Meeting Report

For those who did not attend and for those that did attend but were lulled into a deep stupor, here is a hopefully concise report of our meeting last night.

Those attending.
Dave,Les, Liliane, Dick, Martin, Tony, Gemma, Lauren, Barry and Peter (late arrival)

Apologies from Ruth,Beryl,Trish and Steven.

Dick gave us the news that an article about his grandmother had been published in the magazine The Best of British. Well done to him.

The subject for the homework had been 'Advertising'

Lauren opened proceeding with a piece entitled 'Compulsive habits' An amusing account of how a girl was influenced by her parents behaviour during her childhood but developed her own sense of what she would and would not do in later life.

Next we had Gemma with her contribution called 'Inappropriate Reactions' recounting a girl kidnapped and having completely the wrong thoughts about her predicament also finding another victim in the old van who is reacting in a more normal but irritating way. This persists until she is finally brought into the real world when dragged from the vehicle.

Then we had Tony, our own member who resides on his own planet. His piece was entitled 'Ohme is where the earth is' and was from Chapter 18 of his soon to be completed novel. To translate what went on would be a disservice to Tony. It needs to be read to be enjoyed.

New member Martin gave us his piece entitled 'David Beckham's fish fingers'. An amusing account of a meal time conversation at the Beckham mansion where he extolls his supposed love of fish fingers and Posh's reaction, then going through the many, many products that David endorses and thoughts on whether he really enjoys any of them.

Dick gave us an entertaining driving lesson in his piece entitled 'What an advert'. This recounted the demise of a poor driver who crashes through the supports of an advertising hoarding and while the vehicle is being recovered an opportunistic photographer snaps the situation and convinces the Driving school advertising on the hoarding, that it should take the opportunity to show the folly of not learning to drive with them by using the photographs on another advert.

Liliane gave us her rendering of thoughts we all have some days of what effect ads on TV do or do not have on our lives. Especially those ads that are so hard to understand we just push them to the back of our minds. This contribution was called quite appropriately 'Advertising is big business.'

Then came one of our senior members, Les. A tale called 'Wanted' about a young man who aspired to be rich and handsome and have all the trappings needed to attract a new girl friend. He spends time inventing a fictitious persona and puts it out into the ether then waits for a response. He waits for a while and just when getting despondent he gets a reply from a gorgeous girl from a south sea island, not thinking for a minute she could be doing the same to him. They eventually meet and after passing and dismissing him, returns and they have an amusing session of revelations.

Next was Dave. His contribution called (excuse the language) 'That bloody advert' described a chap feeling out of sorts with a bad back and having seen an dubious advert for back massage by a gorgeous girl decides to secretly visit the establishment and avail himself. He is subsequently found out by his wife as he leaves the premises while she rides past on the bus.

Due to his other commitments Peter was a trifle late but amused us all with his rendition of of farmyard talk amongst Suffolk Punch horses that were being used in advertisements. It was entitled 'Haughty Henry' and brought many a smile as he read in his own dry fashion.

The final contribution was my own, entitled 'Poetic justice' a short tale of a young estate agent seeing his overbearing female boss suffer some indignity after stealing his thunder on a new development.

The meeting concluded roughly on time and there was a short discussion on whether to move the Halloween meeting on until the 2nd November. This was agreed, so the next meeting on the 19th October will be a writing exercise where a book is randomly picked from the library shelves and the first paragraph is read. For those not familiar, we then write, for twenty or thirty minutes, our own continuation of that opening paragraph.

For those who think that spontaneous writing is not for them I would encourage all to attempt it. In all the time we have been having different writing exercises there have been no resulting pieces that were anything less than excellent.

Thanks to all those attending for a really good meeting and we hope to see those who were unable to come along next time.

Regards from your secretary.

Barry