2020

13 Jan This was our first meeting of the year. The weather was really wet but still 22 people attended which included 4 new members. Kay's lip reading session concentrated on the lip shape of the letter "w". This was followed by a social gathering over a cup of tea as because of the time of year the Group does not have a speaker or formal activity after the first meeting..

 

2019

9 Dec As always the culmination of the year was our annual Christmas Lunch. This was held in the Yvonne Arnoud theatre dining room this year and was attended by 34 members and their guests. It was an excellent lunch much enjoyed by all of us and our Chairman is congratulated on finding such a good venue following the closure of the Millmead Centre. This may be the last entry on this web site as there are plans affoot to expand and update it. However next years programme is shown for convenience so that members are aware of the future.

Nov 11 24 members were present. Having just past BonFire night the lip reading lesson concentrated on words and phrases beginning with the lip shape for B and F (fuff). This was followed by a very interesting talk on ballooninng. 

Oct 28 As the author was away information on this meeting is awaiting

Oct 14 20 people were in attendance. The meeting was a change to that originally programmed as it was felt that we should get used to the premises before inviting Alison Ellman- brown to give us her annual lesson which this year covered our Judo Gold Medalist who has Ashers desease and is an example to all of us who are disabled..  

September 23 Once again attendance at the new venue was in the twenties. After the lip reading session we had an intteresting talk on sine language which covered both the history, finger spelling which both the hard of hearing and deaf use and some of the basic signs.

September 9. 22 members attended our first meeting at the new venue, St Catherine's Village hall. The lip reading session brought us back to basics by reminding us what lip reading was all about. This was followed by a beetle session which fittingly was won by Martyn who had done so much to ensure that the loop system installed was compatible with our needs. The Chairman won the booby prize which was unfair after all her work to ensure a smooth move! 

August 12. 29 members attended what was planned as a social event. The meeting commenced with a presentation by our Chairman on the results of the questionaire which had been circulated regarding our web site. Members were then consulted on the plans being made for its upgrade. This was followed by a tea which gave members a chance to chat amongst themselves. 

July 22 Unfortunately the Group outing planned for this date had to be cancelled

July 8 27 members attended the meeting. Kay's presentation covered the vowel shape "air". This was followed up by a talk on Marriane North her travels and paintings. As this was our last meeting at Millmead due to refurbishment we took the opportunity to make a presentation to the caretaker Rod and his coleagues who have done so much to ensure all our meetings ran smoothly.

June 24  20 members were present for Kay's  lip reading session concentrating on the importance of context when trying to understand what is being said.  Given how much we also have to take in on facial expressions and body language it is no wonder we find lip-reading so challenging.   Wendy Scott then talked to us about the work of  Sight for Surrey for those who have some hearing loss or are profoundly deaf.   Her colleagues also brought along their Sensory Bus  so that we could experiment with a number of technological aids.

 

June 10 24 members attended. Lip reading covered the vowel groups "ee and oo" which were illustrated in a shopping list which in turn would have caused some confusion were the items actually purchased from the list lip read by some members! This was followed by a very interesting talk on the Kent,Surrey and Sussex air ambulance. 

May 13 As the compiler was on holiday and is gathering information about this meeting he has no detail available at present.

Apr 8 28 members attended. The lip reading session was particularly challenging as it covered "s" and "z" both lip shapes that are difficult to distinguish. This was followed by a talk on the origin of the Streets of Guildford.  

Mar 25 27 members attended. The lip reading session practised members ability to lip read by presenting them with six words in "lip speak" all of which were associated with an occasion from which members were invited to say what was the occasion. This was followed by a presentation from Vanessa Scott with her hearing support dog Ellis outlining what he does for her and the training of the dogs.

Mar 11 Only 16 members were able to attend the AGM though many apologies were given details of which will be recorded in the minutes. Prior to the AGM the lip reading lesson covered much used phrases and the difficulty to lip read  "n,t,and d".

Feb 28 26 members attended. The lip reading consolidated on the last lesson adding "ge" "ion" and "su" to the "ch" sound all of which are similar as a lip shape. This was followed by a talk on China Beyond the wall. 

Feb 11 27 members attended the meeting. The lip reading class covered "ch" "g" where g is soft and the affect of having "r" after thees lip shapes. These lip shapes are so similar the need to "read" the rest of the sentence before being sure of what the lip reader saw was emphasised. This was followed by a talk on "the life of  Grime" which covered the life of an Health inspector in the mid part of the 1960's.  

