Meeting 2nd December 2009

Welcome back Mary

Those attending were:
Cath, Helene, Jo, Mandy, Mary, Robyn, Terry, Wendy and Dale.
Once again it was a fun meeting with lots of laughter and interesting writing.
Brag session:
Jo had her photo taken for committee
Helene has a new mobile phone.
The rest of us had nothing exciting to report.

Words of the day
Terry—supercilious—haughty, proud, contemptuous, disdainful
Cath - protagonist - proficient, adept, a leader, a chief actor of a Greek drama
Helene—pragmatic — treating historical phenomena with special reference to their causes and anteceded conditions and results. Concerned with practical consequences or values.
Valla- disambiguation- is the process of resolving conflicts occurring when a single term can be associated with more than one topic, making that term likely to be the natural title for more than one article In other words, disambiguations are paths leading to different articles which could, in principle, have the same title. Eg. The words Mercury can refer to several different things, including an element, a planet, an automobile brand, a record label.
Thanks Valla for the full explanation.
Wendy told us about glamping- going camping in luxury-
And Mandy told us about several words from her childhood like plodging - paddling in the water and hodmadods -snails.
Dale—toxic friends—those who put you down, criticise and insult and generally make you feel inadequate and unsettled.
Wendy – kakistocracy-a government by the worst and least qualified citizens
Mary and others raised some words that are often misused by many people eg prostate and prostrate, quiet and quite, affect and effect.

No competitions to note

Homework or readings
Wendy - Merry Christmas Ho Hum – poem
Valla – A Christmas memory – poem
Cath- A Christmas Tale - prose
Helene- Christmas Past -poem
Terry – the origins of Ho, Ho, Ho - poem.
Mandy enjoyed the exercise so much she wrote 4 pieces but only read 1
of them
Mandy – The First Time- prose
Dale - The Christmas Owl - prose

As usual there was a wide a variety of subject matter and style, of humour, and pathos, true to life experience and fiction.
Jo told us a joke about a turtle and Dale for once actually remembered it to tell that evening or a reasonable fascicle of it. It sounded better when Jo told it.

Wendy was interested in the coining of the new words cargument as in an advertisement for NAV

A reminder about the Christmas ‘do.’ It will be on the 4th Dec at the Chinese restaurant at St Georges Basin Country Club, Sanctuary Point. 6.00 pm start.

Terry told us about a new member planning to start next year, which is good. She has previously run courses in right and left brain. He also gave an explanation of the Term French Letter which had come upon one other meeting.

Exercise by Terry

Each person had to choose a picture and using the senses, list smell, touch, sound, sight, and feelings evoked.
After we each had this information, we then wrote a paragraph or two using those senses.
The second time we did the same exercise Terry handed out the photos and we had to work with what we were given. The idea was to be able to incorporate it into something we are writing or into longer works eg maybe the start of a start of a story or poem or a scene in a novel etc.
Many of the pieces written could easily find their place in longer works. This was a valuable exercise.

Reminder
Our last meeting for the year is December 16 and we comeback at 1.02 on 20-01-10. So keep that in mind Wednesday January 20th, rather than the previously mentioned February date.
Mandy was disappointed no-one had any work for her on memory stick for the anthology. Due date February 2010 but the earlier the better for it to be in.

Robyn handed out homework which is Who Done it?
characters are Mother – Eve
father- Dave
Sons Alan 15 and Dean 17
Eve Murdered - bludgeoned to death
Dave was at the local pub playing darts and drinking with his mates, Alan out riding his bike and Dean taking his dog for a walk.
Forensic found DNA of Eve on some clothes of each of the sons.
Eve had transferred all monies into her own bank account.
Did one of the boys kill their mother? Or did both of them kill her?
Did Dave kill Eve – Or did he conspire with sons or is he completely innocent?
Eve was known as ‘Evil Eve’ and had a reputation as a vindictive disciplinarian- no-one liked her in the village.

Facilitator next week - Valla
Exercise - David
Homework - Jo