Terracotta and Glass

27th February
The local WI committee met tonight in a member's house.Apparently no one had come up with a better idea than the quiz for our annual fundraiser in November so we began to think of contacts whom we could use. We shall ask for a few volunteers at the March meeting to form a working party to run the event. Of course the hall has to be booked well in advance but the finer details can be tackled later. It will need good publicity to spread it around the other town organisations.
The Town in Bloom event is more pressing at the moment so two members were absent while attending that's planning meeting in another house! There always seems to be a core of people who are involved in lots of different circles and they are the ones who volunteer all the time.Thank Heavens for the doers of this world!
Our April meeting is going to be an Open Meeting because the topic has general appeal.The WI Widowers are to be invited and ex-members who feel they cannot be sure to be well enough to turn out for WI meetings during the winter.
28th February
Unfortunately I was balloted out of the allocation of tickets to visit the Terracotta Army so my husband and I set off at the crack of dawn to queue at the British Museum for entrance tickets. According to the web there would be 500 tickets available every day from 9.15am. We joined a long queue at 9.15am and by the time we got to the desk the first available slot was 2.55pm so we amused ourselves until then and enjoyed a leisurely lunch. The exhibition is well worth a visit but it may interest you to know that to view it and travel up by train was £10 per head more expensive than the trip organised by the WI with a coach. We didn't include the lunch in this calculation and of course we couldn't use concessions on the train because of the time of travel. The exhibition itself gave reductions only to students and the disabled. So you see what a good offer some of our WI outings are!!
5th March
Hardly had we set foot inside the Local Centre where we hold our WI meetings when the fire alarm went off.We were lucky as we still had coats on; the Tai Chi students were coatless and bare foot waiting for the all clear. Some joker had pressed a panic button somewhere so there was no fire which was a relief.
The response to the boxes for the forces appeal has been marvellous. We will be able to fill another six after tonight's meeting. The local Lions' Ladies have joined in with the WI on this project.We organised delegates for the Annual Council Meeting and the Briefing for the AGM meeting.I tried very hard to explain how much better it was to volunteer for working parties than to be at the mercy of its members and be volunteered for something which one didn't want to do. It didn't work! The members could see me coming but we have a nucleus for all 3 which we need this year.
The speaker was excellent talking and demonstrating about her work with stained glass. Perhaps we will be able to fix up a craft session with her later. I always like to hear of the moments when a person is suddenly aware of what he/she wants to do with their life and refuses to be diverted in spite of all sorts of difficulties.