Jan 28 32 members attended the meeting. The lip reading revised the pbm lipshapes and finger spelling from last week and covered "r" both as a stand alone letter or coupled with p&b. This was followed by an excellent presentation from Dr Anna Peplar Deputy head of RSCH audiology answering the many general queries members had submitted regarding hearing aids and the decision to issue Phonak though Oticon aids will still be avilable and supported.

Jan 14 The first meeting of the year was attended by 26 people including 3 new members. The meeting openned with quite a lot of notices of which the most important was an appeal to help with running of the the tea roster. It was followed by a lip reading lesson which included a considerable amount of class activity and finger spelling. After a tea break members had a chance to catch up with one another on their Christmas break activities.

2018

Dec 10 Christmas lunch was attended by 42 members and their guests. Official Guests included the Mayor, Mike Parsons,Tracy Wade and partner Simon plus our two resident lip reading teachers. In his welcoming speech the Deputy Chairman explained that this lunch was a celebration of the Groups 70th year during which time much support had been given to us by the Mayor's office. The Chairman closed the lunch by thanking the Chef on behalf of us all for yet again cooking an excellent meal.   

Nov 26 22 members attended the meeting. The lip reading continued with the "fuff" lip shape. This was followed by short stories made up of photographs of wild life supported by music.

Nov 19 The fifth lesson of the Hearing loss manament course covered the vowel grouping

Nov 12 32 members attended the meeting. The lip reading covered "f and v" the  "fuff" lip shape. This was followed by an excellent talk on computer security which did much to spell out the precautions members can take to ensure they are not easily compromised.

Nov 5 the fourth course lesson which covered the various agencies whom the hard of hearing can contact for help and advice. Also the Chairman explained the roups library and its function.

Oct 29 The third of the course lessons which covered equipment.

Oct 22nd 26 members attended. The lip reading session covered further work on "pbm". This was followed by a talk o collecting "Treen". The heading itself caused cofusion amongst members some of whom initially thought it was a misprint in the programme!

Oct 15 The 2nd session of the Managing Hearing loss course covered travel which was appropriate as the train to Guildford was delayed causing significant difficulty for our lip reading teacher.

Oct 9 23 people were in attendance. The lip reading session covered the confusion caused when lip reading "pbm" with particular emphasis on words using "p". This was followed by a beetle session which was won by the Chairman.

Oct 1 The first lesson of the annual Managing Hearing loss course commenced today. The course was attended by 6 new membesr plus 3 existing members who were attending the course again and providing assistance. 

Sep24 27 members were in attendance including 2 new people. The lip reading lesson was a revision based on the holiday activities that members might have undertaken during the summer teaching break. This was followed by a very interesting talk on the Topuddle Martyrs.

Sep 10 24 people attended. In her introduction to the meeting the Chairman drew member's attention to "Stories forlipreading.org.uk" which enables people to practise lip reading at home. The entire session was then taken by our guest lip reading teacher who based the lesson around reading "p,b,m" lip shape and the Charity "Big Issue" 

Aug 13 20 people attended.There was no lip reading this time as the teachers were on a well earned holiday. Instead we had a session on looking at how we who are hard of hearing can help ourselves. 

July 9 29 people attended despite the heat. The lip reading concentrated on the lip shape of "Eye" and was folowed up with some revision of finger spelling. After the tea break the talk was on Pollen and it's various shapes depending on the source.

June 25 22 people attended on one of the hottest days of the year. The lip reading lesson revolved around the the lip shape "SEE". This was followed by a talk on "the Victorian Gardener".

June 11 25 people were in attendance. As Kay our teacher had just return from a holiday the lesson revolved around lip reading the items she had packed of which undoubtably 'American Currency' proved to be the hardest to lip read. This was followed by a talk on travel in a camper van around Australia.

May 14 21 People attended. Our resident teacher Kay was away celebrating her 70th.  Tracy Wade kindly stood in for her. The lip reading exercise covered colours. This was followed by a talk on the history of weather forecasting. 

23 April 30 people attended. The lip reading covered the sound of a soft "C"letter actually spelt by the letter "S" also when the same letter appears at the end of a word and is sounded "Zzz"! This was followed up by a talk on the Guildford's "Rock and Roll Years".

9 Apr 22 people attended.The lip reading session covered the sound "Huh" (letter H). This was followed by a beatle drive.

26 March 24 people attended. The lip reading lesson covered the sound "CUH" - (letters hard C G CK) . This was followed by an interesting talk on the Venetian connection.

12 March 31 peole attended. The lip reading lesson concentrated on the value of body language and jestures when lip reading. This was followed by the AGM which was marked by the deputy Mayor of Guildford making a presentation to the out going Group Secretary and Chairman.. 

