LWWI - December Meeting - Tuesday 20th December 2011

Dear All

 

Just to remind you that there will be a meeting of the West End WI on the 20th of December.  In the spirit of the season it was thought it would be nice to have social evening with a few games, mince pies and fizz from 6.30 pm.

 

If members wanted to invite any interested ones it would be a lovely opportunity to welcome them to the WI.  It would be much appreciated if people could bring a contribution towards the refreshments

 

Regards

 

West End WI

London West End WI AGM 15th November 2011

London West End WI AGM  15th November 2011


Reports

* Report on 2011 meetings
* Treasurers report loss of £741, Reserves of £2,000

Generating Income

* Increase membership – recruiting more members
* Seeking grants
* Fundraising projects on regular basis
* Marketing
* Advertising in local businesses
* Invite a friend
* Managing expenditure
* Vote of Thanks
* Resigning Committee


Nominations for new committee Helena Roden
Kate Matheson
Jane White “Treasurer”
Claude Asgill
Pam Young “President”
Christine McMahon
Ruth Hodson “Secretary”
Rachel Bolland
Papiya Chatterjee

LWWI Secretaries Report December 2010 – November 2011
Ladies what a turbulent year we have had 2010-11 at LWWI.

November we elected a new committee. Jane became treasurer; Heather remained President, whilst Kate and Claude remained as Secretaries. Following our AGM Heather our president led a most fabulous Perry (pear cider) tasting session.


In December we had a very quiet meeting as many people were unable to attend due to the snow, including the planned speaker Jacqui who was due to demonstrate beauty products from Neal’s Yard. We had an impromptu Christmas party instead.

January started with a bang almost literally with Professor Butterworth from UCL coming in to talk to us about the Large Hadron Collider.


February saw a cancelled marmalade session as a special one off meeting but the food hygiene course ran attended by 14 participants. For our official LWWI meeting Mariette from Transition Towns came to talk to us about this project.

For March we learned everyone had passed their food hygiene course and had a trip to the British Museum to see Afghanistan and the regular meeting moved to the Cartoon Museum with a talk and private viewing.
April saw us outside starting the first phase of the gardening project in the courtyard under the expert guidance of Chris Raeburn the community gardener from Phoenix gardens. 2012 will see the start of phase 2, the creation of a rockery garden using the masonry from the old church spire[Soft Break]

Additionally in April the committee balloted members if we should change location or meeting date. Ultimately the response to this was that we stay as we are.

May saw LWWI hold a quilting/patchwork evening led most admirably by Helena and Vanessa. We held an additional meeting a few days later in May at 7 Dials club where we had Lynne Parker one of our members talk to us about Women in Comedy. May saw us out and about at the Brunswick Centre's Brunswick Fair and a second visit to the British Museum.


For June we were out and about on a day trip to Woburn Abbey, a most enjoyable affair and our main meeting was Tai Chi led by Viv one of our members.


July saw Saloni Kapur a pet reiki and energy healer come in to talk to us about aromatherapy and back flower remedies. Some footage and photos from this meeting are up on the blogspot.


August saw us once again at the BM this time to see Treasures of Heaven and our planned meeting was flower arranging but to due to a last minute cancellation it turned out to be quick desserts. Selina did 6 minute chocolate cake and Claude did a cream, nut and mandarin Swiss roll.

August saw us out with quite a large group in Brighton where we all enjoyed lunch on the beach, a turn of the Pavilion and the rain held off all day.



For September we held a lucky dip meeting our plan had been a talk by a local youth worker about the riots and what can be done to engage young people. Our speaker cancelled with less than 24 hours notice and so we ended up crafting and making flowers using paper. Thank you so much to Helena for once again stepping in to lead this meeting.
September also saw us out enjoying a day trip to Canterbury. We were also out more locally with our homemade cakes & jams at Phoenix Gardens Annual Fair and at Open House.


For October we were at the BM to see the Grayson Perry exhibition. It also saw David Gleeson give a much anticipated and enjoyable illustrated talk about Women and Iranian Art.
Which brings us back round once again to November, Our AGM, cocktail tasting and WI year end.

Conclusion:
Overall our BM trips have proved quite popular, as have our WI day trips run in conjunction with Friends of Russell Square. Certain fundraising venues have proved more lucrative than others.

Attendance levels throughout the year have been about 23-28 per meeting on average. We have had a number of cancellations in terms of our planned speakers but have done our best to fund an alternate speaker / activity on each occasion often at short notice.

Sewing circle and committee meeting attendance at 7 Dials have been a bit erratic in terms of numbers attending and how we go forward with this will probably need reviewing in the future.

Going forward the present committee have commented that it would be lovely if more members were able to help pack away and tidy up at the end of meetings. As well as helping at fundraising events.

We hope for 2011-2012 that we will see our membership numbers continue to grow, that the funding grant for ICT equipment will come through and that we will be able to arrange a series of interesting and reliable speakers for the coming year.
We plan to arrange once again and to let you all know in good time about trips, offers and exhibitions as the opportunities come up. And we hope to enjoy even more success at the various table cake sales where we raise much needed income for LWWI to ensure we can pay our rent and external speakers.
And that Ladies concludes our report for the year.

Treasurer's Report Year ended 30 September 2011

In the immortal words of Mr Micawber:

"Income £20, expenses £19/19/6, result: happiness.

Income £20, expenses £20/00/6, result: misery."

Sadly we're in the latter category.

Although we made decent profits on the 3 fetes, overall we made a loss of £741.

Even before we start, we have to have 74 members to pay the Federation subs &

the hire of the hall. We have 45 members, so the loss starts there.

Fete results: Brunswick profit £162.75, Phoenix Gardens £315.91 & Open House £52.57.

The Open House figure is inflated, becasue the Vicar told us to give the volunteers free

refreshments & they told me to deduct this amount from their share.

So our true profit was £40.57.

We also made a loss of £100 on the food hygiene course.

We should have excess funds from the garden project, but I can't quantify this until we've dealt with the rockery.

At the moment the excess stands at £1,099.

We are still in funds to the tune of £2,219, ignoring any garden excess, so we're ok.

If possible, we should think of ways to cut costs.

As stated, our main expense is the hall & we had 2 free months this year, so the situation would have been worse if we hadn't had this.

Our speaker expenses are low, because that's mostly a teapot & cosy, so not too expensive.

I know some WIs meet in wine bars, at least in rooms above or below the bar. This could be a way to save money.

If they gave us the room free, we could put £50 behind the bar & members could pay the excess.

However, would they be happy for us to bring food & would there be tea/coffee facilities, facilities for speakers or demonstrations?

This is something to consider.

Maybe we could apply for a grant to help.

Following the London meeting, I suggested we have a London day at Denman next year & Ruth Bond thought we might get a grant towards that.

Sorry not to paint a better picture, but we are still in funds, so no need to panic, but I do think we need to be careful with expenditure.

November 2011 - Dates for the Diary

Hello Ladies

Goodness can it really be about 8 weeks until Christmas and thus little more than that time until we are at the end of 2011. It seems impossible that we have come through 10 months of the year already.

Weirdly as the nights seem to be drawing closer the amount of content in the Dates for the Diary emails have reduced compared to that seen earlier in the year.
So here is our last official D4D email as LWWI Secretaries
Kate & Claude


LWWI Stuff.
November meeting - Tuesday November 15th

Heather, LWWI 2011 President was leading an alcohal tasting session following our AGM on Tuesday 15th of November but is nolonger able to do this. And so we are going to have a food tasting instead.

Our AGM should last about 45 minutes or so followed by the tasting.

We plan to start the AGM at 7:00PM
During the AGM a summary of the year presented by the secretaries will be read out. And the treasurer will present the accounts to member. It is not as dry as it sounds we promise.

