2024 - 2025
Our group meets on the last Friday of the month, from September to April, at the Black Bull, Gartmore. Tea and home baking is available at the meetings and there is a nominal charge of £3 to cover costs. We now have a large digital screen in the restaurant of the pub and this makes our presentations really stand out.
We have an interesting programme for the coming session. The full details are set out further down the page.
The programme starts in September when Chelsea Brookes will talk about her work taking humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Chelsea has done several trips with ambulance crews, braving war and danger to help the people of Ukraine.
In October, Pete Lee and Chris Huxham will tell us about their latest, long-distance walk, completed earlier this year. Following their walk from The Scilly isles to Muckle Flugga, they have now gone from east to west, starting out at Lowestoft Ness and ending on Vatersay. An attempt to reach St Kilda was thwarted by the weather, but the tales they will tell will be no less exciting.
Peter Ireland has kindly offered to repeat his presentation on Istanbul in November. We were defeated by the sun when he tried to show us his wonderful photographs last session, but the new digital facilities at the Black Bull will allow us to see these in full detail.
There will not be a meeting in December, as we shall be too busy with Christmas and New Year but, in January 2025, Arthur & Jane Jones and Judi Wright will bring us the tales of their trip to China.
Billy & Joy Henderson made the journey to New Zealand last year for their son’s wedding and, in February, Joy will show us her photographs from that visit.
March brings Peter Ireland (and me!) back. Peter is organising another of his highly successful tours of Pompeii and Herculaneum in October this year, and we shall bring you the report of this trip, which I for one am looking forward to immensely.
We end the year with a very special meeting. In April, Nikki Newton, who was in charge of one of the Antarctic Survey bases, will give a presentation on running the base and the most southern Post Office in the world.
We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible for these very interesting and enjoyable meetings. Please come along.
Isobel Madden
If you have any suggestions for suitable speakers, please contact Isobel by clicking on her name below (as coordinator) and completing the web form that appears.
| Date | Guest Presenter | Subject |
|---|---|---|
| Friday 27th September 2024 | Chelsea Brookes | Ambulances to Ukraine |
| Friday 25th October 2024 | Pete Lee & Chris Huxham | East to West - Lowestoft Ness to Vatersay |
| Friday 29th November 2024 | Peter Ireland | Istanbul |
| December | NO MEETING | |
| Friday 31st January 2025 | Arthur & Jane Jones & Judi Wright | Plant hunting in China |
| Friday 28th February 2025 | Joy Henderson | New Zealand wedding |
| Friday 28th March 2025 | Peter Ireland & Isobel Madden | Pompei & Herculaneum |
| Friday 25th April 2025 | Nikki Newton | The Penguin Post |
| Status: | Active, open to new members |
| Coordinator: | |
| When: | Monthly on Friday afternoons 2:00 pm-4:00 pm |