THE president warmly welcomed members to the October meeting, the last in the current venue.

Speaker Pat Hoare gave a talk entitled "Life in Japan as she knew it". She stressed that her talk was about Japan 52 years ago.

She went out as a 22-year-old bride and the journey by sea took six weeks. Her account of this journey was very humorous.

She brought along a number of kimonos; beautiful bright colours of good material and well-made.

Japanese brides wore ornamental head-dresses to hide superstitious horns. Their chopsticks are pointed at the end and the women have smaller cups and soup bowls.

Houses are made of paper on wooden frames and during the winter, had to be sprayed. Mrs Hoare thought this was perfume but it turned out to be DDT to kill off all the bugs.

The north of Japan was very beautiful with cherry blossom. The hotels had hot springs and bath houses with tubs to wash at then sit in to wash off.

Mrs Hoare visited within 30 miles of Hiroshima, which she found utterly devastated and quite dreadful.

She lived in Japan for four years. The summers were very hot and the winters cold, but she found it a wonderful experience.

The competition winner was Janet Baines. Raffle winners were Dorothy Dagger, Margaret Watson and Christine LeBode.

The next meeting tomorrow is at the new venue at Malt Mill Lane.