Following that we will elect a new committee for 2012 and we will select a new President and Secretary. Jane has indicated she will stand again as Treasurer but if anyone else wants to stand then do please nominate yourself and let us know.

If you wish to stand as President or Secretary please let us know. LWWI cannot continue to exist without a Secretary and President so these positions have to be filled.
The 2011 Secretaries and President are standing down after two years service and these positions are up for election. Don't worry it is not as daunting as it sounds taking on either position and we personally would recommend job sharing these roles.

For the November meeting Kate is proposing to bring along some home made vegetarian soup and it would be super if members additionally brought along refreshments to share at the meeting.

2012 LWWI membership fees

For 2012 the LWWI membership fee will be £31.50 this was announced a few weeks ago by NFWI and is mentioned in the latest issue of WI Life.

As usual from Janaury you will be able to pay by cheque, by cash or online on our blog using paypal.

December

Not many of you came back and indicated what your preference was for the December meeting. Time is passing quickly ladies and we really do need your feedback as to what we do for the December meeting.

The options were: Quiz night, Just meeting at the pub or having a buffet meal in the upper vestry room with everyone bringing something along to share and us all sitting down to eat together.

BTW The vicar of St George's has invited us to the Carol Service. Helena will be reading at this service representing LWWI.

Proposed calendar of meetings for 2012.

Dear Ladies if you have any ideas about what you would like to see during 2012 at the LWWI monthly meeting please do let us know. If you have any contacts who might make interesting speakers please let us know. If there are any trips/experience etc you think we might like to let members know about please do get in touch.

Attachments

There are a nunber of attachments with this email which have been sent by Surrey and NFWI about days at Denman and the big NFWI AGM next year in London etc. Do have a look at these.

Theatre Project in Holborn looking for interested volunteers.

Hello!

I am writing from a community theatre project in Holborn that is actively seeking members of the 50+ community to get involved.

Here's a little bit more about the project (attached) and maybe you could advise me on the best way to reach your members. Our directors Kate and Morgan are willing to come and present the project in person and show a video and a model of last year's show. People are often hooked when they get to know us in person and want to help. Maybe at an event you run and a mention in a newsletter might be helpful.

You Me Bum Bum Train is a volunteer-driven immersive theatre production that gives individual audience members a range of experiences. To make these scenes as realistic as possible, our team of performers need to be diverse.
We are looking for actors aged 50 and over to come and take part.

Central London location (Holborn).

Suitable for people with little or no experience.

http://now-here-this.timeout.com/2011/10/18/all-aboard-the-you-me-bum-bum-train/

I'm happy to answer any of your questions. I think this is a great way to get senior citizens involved in something exciting. I spoke to a guy who runs a movement class for the mature and he knew his members would be excited about this as they are quite adventurous.

Of course, we are looking for performers of all ages, so any help appreciated.
Thanks

Justin

07841 655 453

youmebumbumtraincast@gmail.com


London mobiliser for the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition.

Sam Green wrote to us to say: I'm currently looking for groups or individuals to get involved with our event - the African Climate Connection (www.stopclimatechaos.org/african-climate-connection). The aim is to bring African, Development and green-campaigning groups together to continue pressure on MP's on climate issues. We're running African themed climate events rights across the country during the Durban climate talks, which will be the first to take place in Africa. I was wondering if your WI would be interested running something, potentially involving your local MP, depending on what you wanted to do with the event.
The event would run during the Durban Climate talks at the beginning of December. I am happy to provide, resources, support and anything else you might need. Your event could be something as simple as a film screening or an African lunch!

If you're interested, get in touch and we can discuss it more, You can call me on 0207 095 5420 on Mondays and Thursdays, or else just send me an email and I'll get back to you.

Looking forward to hearing from you,
Sam Greene, london@stopclimatechaos.org

Stop Climate Chaos, London


 Foundling Museum

If you have been fortunate to visit Florence or Venice you will be sure to know of the Foundling Hospitals there and their association with art and music (Andrea della Robbia and Vivaldi respectively) but do you know of London’s Foundling Hospital and its connections with Handel and Hogarth?

Established in 1739 by a retired shipwright, Thomas Coram, who was moved by the plight of babies abandoned in London’s streets. Coram’s compassion and stubborn determination led to the creation of the Foundling Hospital in Bloomsbury, London’s first home for abandoned children, where it remained until the 1920s and then moved to
Berkhamsted.

The Foundling Hospital closed in 1954 (but continues today as the children’s charity Coram) and the poignant yet fascinating history of the Hospital with its connections to Handel and leading artists of the eighteenth century is portrayed in the Foundling Museum. Why not arrange a visit for your members? Please find below some information about visiting the Museum and guided and unguided tours. We look forward to welcoming you to the Museum.Tuz Morrison, Group Bookings, 020 7841 3591 email tuz@foundlingmuseum.org.uk http://www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk/


Website of the month

I came across the lovely little shop whilst out wandering the other day. Its a mainly Spanish themed shop which sells a number of spanish specialist foods as well as spices. But it also sells a number of lovely craft items some of which made me think we might attempt some of the simpler items possibly at Knit and Knatter on the first Tuesdays of the month sewing/committee meetings. The website for the shop is http://www.alhamrahome.co.uk/

I came across this site http://www.page99test.com/ a long time ago and then refound it the other day whilst dejunking. Its basically a site which says you can tell a food book not by the first page or chapter but by randomly flicking to page 99 of the book and reading that page in isolation. And if that page grabs your attendtion then there is every chance you will actually love the book.

The blurb for the site reads: Published and unpublished writers upload page 99 of their book manuscript to Page99Test.com. Huge community of readers read the book excerpts and rate books.


Kate and I came across the following sites which list special offers to try experiences that you might never have considered exploring at a much cheaper rate than normal. These two sites were www.groupon.co.uk and http://www.wowcher.co.uk/

Well keep warm & well and see you all soon


Claude & Kate
LWWI Secretaries.

Dates for the Diary - October 2011

Hello Ladies
Apologies for the tardiness in sending out this email to all of you.

Last week was either London cocktail week or National cocktail week I can't remember which but it did prompt me to think it might be cool if next year we were able to get a cocktail expert to come in and make cocktails with us and talk to us about the history of cocktails. Regardless of which week it was we say Hoorah!!!
This month October is also Black History Month and Big Book Swap month.

And next month November is nanowrimo - also known as National Novel Writing Month

You will notice this months D4D email is quite short as we have been posting all the updates as they have been happening. Pls do check the blog as we always post new updates there. Sometimes we don't always email them out as we don't want to fill up your inboxes with numerous postings from us unless absolutely necessary.


Speaker reminder for 18th of October 2011 LWWI meeting - Women and Iranian Art.
David Glesson is coming on Tuesday 18th to talk about women and Iranian art.
David's talk will be accompanied by a powerpoint presentation illustrating his points. Many of us are very much looking forward to this talk.

If you wish to attend this talk even if you are not a member of the WI please feel free to come along. You will be most welcome.
For those who missed it here is David's bio.
'David Gleeson is a freelance media consultant and art writer originally from Lincoln, now based in central London . He worked for more than eight years at the Whitechapel Gallery, as Information/Front of House Coordinator and also as Press Officer. He has also worked as an exhibition curator and a freelance journalist whose art criticism has been published in the UK , Europe, USA , Canada and Russia . Recent consultancy work has included exhibition, music and theatre venues as well as commissions from individual artists and projects. A member of the Advisory Board of the international touring exhibition The Missing Peace, he is also an advisor for the Modesto Art Museum of California. Over the last year he has curated two exhibitions of Iranian contemporary art in London: 'From Tehran to London' at Jill George Gallery, Soho (May-June 2010) and 'Breakfast in Tehran' at Frameless Gallery, Clerkenwell (June 2011). Since 2006 he has made four trips to Iran, the last being in January this year.'

