19th June
The WI Book Group met this afternoon to talk about "Children of Men" by P.D.James. Those among the group who are P.D. James fans found this novel just as a-typical as "Death comes to Pemberley".It certainly engendered a lot of discussion and some had seen the film which apparently was very different to the book.The whole idea of the human race suddenly being unable to reproduce was quite disturbing.The effect on people as individuals and on governments was explored in the story and provided many different views among our readers.And what about the end? Was it hopeful or was the lead character going to abuse his power as others had done before him? Or was that abuse the only solution? Fascinating stuff! Was there a Christian message contained in the book as some readers thought? Even if we were not sure whether we had got the right end of the stick, we could all enjoy the lovely style of writing and the descriptions of a disintegrating landscape, especially as much of the action took place in the Oxford streets that we know so well.
18th June
The Bucks Federation of WIs put on a day's event called "Water,Water everywhere...nor any drop to Drink" at the Hub in High Wycombe. It was a pity that the audience was smaller than hoped because the calibre of the speakers was extremely high.Of course we had just come through a very wet week when the hosepipe ban had been lifted but no one should imagine this is anything but a temporary relief in the grand scheme of things.We are still using more water daily than the skies or the underground aquafers can replenish.Dr Mark Brandon, the polar oceanographer advisor to Frozen Planet, spoke well and showed fascinating pictures of his adventures.Professor Charles Ainger offered some solutions to individuals and water companies while explaining the costs and problems. We heard about WATERAID from Janet Wells and the world of the Marine Conservation Society from Paul Biggin. In the afternoon Roger Lerry told us about the local chalk streams and their problems.The NFWI with ACWW has been running campaigns to try to encourage people to conserve water. WI members, nearly a quarter of a million of us, could make a difference and teach our families to be aware of this problem. Never mind hosepipe bans: start at home with fewer showers, less deep baths, water butts, re-using water for flushing, stop the tap while you brush your teeth etc.A more complicated system would be if we stopped using our wonderfully safe water for every function and had a domestic fitting to safeguard drinking water in the home. Todays sytem is built on mutual distrust: the water companies dare not risk downgrading purification in case of legislation and the public buys bottled water because it doubts the water provided by the water companies.There's a national campaign for you!
Thursday, 28 June 2012
Sunday, 17 June 2012
Joining in
13th June
Nearly 70 WI members gathered at the Holiday Inn, Aylesbury at noon today for the Literary Lunch 2012. The sun shone so they could wander out into the courtyard to enjoy their welcome drink before sitting down to a very nice lunch. The guest speaker was Roma Tearne whose novels we know from our book groups are very popular with WI members. We were especially lucky because we were able to buy copies of Roma's latest work which is not being released until 5th July.To actually have her to speak this week was a bit of a coup as she is about to launch a film at the National Gallery in 2 days time.Roma is an artist and a film-maker as well as a novelist. She left Sri Lanka at the start of the civil unrest and this country, coloured by her own and her family's experiences, features in 3 of her novels. Because she describes the brutal torture which occured in that country, she will never be allowed back to visit. Many of Roma's concerns reflect the campaigns of the WI such as Violence against Women, the closure of libraries and Amnesty International.I think several of us listening to her, wondered how such a little person could be so powerful in her writing and her art. She knew nothing about the WI but was very impressed by the sense of fellowship in the room, based on village groups within the county.Her next book, like "The Swimmer", is based in Suffolk in a small village community in the 1950s/1960s so she asked us for the WI contact numbers in Ipswich so that she can research the WI activities in a rural setting.
6th June
The local WI meeting was a first in one way as the Town Mayor was invited to be our speaker. He had been warned that he couldn't express party political sentiments and he avoided that possible pitfall. He brought along maps of the town, wish lists and notes of costs for various services or constructions that might find their way on to our desired features.So in small groups we set about the planning of our town over the next 20 years.Amazingly the members agreed that we would need another 400 houses but where to put them? Your backyard or mine? How can our little town, blessed with an extremely busy road right down the middle, an inconvenient Health Centre, a dodgy bus service,little food shops with hardly enough space to function and limited local employment cope with the demands of a growing population which we want to use the town as a town, and not just a place to sleep?
You can imagine the level of noise in our hall! But we sent the Mayor away with plenty of ideas and we secretly felt that the WI members could make a good job of sorting out problems in planning because we are very practical people.It is a pity more WI members don't have the time to become councillors or members of parliament: a cry which has gone up from the NFWI for many years.
3rd June
I hope everyone has enjoyed the Jubilee and been able to celebrate the event in some way or other. Our little town pulled out all the stops so that every organisation or group within it was catering for a part of the population at some stage of the weekend. The inhabitants responded and braved the ghastly weather in true Blitz spirit. If the Queen can do it, so can we.The WI part in all this was to provide a 3 course dinner for the amateur players' production of Our Glorious Queens. It was a lot of work, both in the planning and in the serving but everything went well.These big events always do, if everyone does what is asked of them or what they have volunteered to do; no more, no less.I remember being told that was the secret of being a good WI member, that and coming to the regular monthly meeting.
