Get out on your bike

We love our bikes and we love London.   So if you too wish you could walk and cycle around more safely, then sign the  Love London, Go Dutch petition for safer cycling if you haven't done so already.  The petition aims to get the Mayoral candidates to pledge to make London more liveable by making our streets as safe for cycling as those in Holland.

You might also want to do something a little more active.  Click on the video above to see more about the Big Ride on 28th April for making cycling safer in London (and there's a Brompton bike to be won just by visiting the website).  You can make your way to the Big Ride from Hackney Town Hall at 10.30pm, or join Tower Hamlets Wheelers who will be meeting at Beaumont Square, near Stepney Green, at 9.45am.

We'll be getting out and doing a bit of cycling together ourselves during the summer (ahem!) so look out for info here about EEWI outings.  Just take a quick look here to see how cool you can look on a bike.  Love it.

hula-hooped

Just for the record, this is how good you can get if you practice lots. Yes, those blurs are two hoops on each of Marawa's arms going round in opposite directions.  And this is how you have to start your journey to hula-hoop amazingness...

A strong push on the hoop from the side, get it to swing round your belly button, move gently back and forth, use those abs, arms up, stand on one leg, add more hoops, swing a hoop round your arms above your head.  You get the picture?

Well done everyone who had a go - which was nearly everyone.  Carla and Vivien were absolute stars and even got a round of applause for their multiple hoop demos.

Meanwhile, there was some sedate knitting going on elsewhere.

Thanks to Marawa for inspiring us to swing to ever greater heights, to Janine from the London Cycling Campaign for speaking so enthusiatically about better cycling in London (more of which tomorrow), and to everybody else who made the evening such cracking good fun.

Don't forget coffee morning is next Wednesday 25th (moved from Friday) - details in post below. And don't forget that, rain or shine, we will be selling cakes at the St George's Day event at the Museum of Childhood this Saturday 21st.  Come and say hello. (Hopefully our abs will have recovered by then).

it's april so it must be...

Freezing cold, of course.  And time for Easter eggs, and chocolate bunnies and extra inches on the hips.  So to shake us all up a bit we're getting a visit from Marawa the Amazing* at our next evening meeting on 17th April to show us how to hula-hoop (Sarah - I hope this isn't too late for your bump!)  I can't even remember the last time I tried a hula hoop and I'm really looking forward to giving it a try. And don't worry, we'll find something a little more restful to do for those who would prefer to watch.  We'll be at our usual home - St Margaret's House, 21 Old Ford Road, London E2 9PL- 7.30pm for 8pm start.  Visitors are welcome - we just ask that you make a donation of £3 to cover expenses.   We'll provide tea and coffee, but do feel free to bring wine, cakes, nibbles to share.

We're trying something  different too for our coffee morning this month.  We'll be having a Cake Break for MS on Wednesday 25th April starting at 11am with our own pop-up tea room, hosted by me, at my wee house in Tredegar Terrace, E3 5AH.  Just look our for the bunting on the fence to find us.  Bakers especially welcome, with their homemade cakes to sell.

We'll also be selling cakes at the St George's day celebrations on 21st April at the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green from 11am - 4pm.  If you have not been before, it's a lovely fun day, with plenty of activities and entertainment for all the family.  We're just hoping that the weather warms up again by then.

Until then, have a Happy Easter.

news on the newsletter

Thanks for the positive comments on the new look newsletter.  We'll be sending out the next edition of the EEWI newsletter at the beginning of April.  BUT...if you are worried about not receiving last month's newsletter, don't worry we have not deleted you from our mailing list.  You may want to take a peek in your junk/ spam folder to see if the newsletter has ended up there, and mark it up as not junk/spam.   Just one of the little glitches of moving over to a new mailing system.  Sorry!

spring sprung

Benets

We were a little tempted to have ice cream at Benets on Friday, Annie, Stacey and me, but we managed to show some restraint.  We did have a lovely time chatting about this and that - the trials and tribulations of planning permission, how Google maps is not always as helpful as it might be, stepmothers in fairy tales, you know, that sort of thing.  Good coffee and tea too.

Spring crafting

It was a good ending to a busy week that saw the start of spring with a little crafting and lots of sun. Hope those of you who made posies at our meeting are still enjoying them and that you have remembered to water your bee-mixture paper pots.  Maybe it's not quite warm enough to sit out in the garden with your lanterns but if you have your hammers ready, and tins saved, at least you'll have a little time to make a whole lot more for the long evenings. The trick, apparently, is to fill the cans with water and freeze them before getting out your hammers and nails - and maybe best to use a less powerful hammer than the one in the picture here!

As ever thanks to everyone who shared their expertise and joined in the fun, especially Jo and Elizabeth and our friends from Phakama who led sessions, to Veronika, our lovely auction auditor, who made sure everyone who joined in went home with a bargain or two, and to Ruth who diligently collated promises of food and skills for the Edible Garden project.  And thanks too to all those behind the scenes who share the goodness, give up time and make our meetings happen.

Don't forget to let us know what you enjoy and what you want more or less of.  We want to know.  And I'll promise not to forget to post the info on what we're doing next.

Enjoy the sun this week... and don't forget to give your EEWI bag a trip out too if you can.

recipe for success

We had a great day at the International Women's Fair on Saturday.  Pretty cakes and biscuits. Excellent company. A laughter lesson. Origami birds. Sweet neighbours and visitors. A touch of crochet.

If you fancy having a go at the delicious cake Veronika made for the stall, take a look here.  And if you want to see more pictures of our day, take a look at our Facebook page.

truly, madly, inspired

If I looked a bit stressed on Tuesday, it was because I was worried about what had happened to our speaker.  While she was trying to get into St Margaret's House, we were wondering where she was.  We need not have worried at all, because Jean Fullerton proved to be a most resourceful woman.  We heard about her varied career moves and how a stress workshop when she was a nurse manager set her on the path to becoming an historical novelist.  And it turns out to be about more than dreaming up stories - you clearly have to be very determined to find the right voice, agent and publisher.  I don't think I was the only one in the audience to go home feeling inspired and energised - and with a surprise present for my mum too.  Jean - you are a heroine of the first order.

It was our turn to be left out in the cold on Friday because I forgot to check the time that the Whitechapel Gallery opened, so we had to wait for a while to get in.  Still, we did have time to discuss how we would fill the time if our speakers really did got lost.  Party games maybe?  It turned out to be worth the wait - a decent pot of tea, a touch of crochet and knitting (Annie's string bag is very nearly finished now, but Elizabeth may very well still be working on the wrapping on Heather's scarf), followed by a bit of high art in the Government Art Collection exhibition.

We meet next on 20th March for a bit of spring crafting, but check out our diary dates for what we're up to before then.  We'll be at the International Women's Fair at Spitalfields Market on 10th March, 10 - 5pm, with a cake stall.  If you are willing to bake or serve, do let us know via email or leaving a comment here.  Then on 17th March, we'll be joining in the Big Dig as part of the Edible Garden project.  More information to follow.

Make the most of the early spring weather until then.