Sky Atlantic Documentary offer - You need to be quick

We thought some of you might be interested in a documentary

series we're making for Sky Atlantic.

We’re filming a health & fitness weekend at Carlton Towers.

A grand stately home in Yorkshire.

And I’m looking for people who’d be interested in taking part.

We’re providing an overnight stay and covering the cost of the

bootcamp - designed for people who have weight to lose.

We would love to talk to people who are not just keen to take

control of their weight but who'd also be lively and inquisitive

about staying at such a spectacular location.

The event is being run by fitness guru Gavin Walsh

(www.thebootcamp.co.uk) and will take place on the weekend

of the 22nd - 23rd October.

We'd love to get a small group of friends to go up and enjoy

the experience together. It would be great it if you could pass

my information on to anyone involved with your group who

you feel may be interested in taking part.

We’re looking for great characters who would relish the opportunity

to step into the shoes of a Lord and Lady.

I can be contacted at jonathan@landmarkfilms.com or on

07810 303 469 for anyone who would like more information about

the project or indeed about us as a company.

Many thanks,

Jon

November meeting - Tuesday 15th AGM & Alcohol tasting.
Our November meeting will be the AGM swiftly followed by an alcohol tasting arranged by our President Heather. Last years perry tasting was super popular with all concerned.


Your WI needs you.
If any one wants to join the committee or stand for the position of secretary or president please don't hesitate to nominate yourself, your nomination will be seconded. It is possible to job share these positions.
If you are also interested in maybe tweeting on behalf of LWWI or facebooking on behalf of LWWI or looking after our website or blog these services also need additional people willing to help with them.
Basically if you have a skill that you think we could make use of please do get in touch.

Thanks.


December meeting - 20th of December - A conundrum


Ladies we have a conundrum with regard to the December meeting. As usual the weather will be cold and our meeting is 5 days before Christmas this year.

So we propose to ask you our members what you would prefer we do.
1 - Should we cancel the December meeting as it is so close to xmas on the 20th of dec and we know everyone is caught up with Christmas and instead maybe have a post Christmas quiz for our January meeting.

2 - Should we have a Non-Christmas WI Christmas dinner instead of a regular meeting in the hall where everyone brings something to share and we get out the long tablesS

3 - Should we just meet informally at the pub opposite the musem for a celebration of the end of the year and come back in January ready for another fun filled WI year. Which would save us a month's rent.

Please let us know which of these three options most appeals.

December 21st Carol Service at St George's which Father Peebles has invited us to.
He writes:

It would be marvellous if the WI could provide and help serve some mince pies (St G's will provide the mulled wine) at out Christmas Carol Service on Wednesday 21st December at 7pm. I am hoping to make this service something for the whole of Bloomsbury and will be inviting various groups such as yours to participate. Would somebody like to read a lesson at it on behalf of the W!?


Craft Club is making a film tackling the big story – birth, life, death and beyond – and they need YOU to make it happen.

The film will be shown in selected cinemas from early next year to introduce a new audience to the joy of making. It will cover the five ages of (wo)man; Birth & Childhood, Teenage Years, Adult Life, Ageing & Retirement, Death & Beyond.
It’s your story so send us your photos, your films, and most importantly your knitting; anything that reflects the incredible imagination and stories of our knitted world and which reminds you of a stage from your life. We are looking for submissions from all ages and backgrounds, the full spectrum - nothing is too weird or wonderful to be included!

Find out how you can get involved below. If you have any queries email knit1@craftclub.org.uk or visit the Craft Club website

We look forward to seeing your life in stitches!
How to get involved

Send your knitted, crocheted or hand-stitched items by 18 November to: Crafts Council, Craft Club Film, 44a Pentonville Road, London, N1 9BY.

Or bring them along to one of the Craft Club events this autumn

You can also upload photos and film clips to the Craft Club website

While they can’t send your items back, we will have a display of them at the release of the film.


WI subscription early renewal reminder.

Your WI Subscription will need renewing in January.
Our WI year runs January to December.
Membership for 2012 will cost £31.50 NFWI announced this about a week ago.

As usual you can either pay Jane in cash or by cheque.
Otherwise we will enable you to pay online using paypal.
We will update the price on our blog shortly.

Websites of the month.

Absolutely super food site simplyrecipes.com

Quite a nice concept website www.kindessgirl.com Oprah reviewed it. Basically its a site set up by a lady who tries to constantly pay forward good deeds.

If you shop using Amazon if you go through this link to Amazon then a 5% donation is made to a charity called Voluntary Care Centre.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/?&tag=wwwvoluntaryc-21&linkCode=wsw

If you are interested in Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) then check out
we are hoping to have a talk about this next year based on the interest shown in the Reiki & Aromatherapy talk from July this year.
http://www.laughingmatters.co.uk/

When trying to find the link to the recipes from Valentine Warner cooks the sixties which was shown on the Yesterday Channel earlier this week but failing miserably to actually find that information managed to find this instead which is a list of food shopping vouchers. We are presuming this list is updated each week. And so we are passing it onto all of you.
http://uktv.co.uk/food/homepage/sid/7447


Last website is www.seefilmfirst.com sometimes there is the opportunity to as the name suggests see films first and see the films for free. You need to register but it costs nothing so might be worth doing if you like going to the cinema.

Hope you are all well

See you soon
Claude & Kate

LWWI Secretaries

Addendum to September D4D email and meeting announcements.

Announcements from september 20th LWWI meeting for those that missed the meeting.


British Museum community preview afternoon Sunday 2nd October, to see Grayson Perry exhibition.
We will see it before it opens to the general public.

Pls let us know if you wish to attend as soon as possible as I shall request tickets tomorrow.
So far we have Diana, Vee, Kate, Helena,Denise, Jane all wishing to attend.
NB We do not know what time slot we will be allocated but it will be between 2pm and 5pm


Free Tea and VouchersJane has some PG vouchers and free tea bags which she brought to the meeting, we will put them out again at the next meeting for those interested.

Free BITE Cards
I brought some BITE cards which get you a 20% discount at various food outlets within train stations.
I have lots and left some in the locker which we will also put out next meeting.

The card never expires and its worth carrying one in your wallet if you travel by train and get peckish whilst waiting at the station. Can be used Nationwide.


There is a book club at St George's meeting next on 5th October at 7PM - All welcome.
The book is from the Booker short list it is: The sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.
Barnes tackles the disappointments of ageing, the slipperiness of memory and the intensity of youthful experience, as narrator Tony remembers his brilliant schoolfriend Adrian and his difficult first girlfriend Veronica. The bequest of a diary puts all his comfortable certainties into question. (thanks Guardian for the synopsis)

We meet in the Vestry Hall (same room as the WI) on the first Wednesday of the month, glasses of wine available.
Last meeting they read Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac, which generated a wide range of views and a lively conversation.

October meeting - Women and Iranian Art
Don't forget David Gleeson is coming to LWWI October meeting to talk about women and Iranian Art. He will be showing us lots of lovely images via a projector.


Vacancy at St George's
There is a job at St George's for 15 hours a week at London Living Wage, pls see St George's website or contact the office directly beneath where we meet in the upper vestry hall. The website address is http://www.stgeorgesbloomsbury.org.uk/notices.htm

Calais trip - November
There is a trip to Calais organised through the Brunswick for £30 at the beginning of November. If you wish to attend pls email us or speak to Jane who is organising tickets for this event.


