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Feminine issues

19/3/2015

16th March
The craft group gathered together to review its members' attempts at hardangar embroidery and as you may imagine, those that were good were very, very good and those that were bad were horrid.Never mind, we know now what we should have been producing. A little chastened, most of us settled down to some knitting. Since our last monthly WI meeting, I am surprised people haven't been aware of the click-clack of knitting needles locally because the members have turned into tricoteuses as in the French Revolution: every idle moment turned into a row or two of garter stitch.We are knitting shawls for the Fistula victims in Ethiopia.We now have a membership of 70 and if every member produced a square we could send out at least half a dozen shawls. So click-clack away! We were also able to plan to visit a new fabric shop in the area and have an outing to a patchwork exhibition in Tingewick.

11th March
What the media describe as "three parent families" was the subject for debate tonight at the Discussion evening. It is a controversial and important issue at present. Is it right to expect perfect children when this can only be achieved by interrupting the natural process? Are we starting out on the path taken by the Nazi regime which was so heavily criticized? Are we being irresponsible if we know there is a risk of disability to not intervene to correct it? We now accept IVF but the eradication of some faulty DNA by taking healthy genes from a third party is more problematic.The social problems in the future were discussed and the liability of not just the parents but the medical staff involved was questioned.Some of us recalled scary science fiction stories read years ago which don't now seem so unbelievable at all, just a preview of modern day life.

7th March
This is just a sideline to the usual blog. It was interesting when I was in Birmingham this weekend to see advertised at the Symphony Hall the coming NFWI competition Singing for Joy final. There it was, not in flashing lights but in very large print on the same hoardings as the Katherine Jenkins concert. I look forward to seeing some report in the press and certainly in WI Life. Also in the Circus beside the new Bull Ring, there was one of those huge moving displays across the front of the buildings featuring the Violence against Women campaign. People were standing around commenting on the pictures of battered and bruised women and taking away leaflets about Women's Aid. It was International Women's Day and this was certainly being highly effective in catching everyone's attention.

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Thinking outside the box..

9/3/2015

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4th March

This morning over 200 WI members and friends gathered in the Oculus at the AVDC Offices in Aylesbury for a day of Invention and Discovery arranged by the Bucks Federation's Education and Current Affairs sub-committee. This was the third of these annual meetings which have gained such a good reputation that they are anticipated keenly by loyal attendees and they in turn have spread the word at their local WIs. The first speaker was making a welcome return: Dr Kat Arney is the Public Relations Officer and Science Communicator for Cancer Research UK. She entitled her talk "Of Tree-trunks and Tumours--the evolution of cancer". In her own dynamic fashion Kat pointed out that cancer had been around in pre-historic days and went on to describe present developments in research into the disease. Dr Arney never pulls her punches in describing the threats of the different cancers but at the same time is enthusiastic about the progress made in understanding how our cells work, how they allow the cancer to take hold. With this knowledge, she is confident and hopeful that a cure can be found. Kat also explained why from the statistics bandied about in the media where cancer seems to be rampant and spiralling out of control, we must balance the fact that there is a bigger risk of cancer cells growing the longer we live and we all know that we expect to live longer.

The second speaker was Professor Susan Halford from the University of Southampton talking about the World Wide Web at 25.Professor Halford is the Head of Sociology and Social Policy which has as its remit the scientific study of the role of the web in our communities. She explained how the coming of the Web had changed our lives but also how the public had changed the original purpose of the Web. It had started as a way of bringing together scientific data for researchers in the same fields of knowledge, a read-only facility but with the development of browsers and the likes of Google, it has been taken over by the public and private user. It is still free for everyone, everywhere with 3 billion users and we can all participate as much or as little as we want. But this freedom has spawned social media which it was felt will need more stringent controls in the future. The professor also revealed just how much Big Brother knows about us all via the acceptance of cookies on our computers and i-phones which may be sold on to the open market and how Google tailors the information it provides each individual according to the data on our personal lives it has gleaned.What price security and privacy? The day is coming when the Web may be in Mandarin Chinese or Arabic so that others are not excluded from an international tool for knowledge.

