Welcome to London West End WI

Tuesday 28 January 2014

January and the Dangerous Women...

Impressive lights!
The one where we met in the church.

Before the meeting started Ruth regaled us with some interesting details about the restoration of the church, apparently in the 1960’s the layout was 90 degrees different, a side effect of Victorian changes. The restorers returned the layout to the original Hawksmoor design.

Notices

The next meeting is February the 18th when we will be hearing from Marylyn Haines Evans, Chair of the National Federation of Women's Institutes (NFWI) Public Affairs Committee.

From March we meet on Wednesday evenings, so the next meeting is the 19th of March back in our usual home of the Upper Vestry. This change is permanent as the Chess Club is now in the Upper Vestry for the Tuesday evening. This is because Cameron Mackintosh has taken over where the chess club used to be at a rate that was too good to turn down…

So, no more musical chairs from March!

Phoenix Gardens. As many of you know this is an agricultural fair in Soho. This year it will be on Saturday September the 6th, we have a table booked and will be looking for bakers and people to staff the stall nearer the time...

The British Museum. We’ve been offered the chance to have a group attend the community preview of the Vikings exhibition. This will be on the 2nd of March. Pam did say that the exhibition is wonderful as well as the first exhibition in their new exhibition space.

Craft club. At our last craft meeting we talked about having a theme each month. Not only would be be able to potentially learn new skills but also would mean we could potentially make things to sell and raise funds. It’s not just about.

Ruth announced that her choir’s next concert is on in St Clement’s Danes in Soho on March the 1st. We’ll send out further details in a later newsletter :-)

Dangerous Women: The guide to Modern Life

Two of the dangerous women Clare Conville and Sarah-Jane Lovett had come along to us a talk about their book. Unfortunately, the third dangerous woman, Liz Hoggard was unable to make it.

The book came about around three years ago after the three met on Friday nights to drink wine and talk about The Stuff. you know the sort of thing, where to buy nice cami knickers, how to be a good cancer buddy, what to do if your husband or partner is abusive or even how to deal with a troublesome teenager… A huge range of things that, frankly, men aren’t going to cover. The range of Stuff that women of all ages will discuss. So the idea was as simple as to put it all together and create mini-guide to modern life that would hopefully have nuggets of helpful advice and thoughts.

One of the key wheezes in the book is that each section is cross referenced with others, so for example affairs is cross referenced to cami knickerscontraceptioncreative corsetryfamily therapygriefI don’tlawyerslossmoney mattersrejection and teenagers. As Sarah-Jane said, it’s not just about the fun things in life it’s about the tough stuff too. Like teenagers.

As the evening rolled on laughter followed reading and reading as the authors danced around the topics following a random adventure of thoughts from the cross references. It really was fabulous to hear and whilst I could regale some of the subjects covered. I won’t as you will enjoy the journey more if you have your own copy of the book

As the night drew on we did get the chance to ask questions or for a specific subject before finally the talk drew to a close and we had the opportunity to both chat with the authors or wander around having a good look at this wonderful building.

Friday 24 January 2014

No More Page Three Campaign

At our meeting on 17th December we voted to support the No More Page Three campaign. This campaign aims to convince the Sun newspaper that it is inappropriate to picture a topless young woman in their 'family' newspaper every day. The campaign is not against nudity but objects to a daily dose of a restricted beauty ideal which is passive and objectified. If you wish to support this campaign you can:

Sign their petition at http://change.org/nomorepage3

Check out their website at http://nomorepage3.org/

Contact Shoreditch Sisters WI at http://shoreditchsisters.blogspot.co.uk/ as they are discussing actions to take in support of No More Page Three