26 Feb 19 people braved the cold weather and snow showers. After the lip reading session they were treated to a talk covering "songs of the sea" which proved to be a lively session with audience participation. 

Feb12 23 people attended the meeting. The lip reading covered the lip shape of the sound "L" depending on the position of the letter within the word. This was followed by a talk from the Oticon rep based around the quetsions the Group had submitted to her prior to the meeting. 

Jan 22 27 members attended the meeting which continued from the last lesson by exploring the lipshape of the letter "W". This was followed by a talk illustrated by slides covering wild Surrey.

Jan 11 Another New year! 22 members attended the meeting which was confined to the lipreading session followed by a social chin wag afterwards. This was to enable members to get home before the worst of the dark night falls. The lip reading covered the lip shape formed by "wh" and "qu" which though sounding different have an identical lip shape. The lesson further explored the new words now coming into the English dictionary. Many of these have grown up by usage  within the youger generation and without knowledge of there existance it will prove even harder for the older generation who are hard of hearing to use the context to help understand a conversation.  

2017

Dec11 36 members attended the Christmas lunch which this year was held at the Riverside sweet in the Millmead Centre. Everyone really enjoyed the meal which despite limited facilities in the kitchen was served hot and was beautifully cooked.  It was a really fitting end to the Groups year and our thanks go out to all those who contributed.

Dec 4 This was the last lesson in the Management of Hearing Loss Course which covered the vowel greouping.

Nov 27 21 members attended the meeting. The lip reading session covered "th" a tongue movement rather than that of the lips. This was followed by a slide show supported by a commentary on how the many beautiful shots of wild life, which have been seen in previuos talks, have been taken by Geoff Lunn.

 Nov 20 The formal lesson on 6 Nov did not take place due to disruption of rail travel. The lesson this time covered equipment available to support those who are Hard of Hearing and where both to view or purchase ones needs.

Nov 13 27 members attended. The lip reading lesson covered the two almost identical shapes of "f" and "v (verf)". It was followed by a talk given by a Water aid volunteer who had carried out a parachute jump to help raise funds for the cause. 

Oct 30 Panic set in at the start of the 3rd lesson as it appeared that only 5 of us were in attendance. Fortunately very quickly we increased to 8 and later a new member arrived having had difficulty finding the Centre. The lesson covered agencies available to provide us with support and how best to handle ourselves when in a group.

Oct 18 The second lesson of Managing Hearing Loss course covered the problems for the hard of hearing when travelling and various ways of overcoming these. All 9 members who had signed up to the course were present.

9 Oct 19 people attended. The lip reading session continued on from the last lesson covering the "pbm" group of letters and included a visit to Kay's cafe where members were invited to take orders from one another from a menu all including "pbm" inclusive food. Great fun and instructive. This was followed by a "Beetle" session.

2 Oct The Managing Hearing Loss Course commenced with the first lesson covering the Lip speak alphabet.  Disappointinglyonly 7 people were able to attend due to some students who were away on holiday. 

25 Sep 22 people attended. The lip reading session commenced with the group lip reading the various items stocked in a french super market as "what was essential to the British". This concentrated on the PBM lip shape. It was followed by lip reading the history of Big Ben. After the tea break a talk was given on the loss of the Submarine Affray. 

Sep 11 25 people attended. The session in Sep is always taken by Alison Ellmer-Brown as our regular teacher is away. Her lesson this year ranged around a picture painted by Morgan Penn of seven elderly men who had served in the second world war. The groups task was to read the description of each and their exploits as Alison mouthed them. As usual it became an interesting and entertaining lesson.

Aug 14 26 members attended what was a social meeting only. This enabled us to have six tables of Beetle. After each game winners and loosers moved table so ensuring good contact. It was a much enjoyed afternoon.

July  19 This was our annual group outing. 28 members had booked on the trip unfortunately one had a fall 2 days beforehand and had to call it off and one felt that the intense heat would be too much so in all 26 attended the trip to Hever Castle. We were very lucky as it was the first day that the heat wave broke leaving us with cooler but dry weather. Hever Castle offers something for every ones taste whether it be viewing the old castle building, the gardens or just chilling out in the cafes. As a result all enjoyed the visit. 

July 10 . 26 members attended. The lip reading session practised the class working in pairs. This was followed by an interesting talk on the history of books covering the methods of binding used throughout the ages.

