There were about 90 Winslow WI members and guests at the Jazz evening tonight when Lou’s Sextet entertained us in the Public Hall. This was a fund-raising event for Buckinghamshire Mind and the local WI. Everyone enjoyed the music and the ploughman’s supper and each other’s company. There is always the worry at these events that nobody will come but in the last few days prior to the date requests for tickets flow in. The WI committee had spent a lot of thought organising the evening and its work paid off.
On the17th October four members got together to make up the Remembrance Sunday wreath from the many handmade poppies either crocheted or knit by 10 members over the past few months. The wreath used up 100 of these which echo-ed the centenary of the end of the First World War. We are very pleased with the look of the finished article and our President will feel justly proud carrying it in the town parade and laying it at the memorial.
The October meeting of the Discussion Group chose the topic of “Are holiday cruises anti-social?” It was anticipated that the subject would ruffle a few feathers because many of our members are fond of cruise liner holidays and have travelled all over the world on them. This evening we were presented with a whole lot of uncomfortable facts about the pollution caused by these monsters on the deep. What sort of pollution were they not guilty of? If it wasn’t sewage and waste, it was fuel and crowded places of interest--- and then the damage to the ecosystem in areas such as Antarctica, the Arctic and the Easter Islands. Could the social benefits aboard and the economics of the travel industry justify all of this? Unfortunately, I don’t think the travel firms need to fear a drop in their sales after our discussion but we did try!
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This evening the members listened to an interesting talk by Bob Harding, a paramedic with 40 years’ experience recounting tales of answering calls to the service. Most of these had been genuine pleas for help but unfortunately some had been a misuse of the service or an unnecessary call out. We spent some time making plans for the coming fund-raising Jazz Night and the Chase Group meeting at Mursley. Nominations were taken in for the committee next year in preparation for our Annual Meeting next month. The entry for the Bucks Village Book was on display and we are quite hopeful that it will be included in the final publication.
The WI Reading Group met on 25th September. A lot of people were still on holiday but had sent in their opinions on “1000 Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hossein . I think everyone had been moved by this novel and felt it was equally worth reading as the “Kite Runner”, his earlier work. The story ends hopefully at 2007 but unfortunately we knew how tragically things had turned out after that date in Afghanistan. It was amazing how the author was able to feel for the sufferings of the women through the constantly changing regimes in their lives and the private situation in their homes. It is tragic to see how the beautiful  cities, the history  and their culture have been destroyed by war. We will have to read the next book by Hossein.
In between whiles, I have been reading two books which are so relevant to the national WI campaigns that I would like to recommend them to you: first, non-fiction, “Somebody I used to Know” by Wendy Mitchell and then a novel by Gail Honeyman called “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine”. Wendy Mitchell was diagnosed with early onset of Alzheimer’s disease at the age of fifty and she tells her story of how she thought out ways of surviving as normally as possible even though she was fully aware of the slow deterioration of what she could actually achieve. It is a brave account of what can be done, obligatory reading for anyone dealing with this affliction personally or in a family member. Gail Honeyman’s book is sad and hilarious in parts and it is a mystery story too. The main subject is the effects of loneliness and trauma . One just cannot put it down so try and borrow a copy because it will help everyone to understand what loneliness and depression can do to people.