St Mary’s Women’s Fellowship

JESSIE opened with the recent meeting the Lord’s Prayer.Again, the weather was really stormy, so only eight members were able to attend.Their speaker was Dylan Williams who gave an interesting slideshow presentation of his journey around Australia – it was a welcome relief to see some sunshine at last! As usual he gave an excellent narrative to accompany the photographs. He started at Perth, the most isolated city in the world. He explained that Australia is the world’s largest island. It was claimed for Britain by Captain Cook in 1770. The continent now has an immigrant population from over 200 countries speaking 300 different languages and dialects. Included in the presentation were images of the Royal Mint in Melbourne, Fremantle Prison and The Swan Bell Tower in Perth. Members saw Melbourne with its impressive Victorian architecture and continued the journey up to Cairns, where Dylan explained how the directional signposts are in both English and Chinese, reflecting the large Chinese population and associated tourism. The wildlife photography was stunning, introducing the group to fox bats, huge pineapple slugs, strange cassowary birds, adorable koala bears and, of course, the inevitable kangaroo. Dylan snorkelled on the Great Barrier Reef and shared his memories with the group. Then, he was on to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and impressive opera house. On his way home Dylan had stopped off in Dubai, where everything is “larger than life” and his photographs emphasised the vast contrast between this and the Australian outback.Jessie gave the vote of thanks before members discussed venues for their forthcoming 55th celebration.They welcomed a new member, Glenys, who was also the lucky winner of the raffle.The group had received a letter of thanks for their donation to Jessie Hall SPANA, a charity which supports working animals across the world.

The next meeting is with Mark Parry for chair-based exercise. Members were reminded to arrive early at 6.45pm.