After a lunch break Professor Seamus Higson from Cranfield University talked on "Nanotechnology: a hidden Gulliver's world that is all around us".We were introduced to nanoparticles which are sensitive to light and are used as biosensors in imaging cancer cells and others incorporated in skincare products, detergents and screenprinting.Bullet pills are being developed which home in on the diseased cell.Moving away to application for diabetics, nanoparticles based on carbon or soot are used to make graphene so thin and so light that extra thin slides may be used for measuring sugar levels. Tiny instruments may be fixed to the body to monitor and dose diabetes in the pancreas. Professor Higson told us about how in Japan a device can be set up in toilet bowls to check the glucose levels of every user and detect bowel cancer. Research has produced a bandage for ulcers which can keep the medical staff aware of progress underneath the dressing without having to tear it off to look and there could come a time when this information could be relayed to the clinic by mobile phone without the patient being present. This technique could be useful in the treatment of bedsores too.Contact lenses could also monitor blood sugar levels. DNA can be read in food chains or at ports to combat fraud.The listeners were swept away by Seamus' lively and fascinating presentation and left in wonder at what science and research can discover.

The final session was focussed on the work of medical detection dogs. Dr Barry Hughes described the training of the dogs and gave examples of their different roles with patients suffering from various disabilities and the wonderful way in which the dogs are able to allow the owner to feel confident in their daily lives.

And that was that... What a wonderful informative day which left us all much wiser yet aware of how little we knew: we had better go out and appreciate more in the world of science.

In the evening the local WI met to learn about another medical problem. The speaker from Hamlin Fistula UK described the suffering of women and young girls in Ethiopia

following long and difficult childbirths where the bladder had been punctured.The charity sponsors a hospital set up originally in Addis Ababa to deal with these problems but now has four others in the country to deal with 9000 women a year who are afflicted in this way. Now there is a training scheme for midwives and centres for women in convalescence preparing them to return home and earn a living. A very worthy charity and again something we knew nothing about. This was our last WI meeting in the old school building. Next month we will be in the new premises but we have been warned to come in wellies to beat the mud of the building yard now carpark and bring a torch too. Even with these dire warnings we are looking forward to the move.

2nd March

The local Craft Group met together to compare the results of its first attempts at hardanger embroidery and I am afraid mine was a disaster. There were holes in unexpected places and threads running uncontrolled through the work. Luckily for my self-esteem I was not the only one and I was able to blame advancing years and failing eyesight.Anyway it is back to the needle and scissors and let's hope for a better result next time.

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March 09th, 2015

9/3/2015

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Talk of Centuries

2/3/2015

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Great news in the WI Life magasine and on the BFWI website about the special Garden Party at Buckingham Palace for the Centenary Year Celebrations! This sounds very exciting and I think if we were unlucky in the ballot to go to the Annual General Meeting in the Albert Hall, it must be worth having a shot at this ballot. Our WI secretaries have all the information for our next monthly meetings so good luck to all those who want to attend.

In the BFWI newsletter it was announced which resolution had been voted onto the agenda for discussion at the AGM. Bucks had chosen the assessment for care which was the same decision as the National one.I think our WI went for Food Waste with the Caring resolution second so obviously that was a popular choice. We can always discuss the other resolutions locally if we feel strongly about them and action them through our WIs.

24th February

This month's book under consideration by the local WI Book Group was "Dissolution" by Sansom, the first of his series featuring the lawyer cum detective Matthew Shardlake.It was a very topical choice as everyone seems to be watching "Wolf Hall" on the television and as a group we had read the Mantel novels. "Dissolution" is set in 1537so comparisons were unavoidable. The most striking difference was in the portrayal of Cromwell. The plot is complicated with several murders to solve in a monastery awaiting the axe. It gives a vivid picture of the poverty and dirt of London but the lasting memory is of the cold and the constant fears of everyone living under a police state in Tudor England.The majority of readers enjoyed the novel so we will try to obtain sets of the following books in the series.

23rd February

Local WI members regularly help to serve refreshments when the Blood Donor mobile unit visits the town. This is a way in which members can contribute a little something to the community. The team provide all the refreshments and all we have to do is serve them out and chat while the donors recover from their donation. It is not very onerous and quite a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours about twice a year. There is sure to be someone among the donors whom one knows and can enjoy talking to. The nurses very much appreciate our help and it frees them up to do more important things.

16th February

The craft group welcomed some visiting members who were not regular attenders to the afternoon session to learn how to do hardanger embroidery.We were issued with little kits of materials by our member tutor and started to produce a motif. One needs good eyesight for this work because it is all about counting threads and accuracy. We were given homework to do before the next meeting when we will be expected to cut holes in our work. Some of us turned pale at the thought especially as we were warned that any inaccuracy at stage one would result in uncontolled "holes" and a complete unravelling of everything we had done! Wish us luck!

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Feminine issues

Thinking outside the box..

March 09th, 2015

Talk of Centuries

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