EMPRESS

Regional News

I hope you have all had an enjoyable summer and been able to get out and about more than the previous two years. Where is the furthest you have travelled this year? Do let Empress know if you have destinations you can recommend! Thanks to Sean Coltman of Leics for letting us know (via our East Midlands Mensa Facebook group) about his recent appearance on Bargain Hunt. It was enjoyable viewing. I won't say what happened in case you want to play catch up with the episode broadcast on 18th July!

If you've not managed to visit the seaside recently, please join us on Sunday 18th September when we are having a day out in Skegness. We did this last year and it was most enjoyable with a repeat requested. The format of the day will depend on who is interested but will include any or all of a visit to Natureland seal sanctuary and/or Skegness Aquarium, a stroll for ice cream on the pier, a walk through the Pleasure Beach (with a ride or two if you wish), viewing of the famous 'jolly fisherman' statue and clock tower, dinner before heading home. We'll meet at 11:00am to give everyone chance to get there. Get in touch and we'll devise an itinerary for the day. Our guest of honour will be Frank Forster who is the oldest member in our region and lives locally.

Don't forget the British Mensa Annual Gathering takes place in Southampton 21st-24th October. See www.mensa.org.uk for full details and feel free to use our Facebook group if seeking members to share transport or meet up with for the various events.

Maxine Bates

Regional Officer

Editorial

This month's edition features several good articles and due to the 8-page print limit, are all in Empress Extra. As you are all aware, the ugly spectre of GDPR cast its shadow over Mensa recently. Last month's edition was a very sad affair as a result and Maria had only a day to make the required changes. There is light at the end of the tunnel though. As I write this I have been advised that we can include contact details again. However, any meeting hosts who haven't submitted a form, giving permission to share details, will not be shown against the relevant entry. There is a link to the form on page 5 if you need to complete one. Also, we need to complete an image log for every picture!

Roy Latham

D H Lawrence Day

Birthplace museum and the bedroom where D H Lawrence was born

A Walk Through Colliers Wood

Maxine - In the Wash House - please, no comments!

On Saturday 23rd July I organised a "D H Lawrence Day" in my birth town of Eastwood in Nottinghamshire. A dozen members came along to one or more parts of the day and a great time was had by all in lovely weather. We started with a self-guided tour of the Birthplace Museum where the controversial author David Herbert Lawrence (known as Bert to his family) was born in 1885. This included a 12 minute video presentation, an exhibition room detailing his life, books and travels (he was very well travelled for that era) then wander through the rooms and backyard of the house still set out as in Victorian times. We even got to play with the dolly tub in the wash house! We lunched in Wetherspoons a few minutes walk away, aptly named The Lady Chatterley, and for the first time post-COVID were able to rearrange the tables so we could all sit together. At 2pm we returned to the Birthplace Museum to begin our stroll around the "Blue Line Trail" which passes the four homes where the author lived as well as locations he used as inspiration for his works. He based most of his novels on people and places from the area which is why he wasn't always popular in the town! As well as homes, churches, colliery buildings, inns and schools all connected to D H Lawrence, the group got a blast from my past too pointing out where I went to infant school (albeit a few years later than Mr Lawrence!) and where I was christened (the church where he met his first love Jesse Chambers but now an Iceland store!). After working off some calories on our four mile walk we replaced them with tea (and pina colada milkshakes!) and cake at the White Peacock tea room who stayed open just for us. It really was an enjoyable leisurely day and might well be repeated in the future for those unable to come along this time.

Maxine

Some feedback.....

"Nice lunch and good to see you all. Thanks for organising it."

"It was a really interesting and enjoyable day. Thanks for organising."

"Great day out. Thanks for arranging it all."

Heritage & Classic Vehicle Show

After a break due to the pandemic, the annual Heritage & Classic Vehicle Show took place in the Derbyshire town of Ilkeston on Sunday 14th August. Around a dozen members turned out in the scorching heat to peruse over 300 weird and wonderful vehicles. Although not everyone was in the same place at the same time and one member was manning a stall! The market place was full of vintage buses and motorbikes as well as some cars registered pre-1996. Many had the union flag on display in their windows in the form of a pennant or cushion, whilst others had an array of cuddly animals. In one car the back seat was piled high with all sorts of teddy bears! Many of the owners had propped open their bonnets so we could admire the shiny parts under it. The Rolls Royce Phantom 11 built in 1933 won the award for best car at the show and you could sit in it for a small donation to charity. You could also take a spin in several of the cars for charity too. Unfortunately you couldn't sit in either of the two Deloreans on display let alone achieve 88mph! One car park was filled with trucks and tractors whilst one street was full of steam engines of all sizes. There was also opportunity to have your photo taken with a Stormtrooper (I bet they were hot in that costume!) or to view the knitted scenes of Bible stories on display in the church. All very interesting. At 4pm vehicles began to leave so some of us grabbed a seat in a pub for much needed refreshment and enjoyed watching the parade. Thanks to Susan for hosting this lovely day out and to the couple of members who travelled from Sheffield to join us. Hopefully we can visit again in 2023.

Maxine

Bargain Hunt

Carol, Sean and presenter, Nick Hall

To be honest, I don't even remember applying to be on bargain hunt. I'm sure it was something that my friend, Carol, had thought up and volunteered us both for. In any case, after a while of thinking about it, I began to get quite excited and maybe a little carried away. I had visions of signing autographs and giving fans selfies.

We were asked to make a short video to introduce ourselves which we did injecting as much humour as we could. Well, they must've been quite impressed as it wasn't long before they called us for a phone interview. I can't remember the interviewer's name but she couldn't get a word in edgeways. She was impressed enough to later invite us to be on the show that was being recorded at Southwell.

