Digital Bulletin No 82

March 2025

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March 2025

From the editor’s desk

As I write this, the sun is shining down out of a clear blue sky, daffodils are flowering in the garden and the pond has been cleared ready for the arrival of amorous frogs. The first signs of spring always cheer me up. My thoughts may not turn to love these days but they certainly turn to holidays to come. If you have any holiday experiences this year that you think might interest other members, do write an article about them and send it to me.

Sadly, this Spring my thoughts have also been turned to those members who are undergoing hospital treatment or are in poor health. Hopefully the Bulletins will help them to still feel part of our Club.

One reason Philip Smith introduced the first Digital Bulletins at he start of Covid was to keep members in touch with one another. He called it “A Bit of a Bulletin” but managed to publish a lot of material.

Somehow he also managed to produce weekly issues. They weren’t dated but from the contents I am guessing No 4 was published in March 2020. You can find a piece from that Bulletin that has become (more or less) topical again reprinted below.

Words from the President

February 1

I attended the latest District 1240 Forum at Writtle College. The new format introduced by DG Anne of sitting the attendees around tables in groups of eight was in my view a good idea, although perhaps people need to be encouraged not to sit with other members of their own Club, so there is a meaningful exchange of experiences and ideas. I had a very good chat with the President of the Sawbridgeworth Club and heard how they manage with only seven members!

February 6

Today was our monthly business meeting on Zoom and as usual was a good discussion, with the emphasis on the future pattern of our meetings and forthcoming projects. Zoom works well for this type of meeting and we will therefore hold our business meetings in this way for the foreseeable future.

February 13

Our monthly friendship and fellowship meeting was held at the Hive, at Oaklands Park, and was very well attended, with sixteen members, plus Steve Moriaty, who came with Anne. It will be interesting to see if we maintain this level in the coming months, and if so, whether we should introduce more of this type of meeting, where we sit and chat and do not have a speaker.

February 20

Our speakers for our meeting at Ivy Hill were our own Keith Dabbs and David Axon, with a talk entitled “In The News”. Keith brought with him a number of old newspapers, including a copy of the Daily Express from 9 May 1945, covering the VE Day celebrations (it was a broadsheet but only four pages), the Daily Mail from February 1952 on the death of George VI and a souvenir edition of The Times dated 2 June 1953, which was all about the successful ascent of Everest by Hillary and Tensing. Keith also had some sporting papers, the Evening News marking Billy Wright’s 100th England cap, and a local Wolverhampton paper from 1949 all about Wolves FA Cup success.

David spoke about two events, the first of which was a horrendous journey to London from his then home in Berkshire in 2000 to see a special parade to mark Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother’s 100th birthday, something David failed to see because of rail delays caused by IRA threats. From the following year, he talked on his experiences when the London office he was working in, became aware of the 9/11 attacks in New York, and the panic and misinformation that followed.

As always, these personal histories provoked a good deal of comment from our other members. Personally, I always find this kind of talk fascinating, based as they are on the speaker’s own memories and feelings, so thanks to Keith and David for again stimulating our interest.

February 26

Along with Anne, Keith Dabbs, Bob, John, Angela and Geoff and Graham, I was at the Chignal Morrisons collecting on behalf of Marie Curie as part of their annual Daffodil appeal. We had been approached by their local organiser to see if we would help and decided to because it is a new project for us and also a good chance to see how collecting for a national charity compared with the ones we have done in recent years, which have generally been disappointing. It was a good day, with plenty of good interaction with those who kindly donated and an excellent way to promote our Club. Our SumUp machine again proved an excellent investment, not only to enable those without cash to donate, but also in demonstrating we are a forward-looking organisation. I have subsequently heard from the treasurer of the local Marie Curie branch that we collected £261.99 in cash to which can be added over £60 in card donations, an excellent result, and they would definitely like us back to collect on their behalf next year and before Christmas.

[Photographs below.]

February 27

A grey-haired man wearing a grey suit This week’s speaker was Tony Tuckwell, his talk being entitled “The Only Coastal Way is Essex”, a very interesting account of the time he spent in 2010 and 2011 walking the coastline of our county. This included walking up the various estuaries (Colne, Blackwater etc.) to the point where they could be crossed, and then along the opposite bank to the sea. Tony reminded us that despite the claims of Cornwall, Essex has the longest coastline of any English county.

