A luncheon in aid of The Royal British Legion and St. John Ambulance took place on Sunday, 31st January at A Day in the Country Ltd, Upper Aynho Grounds. The guest speaker was General Sir Mike Jackson, former Chief of the General Staff and Head of The British Army. General Jackson praised the Legion and St. John for the work that they were doing in support of the serving personnel in Afghanistan. Both organisations are involved in supporting the Afghan generation of the armed forces and their families. General Sir John Kiszely, National President of The Royal British Legion, thanked Sir Mike for his contribution and added that events such as these, which raise money, allowed both the Legion and St. John to continue their valuable work throughout the country. Lady Annaly, President of the St. John Ambulance in Oxfordshire, presented flowers to the organisers and thanked them for their hard work in organising the event. 210 guests had a three course lunch in the marquee joined to The Great Barn. The event went very well and a considerable amount of money was raised for the two charities.
From left to right - Dr Richard Stephenson, Sir John Kizerly, Mrs Stephanie Vere-Hodge, General Sir Mike Jackson and Mr Russell Thompson
Stavros Flatley performed at one of our Clients Christmas Parties on Wednesday 23rd of December. The company was CETA who are based in Chipping Norton and come to us every year for their staff Christmas Party. Along with Stavros we organised look a likes of Borat, David Brent, Gareth and Del Boy. They were all amazing. We finished the evening with a 10 Piece band Mixed Feelings. The whole event went very well and hopefully we will see you all back at A Day in the Country in the New Year.
Follow the link for the Stavros Video:
http://is.gd/5A8LB
Whitley Stimpson, Banbury based accountants visited us for their Christmas Party on Friday 18th of December. They decided on a Country and Western Theme and had a Rodeo Bull, John Wayne Shootout and Line Dancing Band – The Hookey Band. Whitley Stimpson have been coming to us for years and we look forward to seeing them all here again next Christmas.
Value Retail who run Bicester Village and various other outlets in UK and abroad visited us on Thursday for a full day of activities. It was incredibly cold but they all went outside and took part in Hovercraft Driving, Rage Buggies, Segway Vehicles and Clay Shooting. They stayed on into the evening and had a full three course meal and disco. Party games followed the activities at tea time and they all seemed to have a really good time. Thank you for coming to us and hopefully we will see you all again in 2010.
Lilly the resident ridgeback decided she was feeling a big peckish and removed everything from the kitchen dustbin into The Aynho Room. Luckily we didn’t have clients in!!!
Hawkins Roofing have come back to us for the third year running for their Corporate Christmas Party. The room looked amazing and our Chef Dave produced some fantastic food as nearly everyone had different options! They had a disco after the dinner and seemed to really enjoy themselves. Hopefully we will see you all again in 2010!
Sales Representatives from Brady Corp visited us this afternoon for Rage Buggies and Clay Shooting. The weather was fantastic, we loaded them full of food and sent them outside for fun and frivolity! They finished the day with tea and fresh cream scones along with prize giving for the fastest Rage Buggy driver and best Clay Pigeon Shot. They were a fantastic team with James Pearman winning the rage buggies and the clay shooting!! We really hope they enjoyed themselves and will visit again in 2010.
McCann Erickson based in Birmingham brought a group to us on Wednesday the 2nd of December for a full day of activities. They started off with Hot Bacon Rolls in the barn and then took part in four activities during the day, Segway Driving, 4×4 Land Rover Driving on our tracks through the woods, Clay Shooting by the lakes and Falconry. They finished the day with a three course meal back at the barn next to the open fires. Despite the rain all afternoon they seemed to have a great time and were a really fun group. Hopefully we will see them back here again in 2010.
15 from Sungard based in Abingdon visited us today for a morning of Raft Building followed by an afternoon of Clay Shooting and Rage Buggies. We were worried about the weather yesterday, however, today was fantastic brilliant sunshine, couldnt be better for a spot of raft building on our lakes. Sungard weren’t too bothered about getting wet either. They made two of the best and most solid rafts we have had built at A Day in the Country and therefore were able to do two races up and down the lakes without their rafts falling apart. A warming lunch was served back at the barn in front of the fires and then an afternoon of Clay Shooting and Rage buggies. They were a great team and hopefully we will see them back here again soon.
A group of 20 from Airflow based at High Wycombe visited us yesterday for a morning of team building exercises including The Contract, Giant Marble Run, Reactivator and Caos. They finished the morning building go-carts and racing them down a slope. The afternoon was spent Clay Shooting and on the 4×4 Track. They were a great team with some real characters and we really enjoyed having them here. Alan Siggins the Managing Director emailed me his feedback this morning:
“Hello Caroline,
The feedback was excellent from both my Senior Management Team and the rest of my staff.
Some individuals were cynical before they went only to be pleasantly surprised.
They found the tasks interesting and fun and spent some time last night analysing how they could have done better.
The networking last night at a meal we all went to was better than I could have hoped, with new relationships developed and others enhanced, I am sure my business will gain positively from this experience and I am sure we will visit again sometime next year.
I would like to say a big thank you to you and your team as another comment I heard from many of the attendees was that you run a very professional operation.
Thanks
Kind regards”
Alan Siggins
Managing Director