Job vacancies with ACWW
Pls see attachments with 3 interesting job vacancies NFWI contacted us about and asked us to pass on to our members. As you can't see them via blog we can email them to you.

Interviews are next week so don't hang around.

Second Free Concert invitation at Purcell Room in October.
Allison Battye has kindly sent us the following invitation to attend a free harp recital.
I would also like to offer tickets to a harp recital that I am organising at the Purcell Room on 13th October 2011 at 7.15pm. The harpist is Maria Krushevskaya, currently principal harpist with the Bolshoi Ballet, and a sought after soloist, who won the Gold medal at the USA International Harp Competition. The tickets are free, and if anyone is interested, they can contact me on 0207 928 8451, allison@holywell.co.uk, or allison_battye@hotmail.com.


Urgent Appeal for Help - Situation rectified.
Ladies thank you so much for those of you who responded to my request on September 22nd, the lady concerned has found suitable accommodation until October 1st. She has asked me to express her sincere gratitude for your speedy responses and kind words.

Last but not least Open House weekend - 18th of September
Not quite the success we had hoped for although lots of interested enquires about the WI from the event. Phoenix Garden financially was much for successful an event for us. But its good to do things for our local community.

See you all in October, we suspect D4D email for October will now be very short

Kate & Claude

LWWI Secretaries

LWWI had an amazingly successful day at Phoenix Gardens this year.

Phoenix Gardens - September 2011

London Westend WI and Women at the Well took stalls at the Phoenix Gardens Festival on September 3rd. Both parties reported having a most successful day selling to and meeting the public.

Two of the Nuns from "Women at the Well."

Wi Bunting.

Special thanks go out to the following bakers and producers of food:
Jane, Denise, Viv, Helena, Selina, Jennifer M, Maria Pedro, Diana, Kate Charles, Wendy

And to the following people who manned the stall:
Kate, Selina, Diana, Helena, Jennifer M, Jane, Kate Charles.

Special Thanks to Kate M for co-ordinating this and setting up the stall.

We had a fantastic selection of food including:
 Beautiful cupcakes, Selina red velvet were very popular as were the straight chocolate cupcakes and Jennifer M's decorated cupcakes as well as Helena's lemon and coffee cupcakes. Kate Charles brought a welcome replenishment of cupcakes later in the day, she supplied orange chocolare, beetroot chocolate and tutti fruiti cupcakes.

Also big sellers were the flapjacks (plain, chocolate and cinnamon)

There were a lucky few who got to taste the delighful large cakes made by Viv and Denise. They looked amazing.

Selina's ginger cake was super gingery I am told and was scrumptious.

We had a huge amount of brownies which all sold really well as did our jams, chutneys, curds and marmalades. Which were all very popular and saw a return of many customers from the previous year reporting how much they had enjoyed them last year.

The bunting as you can see from the pictures looked great.

Well done one and all. Thank you to everyone who came and bought from us. Thank you also to members who donated produce and did not request reimbursement for their ingredients.

We raised about 400 pounds we think which should hopefully cover a number of month's rent for LWWI.

Can you help LWWI with afternoon tea at Open House at St Georges?

Dear members,

Can you help with afternoon tea at Open House at St Georges?

2 - 5pm St Georges Vestry Hall (our meeting room) on Sunday the 18th September.

I know many of you did a magnificent job at Phoenix Gardens Fair last week end - we made around £400! thank you, but we still need to raise a bit more to pay the rent. We promise we won't ask you again for this sort of help until next year.

If you missed out on sharing your culinary or cake serving skills then this is your chance.

Please let me know if you can:
a) Bring something you have baked.
b) Come and help serve tea/coffe/cake.

We have lots of jam and marmalade left over from Phoenix Gardens so baked stuff is what we need.

Open House is a London wide event where interesting buildings open their doors to the public.

Please email me: helena.roden@o2.co.uk preferably, or call me on 07973 499 881.

I live around the corner from St Georges so if you need to drop stuff off earlier in the week, you can.
Thanks
Helena

September 2011 - Dates for the Diary

Dear Ladies
I have a day by day calendar called Mottos for Success. And the thought for the day over the weekend was: One secret to Victory is the Never Twins - Nevergiveup and Nevergivein, which I thought was quite inspiring.
At times when things seem quite bleak and at times I think they do for everyone, it is hard to remember but important to hold onto such powerful but true statements.

Changing tack completely as we did not have flower arranging as planned for our August LWWI meeting, I thought I would share with you that in WI Life this month (page 55) there is the opportunity to get a free step by step guide to flower arranging on DVD. You just have to pay the postage which is £1.99
Speaking of WI Life there is a cookery competition in the magazine on page 8, draw closes at the end of the month.
A competition to visit Highclere Castle which is the setting for ITV's Downton Abbey. Draw closes on 14.09.2011 so do have a peak in your Wi Life.
There are also details about a free fitness event at Denman College in September, news about a series of offers open to WI members and a reminder about the Jam festival/competition run annually by the WI full details available at http://www.thewirealjamfestival.com/
Now onto business.

Phoenix gardens was on Saturday September 3rd.
The weather promised to be and was indeed lovely.

Many Thanks to all those who came and staffed the stall and/or baked.

We have made enough for about 4 months rent at the very least.

More details about our success at PG in the October D4D email.

Open House - Sunday September 18th at St George's.
LWWI have been asked by the vicar to provide tea and coffee and cake during Open House Weekend when St George's will be open.

If you are interested in helping or baking please email Londonwestendwi@gmail.com and we let us know.

Once again costs will be refunded upon production of receipts.

VAC courses
Ladies, Camden are running a series of courses we thought some of you might be interested in.
Courses are one day or one afternoon and cover such topics as letter writing, grant applications, community facebook pages, producing e-newletters, etc if you wish to attend any of these courses for the benefit of LWWI please let us know, we will send you as many details as we have about the courses and LWWI will pay your fees.

LWWI September meeting - Tuesday 20th September
"September 20th meeting is a discussion with James Dellow, the senior youth worker from Dragon Hall Youth Group who took a party of local youngsters to help clean up the streets following the riots and has some interesting ideas to share with the WI"
It appears the recent unrest has provoked a lot of soul searching and we are happy to announce our current President of LWWI Heather also went cleaning up the streets post riots and her husband Peter is going to volunteer at Dragon Hall with the youth group.
We suspect James will have a number of ideas of how we might all better engage in our local community.

Reminder about October LWWI speaker
Don't forget we have Diana's friend David coming in to talk to us about Women and Iranian Art in October.

The rest of the planned programme for the year was listed in August's dates for the diary email. But will be repeated in next month's DFD email.

WI office holders role courses
If you would be interested in taking up a formal office holder position within the WI please be aware that NFWI are running a series of courses helping office holders/potential office holders understand more fully the role and responsibilities involved. If you wish are interested in attend or wish for further details please email londonwestendwi@gmail.com

LWWI Brighton trip
An enjoyable day was had by one and all who attended, a few pictures fromthe day are available now on the blogspot.

More pictures will be uploaded to our photographic gallery as they come in.

LWWI Canterbury trip
Don't forget those who are attending the canterbury trip on Thursday 15th of September that the coach, (which is large and yellow and will have "Empress" emblazoned across the front,) will be departing from Bedford Way which is the North (SOAS/Birbeck) End of Russell Square at 9AM.
Jane will be at the coach from about 8:30 and should be contacted if you are having an issues on the day.
For those involved we will send out a reminder closer to the time.

LWWI are busy planning more trips for 2012 so watch this space.

Publishing/Printing contacts?
Kate and I are working on a little project and would like to maybe investigate the possibility of getting it published for the benefit of LWWI and so we wondered if any of you have any publishing/printing contacts that you would not mind sharing with us. If you contact us privately we will explain further what we are doing. Thanks.