Our first impression of Southwell was how freezing cold it was as we waited for the TV crew to arrive at dead o'clock in the morning. As soon as they arrived we were allowed in to what they call the green room, although it wasn't green at all. We were shown to a table which was to be our base for the day. The souvenirs had all been laid out on the table for us. Cups, keyrings and, most important of all, the bargain hunt jacket. We were the blue team.We immediately checked to see how much the jacket would be worth on eBay.

Most of the day was spent just hanging around really. There was plenty of coffee and Freddos available for us and lunch was provided. We had quite a posh menu to choose from and we both wondered if we could get away with having seconds, but we chickened out from asking. We whiled away the hours by swapping jokes and anecdotes with the other teams. The phrase of the day was Phil Mitchell's 'You're going down!!!'. I had brought magazines, but we were having such a fun time that I didn't need them. It really was a party atmosphere.

Eventually, it was Carol's and my turn to go down to the sales room where we were introduced to the crew. We even had a gofer running around for us as well, poor guy. We were shown the stopwatch and suddenly the nerves took hold, but not for long. After about 10 minutes of recording, it started to feel just like my dad following us around with a video camera. We were starting to enjoy it.

We were told to act surprised when we were introduced to our expert, so when Nick Hall jumped up from behind one of the tables we pretended to be shocked. We may have overacted our part. I'm sure it looked more like Janet Leigh's shower scene in psycho.

We picked up bits and pieces that we thought might be interesting and pretended that we knew what we were doing. Nick was always very keen to give us his appraisal. Sometimes I would only accidentally touch something, and Nick would give us his appraisal. He was very interesting for the most part but sometimes some of the things he said would go straight over my head. Carol and I had only a vague idea of what we were really doing and were relying on Nick to tell us everything we needed to know. If we were going to make a profit though it would be more by accident than design.

We got to a point where we had about 10 minutes left and had bought two of the three items we needed. A little bit of panic was starting to set in. We were ready to buy just about anything to tick the third box. Luckily, we found it a couple of tiny little vases with a silver trim. Relief!

With the job done, we were allowed to go back upstairs to the green room and it was the end of the day. We nicked a few Freddos and went home.

It was weeks before we got to record the final part of the show, the auction. It was at a beautiful hotel in Nottinghamshire, miles from anywhere even Google could find. A very posh hotel not too far from a carvery we'd spotted.

We were shown up to the new green room where, again, we were expecting to spend most of the day. Before we had even introduced ourselves to the other teams we were looking for Freddos and checking out how clean the toilets were.

We quickly made friends with the other teams, especially the couple behind us. Just as we'd become acquainted, they started to call the teams down to the auction room one by one. Even then, it would be a few hours before Carol and I were called down and we were worrying as there was nothing in the room that resembled a lunch. Eventually, Carol and I were called and we waved the other teams goodbye as they shouted 'You're going down!!'. We felt like we were boarding the Titanic.

Carol and I reached the auction room door, and were both nervous and excited as we chitchatted. The door opened, and the head poked round. 'Can you be a bit quieter please' We are doing sound checks ?. Well, we didn't expect that did we. A few minutes later, the door opened again, and we were allowed inside, given a few instructions as to where to stand, how to behave and when we should open and close our mouths.

Recording started just before we saw the auctioneer appear on the screen. We were told to be as enthusiastic as we could and we began. The first lot didn't go as well as we would've liked, but it didn't matter because we were enjoying ourselves anyway. The second lot came up and that was even more disappointing and the third went the same way. No matter, Nick had spent all remaining money on a fourth and optional auction piece, a lovely brooch. Actually, it went down quite well at the auction and we had redeemed ourselves a little. We ended up losing about £45 of the BBC's reddies, but as the other team had fared a little worse, we had won the day. None of our losses had made any difference to our enjoyment of the experience. We'd had such a laugh.

The final day of recording had ended and Carol and I picked up our bits and pieces and made our way to that carvery that we'd seen on the way to commiserate each other for our losses and congratulate each other for our win.

Sean Coltman

Marlow Boat Trip

Boat trip on the river at Marlow followed by a meal at Cote Brasserie.

Val Hinkins

Treasure Trail

On Friday 29th July ten Mensans travelled from far and wide to meet in Stoke Bruerne in Northants. Our first event was one of the popular professionally compiled treasure trails that took us in teams around the pretty village covering around two miles in two hours. Having all solved the trail correctly we enjoyed a celebratory lunch in the lovely canalside Boat Inn. We then headed across the water to visit the small canal museum and noticed that the final narrowboat trip of the day would be leaving shortly. Some headed home whilst others hopped aboard 'Charlie' for a short cruise along the Grand Union canal and into Blisworth tunnel. Wanting to take advantage of the good company and beautiful weather some of us purchased refreshments and sat outside the cafe to continue chatting. A wonderful way to spend the day and many thanks to Ian Sargent for organising it all.

Maxine

20 Questions (No. 251)

The answers to the July competition were Belarus, boxing, +380, Yalta, hryvnia, bread basket, Mila Kunis, Hoverla, 7, Paddington, 1991, 22nd January, 3, beetroot, Yana Klochkova, 26th April 1986, common nightingale, eggs, sunflower oil and Mariinskyi Palace. Disappointing that not many entries this month - have we all forgotten the conflict in Ukraine already? - but well done to Nigel Bryant of Bedford who wins the £10 One4All gift card.

Nigel won't win this month as he has compiled the quiz! Answer the first 19 questions and number 20 will be the connection! Send your answers to arrive by 20th September by post to '20 Questions (No. 251)', British Mensa, Deansgate, 62-70 Tettenhall Road, Wolverhampton WV1 4TH or by email to [Email] for your chance to win. Don't forget to include your name and address!