3rd Oct | ‘Uganda: work in progress’ – a talk by Alison Brain

Oct3

At our October meeting we welcomed speaker Alison Brain, a children’s nurse who has worked in several Suffolk hospitals.

About six years ago a friend of hers who was visiting Uganda urged Alison to come out and join her to see for herself the predicament of children at a school and orphanage on the outskirts of Kampala.

More than half of Uganda’s 35 million people are under fifteen, there is a high poverty rate, life expectancy of 53 years, an infant death rate of 62 per 1000 plus a high mortality rate for mothers in childbirth. Add to this the highest death rate in Africa from HIV Aids, with over a million deaths to date, and 2 – 3 million orphaned children. Many children are abducted and end up as child soldiers. Continue reading →

19th Sept | Dove Close meeting

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Our “Out” meeting at Dove Close was scheduled as an Indian Cookery Demonstration, but – once again! – we had to re-think on our feet as the speaker was ill on the night!

Seven residents joined us, including one gentleman, and Shirley and Mary organised the games. We had two games of Bingo and two quizzes, one about food and one about geography followed by refreshments. We stayed chatting for quite a while afterwards, and the residents seemed very pleased to have us there saying they hope we will go again. It was a very convivial evening and a lovely warm place to go on a chilly night. Sofas and arm chairs for some of us so it was almost like being in someone’s sitting room! We all agreed we must try to repeat the visit as they made us very welcome.

– Di Barker, Chairlady

8th Aug | Summer Barbecue

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We finished our “summer season” on a high note, with a wonderful barbecue in the gardens of Tudor House, by kind invitation of Penny and David Thompson. Again the weather was perfect, the food delicious and the wine flowed amidst great company! There were even a couple of quizzes to keep us on our toes!

Here is a photo gallery from the evening!

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For anyone who feels the urge to join us for the autumn season – our next meeting on September 5th is with Jason Salisbury who will be telling us all about “Suffolk Cheeses”. Sounds very tasty,  and I dare say there will be a glass or two of something to accompany the proceedings!

18th Jul | Sandringham Visit

Jul18

Sandringham02We couldn’t have asked for better weather for our day trip to Sandringham! If anything it was a bit too warm, but no-one was complaining! We left Capel at 9.30 with a full coachload and stopped for coffee at Swaffham at the Ecotech Centre. This is next to the huge wind turbine with a viewing platform that you can actually climb up to if you have a mind!  None of us did, however, and we went on to Sandringham enjoying the beautiful Breckland scenery on the way.  Continue reading →

4th Jul | Summer Social

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Once again we had a last-minute change to our best-laid plans at the July 4th Summer Social! And once again, someone stepped in at the last minute to fill the gap!

That someone was Barbara Faulkner, and the subject of her talk was “Ladies’ Day at Ascot”, which proved very entertaining, with a mixture of history, general knowledge and humour – not to mention some horse-racing for audience participation!

C360_2013-07-04-21-07-16  Continue reading →

2nd May | Herbs in your Garden – talk by Karen Kenny

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herb-basketAt the beginning of May the delightful Karen Kenny came to talk to us about herbs. Karen is always a very entertaining and informative speaker and she started off with a brief history of herbs. They have been been used throughout history and many are mentioned in an ancient papyrus which dates back to 2700 B.C! Herbs have had many uses over the centuries including being linked to magic. Continue reading →