INSPIRATIONAL and Interesting was the theme for the whole evening, beginning with Paula Stride in her Buckingham Palace Garden Party outfit, think Ascot scene of My Fair lady meets the 50’s, though that probably doesn’t do it justice. Dress, jacket and fascinator superb and the shoes amazing. An enjoyable and amusing story of the day from Paula was followed by some of the more serious business, reports on Mikron Theatre’s centennial play (if you missed it they will be in Alcester on August 7); Annie Hartwright read the report from NFWI Annual Meeting attended by the Queen, Princess Royal and Countess of Wessex; Mandy told us about the Denman visit; Jenny and a golf partner had represented us at a national event; Barbara thanked everyone who helped at Charlton Fayre; Jane gave us the correspondence and dates for future events:

Tuesday September 8 7.30pm in Cropthorne and Charlton Village Hall, Shirley Sheridan and her Guide Dog Taylor;

Saturday September 12 Centenary Annual Event, 10am to 4pm. Open to all, tickets £10 to include, refreshments (twice!), lunch, morning talk by Reg Moule and afternoon talk and class on jewellery and pearls with Frances Benton. To book your ticket contact 01386 860617; September 16 violin concert in The Guildhall, Worcester; October 10 Preserves workshop plus Knitting and silver jewellery ones in November, contact WI House; October 20 Council Meeting in Malvern; October 30 Quiz with fish and chips at Wyre Piddle; November 3 shopping trip to Cardiff.

Our speaker Doctor Doug Richards took us around the world with his stories of runs and half marathons. His first picture of taps gave the title “Running Hot and Cold” which he had certainly done in the Gobi Desert, on the Great Wall of China, Siberia, Sri Lanka (the year of the tsunami), Jordan, South Africa, where they were pursued by elephants, the Polar ice cap, down to -10 and for his 50th birthday a 6 stage run across 140 miles in the Sahara desert. All for charity. Headlined in Redditch as “Mad Doug” for his 70th birthday he intends to carry out the Antarctica Run! He ended with a plug, of course, for Park Run, free 5km events in various parks every Saturday morning. His book will hopefully soon be available in print as well as an e-book. I hope I have given you a taster for his talk as a short report cannot do it justice. Definitely inspirational and interesting as well as amusing and emotional.

Remember August is the trip to Blenheim and next meeting September 8.

If you are interested in joining or just want to come along to one or two meetings contact 01386 861966.

DIANE BARLOW