WI Birthday Library Action Day - 16 September 2011
The 16 September 2011 marks the 96th anniversary of the first WI meeting. Many members have already started to take action on the Love Your Libraries campaign and as a next step, in recognition of the continued importance of the WI ’s early vision to widen educational opportunities and the long-standing commitment of WI members to promote libraries, we are asking members to celebrate this year’s WI birthday by taking the simple step of checking a book out of your local library.
At the heart of our campaign is the belief that libraries continue to be an important resource. They are often at the centre of communities and as well as providing access to knowledge and information, they often deliver a broad range of local services and act as a wider community resource. Love Your Libraries is about celebrating libraries and the WI ’s anniversary provides an opportunity for members to demonstrate just how important libraries are, and how easy they are to use.
In true celebratory style, you might even want to talk to your library about holding a stall outside and give out WI birthday cakes to encourage members of the public to support their local libraries.
You could also invite people to sign the WI ’s Love Your Libraries petition and use the WI ‘library card’ postcard to tell the Minister responsible for public libraries just why the library service is so important.
Postcards will be available from the NF WI from the middle of August and samples will be sent out to WI s in the August mailing.
You can place additional orders with Emma Lindsay (telephone, 020 7371 9300 ext 213 or email, e.lindsay@nfwi.org.uk). Please continue to let us know about your activities on libraries.

Craft Club - London Evening Training events
I particularly want to bring to your attention the London event on Wednesday16th November as it has been designed for your London ladies, many of whom will be working during the day.
The event will be held at the V&A Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green, London and starts at 6.30pm till 8.30pm with the offer of a glass of wine and some nibbles! Please remember that the training events are free and as WI members, your ladies can claim for their travel expenses to attend. One of the workshops will be given by Rachael Matthews and Louise Harries, self-styled ‘maverick urban knitters’, who own and run a yarn shop in Bethnal Green called ‘Prick your Finger’ so a whole new aspect of the world of knitting will be opening up to spark your imagination for your own Craft Clubs! In order to book, your ladies should visit http://craftclubtraininglondon.eventbrite.com .
We anticipate a huge demand for Craft Clubs across the London region schools and would be grateful if you could encourage as many members as possible to take part. Ladies will receive a training manual on the night and, when they register to hold a Club, will be supplied with free materials e.g. handbooks, bags, stickers and certificates for all the students. Another Craft event which might be of interest to your members is the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace on 6-9 October 2011.
The Learning Curve offers a fantastic opportunity for visitors to learn new skills and to top up the knowledge they already have with regular short talks by renowned crafters while The Upcycling Academy, features Barley Massey (Fabrications), The Street Style Surgery, Craft Guerilla, TRAID and War on Want among others who will offer visitors of all ages the opportunity to work with recycled materials and create fantastic new garments.
Pat Lumsdale and I hope to see your ladies there! I do have some promotional leaflets for volunteers so if you would like me to send you some, get back to me with your postal address.
RegardsLesley Lesley S Quirk
Special Projects Co-ordinator: Centenary Projects – Mondays : Craft Clubs – Tues & Wed : Lets Cook Local – Thurs & Fri

NFWI Unit, Denman College, Marcham, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 6NW

T: 01865 391788 ext. 239 : Fax: 01865 391908 : E:l.quirk@nfwi-unit.org.uk http://www.thewi.org.uk/

Vote for Phoenix Garden
The BA has always been supporting of the work done at Phoenix Garden in providing a unique 'haven of tranquility' in the centre of the hustle and bustle of St Giles.

Please follow the link and give them your support by voting for them for this award.

http://www.keepbritaintidy.org/GreenFlag/GreenFlagAwardSites/London/Default.aspx?parkID=1191

'Devi: The Goddess and the Modern Indian Woman' - October 2011 at SOAS.

We have been informed about a series of lectures at SOAS about Devi and the modern Indian woman, which should most interesting.


Knit for peace
We are a voluntary organisation called Knit for Peace who works with a range of communities, bringing them together through setting up knitting and crochet groups. So far we have worked with local faith communities, women’s prisons and universities. We have discovered that by coming together around something as apparently neutral as knitting for other people we can create an environment where people start to discover what they have in common, even if at first it is just the knitting.
After the recent disturbances we have been thinking about what small contribution we might make to helping communities rebuild themselves. Last week we set up tables and chairs in the street outside our offices and invited people to come and sit down and Knit for Peace. We were really encouraged by the response we got – people smiled, sat down for a chat and knitted with us – we taught three people to knit, even getting one of the local police officers involved.
We thought it might be good to organise similar events in other places and thought of you in the WI as the perfect people to approach about maybe holding a joint event in your area to put the smiles back on people’s faces and make a small contribution to bringing back a sense of community.
What do you think?
If you think this is something that you would be interested in doing please get in touch. Alternatively if you would like to know more about our work generally I would be delighted to come to one of your meetings and tell you all about it. I attended Wood Green WI about six months ago and had a lovely evening talking about Knit for Peace and the current knitting scene and having a bit of a knitting teach in.
Here is a link to our website and blog to give you a bit of a flavour of what we do.
http://www.charitiesadvisorytrust.co.uk/knitForPeace

http://knitforpeacecat.blogspot.com/
Best wishes

Jane Lithgow, Knit for Peace Project Manager, Charities Advisory Trust, Radius Works, Back Lane, London, NW3 1HL, Telephone: 0207 794 9835

Mary Wollstonecraft memorial appeal.
Newington Green Action Group has now launched its campaign to raise funds for a memorial to Mary Wollstonecraft on Newington Green, London N16

Since the launch the campaign has gained the support of over 70 MP’s and peers & the TUC and has featured on BBC Women’s Hour.

I was wondering if you could help us to spread the word as far as possible and include our campaign news in any newsletter you may be sending out to your membership . If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Many thanks,

Alex Allardyce, Newington Green Action Group
Find out more or to donate visit website: http://www.maryonthegreen.org/

First Free Concert invitation
Dr. Linda Thomas LThomas@yakult.co.uk wrote to us to invite us to a series of concerts. Full details below.

Dear Madam

My name is Dr Linda Thomas and I Science Director for the probiotic company Yakult in the UK.
I am contacting you because we have been involved with the WI before - nutritionists in the science team have given educational talks to groups around the UK.
I thought your members may be interested to know that we are hosting a celebration concert on Monday 3rd October in the Royal Festival Hall, featuring Lesley Garrett and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to which we are inviting a range of guests: e.g. customers, medical and scientific researchers we are involved with, other supporters, etc. As part of our company philosophy, we have allocated some tickets to charities and organisations of our choice.

This was why I am contacting you – if any of your members would like to come to this concert, please contact me as soon as possible, letting me know how many free tickets you would like (and of course, where to send them).
It is first come, first served – I need to know soon as we are currently allocating the remaining tickets.
Looking forward to hearing from you, Best wishes Linda Linda Thomas PhD
FIFSTScience Director, Yakult UK Ltd. Yakult UK Ltd., Artemis, Odyssey Business Park, West End Road, South Ruislip, Mddx HA4 6QE. LThomas@yakult.co.uk www.yakult.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 20 8842 7617 Fax: +44 (0)20 8839 3250 Mobile: +44(0) 7968 175903


Second Free Concert invitation at Purcell Room in October.
Allison Battye has sent us thefollowing invitation to attend a free harp recital.

I would also like to offer tickets to a harp recital that I am organising at the Purcell Room on 13th October 2011 at 7.15pm. The harpist is Maria Krushevskaya, currently principal harpist with the Bolshoi Ballet, and a sought after soloist, who won the Gold medal at the USA International Harp Competition. The tickets are free, and if anyone is interested, they can contact me on 0207 928 8451, allison@holywell.co.uk, or allison_battye@hotmail.com.

