The first meeting of 2016 saw Govilon WI’s president welcome and wish a Happy New Year to a large proportion of the membership.

The business part of the meeting was conducted by Sue Brimecombe with reminders about membership subscriptions and the annual dinner later in January. Members were provided with an opportunity to vote for one of the resolutions which had been proposed for adoption at the Annual Meeting in June. These resolutions were summarised for the membership by Jean Wilcock.

Glenys Gray, Sylvia Davenport and Caroline Davies have agreed to represent Govilon at the Gwent Federation’s Annual Quiz, while enough names were collected to send two teams to the quoits tournament in February.

At the end of January Govilon will be submitting their entry to the Scrapbook Competition and members had a glimpse of the hard work done by Sheila Francis, Pam Sharratt and Glenys Gray in compiling this record of the branch’s activities during 2015, the WI’s centenary year.

This month’s speaker was Claire Johnson, a local podiatrist, whose presentation was entitled Best Foot Forward. Her light-hearted but extremely informative talk was supported by a simple quiz where Claire used the format to inform her audience about a wide range of common foot ailments from fungal infections to ingrowing toe nails.

Podiatry is clearly not a profession for the faint-hearted as there were some toe curling (no pun intended) descriptions of the foot problems she has dealt with over the years.

On a serious note Claire emphasised the importance of footcare for diabetics, particularly as they suffer circulation problems and are more prone to infections.

The best foot creams apparently are those with a high urea content - a natural lubricant found in our bodies. This is the component to look for when studying the constituents of different creams.

Claire patiently answered numerous questions from the audience and was thanked at the end by Nansi Mort.

The competition for Your Least Sensible Shoes attracted seven entries by members prepared to display their bad footwear choices. The outright winner was Betty Fisher who submitted a pair of killer heels in dayglo orange although she didn’t deign to model them for the audience. Runners-up in the bad foot wear stakes were Gaynor Turner and Lynne Smith although it must be said that their entries looked as if they came from the Start Rite shop compared to Betty’s!

Next month’s meeting will be at 7.30pm on Thursday February 7 when Ryland Wallace will speak about the suffragette movement. New members and visitors will be most welcome.