Nearly 70 WI members gathered at the Holiday Inn, Aylesbury at noon today for the Literary Lunch 2012. The sun shone so they could wander out into the courtyard to enjoy their welcome drink before sitting down to a very nice lunch. The guest speaker was Roma Tearne whose novels we know from our book groups are very popular with WI members. We were especially lucky because we were able to buy copies of Roma's latest work which is not being released until 5th July.To actually have her to speak this week was a bit of a coup as she is about to launch a film at the National Gallery in 2 days time.Roma is an artist and a film-maker as well as a novelist. She left Sri Lanka at the start of the civil unrest and this country, coloured by her own and her family's experiences, features in 3 of her novels. Because she describes the brutal torture which occured in that country, she will never be allowed back to visit. Many of Roma's concerns reflect the campaigns of the WI such as Violence against Women, the closure of libraries and Amnesty International.I think several of us listening to her, wondered how such a little person could be so powerful in her writing and her art. She knew nothing about the WI but was very impressed by the sense of fellowship in the room, based on village groups within the county.Her next book, like "The Swimmer", is based in Suffolk in a small village community in the 1950s/1960s so she asked us for the WI contact numbers in Ipswich so that she can research the WI activities in a rural setting.
6th June
The local WI meeting was a first in one way as the Town Mayor was invited to be our speaker. He had been warned that he couldn't express party political sentiments and he avoided that possible pitfall. He brought along maps of the town, wish lists and notes of costs for various services or constructions that might find their way on to our desired features.So in small groups we set about the planning of our town over the next 20 years.Amazingly the members agreed that we would need another 400 houses but where to put them? Your backyard or mine? How can our little town, blessed with an extremely busy road right down the middle, an inconvenient Health Centre, a dodgy bus service,little food shops with hardly enough space to function and limited local employment cope with the demands of a growing population which we want to use the town as a town, and not just a place to sleep?
You can imagine the level of noise in our hall! But we sent the Mayor away with plenty of ideas and we secretly felt that the WI members could make a good job of sorting out problems in planning because we are very practical people.It is a pity more WI members don't have the time to become councillors or members of parliament: a cry which has gone up from the NFWI for many years.
3rd June
I hope everyone has enjoyed the Jubilee and been able to celebrate the event in some way or other. Our little town pulled out all the stops so that every organisation or group within it was catering for a part of the population at some stage of the weekend. The inhabitants responded and braved the ghastly weather in true Blitz spirit. If the Queen can do it, so can we.The WI part in all this was to provide a 3 course dinner for the amateur players' production of Our Glorious Queens. It was a lot of work, both in the planning and in the serving but everything went well.These big events always do, if everyone does what is asked of them or what they have volunteered to do; no more, no less.I remember being told that was the secret of being a good WI member, that and coming to the regular monthly meeting.
Saturday, 2 June 2012
The big stage
1st June
I know that I am not the only person quite thankful that the temperature has dropped.I have emptied my fridge to await delivery of salmon for the Jubilee dinner in the town which the local WI is to provide.The shopping is to be done today and the food distributed around to storers and cooks.We are very glad to report that we now have 4 members with Health&Hygiene certificates following the latest course so we are under strict controls! It's going to be a very posh do with waitresses in black and white with little aprons a la Lyons Corner House. No bunny girls!
In the morning a meeting was held at the County HQ for the chairmen and secretaries of the 6 sub-committees. This is held every year once the sub-committees have fixed their members so that everyone is following the same practices when organising events and writing minutes It was also an opportunity to chew over the AGM at the Royal Albert Hall.
30th May
An early start for the coach journey up to the Albert Hall for the NFWI Annual General Meeting. Two coaches travelled from Bucks and both arrived in good time.It is always impressive to see the hall filled with colour from the summer clothes but I never saw a single hat this year.The singing of Jerusalem is wonderful and then it is straight into the business side of the meeting. Ruth Bond, our National Chair(man) announced a successful year with 19,000 new members and reported on a busy twelve months of campaigning. She spent some time introducing the new National Federation website which hopes to incorporate links into each county so that they are all combined under the one umbrella. This may prove the answer to Bucks' problems with its website: if our members don't seem so keen on going immediately into ours, outsiders can find their way into Bucks via NFWI. After all, it is through the website that the WI is gaining new members.Ruth gave an up-date on the sale of WI Foods but there were none on show at the meeting.
Aleathia Mann then presented the Annual Review and the financial state of the WI, very cleverly comparing the financial report to a piece of knitting.The NFWI is financially sound but Denman College had made a worrying loss because of the falling numbers of students. This trend must be stopped or the future of the college becomes problematical. It needs 60 beds full per night.
The Lord Julian Fellowes then spoke tying in his theme of "strong women" with his books, television series and films including Mary Poppins.He spoke well and was amusing and was much appreciated by the audience.
The resolution on providing more midwives was moved with a back-up from Professor Lesley Paige, the President of the Royal College of Midwives. Professor Bosanquet from Imperial College agreed with our aims but suggested different ways to answer the problems. Unfortunately when he sought to encourage more money to go to management, the members began a slow handclap. It was obvious that this was unpopular, but his other ideas were acceptable and well reasoned.The debate from the floor was good and well managed. The resolution was carried 5939 to 214 votes.
