REPORT ON W.I. MEETING MONDAY 14TH JULY 2014

On Monday evening 14th July the Group were entertained by Donald Lodge who had been a Butler/Valet for 45 years.  He told us that he was born in Liverpool but the family moved to Warrington at the outbreak of war.   He was from a family of 7 which increased to 9 due to the war as his Mum took in more children.  Donald first went into Catering as he wanted to be a Chef.  He applied and was successful in working at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool.  He learnt his trade from the Chief Chef and everything they cooked was made from scratch, no instant food!  As well as being a Chef he also waited on in the Dining Room as he loved to meet people.  Once he left the Adelphi he was trained as a Cake Decorator for a number of years in Warrington.  In those days a 3 tier wedding cake would cost £5!!  From there he went on to work for a family friend in their Private Restaurant and learnt how to make cocktails.  He was Head Waiter there for over 10 years.  When his sister emigrated to Canada he thought about joining her and saved up and went over to join her.  He was successful in gaining his first Butler post for a family in Ontario.  The lady of the house wanted an English Butler and he was responsible for cooking and serving English style food.  He would go with the family when they spent time away from the family home taking them and then collecting them.  The lady of the house owned an island with 4 houses built on it and she would spend her summer months there.  Donald well remembers the Archbishop of Canterbury coming for a meal and Donald smartened himself up for the occasion, only to find the Archbishop arrived in shorts and tee-shirt like the locals.  He spent many happy years with this family and then when the lady died Donald sorted out her possessions and then looked around for another post.

Donald was successful in obtaining a job with the Ambassador in Ottawa.  The Ambassador was 6ft 8 and his Italian wife was only 4ft 11.  He was responsible for organising all the parties, lunches, drinks parties etc.  He told us that the Ambassador like to wear 3 different suits during the day.  Donald told us about  a July 4th Independence Day celebration when he had  to cater for over 2,000 people attending a Drinks Party, but it all went off well.  During his time there he met Sophie Loren as she was a friend of the Ambassador’s wife.   As Sophie and her husband arrived early Donald entertained them whilst the Ambassador and his wife got ready.   When the Ambassador moved to Asia Donald decided not to go with him but to  look around for another post.  He consulted “The Lady” and was successful in becoming the Marquis of Tavistock’s Valet/Butler.   He was based in Woburn Abbey and the Marquis and his wife lived in just 18 rooms.  These had to be kept tidy and he was always cleaning the silver of which there was over 4,000 pieces.  Donald said that they would start with the silver in one room and work through the rooms until it was all done and then start all over again.  He told us that the Marquis would like to have just 6 drops of bath essence in his bath each night and that his toothbrush had to be laid out a certain way!  When Donald developed angina so he thought it was best to leave Woburn Abbey.

Donald decided to cut down on his duties and looked for other less strenuous posts and eventually worked for Koo Stark and his husband in Belgravia.  During that time he met Joan Collins and he later organised some parties for her.   Donald was also responsible for doing parties for Les Dawson who said that Donald should write down all the stories he had and this is what he did.  Donald has written a book about his life as a Butler.  He did say that it was just like Downton Abbey – us below stairs!!

REPORT ON W.I. MEETING MONDAY 9TH JUNE 2014

Audrey O’Sullivan came to talk and give us a demonstration on how to make bath bombs.  She is the founder of “Dandelion Wishes” and is often called “Dandelion”.   Audrey showed us how to use items from our kitchen to make these wonderfully scented bath bombs.  She used Bicarbonate of Soda , Cornflour and for perfume she used essential oils or you could use the liquid from herbal teabags!

Audrey became interested in soap making when she visited Cornwall in June 2011 and attended a Workshop and then she was hooked.  The business took off so eventually she had to give up her job as a Senior Health Trainer in the Community Health Section of the NHS.  Dandelion wishes has its own website on Facebook and she sells her soaps, bombs and body butters through the website.  The display that Audrey set up looked lovely and the wonderful smells filled the hall.  We watched her add glitter and rosebuds to the bombs she was making and the end result was just lovely.

Since Audrey started Dandelion Wishes she has also set up Kitchen Pharmacy Training in Liverpool which run workshops so that we can learn how to look after our skins.  The workshops look at medicinal and nutritional properties of natural ingredients found in our kitchen cupboards and fridges.  These simple natural skincare products can help treat symptoms of both acute and chronic conditions, such as eczema, arthritis and even the menopause; as well as pampering ourselves and making our skin soft and healthy.

