Last night The Man and I attended an auction & dinner organised by the new Lutterworth Town Mayor, Cllr. Ray Perkins, to raise funds for his three chosen charities for this year, LOROS (the Leicestershire & Rutland Hospice), the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal & the Salvation Army.

The evening was held in the lovely setting of the Indian Vojon restaurant, in Bank Street in the town centre. The restaurant is still in its first year in Lutterworth (first birthday celebrations coming up soon!) and Noor, Khan and his team served up an excellent Indian buffet which everyone enjoyed. So much so, that I picked up no less than 5 written testimonials for them by the end of the night! Well done to them, and thanks for supporting the mayor's charitable causes.

Whilst we were eating, there was an opportunity to peruse the various items listed for the auction, and I was immediately attracted to the Leicester Tigers shirt, signed by the squad - especially as I will be there with The Man, The Son and The Daughter-in-Law cheering them on at Twickenham on Saturday!

Other gems on offer included a Norton calendar signed by Chris 'The Stalker' Walker (which I'd also quite have liked!), a signed cricket bat (Ryan Sidebottom & 2 others), signed snooker cue (sorry I'm not very up on snooker so I can't remember who'd signed it...), toboganning days at the Tamworth Snow Dome, something (?) from Leicester City FC, a meal for 2 at Kilworth House Hotel, a meal for 2 at the Indian Vojon, and a House of Lords bottle of whisky, no less!

Dinner over, and auctioneer Rob Coleman kicked off the proceedings, ably assisted by Gill Perkins. The Tigers shirt was the first item on offer and I couldn't resist... a £60 bid (well, it's all for charidy, Smashie!) and the shirt was mine! I was thrilled. Until Cllr. Perkins told me that the person who'd been bidding against me was his son, and then showed me a photo of his 5-year-old granddaughter modelling the shirt - I felt so guilty!

By the end of the evening a grand total of £581 had been raised for the charities - a fantastic effort from everyone concerned. Even The Man got his moth-balled wallet out and won a bid for one of the toboganning days - well, he's a biker, so it would have to be some kind of white-knuckle experience, wouldn't it??!!

Thanks again to the Vojon for hosting the event, and to our new Mayor, his lovely wife and his team for a fun and entertaining evening.

Photos show Lutterworth Town Mayor, Cllr. Ray Perkins, with Noor, of the Indian Vojon, and the auction in progress.