Oh dear! What an uproar about a member’s comments on the activities of the Shoreditch Sisters WI! Is this another occasion on which we should say “There is no such thing as bad publicity”? I can understand how some members could find its approach too forthright (displays on quilts of female parts not usually discussed at the dinner table and pictures of sanitary wear worked into posters) but it is a generational problem and the WI does pride itself on catering for all ages. What Shoreditch does for our WI campaigns is not all that different to the rest of us except they are more active publicly. It is more direct and aims to shake everyone up---which it is obviously very successful in doing. What shook me in the press articles was that it had come from a federation trustee which seemed a bit disloyal: I thought trustee members stood together at least in public. Someone must have leaked the blog entry to the media because I don’t believe the local press reads our WI blogs.
If my blog is to go more public I had better be a bit more circumspect about what I say---especially now that I see I have been given categories for people to click to find specific subjects in my ramblings. Have you noticed this re-arrangement? Nothing has disappeared from the website. More future events have been added and some items shuffled about a bit. Our federation website was one of the first and was a role model for quite a few years so we should be proud of it. I wish more Bucks members used it.
The local WI discussion group met to discuss tele -medicine which we had to have defined for us at the start but then discovered that our local surgery has been using the system for some time but we, the patients, hadn’t known its title. Several members were appreciative of booked phone calls to avoid attending the surgery and felt confident that if there had to be follow-up on the diagnosis they would be able to see the doctor or specialist more promptly. Others were insistent that they preferred to speak face-to-face. With today’s pressures on hospitals and doctors generally, this must be helpful like the triage systems in A&E departments. And what about operations being conducted on Skype from one continent to another or being performed by an AI robot being manipulated by a surgeon in another room?
In support of our WI’s charity MIND Buckinghamshire a coffee morning and jigsaw swap in a member’s house raised £75. This is a gesture towards the resolution on mental health going to the AGM in Cardiff in June. This resolution is another example of the WI not being afraid to tackle subjects that have been considered unsuitable for discussion in public. I wonder how the Shoreditch Sisters will handle this one.
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​There is one thing I can promise you in 2018: you will not find any recipes nor pictures of food on my blog. What did journalists and people on the media write about before they discovered food? On every page of newspapers these days there is something about baking or cooking or dieting. If it is not directly taking up columns, then it is in the adverts. I cannot be the only person bored to tears by the subject. However, I reserve the right to let you find references to food waste because that is something which I feel strongly about and which the WI wants to work towards reducing.
So that is one New Year’s resolution. The next is to try to eliminate as much plastic from my life as possible. I will continue to take paper bags with me when I shop for food and read the labels on any new purchase to see what it contains and where it came from. This slows the whole shopping process down but is quite interesting to do. I wonder whether the WI campaign, along with David Attenborough may really make a difference. Surely all plastic should display advice on whether it can be re-cycled or not. Couldn’t all plastic be collected in one bin and be similarly dealt with at a plant in every authority?  It is so confusing at present with no common treatment available.
If we are going to try to live by WI mandates we can all look out for our neighbours to combat loneliness and problems of depression which this often exacerbates. Homelessness is another problem that a WI member can try to alleviate by supporting her local women’s refuges and looking out for solutions. What a difference it would make if every town council took upon itself to house one homeless family! All communities have houses standing empty for months, sometimes years on end. Locally, we have an unused school building which has a roof, electricity and water which could be a refuge---albeit temporary until it is knocked down for re-development.
The local WI meeting last week touched on some of these topics when running through the shortlist of possible resolutions to go up for discussion at Cardiff at the NFWI Annual General Meeting in June. At this stage it is an individual choice from five topics but later we will vote as a WI either for or against the resolutions chosen to go forward. We listened to a very interesting talk on food nutrition when I think we all learned something new and useful about the food that we eat and what our bodies need and do with it. A high proportion of our members are planning to become dual members with the morning WI. Our interest groups continue to flourish.
The discussion group which meets monthly in a member’s house is one of the most successful of these. It is now four years old and has not run out of topics yet nor had anyone so offended as to walk out. Last night we were discussing body image in line with one of the shortlist resolutions. This again is a field where social media and advertising have a lot to answer for. It is not a new problem as everyone has always worried about how other people view us but now through social media one is on trial by a vast audience which is made up of spiteful people cloaked by anonymity. It is no longer one’s peer group in class nor one’s own family nor villagers on the street; it is the whole country telling everyone else where one’s face or body falls short of perfection. Little wonder the victim refuses to go out, go to school or walk back into the workplace.

