Plans and more plans

4th November
At the meeting of the Education and Current Affairs sub-committee today we spent most of the time completing arrangements for the coming ACWW event in Lacey Green. The trouble with the WI is that one has always to plan so far ahead so there were plans made for events in March, May and July 2011 which makes one feel halfway into the new year already. Every month the NFWI publishes its NFWI News in the same way as the county federations present theirs and it is part of this committee's remit to keep up with the campaigns on which NFWI is working.This means sifting through information so that we can encourage our WI members to become involved on such issues and mandates which have been passed at AGMs.It may be the survey on re-cycling facilities or Care not Custody or labelling of food with the real country of origin.It is all interesting stuff but it is quite a struggle to find opportunities to engage the Bucks members in these activities: we seem to be always lagging behind but usually manage to get there in the end.

2nd November
Local WI book group today when we were discussing "Lacuna" by Barbara Kingsolver. We had enjoyed her novel "The Poisonwood Bible" set in what used to be the Belgian Congo but this time she was writing about Mexico and the USA between the 1920s and the Cold War. No wonder it takes 10 years between novels because the author researches her stories so thoroughly.To weave the exile of Trotsky in Mexico with the works of the great muralist Diego Rivera into the stories of her fictional characters takes some doing.Not everyone enjoyed this book but I think even those who didn't finish learned a lot about the history of Russia after the revolution and Lenin's death and about the dreadful period of MacCarthyism in America which is not so long ago.The scenery in Mexico was wonderfully described.There was humour too and some memorable cameo portraits among the characters. I really enjoyed this novel although its length was a bit of a challenge which took over from all domestic duties until finished.

30th October
It was a triumph but the local WI members are absolutely exhausted after hosting a Murder Mystery evening for 147 people.We served a 3 course supper and the tickets were sold out a fortnight beforehand.Every year we have a big fund-raiser which we hope will attract people from outside the WI as well as members from other WIs in neighbouring villages. We have built up a reputation for good events and the townspeople support us. Some of this goodwill comes from the fact that we pass a proportion of the profits back into a community project: this year it will be towards the re-furbishment of the little meeting hall in the town centre, last year it was the surgery.Anyway the players were excellent, having written a play especially for us. The food was good, the kitchen members worked their socks off and the front of house waitresses were speedy. It was nice to receive messages of thanks and appreciation from the audience but not a good time to suggest that we repeat the event as soon as possible!