hosting the regular Derby 3WOTM get together at the Standing Order in Irongate Derby. This is a Wetherspoons free house with a wide range of pub group beers and other alcoholic beverages and a wide range of soft drinks. It is comfortable and airy and the Mensa tables will be straight on past the bar. If you're coming for the first time it might be advisable to let me know so we can keep an eye open for you. For encouragement/directions call or email me. There is however no need to pre book just join Mensans from Derby and environs for good pub food, drink and chat.