A Frantic week in May

12th May
The second Thursday in the month so it must be the meeting of the Education and Current Affairs sub-committee. May is the month when the sub-committees give themselves a little shake and elect their officers for the second year of their two year appointment.It's all very democratic and shares the load around. This meeting had a full agenda with reports from earlier activities and plans for future events. Various items in the federation programme have had to be cancelled from lack of support and some events have seen a smaller take-up than expected.Is it that the wrong things are being planned? Is the recession really starting to bite? Are events staged in the wrong areas? If we don't receive constructive feedback we can do nothing to rectify matters.Our main item on the agenda was to receive a delegation from Bledlow WI who had made such a splendid success at the April Council Meeting of presenting their resolution on after care for stroke victims.This is now a mandate for BFWI to act upon, so a plan of action must be made for Bucks members to follow. We are all in this fight together so watch the newsletter for progress and how to do your bit to further the cause.
On the way home, I was unable to avoid a large moulded piece of polystyrene packaging from someone's new equipment which suddenly blew across the road.It became wedged under the front axel of my car. You can imagine the noise---everyone's teeth on edge for miles around! Anyway, I pulled into the side and got on my hands and knees to see if I could remove the thing. Almost immediately one of the drivers who had been behind me, came back to help and a young man stopped with his family. He lay flat on his back in the road and worked the block free " to save my pretty skirt"! Nor would anyone, in the small crowd by now, hear of my taking the offending article away with me to dump. "No problem. We'll do that". So you see the age of chivalry is not yet dead ---at least among the people of four different ethnic origins living on Terriers Hill this afternoon.

11th May
This morning twenty four of us went on the Nature Walk at the Hanson Centre near Great Linford where we did a bit of bird-watching, insect spotting and some wild flower recognition. It was hard to remember we were so close to the busy Milton Keynes roads. The guides were very knowledgeable and the centre is welcoming. Unfortunately the outfit is a victim of financial cuts. It provides an excellent resource for the local schools and welcomes adult visitors too. Would anyone like to go pond-dipping? Why should kids have all the fun? Think about it.Another WI group went round in the afternoon.
In the evening the local WI discussion group met to talk about cosmetics. I didn't think this promised much as a topic but I was wrong. We had a very interesting debate about why we needed cosmetics at all, about the ethics of cosmetic surgery and experimentation on animals.Next month we are exploring WiFit so will probably end up in hospital with slipped discs!

10th May
The local WI Book Group gathered to comment on "The Swimmer" by Rosa Tearne which was well received. This is the story of an immigrant worker coming to Suffolk from Sri Lanka in the 1950s and the way this affected three women. It is more than a love story, told beautifully which touches on the UK treatment of foreigners and the cruelty of civil war. We had read also "On Beauty" by Zadie Smith which was not to everyone's taste. It is funny, an accurate picture of family life in several ethnic groups linked by university life from the staff and the students' angle. The sex is unnecessarily graphic and the language is blue but the novel is still well worth reading.One learns a lot about art and the effect of beauty too and the small-mindedness of academia.

4th May
Resolutions meeting tonight at WI and of course the attendance was thin. Why do members choose to miss this meeting? They disenfranchise themselves for the resolutions going up to the Annual General Meeting of the whole of the WI in Liverpool this year. Our members presented the resolutions for discussion very well and there was lots of comment from the floor.We decided to vote against the motion for a blanket ban on all mega farms and for continued financial support for public libraries.We voted for an item to be part of our craft competition entry, agreed to wear WI badges when serving teas for blood donors and listened to the report on the April Council Meeting in the new theatre in Aylesbury. We have a full coach to visit the Bank of England in July and many people wish to attend the Literary Lunch in June. We await further information before putting ourselves down for Gift Aid because it seems to be fraught with problems which may not be worth the financial saving. Two members are off to experience a taster day at Denman College later this week.Besides all that we did nothing!