Hello ladies and a very happy new year to you all.

Well, I say happy, but I think genuine happiness may be in fairly short supply for a lot of us at the moment. Perhaps I’ll wish you a hopeful and healthy new year instead. Better times are just around the corner so hang on in there everybody. Have you got any tips you’d like to share for making this latest lockdown a little easier? I’d like to recommend Wind Walk Travel videos on YouTube. They are basically videos taken by somebody having a walk in an interesting place and they satisfy two needs for me – the need to exercise and the need to travel. When it’s too dreary to go outside I put one of these on the tellybox and walk/jog on the spot in front of it. Today I did 5000 steps along Venice Beach in the sunshine! Thought I might go to Singapore tomorrow.

Next Zoom meeting. January 14th 8pm
This one should be a treat! Our guest speaker is Chris Duffin, the first woman governor into HMP Strangeways and the notorious Dartmoor Prison. Chris Duffin was a ground-breaker and will be sharing some of the many stories and incidents from her twenty-year career both as a lowly ‘screw’ and as a prison governor. Whether it’s flying out of the UK with a briefcase full of class A drugs, talking to the BBC News in her nightie, displaying a naked hunk’s willy on her office wall, or having Myra Hindley as her tea-lady, these tales will amuse, entertain and definitely change your view of life behind bars.

As well as our guest speaker we’ll also be having a bit of our usual WoSWI fun and the chance for a chat and a catch up. It was so nice to see you all at the Christmas party so I’m hoping you’ll be able to join us next week.

Resolutions
The WI isn’t going to stop campaigning just because there’s a pandemic! On no, not us, we’re made of stronger stuff! We need to vote on which resolution to put forward though. You will find more details on the resolutions and how to vote in the newsletter sent to your email.

Really looking forward to seeing you all

Much love

Vanessa