Audlem WI May Resolutions

Normally there is no sunrise so beautiful that it is worth waking me up to see because I don't really 'Rise and Shine' until I've had coffee. However when Spring arrives things are different, our WI members clamber effortlessly out of their 13 tog duvets, ignoring any other occupants – and by this I mean anyone who is fortunate enough to share a bed with us, including dogs – ready to face the onerous annual house and garden Spring cleaning challenges before putting on their glad rags and heading off in gay abandon to our May monthly meeting, oblivious of any dirt under our once beautifully manicured nails.

Wonder Women

We may not all be 'Wonder Women', but sometimes we do things that make you wonder!

Personally, I often look as if I am doing nothing, however in my head I'm usually quite busy and faced with this month's WI competition challenge, to write a poem about love, and in the full knowledge that the Poet Laureate's job is up for grabs, I decided a worthy creation should involve an ageing point of view as living on this earth for a long period can be tough at times, on the other hand, looking on the positive side, it does mean that we all get a free ride around the sun every year.

Many of our WI members are brilliant embroiderers, sadly I am not one of them as I may not have lost all my marbles just yet, but I'm beginning to suspect that there may be a small hole in the bag where they are kept, as now, when I should have achieved the bulk of my life's knowledge and finally got it all together, I've forgotten where I put it and I'm struggling to find the right words to produce a worthy entry to wow Audlem WI members who are a discerning bunch at the best of times.

My poem will be up against our famous local poet Jessica Trudgill, so, because physical fitness is an important key to a healthy body and it will promote my dynamic and creative intellectual activity, I did a push up today......well, actually I fell down but I had to use my arms to get back up so....you know....close enough!

New Visitors

Our President Lin welcomed three new visitors to our meeting, Sheila Guest, Sandra Darlington and Ann Thurlong. After 'Jerusalem' was sung, minutes were read, and business matters discussed before moving on to our annual debate to select a resolution to put forward at our Annual National Meeting. The choice of resolutions was;

'A call against the decline in local bus services' and 'Don't fear the smear'.

There was a time when WI Resolutions were created in the enthusiasm of an inspired moment, followed up with amazing gusto and a determination to make a difference. Sadly, no more. NFWI appears to be churning out ephemeral, outdated and transient ideals, some just rehashed from previous years, when what we are really looking for is a resolution, we can get our teeth into and change the status quo.

Anne Pearson put forward arguments on why we should vote for 'Don't fear the smear' and I spoke vehemently against its selection, chiefly because as we are not called up for a smear test after 64, the presumption is all sexual activity stops?

Joy Taylor spoke in support of the second resolution, adding her own concerns from a personal viewpoint and Lin Nicholas gave a heartfelt speech against.

Heated Discussion

After a heated round of discussions amongst our members, Elizabeth Green having given us a clear and passionate insight into how the NHS system works, we held a lack-luster vote and the resolution selected to go through was 'A call against the decline in local bus services'.

I can feel a letter to the NFWI coming on!

Natural Luxuries

Our speakers this month were giving a talk on Natural Luxuries. Now to most of us a natural luxury is wallowing – I use the term loosely as a hippopotamus springs to mind – in a foam filled bath, surrounded by candles with a gin and tonic to hand and a fluffy white towel at the ready. Have you ever wondered why we don't just dissolve like a sugar cube in a bath? That would be a great way to lose weight if we got the timing right!

Natural Luxuries are a small, independent business run by Jane and Emma; good friends and between them, mum to five gorgeous girls and therefore future WI members!

They are passionate about selecting nature's finest fibres to provide us with the highest quality collections of 'must have' pieces at an affordable price. At Natural Luxuries, they combine all of the benefits of nature with uncompromising style and timeless, sophisticated understatement.

The girls introduced us all to new ways of tying scarves in order to enhance or disguise certain areas of our bodies, and if any men are reading this, no, they did not wrap scarves around our mouths, before producing a suitcase of old scarves enabling us all to 'have a go' ourselves. Sometimes just having fun with your friends is the best therapy and plenty of laughter ensued, whilst Jane and Emma tried to control some of our more exuberant members when they got into a tangle!

Sue Davies gave a warming thank you to Jane and Emma, and we all partook of a welcoming cup of tea and biscuits.

Raffle & Poetry

After tea the raffle was drawn, and the birthday flowers were handed out.

One certain way to lose another woman's friendship is to try to improve her flower arrangements, however Jackie Creber always comes up trumps with her bouquets. This month's lucky birthday members were Jean Cook, Shirley Firth (back wearing her red clogs again), Sheila Jones, Margaret Lockwood and Lyn Wainwright.

Finally, all my poetic efforts were in vain as I was the only person to produce a poem so mine was selected to represent our poetry skills at our next Malbank meeting. Winning by default leaves me feeling a little unworthy! Lin read out a poem from Jessica's poetry book. She has sold over 200 profits going to the Breast Cancer charity.

Thoughts on Life

Life was so much easier for us ladies when an 'Apple' and 'Blackberry' were just fruits used mainly in pies and crumbles and 'memory' was just something that you lost with age. A 'program' was a TV show, an 'application' was for a job and a 'web' was a spider's home. More importantly if you were male and had a three-and-a-half-inch floppy disc, you just hoped that nobody found out!

NOTE: Since adding a disclaimer is a must here, I would like to say that this article is not written to hurt anyone's (men's) sentiments and should be taken in the humorous manner in which it was written.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.