willing bodies

26 March
Two of us did our bit this afternoon serving teas etc to the blood donors. This is a pleasant chore which the local WI undertakes for the NHS van whenever it visits the town. The nurses reckon it is a great help and the donors certainly appreciate a cuppa while their bodies adjust to losing an armful of blood, as Tony Hancock would have said.Actually this is a promotional opportunity as quite a lot of chat goes on about who one is and why one is serving tea so what with the Calendar Girls in the current thinking, people were interested in the WI. I must admit that quite a few male donors were wondering whether their wives and partners ought to join. We may have got one new member this way . I'll keep you informed.
25 March
The northern round of the Intercounty Quiz was held tonight in Buckingham. This is an annual event when the brains of the WI members in Bucks, Herts and Bedfordshire are pitted against each other. Heats are held within the counties so that 6 teams may be selected to compete in the final in June. So not only do we have intense rivalry between the county federations but also between the north and south of each county too.Apparently our winning teams achieved lower marks than the winning teams down south which is a bit galling! I hope the southerners contested the loom answer too and as for Kingston -upon-Hull, I'm speechless! Only joking! It was a pleasant evening as usual and very well organised too.
23 March
Tonight we went to see the "Calendar Girls" at Milton Keynes Theatre. What a marvellous show it is! Usually when we go to the theatre, I meet at least one WI member from around the north of the county but last night surrounded by WI members from all over the place, I saw no one I knew.The theatre was packed and the humour of WI activities was much appreciated. The producer has been so clever at managing the nude scenes that no passing Lord Chamberlain could have raised a legal case, only an eyebrow perhaps! The WI organisation must be forever grateful to the real calendar girls for what they achieved for the WI image as well as for leukaemia research-- and the sofa, of course.
22 March
The Group Meeting this evening was very enjoyable. The speaker was Gill Fraser an exTV presenter on Heart of the Country who had worked with John Craven who has also come to talk in Bucks some time ago.Gill was entertaining as she described the hazards of moving into a former vicarage. The locals still associated the house with the responsibilities of the parish church so that her family became saddled with the annual church fete ,carol singers and the Sunday School productions. Several people bought copies of the book recording these events called "More tea less Vicar".The hostess WI then thought to address the problem of members insisting on sitting with members from their own WIs at group meetings by playing a game which muddled up everyone and forced them to talk outside their immediate circle. IT WORKED! And of course everyone said how nice it was to chat to someone different...so why didn't they do it before? We see many members from neighbouring WIs in the local butchers and shopping in the High Street so they are not so strange.