This week’s speaker was Tony Tuckwell, his talk being entitled “The Only Coastal Way is Essex”, a very interesting account of the time he spent in 2010 and 2011 walking the coastline of our county. This included walking up the various estuaries (Colne, Blackwater etc.) to the point where they could be crossed, and then along the opposite bank to the sea. Tony reminded us that despite the claims of Cornwall, Essex has the longest coastline of any English county.

Another “first” belonging to the Essex coastline is the fact that the coastal walk between Burnham and Bradwell is the longest section in the country without an intervening settlement. Tony did this walk on a lovely autumn day in early November and described the beautiful seasonal colours of the seaside as well as the solitude and peace of the location, where the only sounds were those of nature, including migrating buntings, which flew surprisingly close. This walk ended with the magical beauty of St Peters on the Wall in the late afternoon sunshine.

The various estuaries were those used by Angles and Saxons when they invaded at the end of the Roman occupation, settlements ending in “ing”, such as Mucking or Fobbing, are a sign of this. The Essex coastline was also a haven of smugglers in later times, and Tony quoted from the words of a notable vicar of East Mersea, Sabine Baring-Gould, about this.

In all, the walk took 30 days (not continuous). Tony used trains and buses wherever possible to get to and from his start and end points, and told us that after transport, his other main expense was on a constant supply of Cornish pasties!

Every husband knows

If you work too hard - there’s never any time for her. If you don’t work enough - you’re a good-for-nothing bum.

If you make a decision without consulting her - you’re a chauvinist. If she makes a decision without consulting you - she’s a liberated woman.

If you’re proud of your achievements - you’re full of yourself. If you’re not - you’ve no ambition.

If you cry - you’re a wimp. If you don’t - you’re unfeeling.

If you ask her to do something she doesn’t enjoy - that’s domination. If she asks you - it’s a favour.

If she has a boring repetitive job with low pay - this is exploitation. If you have a boring repetitive job with low pay - you should get off your lazy backside and find something better.

If you buy her flowers - you’re after something. If you don’t - you’re not thoughtful.

Photographs from collection for Marie Curie

At Morrisons in the Chignals, 26 February

Montage of photographs of people wearing yellow tabards and comic yellow top hats

Oh dear, Donald!

Front page of a Rotary Club Bulletin By a quirk of fate, only four people were left alive on an aeroplane which was doomed to crash. These were Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Angela Merkel and a ten-year-old boy. Unfortunately while there were four of them, there were only three parachutes.

“I must have one,” said Donald Trump. “I am needed because I am the most important person in the world. And I’m also the cleverest person in the universe.”

Thereupon Donald grabs one, puts its straps over his shoulders and jumps.

“I must have one also,” says Boris Johnson. “I am the only one with a plan that is clever enough to beat the Coronavirus.” So he grabs the next parachute and jumps.

Angela Merkel looks at the ten-year-old boy and says: “It is right that you have the next parachute. I am old and I have lived my life. You are young and just starting yours.”

“It’s all right,” says the ten-year-old boy. “There are still two parachutes left. The cleverest person in the universe just jumped out of the plane with my school pack on his back.”

Rotary Club of Billericay

As you will see from the panel below, on 27 March we will be holding a joint lunch at the Ivy Hill Hotel with the Rotary Club of Billericay.

Our association with Billericay goes back some way; we sponsored their Club when it was originally chartered. Like us, they are past winners of the Stan Keller Trophy for the Best Website in District 1240. Also like us, they support the annual Rotary Young Musician competition. They used to hold an annual Soapbox Derby, but Covid put an end to that in 2020.

Unlike us, they meet on Mondays, except when Monday is a bank holiday when no meeting is held. They would normally meet on Monday, 24 March, but they have changed that in order to join us in fellowship on the Thursday.

We hope that this will give us an opportunity to get to know each other and exchange views and ideas on Rotary. They expect to have 12-13 members at our joint meeting, so please come if you can. This could well be a time when we can reforge the relationship between the two Clubs and work together to serve our communities and make Rotary better known.