KIRTON AND FALKENHAM WI
Meeting, December 12th – An Old Fashioned Christmas (sing-along, poems, games etc.)
Meeting, January 9th 2014
Speaker, Mrs Pauline Taylor on the Past and Present of Galloways Coaches.
Competition – A photo taken from a coach.
NOVEMBER MEETING REPORT
We always hold our AGM in November so there is quite a lot of business to get through before we can relax and start enjoying ourselves. We listened to the secretary’s report of activities throughout the year which was made easier to compile because I keep copies of these pieces I write for the Review. We then learnt how we stand financially from our treasurer Mrs Judy Walker. Judy, who has coped magnificently with the task of managing our money for many years, has finally decided to retire. We cannot thank her enough for all her hard work. The position is being taken over by Mrs Wendy Taylor, assisted by Mrs Pam Cole. We are very grateful that they have offered to step into the breach. Apart from this change, all the officers remain the same, while the committee has increased to seven members. The winners of the competition cups for last year were Edna Stuckey who came 3rd, Hillary Twomey and Eve Moore who came joint second and Iris Hitchen who came first. Iris closed the AGM by thanking everyone for their help. Without the willing participation of our members Kirton and Falkenham WI, now 92 years old, would not stay afloat.
We then turned our attention to other matters. We are hoping to have an outing to a Christmas market or something similar in December and a lunch at a Felixstowe venue in January. The unanimous opinion was that the Orwell Hotel would be the best place to go, so we now have to decide on a date. Edna and Wendy have continued to collect items for the Samaritan’s Purse Charity and have managed to assemble eleven shoe boxes. These are now going to be taken along to Shoezone in Hamilton Road who then pass them on to the charity.
At last we came to our speaker, Mrs Jean Nunn, who had been waiting patiently throughout all of the above. She came to talk to us about a sailing trip in New Zealand, not round, as this would have taken far longer than the three weeks she and her companions allowed themselves. They picked up their boat, the Bella Rosa, in Auckland and sailed north to explore the Bay of Islands, a very picturesque area. There were four on the trip: Jean, Ann, Mike and Jock, all experienced sailors, all retired, all widows and widowers. Their combined ages came to 280 years, an average of 70. She had previously sailed with Jock up the North Sea on the roughest and coldest trip she had ever experienced. It was then that he suggested they might try New Zealand next time. She showed us many lovely photos of the places they visited which made our mouths water. For the whole holiday they had perfect sailing conditions with no rain, blue skies and a steady wind. They found they had to be careful of the sun whose rays were stronger in those latitudes. On the way home to England they went on a walking trip in Tasmania and also paid a visit to Thailand so they were away five weeks in all. She told us at the beginning of the talk that it had been a life-changing experience for at least two of their party. In fact she and Mike found they got along so well that they are getting married next year. Many congratulations!
V E Bines
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