Happy New 'ear'

Happy new year to you!  Tea & Tarts WI has a busy year ahead of us if our events calendar is anything to go by. And, while we kicked off the year with good intentions: yoga and a talk on healthy eating, I can see it’s all going to go to pot later in the year as we’ll also be doing pizza-making and wine-tasting. However, I think it’s a case of ‘all things in moderation’ and these activities will be mixed in with creative writing, making our own beauty products, a craft bee and a circus skills workshop – so, we should be fine. What’s your WI got planned for 2012?  (I’d love to read about it on the  WI Facebook page.)

Tea and tarts new year raffle

Raffle prize


The new year got off to a flying start with a raffle and I was thrilled to win tickets to one of my favourite local visitor attractions, Cannon Hall Farm. I’ll be looking forward to going there and I’ll be sure to stock up on some lovely local produce at their fabulous farm shop while I’m there too. Other prizes included Yorkshire Tea goodies, a voucher for Bolster Moor farm shop, afternoon tea at Whitley Hall Hotel, a meal for two at Nosh in Almondbury and also lunch at neighbouring T&Cake Cafe. Thank you to all the companies which donated prizes: there are literally too many to list here but, you know who you are.

Meditation 

Holding hands 

After a talk on healthy eating and the importance of a good breakfast, ‘the Tarts’ were treated to a yoga session. Our visiting instructor made ingenious use of the space available and came up with exercises that could be done with two people to a mat.  

Yes folks, our group has grown so much in the last year that we were a bit pushed for space. Methinks a move to a bigger room is looming on the horizon. That would be especially welcomed by me, as the room we were using doesn’t have the same state of the art induction loop system as the other rooms at Huddersfield Town Hall. This means that I am unfortunately unable to participate in many activities (as I can’t hear what the guest speakers/instructors are saying). I wonder if this is a problem for any other WI members..?

Action on Hearing Loss (the new name of the RNID) estimate that one in seven people in the UK having hearing loss so, it stands to reason that each WI group would (statistically) have some members who were hearing impaired.  

I wonder how well other WI groups cater for the needs of members with hearing loss.  If you’re a member with hearing loss, I’d love to hear about your experiences (good or bad). Please post a message to me via the National Federation’s Facebook page telling me how your group helps you – or if you are too shy to tell the committee about your needs. Or if you’re a president or committee member of a WI group which goes that extra mile to be inclusive - please share that too!

I’ve called this post ‘Happy new ear’ as this year, I’m hoping to get a super duper new hearing aid which picks up sound from microphones over both ears and sends the sound via Bluetooth to my one ‘good’ ear. (Well, when I say ‘good’; that’s all relative: it needs a mighty loud hearing aid to amplify sound before I can hear anything but at least then it can hear something, which is more than I can say for the left ear.) With this new aid in mind, I’ve asked our committee if we can use a room with a new induction system so, I’m hoping it’ll be a happy new year full of WI fun as well as a new ‘ear’!

There is information about the Equality Act 2010 (which replaced the Disability Discrimination Act) at www.direct.gov.uk/

There’s also lots of information on hearing loss at: http://www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/