Different menus

2nd May
A busy local WI day today. The rain held off for our morning sponsored walk on behalf of ACWW. Thirty members walked just under 4 miles around Winslow enjoying some historical details from our guide. Our numbers were swelled by 12 ladies from neighbouring WIs who joined us. We do not know yet how much money we have raised but it should be several hundred pounds to help this worthy group improve the lives of women all over the world.
In the evening Winslow WI celebrated 90 years of continuous existence with a special cake and wine. Of course we also discussed the resolution chosen to go up to the Albert Hall at the end of the month and we were pleased to welcome our delegate to the meeting.It was a close vote on whether we wanted to urge H.M. Government to increase the spending on training midwives because of the current and predicted rise in births in UK. It was thought that as cuts in the health service were unavoidable it was perhaps better to educate mothers away from the proposed scheme of 1:1 attention by midwives throughout labour which is beyond the reach of the midwives available---especially when nowadays they expect to have a family companion present at the birth who can call for help if needed.Aftercare was more important now when the stay in hospital was so short and this type of help need not be done by a trained midwife but by someone who could call on the hospital staff if difficulties arose.Nor was it thought necessary for midwives to be university graduates.
We spent quite a bit of time coming to grips with our new booking system for events and listened to a favourable report of the Annual Council Meeting. Plans for the dinner at the Players production on the Jubilee weekend are well advanced.The WI reputation for catering is at stake so we need to pull out all the stops for the occasion.

27th April
The Leisure and Performing Arts sub-committee hosted a Tapas Evening at Winslow which was very well attended.The Spanish food was provided by the local delicatessen and there were 4 sherries to taste in the course of the meal.In the background there was live guitar music and several members had made the effort to look suitably Spanish in their dress. I liked the printed explanations of what we were eating and information on the sherries.It was also appreciated that the event had come "up North" for a change---after all we have a good hall with a reasonable kitchen.

24th April
The Book Group met today We have been reading Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson which was very amusing and a witty novel.
It was a love story where the main characters were above the usual age for a romantic novel and cross cultures too. Everyone enjoyed the book and admitted that they would never have chosen it for themselves if it hadn't been presented at the group. We often find this and I think it is an important reason for setting up a book group.Some of the ironic throwaway comments about modern life made us laugh out loud and the characters were all completely believable. I hope we can find another title by the same author.