June 26 21 people attended. The lip reading session covered numbers of which 8 and 9 on the lips are almost indistinguishable. This was followed by a talk on cochlea implants given by Lisa for whom it transformed her quality of life. Hopefully her experience will encourage some of our members who though advised that an implant is their next option are reluctant to undertake the operation. 

 

June 12 17 members attended. The lip reading lesson covered colours many of which are different when spoken but alike on the lips eg Red/Green/Grey. This was followed by a beetle drive which was much enjoyed. Margaret won and also had the best picture of a beetle, not a prerequisite for the winners prize!

May 22 21 members attended. The lesson covered the sound of the letters "s" "z". This was followed by a most interesting talk on Tudor palaces.  

May 14 6 members took part in the annual Sponsored charity walk run by Guildford Rotary and the Surrey advertiser. This year we entered two teams one tackled the 10K walk and the other the new 5K walk. This annual walk is one of the most important funds raising events for the Group. 

May 8  28 members attended. This week Kay covered the letters c,k,g. This was followed by a talk on the weather which as illustrated with some excellent slides of cloud formation and sunsets.

 April 27 24 members attended. Kay addressed the problem of lip reading homophone words which like the previous lessons covering letters that can be read in more than one way emphasised the importance of looking at the context of the rest of the sentence to deduce what was said. The lesson was followed by a talk on local Surrey villages illustrated by early picture post cards compared with todays photographs.

Apr 10 26 members attended same number as before but not all the same people! The lesson this time covered H another letter of the lip reading alphabet which does not have a readily described shape. The lesson was followed by a talk on the design of the Issigonis Mini. 

Mar 27 26 members attended. Kay followed her lesson on the invisible letters T D N by demonstrating how difficult they were to read when used at the end of a word such couldn't. Her lesson was followed by a presentation by Bob Hughes the CEO of Sight for Surrey on their new role of administrating the SCC contract for support to Hard of Hearing. 

Mar 13 30 people met for the AGM which was held post the lip reading session where Kay practised the Group on how to overcome the difficulty of reading the 3 "invisible" letters in the lip reading alphabet, D N and T. 

Feb 27 27 members attended. Kay's lesson was rather different this time. We were asked to lip read various connecting items with the view to recognising the importance of using one item to help clarify what you thought you had read previously. This was followed by a talk on Ethyl Smyth the composer, author and musician who was a local to Guildford. 

Feb 13 37 members attended the meeting. The lip reading was taken by Anita who carried on from Kay's lesson covering the "r" sound. This was followed by a talk from Oticon (who supplies hearing aids to our local trust) which explained what we can expect from our aid and what is available now if we have wireless compatible aids fitted. We have agreed that it should be followed up next year probably with a question and answer session. 

Jan 23 The meeting was attended by 30 people which included a new member. Kay our lip reading teacher was unable to take the class so the Chairman practised the class in finger spelling thanks to a lesson plan provided by Kay. This was followed by a talk on Alan Turing entitled "Guilford's best kept secret".

The first meeting of the year was on January 9th when 27 members attended. This included three new members who were made welcome. The lip reading revolved around the word Fare and the many other words that appear the same without context. It was an enjoyable wake up session!

2016

12 Dec 38 members including guests sat down for our Christmas lunch at Weybourne House which proved to be a very enjoyable way of ending the year. 

5 Dec 10 members attended the last lesson of the course which covered  positioning ones self in a room. 

28 Nov 28 members attended.The Chairman opened the meeting by informing members that Councilor Goodwin had agreed with SCC that a grant of £348.00 should be paid to us to cover the cost of the Managing Hearing Loss course. This was much appreciated. This was the last meeting before Christmas and Kay went through her shopping list to exercise us on the "ch" sound.

21 Nov The fifth lesson covered advice about travel. It was attended by 10 members. As the Chairman apologised in advance for his absence from the next lesson the Group were ask for comments on the syllabus. The general opinion was that it was about right.

14 Nov Have you noticed the change in our Logo? Julian opened the meeting by thanking Heather for her work on the Logo which was has been incorporated into the reprint of our welcome pack. 19 members attended the meeting.

 24 members attended. Kay started the lesson describing without speech an item she had brought along with her for the meeting. The only clue we had was that it was topical. She gave us about ten facts describing the item. Most of us identified it prior to the final clue. It was a poppy. The lesson ended with us working in pairs to practice lip reading someone other than Kay. 

7 Nov The fourth lesson of the course covered vowel grouping. Due to illness of 2 new members only 9 attended this session.

31 Oct The third lesson of the course covered aids and organisations providing support for hard of hearing. 11 members attended. 