Many thanks for keeping me informed of your activities, and I hope that the concert will be of interest to some of the members.
Kind regards
Allison


Volunteering opportunity with a small central London charity
Dear London West End WI,
I am sending this to the contact email I find on your website. I am the Administrator for a small charity in central London, we use music as a tool to help homeless people move forward in their lives – we build confidence, self-esteem, social networks, skills, creativity and enjoyment.
We run two programmes: a music Workshop Programme in 11 homeless centres nationally and Professional Productions which involve our performers working alongside top professionals.
In just ten years, Streetwise has grown into a nationally recognised charity with bases across the country and winner of a number of major awards in the arts and homelessness sectors.
We are presently looking for volunteers to help out in a variety of ways including Theatre Trips, Public Performances, Fundraising Events and Workshops and our volunteers have the opportunity to gain skills and experience in the following areas:Working alongside vulnerable adults

Relevant training, Managing large groups, Health and safety awareness, Further knowledge of opera.
We are a dynamic, friendly organisation and our activities present interesting challenges for all involved, whilst also being great fun. I think we can offer some great opportunities for WI members to help a really deserving arts charity.
Would you be able to forward this email on to WI members or inform them about the possibilities of volunteering with us? You can find out more about us at our website: http://www.streetwiseopera.org/ Anybody who is interested can contact me on this email. Best regards,Nicholas Nicholas BartlettAdministratorPhone 020 7495 3133www.streetwiseopera.org

Oxfam interested in working with London based WI's
SCorbett@oxfam.org.uk wrote:
Dear London West End WI
I hope you are all well and happy.
My name is Sarah and I work for Oxfam supporting groups and individuals to campaign with Oxfam to eradicate poverty and suffering in the world (just a small job!) whilst feeling part of a regional movement of changemakers in London and the South East. I was wondering if you would like to work together to campaign and raise awareness of global poverty issues through Oxfam and WI campaigns we work on together nationally such as Mums Matter and Women Reaching Women or other campaigns.
You seem very organised with planning and booking your workshops, I hope I haven't contacted you too late
I have good links with the Shoreditch Sisters. Outside of work I run the Craftivist Collective so have worked with them on their Embroideries project and will be working with them in future on both craftivism and Oxfam campaigning projects. I am passionate about campaigning, crafting and would love to support you with presentations, creative campaign workshops or even a book club night- there are so many possibilities! :) It would be great to work with you and if our sessions together work well we could invite other WIs to join in or I could deliver similar workshops/talks/activities to other WIs (I am currently working with Norwich WI as well as Shoreditch Sisters).
Oxfam are currently campaigning on two themes:

A campaign called GROW - looking at how to fix the broken food system. There are four pillars to this campaign: climate change, the scandal of land grab activities, encouraging and supporting small-scale farming and campaigning on food price volatility. We launched this campaign on 1st June with Picnics across the country.

Health and Education: this year we are focusing on defending the 0.7 aid budget and teaching the public about what 'aid' is.
But the above does not limit you on what we can help with.
I would love to work with you on engaging your groups and wider community about injustices happening to our global brothers and sisters. I would love to have a chat with you about what you think we could do together. Some ideas I have:

All of the WI's I know love making jam so why don't we make Tomato Jam and talk about the issues of women effected by climate change (see the attached).
We could give jam to our politicans, do a stunt at Westminster where we hand out jam sandwiches to politicians before they go into work. Have jam parties.

We could make petition bunting to deliver to your local politican (see here for an example I led on)

We could make a patchwork petition (see here for an example I led on)

I could deliver talks on particular issues you care about

I could deliver workshops on particular issues you care about

Book club session- we could all read a book that talks about an injustice issue and discuss it

We could link in with the local Oxjam team and do something at their gigs if you are interested in that film nights on development issues (not boring films I promise! Food Inc is a very good film)

'Letters for Lives' letter writing night where we write personalised letters to our MPs, particular companies or leave them for people to find on an issue we care about.

Anything else you think fits with your audience
I would rather meet up to discuss the above and hear if and how you think we could work together than bore you with a list of ideas. Are you free at all from 31st August to meet and discuss? I can meet you wherever and whenever works for you.
Best wishes and keep up the amazing work!

Sarah

Website of the month
I came across this website the other day and was so impressed by it that I thought it might inspire some us in the kitchen.
http://foodmadewithlove.wordpress.com

See you all soon

If you wish to get in touch with us about anything please feel free to do so,
Claude & Kate (LWWI Secretaries)

Brighton pictures from LWWI day trip.

August 2011 - Dates for the Diary

Hello Ladies


I have been in the kitchen this week for the first time in months

I obviously had been going in there daily if only to feed my kittens but not really to indulge in my joy of making preserves much.

But I made this hot spicy sauce the other day which smelt so lovely HRH at home started complaining as soon as he smelt it his mouth started watering. Infact its become a bit of a Pavlovian response where he thinks about the sauce and his mouth starts watering. It became so funny today I took pity on him cracked open a jar, bought him some chips and allowed him to indulge.

So I thought I might share a quick and simple chilli sauce with you.

This makes enough to dip chips in not enough to bottle and is not necessarily one of my favourites but its pretty simple

I will pop it at the bottom of this email

16th August 2011 LWWI meeting - Flower Arranging
We are having a table display flower arranging session in August for our LWWI meeting with the delightful Maggie, who is once again over from the US. Last years talk was very well attended and enjoyed by those present. Maggie will also be imparting some of her top-tips like how to pick the best flowers and how to maintain flowers for the longest time possible.

20th September LWWI meeting- Gardening & Drinks
Kate and I were discussing what we should do in September and Jane suggested we have a gardening session in September like last year but Kate has countered this suggestion with the idea of a gardening and cocktail party.

As such I also enclose below 2 easy non alcoholic drinks recipes to get you all in the mood.
I had a bit of a hunt around and thought about what I would like to share with you all, as Kate and I are aware we only have a few more months until we stop being secretaries. And ironically because of this I have so much I want to share with you all in Dates for the Diary.

Saloni & her July talk about animal healing therapy.
Saloni who gave a lovely talk last month about reiki and other therpaies for animals has sent us list of what each rescue remedy does. I attached this to the emailed version of Dates for the Diary. If you want to see it but didn't get this email please contact us via londonwestendwi@gmail.com  and we will pass it on to you. The link to the pictures of her talk are here https://picasaweb.google.com/102427438962228048804/AnimalHealingTalkOnJuly192011#
For those who missed her talk I have recorded and uploaded some of it to our web space, address being..... http://www.youtube.com/user/LondonwestendWI

LWWI Programme for the Rest of the Year 2011.

Provisionally this is the programme for the rest of the year
September 2011Gardening & cocktail party (weather permitting) or a talk about Bell Ringing

October 2011
Diana has suggested we have a talk from a lovely man called David Gleeson

'David Gleeson is a freelance media consultant and art writer originally from Lincoln, now based in central London . He worked for more than eight years at the Whitechapel Gallery, as Information/Front of House Coordinator and also as Press Officer. He has also worked as an exhibition curator and a freelance journalist whose art criticism has been published in the UK , Europe, USA , Canada and Russia . Recent consultancy work has included exhibition, music and theatre venues as well as commissions from individual artists and projects. A member of the Advisory Board of the international touring exhibition The Missing Peace, he is also an advisor for the Modesto Art Museum of California. Over the last year he has curated two exhibitions of Iranian contemporary art in London: 'From Tehran to London' at Jill George Gallery, Soho (May-June 2010) and 'Breakfast in Tehran' at Frameless Gallery, Clerkenwell (June 2011). Since 2006 he has made four trips to Iran, the last being in January this year.'

