CHIPPING Sodbury WI started its September meeting with our usual presentation of birthday buttonholes and two members were recipients of lovely plants to commemorate their golden wedding anniversaries.

Since our last meeting in July, in August we had had a thoroughly enjoyable summer party and an excellent return visit to Aunt Martha’s Tea Rooms in the Forest of Dean, where we had been entertained and had an enjoyable repast.

Joint president Ann Hinton thanked everyone who had been involved in organising both events.

Our diaries are filling up in preparation for a busy autumn, with an invitation to members to come to the craft group this month to make baubles for the Avon Federation Christmas tree at St Mary Redcliffe.

In December we will be making a spruce garland under the tutelage of Adèle Brown of Tin Can Floral and there’s to be a visit to Blenheim Palace at the end of November.

Plucky Rotarians (L-R): John Berridge, Geoff Nener, Kevan Allington. Ian Joseph, John Wells, Keith Pattison abseiled over 100 feet down the side of Southmead Hospital’s Brunel Building and raised more than £3,000 for the Prostate Cancer Care Appeal Before that, October heralds our annual soup and pud lunch and birthday supper.

At our monthly meeting in October we’ll have a themed bring and buy stall where members can donate their surplus scarves, handbags and accessories.

Our speaker for the evening, Mr Andy Workman, had belonged to the Military Police service but when he retired had trained to become a hypnotherapist and psychotherapist.

He now concentrated on helping to motivate people to change their behaviour in such circumstances as overcoming the fear of flying.

He took us on a tour of the brain, from amygdala to thalamus, explaining how the main components worked in our everyday life and how our lives had evolved from when the male was the hunter-gatherer and the female looked after everything else, being able to change focus very quickly as the need arose.

Mr Workman ended the session by giving us a list of ‘tools for positivity’ which members can use to look at things from a different, more positive, angle.

Besides our accessories stall, we will have a talk on The Punch and Judy Show at our October 5 meeting from 7.30pm in Chipping Sodbury Town Hall.