Ian swung into his second week as chair with relaxed panache, boding well for the future.
Three members were "leftovers" from last time and we began with them.
Margaret Rowland read two pieces.
Her first, a short story about the members of an Indian family, told of the visit of Aunty Nellie who looked as if " she had been let loose in the make-up box" and who, to the great consternation of everyone was wearing white knickers under black tights with no covering dress. Deemed a good mood piece it nevertheless had point of view problems and several members admitted to finding this a difficult area. Her second piece "Morning Duty" described a little boy arriving at school clutching the possessions of a recently deceased parent. Very moving.
Nan read the first pages of her novel set in a mining community in the 1930s. The description of the pit accident was very atmospheric but it was felt could be dramatically improved by altering the order of the events.
Stan´s piece was a lovely description of his role as grandad when his family holidays in Spain.
Iarle, the new man, read his poem about the burial of a dog using word play on tail/tale. Ian thought it "Beckett-ish"
Alan Winter described an unusual hobby he has - collecting golf markers and had brought in one for us to see. ( another unusual hobby is pictured above )
Glyn, having scrutinised the rules of the competition he has entered (which state that no offensive language be used (!!!!!) ), had "sanitised " an exerpt of his novel to see what we thought.
John McCormack read a piece he was about to send off to his tutor at the Open University, called "A Policeman´s Lot". Having both sung the Gilbert and Sullivan and read the piece we gave him an A+.
Heather was sitting next to John and I have her name in my notes but absolutely nothing else. Apologies, Heather.
Anne Flynn, in her inimitable style, read exerpts from a "Dementia Diary". Very funny indeed.
Mary K, standing at the front, shouted her poem starting " I lost my libido this morning" and pondered whether what she had seen the cat chewing could have been it..............
Jane read a piece from her Gascony Tales called "Military Exercises".
Douglas described his TV heroine Judge Judy.
Finally, today´s theme,
An Appalling Holiday":( those on holiday in Florida, take note of the sign at the top!)
Anne Grierson described a harrowing experience in Spain dodging timeshare touts
and
Jenny wrote a poem, which is here on the blog.
Another entertaining and instructive meeting.
Jenny´s Poem
Worked overtime each day
Saving all the pay
For a week in the sun
with my mates to have some fun.
So me, John and Patrick
Arrived on time at Gatwick.
We’d asked for somewhere warm
So we booked for Benidorm
But much to our dismay
There was a 3 hour delay
So we had to hit the bars
And down a right few jars.
On the plane we were sick as dogs
And had to share the only 2 bogs
And when we arrived in Spain
There was torrential rain.
We were told,”It wont last long”
But sadly they were wrong
We weren’t expecting this
Someones taking the piss.
We were taken to our hotel
It had a horrid, fusty smell.
The room was small and pokey
And there was no Kareoke.
It was cold and we felt rough
Should have gone to Magaluf.
The mozzies were rife and stinging
And the food was really minging.
The rain lasted throughout the trip
So all we did was drink and kip
And take turns on the loo
There was nothing else to do.
Complained to Thomas Cooke
But they didn’t give a fuck.
