My Life and Work as an Opera Singer

On 3 November, Elizabeth Key our newest member and a full time member of the Royal Opera House Chorus since 2006 gave a talk as part of the Eltham Arts Festival at Eltham Library.  She gave a brief history of when opera started and introduced to this country before telling us more about her life. Born in Mansfield at the age of 12 auditioned for the Cantamus Girls' Choir studying with Pamela Cook MBE who was a great inspiration and influence, giving her opportunities to tour abroad and appear on TV/radio.  When 19 she was accepted at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland studying for 7 years before joining the Royal Opera House. Her work schedule of some 200 performances per year which comprise of singing, acting and dance along with rehearsals and not forgetting the commuting! seems hectic but Elizabeth still finds time to be involved in numerous other musical projects.  A most inspiring young lady who says 'do the very best all of the time' which she certainly does.

I Spy Eltham High Street

Earlier this year we were approached by Eltham Arts Festival to participate in their 2016 event and after some discussion we devised a walking quiz of Eltham High Street which involved planning a route, compiling questions and spending time checking out the finer details.  A non member was asked to try this out and make any comments.  It was then time to design the entry form and arrange printing.  At the start of the festival on 29 October we delivered our leaflets and collection boxes to Eltham, New Eltham and Cold Harbour libraries and members also handed them out in Passey Place.  The quiz runs until 5pm 18 November when entries will be collected, checked and the winner announced at the finale on 20 November at the White Hart Pub, Eltham.  Members below handing out leaflets -

Theatre Trip 3 October 2016

Kay Johnstone and Sylvia Moore organised our first theatre trip, they chose The Commitments which opened at Bromley Churchill Theatre on 3 October 2016.  11 members signed up some time ago for this outing and were delighted with the choice.  It's a musical based on the book of the same name by Roddy Doyle which tells the story of a promoter, Jimmy Rabbitte who wants to organise a soul group in Dublin from a mixture of amateur musicians and friends, their rise to popularity which eventually leads to destroying their group and the members moving away.  The show featured 20 soul classics which judging by the clapping and foot tapping most people seemed to remember.  At the end the actors/band performed some of the songs from the show with the audience standing up and joining in. Everyone agreed it was a great show and look forward to our next excursion.

 

 

What a scorcher

On what must have been the hottest of the year so far, 13 WI members met at 10am in Eltham then drove to Sevenoaks to visit the Riverhill Himalayan Gardens.  A short journey arriving just as it opened, first stop was for refreshments before strolling around.  We had missed the spring collection of rhododendrons, azaleas and bluebells but just in time for the scented Rose Walk, we soaked up the sun in the re-landscaped Walled Garden with its box edged vegetables, grass sculptured terracing and fountains, the area was being set up for a wedding that afternoon which was a beautiful setting with views across the Weald of Kent.  Our visit coincided with the ForumArts National Sculpture Symposium and we were lucky to see artists at work on their sculptures throughout the Gardens.  Some of us despite the heat climbed to the view point looking at the Kent countryside before heading back down to the café where we had lunch before setting off home.

 

 

 

 

 

What a great achievement!

Recently one of our members, Chris Page completed a 50k walk from Sittingbourne to Eltham in aid of Demelza charity.  As a volunteer she saw the walk advertised and suggested to her son who was about to celebrate his 50th birthday that he might like to do the walk and she couldn't let him do it on his own! The walk took 12 1/2 hrs including a lunch break and Chris said how exhausting it had been and would not be attempting this again.  Our congratulations to her on this wonderful achievement.

A Great Day Out - 8 April 2016

In all 15 members attended Kent West-Kent Federation's Home Economics Day at Harris Academy, Falconwood on 8 April 2016.  There was time for refreshments after signing in and at 10.30am all members took their seats ready to be entertained.  What a great day had been organised by the Home Economics Committee.  The first speaker was Patricia Ellis from Sevenoaks Flower Club who demonstrated 4 different arrangements which were later raffled, unfortunately none of our WI won any but at least it solved the problem of getting one home! The second speaker was Alexis Datta, former head gardener at Sissinghurst Castle who showed slides of the gardens through all the seasons. After a short break for lunch it was back to hear from the final speaker of the day, Mary Gwynn, who wrote the WI Cookbook published last year to celebrate 100 years of the WI, who rushed through the decades with stories and recipes.  The day finished just before 3.30pm and we all commented how much it had been enjoyed, there was something for everyone.

BBC Tour 26 March 2016

On Saturday 26 March lunchtime 20 members met at Broadcasting House.  After going through tight security we assembled in the Media Café which serves radio theatre audiences and tours to meet our two guides who gave a detailed insight into the workings of this iconic building. We moved between the old and new buildings built around a public piazza and looked down on the newsroom which operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, many recognising this room from its daily broadcasts. We visited the One Show studio, not as big as you would imagine! then onto a news & weather studio where 3 willing (or not so willing) members read the news & weather using prompts these were then played back to us.  Moving between buildings we were given so much information about recordings that had happened over the years.  Next was the radio shows recording studio where live productions take place and finally 5 members were persuaded to take part in a radio recording with sound effects provided by our guides, this was then played back.  Many thanks to all those ladies who were brave enough to take part.  A fantastic tour lasting well over one and a half hours.

 

 

February Meeting

We had yet another good meeting last night. We were pleased tto welcome a couple of visitors and hope they will come again soon!
Our speaker, Elspeth, a structural engineer, gave a very interesting talk on her involvement with the ongoing Crossrail project. This was well received and we say a big thank you to her for her time and obvious enthusiasm.
We next meet at the Whitehart to celebrate our 6th birthday which we do with a meal and quiz, should be fun!

An Evening of Bowling

We had a great night ten pin bowling, what fun! 23 of us turned out for our annual trip to Bexleyheath Mega Bowl and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We had 4 lanes and we each played 2 games. I used muscles I had forgotten actually existed, still all in a good cause or at least that is what I told myself next morning! I am looking forward to next year's event although we might try to organise something before then, who knows.

January Meeting 2016

Well, where did 2015 go? I hope it was a good one for everyone and welcome 2016!
It has become a tradition that the first meeting of the year is a board games evening. It has proved to be a great success and the variety of games on offer grows each year. It is great fun and it is amazing how much noise 30+ grown women in one room can make!
January is also the month when we have first sight of the long list of proposed resolutions to be put to the Annual General Meeting. This year there were 7 which we were asked to consider to take forward to the next stage. Top of our list was tackling food waste .
We next meet for an evening of bowling later in the month.