Report on meeting 12th June 2012

Those present: Dave, Tony, Martin, Carolyn, Suzie, Liliane, Rani, Becky, Beryl, Ray, Dick, Barry, Lyndsay and Sandy.

Apologies from Les.

Well folks, another good meeting. Good attendance this week. The homework had been set from a different postcard of places, throughout the world.

We started with Liliane who went to Paris and the story was called Last day in Paris. As the title implies this was a tale of a family having enjoyed a holiday seeing the sights of Paris want to get as much in the last day as possible.

Next was Rani who selected Florence. Entitled Meet me in Florence this was a tale of a young woman waiting for Ed who was late from his dig in Tuscany. She walks through the Palazzo and is transported to Roman times and a feast involving a handsome young man and his giraffe.

Lyndsay gave us a short tale of a couple and their wedding day and the journey from the church in the new Ford Fairlane.

Becky, our new recruit gave us a short impression of a young girl leaving the dock and wanting to expand her horizons.

Beryl was next with her story of the Colosseum entitled A letter to my sons. This concerned what appeared to be a human and humane Roman, Emporer Vespasian and his deathbed letter to his two sons.

Ray went to Blackpool and One Blackpool Night. This told of a dinner party held by publishers and how different clients and authors got together and especially about Sean Macallister and Leah and how they really saw a future together.

Dick went to The Great Barrier Reef. His story was entitled The Sea Fret Problem. This told us how three letters arrive with one from Australia telling of an inheritance. Thast of a schooner called Sea Fret. The man of the house decides he has to investigate and travels to Australia to visit the solicitors and find the schooner is damaged and on a reef. He accepts an offer for the vessel and returns to England.

My offering was called Niagara and involved a stuntman who decided to travel to the Falls to float over in a barrel. This ends up as his last stunt and he unhappily left a wife and eleven children.

Dave read next an account of a terrible air disaster that occurred on the Island of Tenerife. Entitled the 27th March 1977 it told of a Dutch and an American plane that collided on the only runway of Tenerife's airport.

Tony went to Barcelona. His story was entitled Barthalona and was about Barth, one of the local rogues who sets out one morning to steal enough food or money for breakfast. He is apprehended and then offered a way out of his predicament by becoming an informer on his vagabond friends.

Martin had Melbourne as a subject and no amount of my recounting would do justice to what was a brilliant piece of prose.

Carolyn had a picture of the Gozo Ferry to take inspiration from and concocted a tale called Hatties day out. This was of Hatty and her trip to Malta after losing her husband Henry. On the ferry she met what she considered an undesirable and the a suave gentleman called Tom Jones. On the return trip the undesirable introduced himself as a Maltese policeman who described Tom Jones as the undesirable who had disappeared from Gozo and escaped the clutches of the law.

Suzie was the last to read and read a very short but poignant poem called Just a memory. This was a poem of someones memory of waffles on a trip to Bruge, in Belgium.

Our next meeting is on 26th June when the subject is 'Chickens'.