Joining the WI

I've been thinking about joining the WI for a while but a combination of teenage embarrassment, the hall where the WI meet is next to my teenagers secondary school and having to do Tomas' school run at 3pm has meant that I've had to put it off, until now....
with Rachel passing her driving test and Tomas finishing later now he is in prep school it means that I can now get to the monthly meeting. I was supposed to go in September but with all the back to school stuff going on I got a little muddled with my second Thursday of the month and missed the meeting!

So fast forward to today, Thankfully I remembered that it was the second Thursday of October and after a morning celebrating 21 years of marriage with a cup of tea, working on this gorgeous chocolate fabric apron,


and a last minute shower I dashed out the door and headed off to the village hall.
The car park was very busy, which I took as a good sign and quickly parked the car. As I walked towards the hall I could hear a bell ringing and thinking that maybe I was late and the meeting was getting started I hurried in to see everyone leaving by the fire exit on the other side of the room! It was the yearly fire drill and not the beginning of the meeting, one of the ladies kindly walked me back out of the hall and into the car park. I obviously looked like the new girl and a bit confused as several of the ladies welcomed me and explained what was going on.
After that little bit of excitement everyone headed back into the hall and apparently someone said a little louder that expected, "look a young one!!'
For anyone that hadn't noticed the new girl arriving the lady at the front having asked my name outside kindly introduced me to everyone using the microphone, I'd forgotten that I could still blush!
I quickly sat down at the nearest table, which was completely empty, before realising that I looked a right billy no mates, more blushing, but some lovely ladies took pity on me and I sat at their table, although I do think I pinched the chair of the lady that was collecting the subs!
The meeting quickly started and the speaker was introduced, this turned out to be an old chief superintendent from my days in the police force many moons ago. He gave a funny and entertaining talk about his past as a bobby and then it was time for tea and cake. Another table of ladies invited me to join their table and it was lovely to chat to them and find out what happens at the meetings. I think they were worried they would frighten me off but they were friendly and helpful and even offered to email me the WI Victoria sponge recipe, as Mr Mad About Bags is hoping that I will learn how to bake a cake. The time passed very quickly and it was nearly time for me to leave for the school run but the quiz had started and I felt I couldn't just get up and leave so I helped as much as I could as it was a famous policemen quiz but much of it was before my time! With the quiz over but before the answers had be given I made my apologies, more blushing, thanked them for a lovely afternoon, promised to come back next month and rushed out to the car to make a mad dash up the A12 to pick up Tomas from school.
Phew! I hope all the meetings aren't like that!
So will I be going back next month, definitely, although I may be their youngest member I'll make sure I get there early enough next time to sing Jerusalem!
Are you a WI member? I would love to hear about your WI groups and what you get up to.