By Janet McCheyne
BULPHAN WI members who took part in the “Escape the Olympics” challenges at their August meeting were rewarded with barbecued sausages in freshly-baked rolls with optional onions. It was a lovely summer’s evening, and ladies exerted themselves on the outdoor gym equipment, the tennis court and the croquet pitch, tried to beat each other at sorting sweets with chopsticks and sucking jelly beans (via a drinking straw!) into bowls and seeing how many clothes pegs they could fit into one hand. Finally, there was an Olympic quiz sheet to complete and a shape-sorting challenge.
The hotdogs were followed by strawberry cheesecake and cream and our plans to go to the Orsett Show, Kensington Palace and The Full Monty live on stage were finalised.
4 of our members acted as stewards at the Orsett Show, promoting the WI movement. And 4 members also entered items into the Handicrafts and Hobbies section of the show. At our September meeting we were able to see a display of their entries and learn how successful they had been: all 4 won a number of rosettes, and Jo Seymour also won 2 cups: one for needlework and one for knitting. We are hoping that these ladies will inspire more of our members to enter next year.
We were delighted to present Olive Molineaux with an orchid and a birthday card to mark her 80th birthday – congratulations, Olive.
The theme of the September meeting was “Inspiring Women”: Doreen Walker was unable to attend, but one of her inspirational poems was read out; Rose Head was also unable to be with us, as, following her exciting stint as a Gamesmaker at the Olympics, she has now flown to Mombasa to work in an orphanage: we will hear all about it next month. Members were then asked to share something about themselves that was inspiring, extraordinary or simply something that the rest of us didn’t know about them. There were many fascinating revelations, from a member who bumped into Prince Harry in McDonald’s just before he went to Afghanistan, to one who had spent 6 scary hours in an African prison. We heard stories about evacuation, giving birth on the lounge floor, swimming with eels and learning to ski at 66 and to scuba dive some years later! With our increased membership, we didn’t manage to hear everyone’s contribution, so that is a treat to come in the future.
An East End author, Jean Fullerton, tells her story at our next meeting on Wednesday, October 10th and visitors will of course be welcome (free for the first visit, then £3 after that – includes tea/coffee and cake). Have a look at our website (bulphanwi.weebly.com) or pick up a programme from Bulphan Shop to find out what’s going on, or ‘phone for a chat