Our speaker at our April Meeting was Frank Smith (a retired lecturer from Merseyside) who gave us a very interesting talk and slide presentation on The Meccano inventor, Frank Hornby.  Frank Hornby ran his Meccano business from Liverpool with his factory being in Binns Road.  Frank Smith brought along some working Meccano models which were displayed for us to look at.  He told us how Meccano toys used to be what every boy desired at Christmas and birthdays and that they slowly went out of fashion as the technology age took over.  He described the Meccano factory in Binns Road and how Frank Hornby introduced other toys and some for girls (a working sewing machine) as the business slowly declined.  I remember so well having a sewing machine one Christmas and I thought it was just wonderful.

Hornby cars, trains and planes were what boys and men collected and they were quite expensive to buy.  Frank Smith said that should anyone still have any Meccano toys and Hornby toys that they will be worth a great deal more now than when they were first made.  The firm was finally taken over by a Meccano enthusiast who lives in Germany and is no longer Liverpool based.  It is sad to think that boys no longer want Meccano models or Hornby toys but there are still some very keen collectors (Frank Smith being one of these) and he told us that they meet up each year to talk and discuss their collections.

Ruby Porter, MBE  spoke to the March Members meeting about her work in
Bangladesh with the Sreepur Orphanage.  Since starting this Project she has 
made 29 trips out to Bangladesh in 22 years.  She was awarded her MBE for
services to the community in Liverpool and the women of Bangladesh.

 She has raised money in order that the women of Bangladesh have somewhere to
go when they are abused, beaten  or raped.  Most of the women are either
pregnant or have children and their families do not want them.  The members were able to see pictures of the various Safe places, Orphanages, Day Centres and Work Centres that she has set up.  The women learn to make items (cards, shawls, bags, glasses cases etc) and then Ruby sells these in the UK.  She told us about about the facilities which are now much better for weaving and how the weaving has improved.  A woman who had been trained for 7 years in the art of weaving was made a teacher but sadly she died.  The weaving shop continued and there are always women willing to learn.  She covered topics of Acid Women who no one wants but Ruby takes these women in and they stay for training instead of being on drugs.  They provide them with vegetables and food.  The Embroidery work is another skill that Ruby teaches to the women and they enjoy making items that can be sold.  
Ruby explained that we must still buy clothes from Primark because not matter whether the women make clothes for Next, M & S, Matalan or Primark they all earn the same wage.  This work keeps them employed and they received £48 per month less tax.  They have 3 months training to use a machine for gament making and then they progress to the garment factory.  
Ruby is involved with the Straw making and using Jute to make cards.  Fair
Trade is another good thing for these deprived women.  There was a special Women’s International day and Ruby took part.  Ruby talked about Education which has to be paid for and is not like the UK.  They depend very much on charity donations and she talked about how kind Liverpool Football Club and Everton Football Club have been in donated the football kits.  Life expectancy in Bangladesh is 27 years which is so unbelievable.

 They have been fortunate in having a benefactor who helped set up Day Centres for the many Street Children there are in Bangladesh.  They have three older children overseeing the project and it has been running now for 2 years.  Ruby had brought along some of the beautiful items and the members were able to buy cards and shawls made by the women of Bangladesh.  

Further information about the charity can be found at www.sreepurvillage.org

ANTHONY SMITH, WILD LIFE ARTIST came to give us a talk and slide presentation about his work as a Wildlife Artist and his work with Chester Zoo.  The group all enjoyed hearing how he prepares his canvass when undertaking an oil painting and a watercolour painting.  When he decides what medium he is using he makes a tracing picture and then transfers this to the canvass.  He was able to show us that should he not like a particular aspect of a painting he can take things out and add different objects.  He showed us how he had altered a picture of Eider ducks and had taken a duck completely out of the picture. 
From an early age Anthony started trying to paint the birds and animals he
saw in the local fields and woods.  He graduated in 1984 with a BA Hons degree in Illustration and from then onwards he has been freelancing as a Wildlife Artist.  In 1999 he was invited to do artwork for Chester Zoo and since then they have become a major client.  His work for the zoo is extremely varied one day he could be working with Leaf-cutter ants, the next Black rhinos.    His work with Chester Zoo was really interesting and he showed us slides of some of the large descriptive boards that are displayed outside each animal cage.  His pictures are like photographs as they are so perfect in detail.  He has been involved with the making of a life sized rhino at the zoo and this involved cutting out the rhino and painting it.  This gives children an idea of just how large they are and they can touch and have their photograph taken beside the rhino.

Anthony was involved with the 150 years celebration of St Nicholas Church,
Halewood and he produced the design for coaster, plate and mug.   The design was produced in just one basic colour (black) for the coaster and mug and four colours were used for the large plate.  They all depicted St Nicholas Church.  
 