After a resume of the campaigns it was a picnic lunch in the sunshine on the steps of the Albert Memorial before our return to the hall for the Guiness Book of Records attempt on the largest number of people knitting for 15 minutes at the same time.I don't know whether we were successful but it was fun to watch.
Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock with 2 year old on her hip then spoke about the need to encourage women and girls into science and talked about her work with global telescopes in South America and the mind-boggling information gained from the Hubble telescope.I don't know whether the presence of the child was to shame the WI for not encouraging better childcare facilities when it came up as a resolution years ago or to show that the modern woman can have it all--motherhood and a successful career--but it was distracting for the listener, already struggling with a very fast delivery and God knows what it was doing to her spine.I found what Maggie was saying as an astronomer, was interesting but many found it difficult.Mind, the child behaved very well as she must have known it would.
Ruth Bond gave a rather valedictory speech in tone but warned that the WI's constitution was coming under review and that all WIs should make time to consider it.Then the stage was cleared for a brief commercial demonstration from 2 couples from the Strictly Come Dancing series which was very colourful and the meeting closed with the singing of all 3 anthems.
An interesting day as always, but not one of the greatest. We are off to Cardiff in 2013 on a Saturday which is a change. See you there!
I know that I am not the only person quite thankful that the temperature has dropped.I have emptied my fridge to await delivery of salmon for the Jubilee dinner in the town which the local WI is to provide.The shopping is to be done today and the food distributed around to storers and cooks.We are very glad to report that we now have 4 members with Health&Hygiene certificates following the latest course so we are under strict controls! It's going to be a very posh do with waitresses in black and white with little aprons a la Lyons Corner House. No bunny girls!
In the morning a meeting was held at the County HQ for the chairmen and secretaries of the 6 sub-committees. This is held every year once the sub-committees have fixed their members so that everyone is following the same practices when organising events and writing minutes It was also an opportunity to chew over the AGM at the Royal Albert Hall.
30th May
An early start for the coach journey up to the Albert Hall for the NFWI Annual General Meeting. Two coaches travelled from Bucks and both arrived in good time.It is always impressive to see the hall filled with colour from the summer clothes but I never saw a single hat this year.The singing of Jerusalem is wonderful and then it is straight into the business side of the meeting. Ruth Bond, our National Chair(man) announced a successful year with 19,000 new members and reported on a busy twelve months of campaigning. She spent some time introducing the new National Federation website which hopes to incorporate links into each county so that they are all combined under the one umbrella. This may prove the answer to Bucks' problems with its website: if our members don't seem so keen on going immediately into ours, outsiders can find their way into Bucks via NFWI. After all, it is through the website that the WI is gaining new members.Ruth gave an up-date on the sale of WI Foods but there were none on show at the meeting.
Aleathia Mann then presented the Annual Review and the financial state of the WI, very cleverly comparing the financial report to a piece of knitting.The NFWI is financially sound but Denman College had made a worrying loss because of the falling numbers of students. This trend must be stopped or the future of the college becomes problematical. It needs 60 beds full per night.
The Lord Julian Fellowes then spoke tying in his theme of "strong women" with his books, television series and films including Mary Poppins.He spoke well and was amusing and was much appreciated by the audience.
The resolution on providing more midwives was moved with a back-up from Professor Lesley Paige, the President of the Royal College of Midwives. Professor Bosanquet from Imperial College agreed with our aims but suggested different ways to answer the problems. Unfortunately when he sought to encourage more money to go to management, the members began a slow handclap. It was obvious that this was unpopular, but his other ideas were acceptable and well reasoned.The debate from the floor was good and well managed. The resolution was carried 5939 to 214 votes.
After a resume of the campaigns it was a picnic lunch in the sunshine on the steps of the Albert Memorial before our return to the hall for the Guiness Book of Records attempt on the largest number of people knitting for 15 minutes at the same time.I don't know whether we were successful but it was fun to watch.
Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock with 2 year old on her hip then spoke about the need to encourage women and girls into science and talked about her work with global telescopes in South America and the mind-boggling information gained from the Hubble telescope.I don't know whether the presence of the child was to shame the WI for not encouraging better childcare facilities when it came up as a resolution years ago or to show that the modern woman can have it all--motherhood and a successful career--but it was distracting for the listener, already struggling with a very fast delivery and God knows what it was doing to her spine.I found what Maggie was saying as an astronomer, was interesting but many found it difficult.Mind, the child behaved very well as she must have known it would.
Ruth Bond gave a rather valedictory speech in tone but warned that the WI's constitution was coming under review and that all WIs should make time to consider it.Then the stage was cleared for a brief commercial demonstration from 2 couples from the Strictly Come Dancing series which was very colourful and the meeting closed with the singing of all 3 anthems.
An interesting day as always, but not one of the greatest. We are off to Cardiff in 2013 on a Saturday which is a change. See you there!
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