IT’S been a strange couple of weeks for me as I have been nursing the latest cold that has been going around.

I hope I haven’t passed it on to too many of the people I have spoken to as Mayor. My first engagement was at the town hall where town councillors and staff joined Eva White for tea and cakes on her retirement. Eva has worked for Chard Town Council for 23 years and we will all miss her.

It’s AGM time and this week I have attended two, the first for Chard’s Town Team. The town team was set up by a group of volunteers to try to access some of the Mary Portas money the Government was offering a few years ago. It was unsuccessful during this phase but was able to draw down some funding from other places for projects that will improve Chard and its community – the Christmas lights switch-on is one of its events.

Chard Concert Brass is one of the few brass bands still running in our area and is always looking for new members if you would like to learn to play. While I was at the meeting the chairman very kindly gave me a cheque for £100 as a donation to the Mayor’s Appeal Fund.

I attended the Mother’s Day Service at Furnham Church where I helped Father Jeff give flowers to all the mothers in the congregation. I have my tulips in pride of place on the dining room table. I also joined the Camelot Credit Union, being run from the church. This enables members of the public who do not normally save to deposit regularly and have access to small loans the regular banks and building societies would not normally consider.

Andy and I also had the pleasure of attendingAFunny Thing Happened On TheWay To The Forumat the Guildhall. CLOS, as usual, provided a great evening’s entertainment and the showwas hilarious, revolving around three houses in Rome and a crafty slave who struggles to win the hand of a beautiful but dim courtesan for his master in exchange for his freedom.

For our last engagement Andy and I played host to the Three Counties Swing Band in the Guildhall, in aid of the Mayor’s charities. I had never attended such an event before, although I had seen it on television and other media, but what an experience!

The Guildhall seemed to embrace the band and all those present had a fantastic time – and we managed to make another £855 for the three charities, definitely something we should do again I think.