Anthony is also involved with educational special needs children in the
Halewood area.  The Leader and Anthony take the children for days out and they paint and draw the different things that they see.   This is a wonderful experience  for these children. 

The Group thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience of learning about oil and watercolour painting and seeing the beautiful pictures that Anthony produces. 



　


　


　

When John McLoughlin of the Merseyside School of Tai Chi started talking, I started taking notes....pages of them. There is a lot of information and facts connected to Tai Chi. Don't worry, I'm not going to write it all down.
Tai Chi is an ancient Chinese martial art dating back to the 12th Century. It was the way the Emperor's bodyguard did their training, in rows, following a master. The slow movement came about to give the men at the back of what might have been a thousand warriors a chance to follow the patterns and the patterns themselves carry elements that are obviously from fighting, with swiping, catching, pushing and pulling movements that at full speed and against an opponent work to turn their strength and attack against them, unbalance them and let you disarm and defeat them. It uses softness against strength, it's not macho, but defensive and in ancient Chinese descriptions is called an 'internal' or soft art. (a martial art such as Kung Fu is described as 'hard')

John had brought four members with him and together they demonstrated Yang Tai Chi and two forms of sword Tai Chi. The movements are set down in a particular pattern, often done to music and radiate grace, self control, mindfulness and focus. Tai Chi is a popular way to relieve stress, mostly because it's difficult to think of anything else while you do it!! and because the breathing and muscle control relax the body and create natural endorphins. As John explained, practitioners in ancient China were trained to push their 'chi' to places on the body that were in pain or stressed and so relieve the pressure.  

It was interesting to see John and Alf demonstrate the way that Tai Chi is used in self defence. As John said, it encourages retreat rather than advance, teaching one not to strike back with great force but to use small force to achieve great actions. 
The members there were so still when the demonstrations were on, although I did hear several comments on how graceful and elegant it looked. And there are several ladies who really are interested in following the subject further. John runs sessions on a Tuesday at Childwall Community College at 8pm. Sessions are £5 a time, but as a special offer the first two sessions are free. Please mention Woolton WI if you go (contact details to be added later) and keep an eye out on the Facebook page where details of a group visit or session may appear as soon as it's organised!

Ruth Christie came to our June meeting to talk about the eponymous founder of Catholic social care in Liverpool, Father James Nugent. From his birth in 1822 to his death in 1905, he worked tirelessly to improve the situation of thousands of orphaned and destitute children and women whom he met around the city. The sentence that struck me about him was that he 'recognised a need and sought the solution', leading him to work in education, welfare, prison reform, with destitute women and in journalism. His Wikipedia entry is here, while information on him from the Museum of Liverpool can be found here. 
Ruth speaks passionately and with obvious involvement for a man she describes as 'forceful, a powerful orator and a difficult man to say no to.' She gave us what must amount to a potted history of his life placed in an historical context that included the Irish famine of 1847/8, cholera epidemics and a city that doubled in size over a mere ten years. 

He founded schools, was the founding editor of the Catholic Times, established Walton Gaol's chaplaincy and set up homes to deal with what he saw as the effects of poverty, a grinding poverty that stopped the people from achieving their best. Ruth read a quote that said for every Eton boy somebody showed him, Fr Nugent could match him with a street boy just as bright, just as talented. I wish I had the proper quote, it was as clear a vindication of the need for quality education for all as I have ever heard!
The care society that Fr Nugent established, which worked as Catholic Social Services changed names to the Nugent Care Society and now to Nugent Care but still shares his founding vision; to see a need and to seek a solution. Their website can be found here and although they receive some money from the national or local government through fees for social care, they exist mostly through charitable contributions. 

They are active campaigners, with their current campaign being the Daisy Chain One Million Supporters Pledge aiming to raise awareness of and demand for dignity in dementia and dignity in care. The e petition can be accessed here. Over 60 members listened and contributed to a collection for Nugent care to aid their work in the future.

The April meeting went well, with 67 members gathering to hear Graham Farrell talk about life as a magistrate in Bootle. He compared life on the bench now to life as a JP in the 1800's, and pointed out how much more severe punishments were then, with imprisonment and flogging common punishments for petty stealing. 
Magistrates now come from all branches of society, with a roughly equal number of male and female magistrates sitting.
Further information on becoming a magistrate can be found at the Become a Magistrate page here which also contains information on eligibility and how to apply.
On the small group front; Barbara is setting up a Quiz club and Sonya is setting up a walking group. Information on both of these will be available on the website or our Facebook page, WOW Woolton Women's Institute as soon as possible.