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PAWS October – Hats off to Oggie

paws-oggieWell October certainly saw one of our largest turn outs this year when 41 members and 4 visitors came along to see Oggie Weldon demonstrating her Millinery skills.  Oggie explained that she changed her career rather late in life, at the tender age of 57, having worked as a secretary previously.  Oggie attended an 18 month course and decided to pursue this new career and she certainly demonstrated that she has a talent for this. She explained about the methods involved, the materials used etc. and she had a large display of hats and fascinators which she allowed us to try or buy at the end of the evening.  Another most enjoyable night demonstrating the diversity of our speakers.

Our next get together is on November 27th when Dougal Urquhart will tell us all about “Wildlife of Mersea Island”.  Membership is currently full but visitors are welcome at a cost of £3.50.

Details of all our meetings and speakers can be found on the diary on the home page of the Winstred 100 website.  If you would like any further information about P.A.W.S. please ring any of us on the following numbers:  Alice Holmes 01206 735510, Jane Banks 01206 735004 or Jane Anderson on 01206 735505.

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PAWS September – Paragon or Prude

Sheila Gray – President with Dr. Maureen Scollen

Sheila Gray – President with Dr. Maureen Scollen

After what seemed like a long summer break (if you can call it a summer) 34 members and 4 visitors attended our September meeting when Dr. Maureen Scollen came along, wearing a copy of an early women’s police uniform, to tell us all about “Paragon or Prude”.  With such an intriguing title it certainly lived up to expectations, as Maureen kept us very entertained with a mixture of stories of her life as a serving police officer and also the history of women police officers.  It really was an excellent evening.  We are hoping now to organise a trip to the Police Museum at Springfield of which Maureen is a trustee.

Our next get together is on October 23rd when Oggie Weldon is our speaker, her subject being “Hats For All Occasions”.  Membership is currently full but visitors are welcome at a cost of £3.50.

Details of all our meetings and speakers can be found on the diary on the home page

of the Winstred 100 website.  If you would like any further information about P.A.W.S. please ring any of us on the following numbers:  Alice Holmes 01206 735510, Jane Banks 01206 735004 or Jane Anderson on 01206 735505.

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Roman River Festival

roman-river-2012Roman River Music produces an annual festival along the idyllic Roman River Valley on the borders of Essex and Suffolk in the UK, and runs a schools programme in Colchester.  Featuring 55 World Class Musicians, 32 composers, 14 concerts and a World premiere, this looks to be the musical highlight of the year.  Tickets range from £2.50 for the family concerts to £22.50 for the best seats at the large-scale events.

The 2012 Festival runs between 29th September and 7th October – book soon – tickets are running out!

Click here for more details of the 2012 Festival, 29 Sept – 7 October

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PAWS July – Orpheus & Meze

paws-july2012-2 paws-july2012-1

30 members and 10 visitors, 9 of whom were from Layer Ladies, joined us for our July meeting which  was also our special themed social night of the year. This year with it being the Olympics in London, we decided to go Greek. We were greeted on arrival with a glass of ouzo and, for the faint-hearted, a glass of home-made lemonade. After the very short formal part of the evening, we tucked into a Greek Meze, to the background music of Orpheus. Once we had eaten, the tables were cleared away to make room for Yanis to lead us in some very energetic dancing, which almost everyone joined in.

The music for this was provided by George on keyboard and, while we all took a rest from dancing, Yanis joined him with some very skilful playing on the Bouzouki. Most members dressed to match the Greek theme and, at the end of the evening, George awarded the prize for the best dressed lady to Sue Copeland.

It really was an excellent evening and it was such a shame that so many of the members missed out on it.

As we don’t have a meeting in August ur next get together is on September 25th when Dr. Maureen Scollen is our speaker and her subject is “Paragon or Prude.” Membership is currently full but visitors are welcome at a cost of £3.50.

Details of all our meetings and speakers can be found on the diary on the home page of the Winstred 100 website.  If you would like any further information about P.A.W.S. please ring any of us on the following numbers:  Alice Holmes 01206 735510, Jane Banks 01206 735004 or Jane Anderson on 01206 735505

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PAWS June – Golden Amritsar and an auction

paws-june201236 members and 3 visitors attended our June meeting on the 26th, when Mrs Paula Short came along and told us all about “Golden Temple – Amritsar India”. Paula has developed a passion for India and its temples, culture and history since her first visit in 2000 and was able to give us quite an insight  into it. She had a fantastic array of slides which she used to highlight her very interesting talk.

We also had our silent auction of New and Nearly New items which raised just over £35 for our funds.

Our next get together is on July 24th which will be our July themed social and this year it is a “Greek Night”. We have a professional Duo coming along to entertain us with music  and a dancing demonstration and we will be having a light  Meze supper and suitable refreshments .The cost is £7.00 for visitors. Numbers are limited so please book by contacting one of the committee members listed below.

Details of all our meetings and speakers can be found on the diary on the home page of the Winstred 100 website.

Membership is currently full but if you would like any further information about P.A.W.S. please ring any of us on the following numbers. Alice Holmes 01206 735510, Jane Banks 01206 735004 or Jane  Anderson 01206 735505.

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PAWS – May, Confessions of a mass caterer

paws-jane-malyon-may12At our May meeting on the 22nd, we welcomed back Jane Malyon to tell us about “Confessions of a Mass Caterer”.  Jane and her husband have been running Country Cuisine for some 34 years catering for various events from Wedding Receptions to Birthday celebrations.  She relayed a number of amusing stories about the types of people she has catered for from Mr. X, an East-Ender with Mafia connections, who had 200 guests to his Ruby Wedding party together with security and dogs (in case anything got nicked) to a very rowdy (food throwing) party at a Medic’s Annual Ball at a London teaching hospital.  From drunks, uninvited guests, tearful brides to broken items, Jane has dealt with them all.

