25 th July 2015 – “ Message In A Bottle ”.
… enjoying this , Brisbane West !
Two members related stories of genuine messages washed up on the shore . The first was written by a French mother that had lost her beloved son , aged nine . The bottle was found twenty years later on the south east coast of England : second was a message , one of many , thrown into the sea by scientists to track the currents around the Shetland Islands ; it was eventually found 98 years later just nine miles from where it started out ! Two of us chose to tell about messages for posterity : one told about the Planetary Society sending messages into space ; the other has written the family history for her great grandchildren . Then we heard about a bottle found on the beach containing sea shells and a hermit crab . We learned how hermit crabs look for a larger shell when theirs becomes a little tight [!] if they find one that is too big , they will queue up until there are several lining up . When a large hermit crab comes along and takes possession of the large empty shell , one by one each in turn exchanges their home for a bigger one ! Message – are we like the hermit crab , always on the lookout for a bigger house , a better car ?
Topic for August - ' If you were born again - Who , When , Where and Why ?'
Marie considered being all sorts of things such as a fly on the wall ! Wondered about what advantages she might like to have had if she had been born either in an earlier century or a later one , and ended up ' Happy to be myself ; happy to be living in this century .'
Anne is a great supporter of women ' s rights . She felt if she lived in any other time than the present she would struggle to find a time when a woman could be independentlyminded - she decided she would have to be either royalty or a witch . She chose to be a witch before the dawn of Christianity in England , not Europe . At that time witches were greatly respected ; the word witch comes from ' Wicca ' which means to be wise , that ' s good ; witches were always old , that ' s good ; they dispensed medicines and cures , that ' s very good . They lived close to nature , wild animals and always had a cat ! That ' s excellent ! Bette wanted to be Shirley Temple : Bette has a lovely voice and sings in the Orpheus Choir ; she identifies with Shirley because she could sing from such a young age ; she admires her for giving up her acting career at 21 and going on to achieve a distinguished career as a diplomat . But she really envied her for her lovely long , blond , curly hair !
Rose had a fantasy of being a man ! She thinks a man ' s life is much easier than a woman ' s - no giving birth , no restrictions on career , no fears about travelling alone etc . she would like to be witty , wealthy , healthy ; she would like to live in Paris , speaking French , drinking champagne and travelling all over Europe . However , despite being very shy in real life and suffering very poor health she feels she was extremely lucky to find the wonderful man who she married and to be truthful , she would not want to be anybody else !
Carole loves music of all kinds and wishes she could play the piano well , like Valentina Lesitsa . However Valentina is a most outspoken woman , criticising her country , Ukraine , and is in big trouble for her tweets . So I do not want to be her ! I would love to dance like Ginger Rogers , and especially dance with Fred Astaire ! But Ginger was divorced five times and I do not want to be a famous actress . I envy people who can sing ; I ' d like to be part of a big choir and travel all over the world ; but they do not get paid . I decided I would like to be Mrs Andre Rieu , organising all the trips his orchestra makes and travelling with them to exotic places and attending all their concerts !
News from Brisbane
We now have eight paid up members and feel very proud of our fledgling group ! We have twinned with Di Sankey ’ s Perth group and the Bulawayo groups in Zimbabwe . So far this means sharing our programmes and quizzes . We also correspond with Mary Dodkins , in UK , who has been such a great inspiration over the last thirty years . We are determined to keep contact with the other Queensland group , Sunshine Coast . Robyn and Robynanne correspond regularly and we have arranged for our two groups to meet up at a half-way place in October . We have chosen Bribie Island this time , to share tea and discuss “ Our Favourite Cities ”, followed by lunch . This is bound to be a very successful day .
Carole
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