He can be contacted via dgleeson@live.co.uk

David's talk on October 18th meeting will be Iranian Women and Contemporary Iranian Art

This promises to be most insightful

November 2011
Our annual AGM will be held in November as usual. Please do come along to have your voice heard, to elect a new committee and new President and secretaries for LWWI. This will be followed by another alcohol tasting arranged and led by Heather our departing President. Please do come along as this evening we hope will be very special.

I am saying no more about it than that for now. If you would like to join the committee don't be shy do step forward its a chance to help move LWWI forward into the future and if you would like a formal officer position once again do feel free to nominate yourself.

December 2011
We thought it might be nice to have a quiz night, we had one 2 years ago to celebrate the end of the year and that had proved quite popular. Jane is a Quiz Wiz if I remember rightly so it might be worth trying to get on her team ;-)


LWWI Summer Day Trips
Brighton trip for those who have booked and paid for it is on Thursday 18th of August 2011

And the Canterbury trip for those who have booked and paid for it is on Thursday 15th of September.
If anyone else would like to go on either of these trips, contact Nick Ricorn from the Friends of Russell Square 020 7404 8368 as there may be some spare tickets left.

Phoenix Gardens - Saturday 3rd September
Kate, bless her, has agreed to take on the coordination of our efforts at Phoenix gardens.

Kate has asked if we can perhaps form an online group to work on this so everyone is in the loop. Thank you Selina has already volunteered to help with this.If you would like to be involved (making cakes, jams etc) please contact Kate at londonwestendwi.co.uk, we will also be having a quick 'Fair' meeting after our usual meeting on the 16th

Its on Saturday 3rd of September, which seems ages away but believe me it is not.

I have a few pots of chilli jam made hence HRH and his food cravings and have dropped off some apple and lavendar conserve already

But we will need some more preserves and cakes. (Cost of ingredients on production of a receipt can be reclaimed)

Chris Raeburn who is organising Phoenix Gardens Agricultural show & fayre said the following:

The Phoenix Garden will be holding the 3rd Phoenix Garden Agricultural Show & St. Giles Fayre on Saturday 3rd September in The Phoenix Garden and St Giles churchyard. This year the attractions include;Kidsrome Mobile Farm, Fulham Brass Band, London Pride Morris Dancers, The St Giles Bellringers, Punch & Judy. The Show Market Stalls.

Open House
Open House is on Sunday 18th of September

The Vicar has asked if we will help serve tea and bake cakes and has offered to split the proceeds raised with us.

Ceilidh
There will be a ceilidh at 7.30pm at the 7 Dial's Club on Friday 19th August, tickets are £10 each and can be booked by contacting www.tristanbatestheatre.co.uk or ringing 020 7240 6283

Knit and Natter on 6th of September at Seven Dials Club
We are renaming sewing circle/group to knit and knatter.

We usually have our committee meetings at sewing group on the first Tuesday of the month and would ideally like to have one bi monthly so definitely one in September and possibly in October also.

Do come along if you would like to work on something crafty, you don't have to knit or sew infact we often just make bunting or cut material. Its a nice way to keep in touch if you missed a meeting or if you want to get to know people better as sometimes its a bit frantic at the formal LWWI monthly meetings.

LWWI subscription
Please try and ensure you have paid for your LWWI membership for 2011, you can do this in person by paying Jane at the meetings otherwise you can do this online using paypal button at the bottom of the blog.

Please note we LWWI only get to keep about one third of the money you pay for your subscription and this money we spend on our rent of St George's. So it is vitally important people pay their subscription or their £3 visitor fees if they have previously attended a LWWI meeting.

Please also note if you are a potential new member you can join LWWI for 2012 from November 2011 and your subscription will expire in December 2012.

We will make this available online closer to the time

Great British Bake Off
Begins Tuesday 16th August on BBC, don't forget to set your video or catch it on iplayer. Last year's series was fabulous.

Phoenix Gardens
Many of you know Phoenix Gardens, that lovely 'oasis of peace' behind Centre Point where the annual Fair the first Saturday in September is held

Please click this link and vote for the Phoenix Garden in the Green Flag Award's Peoples Choice, and pass this on to anyone else you know -

http://www.keepbritaintidy.org/GreenFlag/GreenFlagAwardSites/London/Default.aspx?parkID=1191
Thanks Kate & Claude

Surrey Federation sent us the following
Hi, ladies,
Attached is a flyer advertising our 'This is Jam Hot' event happening on the 21st September 2011. We'd like to try and swell the numbers from last year's choir event where we had 55 ladies singing a three-piece harmony - beautifully I might add! We'd love you to join us in our new venue at Shalford Infant School to make an even bigger noise, and we are throwing in a few simple dance moves this time for the more energetic. Bucks Fizz suddenly sprang to mind then although actually I think it will just be hand waving and hip wiggling but feel free to bring your velcro-fastening skirts!!

Please come, we'd love to see you again. Please let us know in advance if you'd like to come so that we can reserve you a place as numbers are limited.
The Jam Free girls x
P.S Please could you email this flyer to your members/anyone who you think might like to come.

R² Proofreading , 9 Old Farm Road, Guildford , GU1 1QN
01483 533895 07890 800035 http://www.r2proofreading.co.uk/

NFWI campaign - Action for Prisioners Families
The NFWI is working with Action for Prisoners Families on a creative writing project about journeys to prison. As part of this, the NFWI is inviting interested members to make the journey from their home to a prison and write about their experience of making this journey.

The written pieces produced by members will then be published in a collection, to mark the 21st anniversary of Action for Prisoners Families. The aim of the project is to raise awareness of the experiences of families who have relatives in prison.

Jenny one of our members is taking part in the project, please get in contact if you would like more details about this.

Many Thanks
VCC now has over 25 friends/likes on facebook and so it is so much easier to find online.

It is also signed up to justtext giving which I think we at LWWI should join as so far its brought in about £100 a month to VCC, since it started its text campaign.

Website of the Month
Oh so many lovely sites this month so I shall nominate a few.

If anyone else has come across some they want to share do get in touch and I will pop them up for next month.

www.coffeeandroses.blogspot.com

www.supersavvyme.com

http://www.foodnetwork.co.uk/


*Recipes as promised below.*
Dipping Chilli Sauce

1 clove garlic chopped

1 red chilli inc seeds chopped ( i have been growing my own in the garden this year, go on call me Alan Titchmarsh or should that be Nigel Slater, if you have no red or use green. if you have neither add maybe a teaspoon of some crushed chilli flakes)

50g ideally caster sugar (but if you have brown or granulated it should be fine)

2-3 tbsp of vinegar (they suggest white wine but I only had some cider vinegar so used that, use what you have basically)

Boil and simmer and it should reduce by half then pour into a dish to cool

This all takes about 10 mins or so.

I like to add a little mixed herbs (rebel that I am)

Refreshing cranberry water

Handful of ice

500mls of tap or chilled sparking water

2 Good spoonfulls/handfulls of frozen cranberries

(Pop all in a blender and whizz to a slush then pour into a glass)

Tropical water

500ml fizzy water

Again a handful of ice

2 Good spoonfulls/handfulls of frozen tropical fruit.

(Place fruit and ice in blender, whizz to a slush, add water then pout into a glass)

Well That's all for now folks, see you soon
Kate & Claude
(LWWI Secretaries)
--
londonwestendwi@gmail.com

http://www.londonwestendwi.blogspot.com/

1st Tuesday of the month Committee meeting & Sewing Group at Seven Dials.
3rd Tuesday of the month WI meeting at Upper Vestry Hall, St. Georges, Little Russell Street, London, WC1

Please arrive after 6:00PM for 6:30PM Start.

