The real Tom Jones at W.I.

There's something about January – long after the holiday decorations have all come down and been packed away, well before any reasonable expectation of spring arrives – that leaves the days feeling, well, a little flat, so I bring you an incredibly vital and useful tip for how to survive the most depressing time of the year.

Come to one of our W.I. meetings!

Much to everyone's surprise – a Probus lunch coinciding with our January meeting – our lady members turned out in full force, and admiration was given to those other ladies who staggered back from the aforesaid lunch to ensure they didn't miss out on our infamous speaker Tom Jones!

The January meeting is always a bit hectic with subs being collected, registers being taken, raffle tickets being bought and the general catching up of news. We don't like to refer to it as gossiping, we simply refer to it as sharing our opinions about other people's life choices!

After a hearty rendering of 'Jerusalem' with June Perry playing the piano, a welcome change from all those Christmas Carols, our President Lin Nicholas welcomed us back for another exciting year of 'golden' (it is the W.I. centenary year) opportunities with a packed programme for 2015.

It goes without saying that none of the W.I. meetings could take place without the commitment and hard work carried out behind the scenes by a dedicated committee, and Lin asked each
committee member to stand up as she explained their duties for 2015 to the members.

This was followed by ideas for future outings, Scrabble meetings and the exciting news that we were hoping to form a Bridge group. If any W.I. member is interested, please could they let Lin know.

Football may have the F.A. Cup, but Audlem W.I. has the 'Competition Cup,' presented to the
member who has entered the most of our monthly competitions. This was duly presented to Anne Poole, who now has the onerous task of cleaning it for the next year!
Well done to Anne.

February's competition challenge will be to design a Valentine's Card, so we are expecting some amazing entries from our artistically talented members.

Our speaker this month was Tom Jones. As he quite rightly pointed out to us, his name really is Tom Jones, the other, less famous one, was born Tom Woodward!

Tom gave us an interesting talk on his experiences as a tourist guide around Chester. One of the first things he learnt as a tourist guide was 'KISS' ' Keep It Simple Stupid!

Too much information makes tourists switch off and a tour guide has to be amusing, full of anecdotes and quips, whilst still managing to inform!

It helps that Tom spoke fluent French, as the very first group he took out were 48 French students – each group should not be greater than 25 for obvious health and safety reasons – however having survived the trauma and stress of this first group, he continued being a guide for ten years.

Tom particularly enjoyed taking Japanese groups around Chester, as he soon learnt bowing is
nothing less than an art form in Japan. A simple inclination of the head or an attempt at a bow at the waist will usually suffice. The duration and inclination of the bow is proportionate to the elevation of the person you're addressing. It's all about position and circumstance!

Also, the Japanese prefer to stand in the shade whilst listening to their tour guide. Pale faces are a source of beauty in Japan.

Tom also did 'Ghost Tours' of Chester and this entailed various monks and soldiers jumping out at the groups at appropriate moments! These tours were very popular!

Our President, Lin Nicholas, thanked Tom for his talk and then the serious business of afternoon tea and cakes ensued. Raffle tickets were drawn, flower bouquets handed out to our birthday ladies and a final reminder to 'Design a Valentine Card' for our next meeting.

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