RESOLUTIONS AND GAMES NIGHT – JANUARY 2025

Despite the freezing cold and rain, a number of hardy members attended our January meeting when we discussed the NFWI resolutions before casting our votes. We divided ourselves into tables of four so that we could play games whilst debating the shortlisted resolutions, with the help of the NFWI briefing notes. The room buzzed with lively conversation and a good time was had by all. We were also delighted to welcome our latest new member, bringing the membership to a record 44!

Christmas Party – December 2024

The Christmas party was a rip-roaring success. Frances kindly opened her house to everyone. The walls were draped in fairy lights; members brought a fabulous array of sweet and savoury delights; and the drink and conversation flowed. Caroline led a couple of rounds of True or False? (with a distinct Canadian flavour). And Lizzie and Eve were awarded chocolate oranges, as per NWLWI tradition, as joint winners of the competition for the best festive necklace.

Annual Meeting and Quiz – November 2024

We had an great turnout for our Annual Meeting and were delighted to welcome six guests (who we hope will have enjoyed the evening so much that they’ll become members!). Fiona from the Middlesex Federation oversaw proceedings, which included the usual reports and the re-election of the Committee and Caroline as President (the reports are available on the noticeboard section of the website). Once the business items were out of the way, we enjoyed the quiz which was hotly contested and great fun. Many thanks to Denise for being an excellent quizmistress!

Bollywood fitness – October 2024

Bollywood Fitness was a wonderful new experience for us all. Kangan explained that Bollywood dancing is a combination of different styles and, with the highly infectious music, we were soon happily jumping around, swinging our hips, with frantic arm gestures. We looked and felt good. And suddenly, it was all over; a completely new experience and a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Queen’s Park Day Preparation – September 2024

We had a very jolly evening helping prepare for our stall at Queen’s Park Day and everyone quickly got to work sticking labels on jam, stickers on labels and suchlike! There was a record attendance and we had the bonus of three guests who have promised to sign up as full members at the next meetig. Caroline presided over the evening and managed to persuade everyone to contribute in some way to the stall, where we will be selling a wide variety of cakes, jam and the ever popular fruit skewers. Come and find us on Sunday 15th September to learn out more about what we do (and of course buy some of our delicious produce!)

DIY workshop – August 2024

We were joined at our August meeting by Tom and Jason from DIY Demons who gave us a very useful and informative talk about many aspects of DIY. Amongst the many things we learned was the importance of having a good drill/screwdriver, how to drill into tiles, how to decide what rawl plugs to use, basic plumbing, and much more. They also gave very helpful recommendations about the best products to use for different jobs. The room was abuzz with everyone’s questions which Tom and Jason answered expertly and we all left the meeting determined to tackle those odd jobs around the house that we had been putting off!

Annual Picnic – July 2024

For this year’s picnic, instead of our usual venue of Queen’s Park, we had it in Jan’s lovely garden which was a real delight. As well as providing such a wonderful venue, Jan also cooked baked potatoes for everyone and members brought a selection of toppings and deserts. We certainly ate well as a result and no-one went home hungry! We were also blessed with good weather (after a week of showers) and we sat and chatted happily ’til late. Many, many thanks to Jan for letting us enjoy your beautiful garden and for being such a wonderful hostess!

GUIDED WALK – 12 June 2024

When we were organising our guided walk we had no idea that the subject would be so timely and that we would be exploring Westminster in the middle of a general election campaign! Our wonderful guide, Hazel Phillips, met us in Victoria Tower Gardens and took us on a tour, ‘Westminster – in the eye of political change‘, which chronicled the history of suffrage in the UK. We were reminded of the many struggles over the centuries over the right to vote and that in particular, all women only got the vote less than 100 years ago after many years of campaigning. So we all resolved that it was important to use our vote in the coming election. Despite threats of rain, the evening sun shone and reminded us how beautiful London can be! Thank you Hazel for a lovely evening.

British Sign Language – 8 May 2024

We celebrated Deaf Awareness Week with a wonderful presentation entitled ‘Love and Trust’ by Sian Cooley (president of Teddington WI) who inspired us by describing her years as a teacher of the deaf in Wandsworth schools. She talked about the challenges facing the deaf community, but also told us about many students she had worked with who had gone on to fulfilling careers in teaching, the law, and the aviation industry. She described the many ways of communicating with deaf people, including British Sign Language (BSL) and told us that every country had its own sign language, so learning BSL was equivalent to learning a whole new language. Sian’s presentation included a few short videos with top tips for communicating with the deaf. We were then encouraged to learn how to finger-spell the BSL alphabet and within a short time we were all spelling out our names! The evening finished with a rendition of ‘Lean on Me’, with everyone joining in using our new found BSL skills!”

Belly Dancing – 10 April 2024

We were all a bit daunted by the idea of having a go at belly dancing, but we needn’t have worried! Sandrine told us all about the history of belly dancing which has its roots in many cultures and then she gave us a wonderful display of how it is done. The brave ones amongst us then dressed up in the sparkly belts and bras that Sandrine had brought along and then, under her expert tuition were soon shimmying and belly dancing like pros! The rest of us looked on in awe. A thoroughly enjoyable evening was had by all with lots of laughs and giggles along the way!