July 2011 - Dates for the Diary email

Hello ladies 


Life  sometimes makes you change your mind


I was watching Tenko recently and Dr Beatrice Mason began singing Jerusalem and this sparked me in me a number of memories of events that I connect with the WI.


A few months ago we had a query from a potential member keen to join but she expressed concern that she would be expected to sing Jerusalem at the meeting. Well this amused both I and my fellow WI secretary and reminded us that we are not as sterotypical as non members perceive us to be. Not that we didn't one month have a meeting where we had a singing tutor come in and try to encourage us to find our voice and sing out as loud as we might as if no one else were listening.

It is interesting for us at LWWI to meet other WI's especially when we are in Covent Garden. I think our cultural, ethnic and age demographic are a surprise to some. Personally shortly after I finally worked up the courage to join LWWI I won tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show and went with Kate (who is as some of you know my fellow secretary), there are some aspects of that day that will remain between to the two of us but we had a lovely day and it really bonded us together and we sat in the sun in some deck chairs and discovered although on paper we are different that we share a love of Tenko.



I think the lovely thing about WI is that you meet people you might not otherwise get to know and you are open to opportunities that you might not otherwise find. I personally am very glad I joined and remind myself of this fact when I am up well past midnight the night before we are due to take a table at various fundraising events in London.


Back to business. we hope you are all enjoying the summer and we look forward to seeing/hearing from you soon. If you do want to get in touch do so via londonwestendwi@gmail.com.


See you soon


Claude & Kate



Saloni Kapur will be coming to talk to us about Reiki & Energy Healing on Tuesday 19th for our July WI meeting.


Saloni writes:
My main focus is on working with animals, but it is usually the case that the emotions of companion animals are closely linked to those of their humans and it can be very helpful to offer healing to both the animal and humans in their family. If this is not done, then the animal/human who is receiving healing may find that they feel better temporarily, but their energy is drained again when they interact with other family members who are in the original emotional state that the healee was in before their session. So yes, I'm happy to offer healing to humans and their animals; I think that's a holistic approach. 


Saloni's talk promises be very interesting

Saloni has further asked us to add:

At this month's talk, Saloni will be discussing reiki, Emotional Freedom Technique and the Bach flower remedies and their applications for animals.

Saloni Kapur is a certified Energy Animal Therapist who offers healing sessions for animals in London to help them regain a sense of balance - emotionally, spiritually, mentally and physically. Energy healing can help animals who are timid, those who are depressed or in grief, those who suffer from panic attacks when they are separated from their humans, those who become aggressive when they are fearful, as well as those who are recovering from illness, surgery or an injury, or are nearing death. Saloni mainly uses reiki - a hands-on energy healing system - as well as Emotional Freedom Technique and the Bach flower remedies. Saloni has a Diploma in Energy Healing for Animals and is a Level 2 Reiki Practitioner. Saloni has two dogs of her own - a labrador called Raunak and an Indian mongrel, Rufus.

Her email address is: saloni_k@hotmail.com and her website address is: www.salonikapur.webs.com

Don't forget if you would like to bring refreshments to share with fellow members at our monthly we would appreciate it very much. Juice, wine, cake, biscuits, dips, nibbles, fruit, crisps etc all most suitable.




WI Life Articles from current edition

Incase you have not got your WI life yet there are couple of interesting things in this edition:

• Denman College are trying to encourage members to attend courses there see www.denmancollege.org.uk
  

• NFWI 's Education Committee has secured funding for its Let Cook project, we at LWWI are interested in running some cooking and craft courses and will ourselves be applying for grants to fund these if possible.

• Kirtie Allsop has brought attending to the fact B&Q are running DIY classes visit www.diy.com/youcandoitclasses.

• WI Real Jam Festivsl returns for 2011. See www.thewirealjamfestival.com 

• Very intersting opinion  regarding the relevancy of Jerusalem being sung by the WI
  

• Interesting piece about Grant Money which is available see following websites: www.awardsforall.org.uk  www.lloydstsbfoundations.org.uk www.governmentfunding.org.uk

• The NFWI has a Centenary Membership Grant to help WI reach its centenary membership target        250000 members

• Plus some gorgeous recipes for cupcakes and alfresco dining. 

• And finally WI are running s craft competition.

Additional WI summer & autumn Trips
As you may or may not know there was a WI trip to Woburn Abbey and its safari park, we were invited as we are part of  the Friends of Russell Square. And we are very grateful for the invitation.

A good time was had by one and all. If you have a peak at the link below you will get a flavour of the day.
https://picasaweb.google.com/1024274389622280488/WoburnAbbey02?authkey=Gv1sRgCPD7_eHJpcDdPQ

The Good news is that there are a number of additional trips being organised.
There is one in August on the 18th to Brighton. It should be all very Bhaji on beach meets Calendar girls in terms of fun and laughter if Woburn Abbey was anything to go by.


There will be an additional trip to Canterbury which will be on Thursday 15th of September

As usual both can be booked via our blog using paypal.. (its at the very bottom of this page) 
Its dead easy to do. If you need a guide as to how to book your ticket please do email  and we will send a copy of the guide over to you.


Tickets again £12 each inc lunch and coach travel with the lovely Colin and his amusing commentary.
NB Kate has said Canterybury is selling out fast. So do get in touch or  buy your tickets online via paypal on the blog if you want to go.


Communtiy Evening View - Treasures of Heaven at the British Museum - Free tickets - Saturday evening 13th August 2011

The BM have invited us to  another Community Evening View of Treasures of Heaven at the British Museum, Saturday 13^th August 2011. The exhibition view will take place between 6pm – 9pm (last entry at 8pm), and all community groups who wish to bring group members to view the exhibition are welcome.

The evening will also include:

Divine Conversations - Great Court, 6 – 9pm (drop-in)

PhD student Steph Berns will be exploring how museum visitors engage with objects of faith throughout the evening. Drop-in to this experimental session for the opportunity to hold objects and share your thoughts linked to the Treasures of Heaven exhibition.

Please let us know if you want us to book you a ticket by July 30th. we will then let you know what time slot we have been allocated.

Phoenix Gardens is coming up on the first weekend of September.

I know another plug for Phoenix Gardens. We did really well at this event last year.


Our jam and cakes all sold out in about 2.5 hours so it would be lovely if more members were able to make food for us to sell. Last year after we ran out of produce we then had a 2 hour hiatus whilst members frantically went home to bake additional food.
Helena was a complete star in terms of what she produced whilst we placated the hungry mass of people queueing in front of our stall. And some of us marched through Central London carrying steaming hot food back.

STRAWBERRY TEA  - SUPPORT BREAST CANCER CARE CAMPAIGN

Dear President,

I’m talking to several WIs around the country on behalf of Breast Cancer Care to ask for help in raising awareness of our summer Strawberry Tea fundraising campaign, the money from which is vital in helping to sustain free support services and expert information to anyone affected by breast cancer.

While recovery rates are better than ever, the disease is on the rise with 80% of breast cancers occurring in women over the age of 50. In women under the age of 35, breast cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer.

Fundraiser registrations are currently way down on target, something many charities are experiencing this year, so we need all the additional support we can get. I wondered, is there any possibility of including the campaign in your monthly newsletter or as a news flash on your website? If you would be prepared to email London West End members I attach our campaign PDF that has appeared twice in WI Life magazine. I will also tweet you at @londonwestendwi on the off-chance you can retweet to your followers!

Holding a Strawberry Tea is an easy way to make a big difference - any help you can offer us would be very much appreciated.
Best wishes,
Caroline Sargent

Strawberry Tea project support
caroline.sargent@breastcancercare.org.uk