DO YOU LIKE CHOCOLATE?

Yes ,we all do, and so must the ladies of Maidstone because a new WI has been opened called Maidstone Chocolate WI - which meets upstairs in Bar Chocolate in Market Buildings. the Third Monday of the month at 7.pm it is a small WI looking for new members!

At West Kent's Annual Meeting in Tunbridge Wells this month we were told that in the last -financial year 9 new WI's had opened, plus another 5 since then. - In fact West Kent had opened more WI's than any other County Federation in the UK. Welcome to all these new WI's - there must be one to suit everyone's taste (even chocolate) as we are all slightly different.

We also learned about the opportunities - courses-days out-holidays etc , open to us all. There were goodies to buy and competitions to enter- and old friends to meet up with. In fact one of Hollingbourne's members won a course at the WI Training centre , Denman College in Oxfordshire. Hollingbourne's prowess in winning the County Triathlon was also advised to all and we felt very proud.

Ours speakers were so interesting, starting with ANGELA PURLL who had become blind at the age of 8. This had not curtailed her life though, she became an organ scolar gaining degrees and masters certificates , and now teaches music to sighted children, plays the organ in two churches, and played us pieces on the piano accordian, flute and oboe - what an example of an inspiring woman.

Our final personality was DAME ANTONIA FRAZER the well known biographer and author. It took the form of an interview with a Journalist who asked candid questions about her life, career and marriage to Harold Pinter. She again was inspiring, has made time to write while having 6 children, and has not thought of putting her pen down yet - and she still uses a pen (not computer) and loves to see the words on paper.


It was a great day, with some of our members acting as stewards and the Assembly Rooms filled to overflowing. If you get the chance to go next year take it, you will not be disappointed

Pancake racing with the WI

In the Hollingbourne Village magazine in 1975 an entry stated that the ' Hollingbourne WI Members will again compete with Leeds WI in a Pancake race to take place at Leeds on 11th Feb at 2.pm.'

Well it may have been held others years- who knows, but it had fallen by the wayside and we decided to revive it.

One person who ran in these races was Jenny Downie (Nee Munday) who now lives in another part of the Country, but reads our blog. - Best Wishes to you Jenny, sorry you could not be with us. - we hope you can recognise old friends in the pictures below.

Pancakes - Sunshshine- and TV coverage

We were blessed with Sunshine for our Pancake race on 8th March 2011. This lineup shows the heat winners in the Final GRAND FINALE. The winner on the Right wearing WHITE was from Lenham WI. - The one on the left wishes to advise all that he is not a WI member, but had won the men's race!

There were those who adopted a LAID BACK attitude - despite being filmed by the TV Crew from Meridian (we all watched carefully and about 6.2o pm were rewarded with TV coverage.)
Pancakes reached great heights - though did not always stay in one piece
You can see the great speeds attained - why is Pancake racing NOT in the Olympic games?

There were races for all - This was the walking race - 4 pancakes in the air at once!
No one was left out, and this is the Men's race- Three are proceeding in the correct direction, whereas one who shall not be named had decided to take an alternate route.
A Great Event - we hope to repeat it next year, though with Easter much earlier we shall have to wear our Thermals to complete.