Greetings from Nantwich / Audlem UK group
From : Joyce Clydesdale
Sent :
Monday , 30 March 2015
I bet you thought I had forgotten you all . Time has passed so quickly and I have to apologise for not writing to you for such a long time . Our group was really interested in your conference and I am glad it went well . Many in the group have enjoyed reading your magazine and feel that the content and format are far better than our magazine .
Since last writing we have begun a book club evening and had some interesting books to read .
One book which was called Running with the Kenyans by Adharan and Finn was about his travels to the town of Iten on a six-month mission to discover the secrets of Kenya ' s elite runners . The only person who seemed to enjoy the book was the lady who chose it and most people decided that it was a book which would only appeal to keen runners or with some connection to running .
One book was Shame by Jasfinder Sangera who wrote about forced marriages and domestic abuse , particularly in Asian communities . Some of our members had heard her speak at the NWR conference and were very impressed .
The next book was Me Before You by Jojo Moyes which was a bit of a tear jerker but everyone enjoyed it .
The last book was Cutting for Stone which is a novel written by Ethiopian-born medical doctor Abraham Verghese . It is a saga of twin brothers , orphaned by their mother ' s death at their births and forsaken by their father . It brought about a considerable amount of discussion about Ethiopia , relationships , medical practices and F . G . M .
At the next book club we are reading two books , The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka about Japanese brides going to America and Elizabeth is Missing about a mother with Alzhiemers . I am sure these will bring about lots of discussion . We also have a group book meeting with area NWR groups and we will be discussing The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton about a man who has come to make his fortune in the New Zealand goldfields .
August 2015 Once again I have to apologise for being so slow at writing to you . It seems to have been a busy summer . I had hoped to visit you in June when I visited my daughter in Engadine but I ' m afraid the granddaughter was such an attraction I found it hard to leave her even for a few hours .
The NWR conference in June was in Glasgow and 6 of our members attended and we stayed in the Grand Central Hotel , Glasgow where the conference was held . The speakers were Mairi Nasr who having lived in the Middle East for 20 years returned to live in Scotland and spoke about the climate of fear and tension in the Middle East and how the Muslim community living in Britain is misunderstood . Alistar Moffat gave a talk about DNA and how it is becoming possible to trace a person ' s ancestry over thousands of years . Quite a few people were very sceptical about his theories . The final speaker was Sally Magnusson who has written a book , " Where Memories Go : Why Dementia Changes Everything ". Many people have experience of family members suffering with dementia and she gave an insight into the care and help which can be given to such patients . The social side of the conference was enjoyed having dinner at Jamie ' s ( Jamie Oliver ' s ), a tour of Glasgow on " The Big Bus " and of course meeting other delegates from all of the U . K .
The meeting in June when we were asked to take along an item of clothing or accessory which you couldn ' t throw away brought some happy memories for some and laughter about others . The dress which you love but would never fit into again brought about laughter and one lady brought a beautiful vintage green lace dress which her mother had worn when she , the member , had got married . We all decided that social media had changed our lives but that many of us although we used it did not feel that because of age we were taking full advantage of all the possible uses . No one was on " Twitter " but many used Facebook , Skype , Facetime and many ladies would like to learn more about the latest uses of tablet and smart phones .
The meeting about the ' Good News ' item had everyone scouring the newspaper for good news and we were in agreement that too much emphasis was on bad news in the press .
The meeting about a gadget or utensil which is versatile , brought out lots of gadgets but they weren ' t necessarily versatile just very useful and something that one couldn ' t do without .
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