CQN 11 takes place this Friday at the Kerrydale Suite. It’s hard to believe that it has been a year since that wonderful night at Celtic Park when the Kerrydale was packed full of CQNers, all there to celebrate ten years of Celtic Quick News. Ahead of CQN 11 we thought we’d put some of the great images from CQTEN onto the site along with the excellent review of the evening which was written by Doc.
If you’re coming along to CQN 11 see you on Friday! If you want to come but haven’t got a ticket yet, email Paul asap and we’ll squeeze you in! His email is celticquicknews@gmail.com or nip over to www.cqnbookstore.com and order tickets there.
If you can’t make it along you can still support the event – and it’s wonderful purpose: building those school kitchens in Malawi with Mary’s Meals. Go to www.cqnbookstore.com where you can get involved in the CQN 11 Raffle. There’s a Celtic top signed by the 1998 side that stopped them doing ten and lots of other prizes. The tickets are £5 each and the money will go towards another CQN school kitchen in Malawi which this year will honour Brother Walfrid.
Now over to Doc…
CAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE?
Doc looks back on what little he can actually remember about CQTEN, on Friday 14th March when CQNers gathered at the Kerrydale Suite to celebrate 10 years of CQN and watch Celtic beat Kilmarnock on the big screens…
CQTEN, what can you say, it will live long in the memory, for those who remained sober enough to take in what was going on, that is.
Where to begin, okay dokey, we will start at the beginning.
There was an announcement on the blog, there will be a do, an event, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Celtic Quick News. Lovely I thought, gonna get a ticket for that. So I sent out a few emails, lots of interest from people who had become friends on the blog. Okay I thought, I’ll organise a table, 10 of us having a grand ole time at a night out surrounded by CQN’rs.
Emails kept coming in, some saying “sorry took a seat at Old Tims table”, many saying ” cheers Doc, that would be great”. I’ll need 2 tables I thought. CRC and I got to organising a list, you knew there would be a list, CowieBhoy wanted 8 seats (surprised he knows 8 people!), PaddyBhoy1888 wanted 6! An email from Ohio, “Doc, can we have a couple of seats” from Tims in Ohio, he was making a business trip and it was going to fit in with CQTEN.
Four tables were duly booked, the look on Mrs Doc’s face when the invoice arrived, priceless;-) Kikinthenakas emailed back, sadly the big fhella couldn’t go, but my Stalker wanted a seat. Luckily I had a spare, so Tom was also booked in. Monies were collected and excitement grew, plans were made, The Blane Valley beforehand, around 4pm, well 4pm on Thursday for some! I arrived just after 4, a couple of dodgy blokes standing outside having a fag, “courts out” I thought, Sipsini and ACGR Hail Hailed as I walked by! Never seen them with suits on before, I thought they were the accused. Inside it was already carnage! CQN’rs everywhere you looked. Some I knew, more I didn’t. Someone asked what I had in the rucksack, but that’s a story for another day.
Guiness was taken by some, we had a good ole laugh and all too quickly it was time to get moving to Celtic Park. We poured out of the pub and jumped into taxis. We arrived tickets in hand, well most of us had tickets in hand! Some had left the in Elgin or an hotel! Imagine leaving that behind! But Skyislandfill and MickTT were allowed entry.
BMCUWP could not be there, he was off to some horsey thing, but the ole Hootenanny fleg was, and it was quickly blue tac’d to the door (honest Celtic it wasn’t tac, it was blue tac). The contents of the rucksack emptied on to the table and the CQTEN badges were launched. Friend of CQN, Tom Boyd quickly arrived and was put to work selling the badges, getting his photo taken with various CQN’rs, that went on all evening, and he had a word and smile for every one of them, top banana. One of the first to come up to pick up his badges was EddieinKirkmichael, complete with the beautiful hat. Eddie had told a story on the blog, his daughter, Lyndsey, had a Celtic hat, and she collected badges for it. Sadly she passed away, now Eddie was ready to pass the hat on to his Grandson, complete with CQteN badges. That is CQN.
Over to Eddie to tell you what happened next……………
I was going to be picking up the badges for my daughter Lyndsey’s Celtic cap I decided it would be a good idea to take the cap along to show people that it actually existed. Isobel, my wife wasn’t to chuffed about this as she knew I would be partaking of a few glasses of red wine. I assured her that I would make sure that the cap wouldn’t leave my sight during the evening. Things seemed to go well and I kept the cap under watch all night. The wine flowed and more wine flowed then I awoke the next morning. “Eddie, where’s Lyndsey’s cap?” I heard the words and struggled to answer. “It’s in my coat pocket, I think”. Jesus please let it be in my pocket I thought. Then all hell broke loose from Isobel, no cap was found in the house. I assured Isobel that it was safe, I had probably left it in my Mum’s car and a simple phone call would locate it.
“Hi Mum, did I leave Lyndsey’s cap in the car last night?”. I wont tell you what my Mum said, only that I didn’t get a lift home with her as arranged. Apparently I came home on the Dumbarton Harp bus and forgot to let my mum know in time, I sent her a text which she received at about 1:30am while sitting on London Road.
Several frantic phone calls later, over the course of the next 2 days finally located the cap in the Kerrydale Suite. Isobel has forgiven me but she has decided to take the badges off the cap and put them on a new one for my grandson and she has no intentions of ever letting me take it anywhere ever again.
My Mum was given several miniatures of whisky and a bottle of Single Malt that I was keeping for a special occasion and is now calling me by my christening name again.
I have a feeling CQTEN will live long in the memory for me and will be cast up at every opportunity by my loving family ;) .
Great story.
We had a great time at our 4 tables (OldTim, count them, 1, 2, 3 and 4;-), people got up and mixed around, people who were old friends, others who arrived knowing no one, leaving as old friends. The atmosphere in the hall was wonderful, smiling faces looking back at you wherever you went. If ever the phrase, “Can You Feel the Love” applied it was in that room on that night.
The night went by in a blur, my highlight. what event, what funny anecdote can I tell?
There were so many, meeting Martin42, Paul67, and Kevin of course, BRTH, Winning Captains, CeltFish, every last one of you. Getting Praecepta reunited with one of his friend Pablos original badges was one. If one thing summed up the evening it was this, I stood looking across a table and there was Setting Free The Bears, the look of total content on his face, a mhan among his own and he knew it. I didn’t even speak to him, a nod of the head and a thumbs up. Walking around the Kerrydale getting my copy of Seville signed. What a cheer for our Polish friend! The score too of course. I missed most of the actual game, too busy blethering.
But what was the highlight, the best part of the evening?
You tell me.
Well done to everyone involved in organising the event, BRTH, Winning Captains and Celtfish.
Paul, thanks.
Doc
