world affairs and exercise

16 March
Tonight there was a gathering of local WIs in our WI Group. The subject was "Weird and wonderful weddings across the World" which sounded interesting and proved to be most enjoyable. The speaker was an anthropologist who brought along a marvellous collection of visual aids and hardly stopped for breath as she discussed each item.We are lucky to have a good group whose members get together for outings as well as welcoming each other to their special events.I feel sorry for WIs when their group has fallen into disuse because a group really widens the opportunity to hear different speakers--not that a higher fee guarantees a better speaker but it means one can offer a larger audience which appeals to some speakers from farther afield.
24 March
Local book group this afternoon at which we were discussing "Gem Squash Tokoloshe" by Rachel Zadok. It's no good: I cannot remember that title and had to look it up again. However I shall remember the book for a long time.Some readers were put off by the first chapter in which the author took a risk of this happening but once through that, the story became spell-binding as it was about the childhood of the lead character as her mind was filled with the myths and legends of her African culture. What a terrifying imaginative world she lived in!
Other titles were discussed because we all seem to get through many books in a month and pass them around to share. We also went through a list of titles we had covered over the years in order to see whether we had enough to concoct a display based on the different world localities in which our books were based. No problem! What a contrast between the atmosphere conjured up in Gem Squash and the new series on TV of the Number One Lady Detective's Agency in Botswana!
25 March
Four stalwarts this morning met as a working party to plan an event coming up in May. I have always felt a bit guilty meeting in a hotel foyer, having a coffee and staying over an hour with papers all over the table but after today I will stop, as we were surrounded by other groups doing exactly the same, including (would you believe ?) 5 women who I am sure were sharing books in a book group.So if a venue is a problem, why not try that?
Our local WI committee was held tonight at which we discussed our main fund-raising event in November and how best to present it to the members so that they embraced the idea as well.It is rather ambitious and different so we will need everyone's support both in practice and in theory. We are back to 51 members and discussed this idea of becoming de-registered with the Charity Commission. It sounds as if it will cut down on a lot of form-filling without us losing any advantage of registration. Presumably each WI will still be protected under the Federation charity number but lose the individual number which few WIs used anyway.We have also received another letter of thanks from the RAF overseas which always encourages the members to buy the extra bag of sweets or toiletry when shopping.
26 March
Off to the WI Quiz evening in Buckingham tonight where 35 teams of three from the northern half of the county battled it out.It was an enjoyable affair but why these days cannot one remember a name within the time allotted? Actually our team thought there were too many American questions but no one else was heard to mutter on that score. Of course we didn't win but we never have, so we were very content to just enjoy the evening. The winning team contained a lady who told me because she was over 80 she wasn't as good at remembering as she used to be. You could have fooled me!
27 March
This week has been a week of ballots for events which is good because it shows the Federation is putting on activities that the members wish to attend. However it is sad for the organisers that they have to turn people away and much soul-searching goes on before those letters are posted. Many events are limited by the size of the hall available or the number of tickets we can obtain from a museum or a show. Sometimes the tutor cannot take more than a certain amount in order to give enough attention to everyone. The Federation keeps an account of members turned down for every event and this is consulted before another cut is made in order to try to be fair.Then if one is doing a cut in ratio, one has to consider places in a car and not reducing down to singles... It is a can of worms and now we open a lot of events to non-members, that problem comes into the equation.We really do the best we can but obviously do not please everyone.
28 March
I am still suffering the after-effects of our WI's Fun and Fitness Day! Actually it was fun but I was obviously unfit to take part.We spent the morning doing exercises on chairs and then gently, standing up. After a healthy lunch we went into line dancing and ended up on the floor with more exercises and then relaxation.There was plenty of time for drinks and chat and laughter throughout the day although there was serious intent too. Our instructor was very good and we did enjoy ourselves and learned quite a few ways to keep fit. It's only a matter of keeping at it.Whatever happened to Elliman's Embrocation?