Our next meeting is on June 26th when Ms. P. Short will tell us all about “Golden Temple Amitsar, India” and we will be having a silent auction of New and Nearly New items.

Details of all our meetings and speakers can be found on the diary on the home page of the Winstred 100 website.

Membership is currently full, but visitors are very welcome at a cost of £3.50.

If you would like any further information about P.A.W.S. please ring any of us on the following numbers. Alice Holmes 01206 735510, Jane Banks 01206 735004 or Jane Anderson 01206 735505.

Alice

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PAWS – April Gerald Durrell’s Legacy

Barry Kaufmann-Wright

At our April meeting on the 24th, we welcomed back Barry Kaufmann-Wright to tell us all about working with Gerald Durrell.  Barry has been a naturalist all his life and had the good fortune to work with Mr. Durrell at Jersey Zoo during 1964-1971.  He told us all about the breeding programmes that he had been involved with at the Zoo together with showing us a selection of some of his 64,000 slides.  We are losing 10,000 species a year due to extinction.  He also relayed some stories about being bitten on the head by a lemur and having to have 75 stitches only for these to be unpicked in a “grooming session” by one of his favourite chimps.  Mr. Durrell died in 1998 but his legacy lives on.

Our next meeting is on 22nd May when Jane Malyon returns with “Confessions of a Mass Caterer”.  Details of all our meetings and speakers can be found on the diary on the home page of the Winstred 100 website.

Membership is currently full, but visitors are very welcome at a cost of £3.50.

If you would like any further information about P.A.W.S. please ring any of us on the following numbers. Alice 01206 735510, Jane 01206 735004 or Julia 01206 735053.

 

Alice

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PAWS – March St Trinians Experience

At our recent March AGM/St. Trinians evening on the 27th March 44 members came along to select the new President- Sheila Gray. Sheila replaces Gen Fretwell as President and Pam Foakes will be her Vice-President for the forthcoming year.  9 of the existing committee were re-elected with Sue Copeland standing down having served many years on the W.I. committee before forming part of the new committee for P.A.W.S. Both were presented with flowers to thank them for all their hard work.

It was a very enjoyable evening with the majority of the members getting into the spirit of the evening by dressing up in “school attire” and we all tucked into some excellent Fish and Chips. We rounded the evening off with a quiz based on “Who Did What” which were fun questions supplied by the committee for the members to guess who did what.

Our next meeting is on 24th April and we will be having Mr. Kaufmann-Wright back to tell us all about working with Gerald Durrell. Details of all our meetings and speakers can be found on the diary on the home page of the Winstred 100 website.

Membership is currently full, but visitors are very welcome at a cost of £3.50. If you would like any further information about P.A.W.S. please ring any of us on the following numbers. Alice 01206 735510, Jane 01206 735004 or Julia 01206 735053.

 
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PAWS – February 1st Ladies report

paws-john-knightPAWS’ February meeting on 28th February was when Ann Hardy was due to reveal the “Secrets of the Royal Jewels”, but unfortunately due to ill-health she had to cancel and we were fortunate to enlist John Knight for the evening who told us about “America’s First Ladies.”  

John proved to be a very able and knowledgeable speaker who has spent a lot of time in the U.S.A and indeed had a photo of his wife and himself with Bill Clinton taken in 2004, together with photographs of the portraits of the 13 First Ladies that are in the gallery of the Whitehouse. He told us a lot of background information about the First Ladies from Eleanor Roosevelt through to Michelle Obama and that the average age of an incoming President was 58 with his wife being 52. When most of us are thinking about taking things easy, or retiring, these people are taking on the most powerful job in the USA if not the world. A most interesting evening and hopefully we’ll see Ann next year.

Our next meeting is actually our AGM and therefore it is for Members only and is on 27th March. We will be having a St. Trinians Night (so get out all the old school uniforms ladies).  A Fish and Chip Supper will be provided and a Quiz. Details of all our meetings and speakers can we found on the diary on the home page of the Winstred 100 website.

Membership is currently full, but visitors are very welcome at a cost of £3.50, at any other meeting other than March.

If you would like any further information about P.A.W.S. please ring any of us on any of the following numbers. Alice 01206 735510, Jane 01206 735004, Julia 01206 735053 or Sue 01206 735212.

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PAWS – January Zoo report

rebecca-perryOur January meeting was on 10th January 2012 (earlier than usual due to the Pantomime) when Rebecca Perry from Colchester Zoo came to talk to us.  Rebecca is Director of Conservation and actually works for “Action for the Wild” which is the charity side of the Zoo.  She explained all about how Zoo’s came into being with the earliest recorded menageries dating back as far as 4000 years ago.  London Zoo opened in 1828 to Fellows only and to the public in 1847.  Colchester Zoo (or Stanway Hall Park as it was originally known as) opened in 1963 by Frank Farrar and his wife Helena before being sold to his niece in 1983.  At the time there were 5 keepers and 5 other staff, no running water or electrics.  Now it’s the largest privately owned Zoo in the U.K. with award winning enclosures, over 60 acres of land, 270 species and a successful captive breeding programme. Action for the Wild now owns a Nature Reserve in South Africa – Umphafa Private Nature Reserve – which has seen the release of many animals including White Rhino, Impala, Antelope, Wildebeest, Zebra and Rock Pythons to name but a few.  It was a very interesting and very enjoyable evening.

Our next meeting is on 28th February when Ann Hardy will reveal the “Secrets of the Royal Jewels.”  Details of all our meetings and speakers can we found on the diary on the home page of the Winstred 100 website.

 
umphafa
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