18th October
In a heavy rain storm at 7.30am a coach left Winslow on its way to visit the Hindu Temple at Neasden in London. This was the last of four outings planned by the BFWI Education and Current Affairs sub-committee which proved to be very popular with the county WI members. It was most interesting to see the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, to admire its architecture, to move around its wonderful interior and be told a little bit about the Hindu faith. We enjoyed a vegetarian lunch and a look around the adjacent superstore of Indian foods. Unfortunately, we couldn’t view the temple gardens as they were hidden by marquees which were being prepared for the Diwali ceremonies next week and the following festivities to mark the start of the new year. Most of the actual building of the temple was done by volunteers, most of the running of it and the staffing of it is done by volunteers and people of all ages drop in and out to offer up prayers as part of a normal day. It is a busy place but there is an element of peace inside as well. We were told that part of the Hindu faith is to give 10% of one’s wealth and of one’s time in service to God. Sixteen hundred volunteers will be working next week to provide a welcome and food to 40,000 plus visitors---Big Society eat your heart out. It is a pity if you had to miss this experience for a good reason; but if you just couldn’t be bothered…well, shame on you. We need all the international and inter-faith knowledge we can get these days to understand the world around us. Let’s thank BFWI for organising these visits.
We had a very easy return so were in time for the Chase Group meeting held at Great Horwood. Here we listened to the musical duo called Cantlos. They sang traditional tunes and folksongs accompanying themselves on a variety of instruments, guitar, cittern, dulcimer and harp. We were invited to sing along but most people didn’t want to drown out the entertainers’ voices. The reports from the WIs in the group were interesting. We were pleased to welcome Winslow Early Birds WI and the refreshments as ever were excellent. We are now looking forward to a Group outing to the Christmas Market at Winchester.
17th October
A small attendance at the craft group when the members worked on their own projects and we discussed future activities. We have decided not to proceed as a group with making wrap pyjamas for children in hospital because the majority was not keen on dressmaking but preferred to spend time on embroidery, knitting and patchwork but individuals may undertake the sewing. It was decided not to have a display of Christmas crafts this year at the WI meeting. There would be a social get-together in late January or early February.
10th October
The opening meeting of a new interest group was held in a member’s house this afternoon. Ten members had been expected to come along to either learn to crochet or just crochet together but only five turned up. In one way, this proved fortunate as the attendees were all absolute beginners and they kept the instructor very busy. There was a lot of laughter mixed with deep sighs as we all wrestled with fingers that would not manipulate the hooks in the desired manner and strange shapes that refused to look like squares. However, we agreed to meet again in two weeks’ time and see what a bit of homework will achieve.
 
 
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26th July
A rather warm day to be inside discussing books but far too hot to be outside in the garden. The novel today was “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” by John Boyne. This has been made into a film. It is a disturbing story which was written for teenagers as well as adults. To a certain extent, the fact that our generation is aware beforehand of the circumstances the author is describing will have given us a different slant to that of a youngster approaching the book; a person who has been spared the details of the horror of the holocaust. The innocence of the young boys in the story as they are pulled into the cruel world produced by the conflicting ideologies of their elders is so sad. And then that last hanging statement of the novel. ”Of course all this happened a long time ago and nothing like that could ever happen again. Not in this day and age.” Written in 2006 by an Irishman it reveals the true message behind the book which applies just as poignantly now-a-days in many lands further away from home.
23rd July
I visited the Mid-Devon County Agricultural Show today and as you would expect I had a look at the WI tent. The Federation had its own large marquee which also housed the Country Markets. The displays were impressive and the competitive inter-WIs contributions were exciting a lot of interest and comment. Obviously the WIs were set a theme but they were given a larger area in which to display their entries. The frames were deeper so didn’t look so “busy”/crowded as ours tend to do at the Bucks Show. The WI Advisers were doing their promotional work and there was an interesting stall set up for the Denman College Appeal and ACWW.
 
13th July
The discussion group met tonight over a glass of wine to talk about the emergency services. Once again it is surprising the amount of voluntary work which is included within what one would expect to be a state system. We were full of admiration for the scope of the services available, ranging from the air ambulance to the new first response cars. We also acknowledged the way in which big business and industries respond to the needs of people caught up in floods and disasters. The discussion also afforded us time to tell members about the local emergency scheme which operates across counties in which the WI plays its part. Many WIs have a list of trained members who are willing to make themselves available if an emergency arises in the neighbourhood, such as major transport accidents. One doesn’t need to have medical expertise: the ability to get to a village hall or school which has been set up as a relief centre, to make and receive phone calls, to listen or just to serve refreshments and provide a calming influence, may be all that is required. Fortunately, one may never be called upon but the hospitals and police really appreciate help in these ways so that they can get on with the jobs we cannot do.
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​29th June
The WI members and guests had taken great pains to dress in floral clothes, predominantly pink, to celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday as if it was a lovely summer’s day---Barbara Cartland would have been proud of us. Fortunately, we were all under cover. There was much chatter and rueful laughter in the foyer of the Community Centre in Amersham as people shook themselves dry after crossing the car park. However once inside, everything was lovely: a traditional strawberry tea plus cakes and sandwiches accompanied by pink drinks. Many guests had made tiaras which they wore with style. A nonagenarian was installed as the Queen of proceedings and wore a very impressive full crown. In the course of the afternoon there was a royal quiz and an entertainment put on by members of the Board of Trustees and WI advisers. The finale of synchronised swimming was very well received. If you are wondering how this was achieved, I will just say that we were in Drake’s Hall and there had been a lot of rain that afternoon. If you don’t believe me, you should have attended this event put on by the BFWI for our entertainment to see for yourself.
 
8th June
The local WI’s Discussion Group met in a member’s house this evening to talk about “Engineering”. Some of us had been at a bit of a loss wondering how we could discuss such a huge topic so we started by defining engineering as the application of science for the control and use of power, especially by means of machinery. This made things a little easier when trying to separate science and technology. We discussed the rise of female engineers in spite of parental and social prejudice against young girls taking up what is still considered a career path more suited to males. Of course the inequality of rates of pay between the sexes was also mentioned. There is also a tendency for the public to imagine that the UK is no longer a big player in the field of industry. The evening’s discussion included other forms of engineering such as genetic, social engineering and even political manipulation which was a rather topical subject this month. We concluded by planning to ask the BFWI Education and Current Affairs sub-committee to consider inviting a high-power female engineer to talk at one of its science days.