January 2016

KIRTON AND FALKENHAM WI

Next meeting: Thursday February 11th at 2.00pm in Kirton and Falkenham Village Hall.
Speaker: Gilly Bursnoll
Subject: Painting on flower pots
Competition: Best three attempts at painted pots
Trading Stall: miscellaneous

JANUARY MEETING REPORT 2016
This is the time of year when we start planning our activities for the coming twelve months. Two outings are already in the pipeline: next week we are going as a group to have lunch at the Newbourne Fox, then in the summer we are arranging a trip to the Newmarket races on Ladies Day (no apostrophe you’ll notice – where’s the Apostrophe Preservation Society when you need them!). The date is the 7th July and we’re hoping to fill a coach. If this is not possible then non-members will be welcome to join us at £35 a throw. As you know, Ladies Day is an opportunity for the women to wear their very best outfits. This is how the Jockey Club describes it: Ladies Day at Newmarket is the hottest ticket of the summer. Visitors come from far and wide, donning their finest attire to enjoy brilliant racing. The contest is just as sizzling off the field in the ‘Fashion at the Festival Best-Dressed Lady Competition’ sponsored by the Spa at Bedford Lodge Hotel. With an ever-increasing array of fabulous prizes on offer this is a must for all female racegoers. What occurs to me is: if there is a Ladies(‘!) Day why not a Gentlemen’s Day? Strikes me that just concentrating on women is a bit sexist. Other events coming up in the WI calendar are the Federation Annual Meeting at Trinity Park on March 3rd where they usually have some very good speakers and our local group meeting on April 26th when the entertainment will be provided by a folk band called Shipshape. Kirton and Falkenham will be organising the raffle and the competition. For the competition we thought that two members from each WI could perform a song, poem or nursery rhyme.

Our January meeting did not go according to plan. The speaker who had been booked, Vicki Westren, had unfortunately fallen and broken her arm so was unable to attend. As a replacement we were expecting to welcome a clergyman who was going to tell us about the funnier aspects of his ministry but he just didn’t turn up. We wondered if he had got lost and was wandering round Suffolk looking for Kirton Village Hall but in fact he had mistaken the date and thought the meeting was to be held next week. Vicki had been going to speak about East Anglia, after which there was to be a quiz on the same subject compiled by Maddy Rhodes so, on the vicar’s non-appearance, we decided to serve tea early and then, while we were eating, cudgel our brains over the quiz questions. Here are a few of them – answers next month:

1. Peggy Cole became a film-star in the 1970s – what was the real name of the village that her film was based on?
2. What is the name of the sculptor of the Shell on the beach at Aldeburgh?
3. Where is St Peter’s Brewery?
4. In which year did Ipswich win the F.A. Cup?
5. Noel Coward made a very well-known remark about Norfolk in one of his plays; can you quote it?
6. In the legend concerning St Edmund’s martyrdom who is said to have guarded his head until it was found?
7. The nineteenth century Suffolk School of Painters included two brothers; can you name them?
8. Where is a merman said to have been captured?
9. Where did the last invasion of England take place?
10. Who were the invaders?

Valerie Bines