Tickets to ride

30 September
The best part of today was spent sending off tickets for our health day event "Eat, think and be Healthy" to which there has been an excellent response. It is however interesting to note that only 2 WIs from south of Aylesbury have applied: this proves that it is a firm belief held among members that it is further to travel up the county than it is for us northerners to travel down! Many of us spend hours travelling down to the High Wycombe area for events when those from the Thames Valley look upon anything North of Aylesbury as the outskirts of Birmingham and quite beyond consideration.Perhaps it is because in north Bucks there are gaps between our towns and villages where there appears to be no human habitation. Should we go back to the practice of putting on maps "Here be dragons"?
Another hobbyhorse brought on by a closing date, closely followed by another. If I see another 2"x2" gold envelope sent as an SAE for 6 tickets to an event, I shall be heard screaming for miles around.Luckily the travellers to Norwich do not commit this sin so it was trouble-free to send off their final instructions for the November break.
1 October
The local WI met tonight and we enjoyed a very professional talk from the founder of the Ethical Food Company which is very local to us.It tied in well with the work we did last year on the Great Milk Debate and members were interested and felt challenged in matching their beliefs with the practical economics of buying ethically. Food for thought, dare I say? We have more names now volunteering to help with the Big Tidy Up but I'm not sure we have many new people willing to stand for next year's committee which is a shame. Anyway we welcomed 4 new members and there are a couple more in waiting so that is good news.
3 October
Three Bucks members left today for a holiday in the Canadian Rockies. I taxi-ed one down to Heathrow but the other pair went under their own steam. I must admit that I wanted to do this to make sure they all met up safely before leaving and I could relax and know they were on their way.I need not have bothered as we all found each other easily and were soon swept along with what looked like half of Devon and Wiltshire WI Federations.Those federations are experienced travellers with the Collette Worldwide people: some have been to New Zealand with them whereas we have gone only as far as Sicily which was a bit of a test run.I hope some more of our Bucks members will ask to go to Norway in 2009 and the Oberammagau trip in 2010 which will be promoted at the Autumn Council Meeting this month.It was freezing at Heathrow but the sunshine made our countryside a joy to drive through.
4 October
A local lady phoned tonight to enquire about joining the WI. She said she didn't know the WI did things like quizzes and holidays but she had read in the Parish Magazine about our activities and wondered whether she and a friend could come along next month. I heard myself saying that it might not be the best as it was our annual meeting and we wouldn't have a speaker etc. and then I thought what a negative response I was making. I have now delivered to her house a copy of our programme and a list of diary events and our extra interest groups and a copy of the WILife and the Green Letter so now I have probably scared her off completely! I'll keep you informed or maybe not...