24 Oct 24 members attended Kay's class which consolidated on her previous lesson covering recognition of words with pbm in them. This was followed by an interesting talk on edible food found in the countryside. It did contain a health warning that you need to know what you are picking!

17 Oct The second lesson of the course covered equipment and was  attended by 14 members

Oct 10 19 people attended on what was a perfect, beautiful marvelous autumn day. This time the lesson practiced the problem of recognising the words with pbm all of which have the same lip shape.

Oct 5 The Hon Chairman attended the Volunteer day at Surrey University with Sight for Surrey. Our aim was to recruit a host/ess for the Deaf Social Group which meets at the Keep every last Wednesday of the month. (See Link). There was some interest in the display but time will tell whether we obtain a volunteer!

Oct 3 Was the first lesson of our managing Hearing Loss Course which was attended by 14 members. The lesson covered the lip reading alphabet.

Sep 24 24 members attended the meeting. Kay started the meeting by asking us what we most associated with autumn. Many of these used the lipshape f and v recognition of which was the subject of the lesson. 

Sep 10 8 members attended the "national Tea party" hosted by the Epsom Group. This was a gathering of the remaining group members of our founders the Middlesex and Surrey League.

Aug 8 20 members attended attended. The first half of the meeting was devoted to OJT of finger spelling. It was easy for some and new for others. This was followed by an excellent talk on the history of Heathrow. Little did the speaker and chairman know when they planned the talk last year that we still would not know it's future!

July 20th 30 members and friends visited Greys Court on what was one of the warmest days of the year. Despite the heat the general verdict was that it is a lovely venue which everyone enjoyed.

July 11 21 members attended the meeting which was taken by Anita Cooper as Kay our regular teacher was away. Anita consolidated the last series of lessons on vowels. Tony Edens followed with a talk on A history of aids to hearing which illustrated that the problem went back to BC.

June 27 26 members attended including one new member who visited us following the street collection. The lip reading session studied the lip shape "a" and then drew together all the other vowel shapes we had covered in previous sessions. This was followed by an interesting talk on the charity work being done to rescue dogs within Romania

June 17. Some members took part in our annual street collection in Guilford High Street. Thanks to the generosity of the town we raised £134.08 which will help toward the cost of running the club. In addition we were able to promote our work to members of the public which resulted in a new member attending the meeting on 27 June.

June 13 25 members attended the lip reading session which cover the phonetic sounds of the letters "ou" and "o". After the break for tea we had an interesting talk entitled "Round the world in a Vulcan Bomber".

May 23 24 members attended the lip reading session which after having to read some phrases "out of the Blue" then concentrated on the letters "ou". This was followed by an interesting talk on the history of water cress from a local grower.

May 15 7 members took part in the Surrey Advertiser and Rotary sponsored walk, which due to the efforts of members resulted in us raising some £426 for the Group.

May 9 27 members attended. Following last weeks study of a vowel the letter O was covered this time. This was followed by a presentation on the activities of Kent Surrey Sussex Air Ambulance which was given by Bertie Newton. The talk generated much interest and many questions.

Apr 25 24 members attended. The lip reading session covered the lip shape of the letter E to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's 90th birthday. This was followed by an excellent talk on "bottle and bygones" given by the local historian David Rose

Apr 11 25 members attended in our temporary new location at the URC Guildford. The lip reading revised lip shapes and practised finger spelling. This was followed by a Video made by Geoff Lunn of Gambia which contained some fantastic wild life photography.

Mar 14 24 members attended the AGM which followed lip reading tuition covering the "th" lipshape. In addition the Group had an interesting discussion on how to react to someone who was not prepared to recognise that they were talking to a person who was hard of hearing a condition which was aptly described as a "hidden disability".  

Feb 24 Meeting of the Guildford Hard of Hearing Committee, after which some members joined others in the Keep Pub for the last Wednesday of the month social gathering. (see link: "Meet at Keep") 

February 28 28 members attended. The lip reading session covered the "CH" sound after which the Group had a very interesting talk on the History of Weather Forecasting. 

February 8  24 members attended this time. After our lip reading session they received an interesting talk on the Rural life at the start of 20th century, which was illustrated by early picture postcards.

27 January As this was the last Wednesday of the month some members of the Group joined others in the Keep Pub Castle Street Guildford for a social gathering (see link; "Meet at Keep). 

January 32 members met for the lip reading session covering the letter "W" which was followed by an interesting talk on the "history of Bavaria and Germany" which was given by a member of the group.

11 January was the first meeting this year. 23 people attended the lip reading class which after tea was followed by a social gathering to enable members to exchange their memories of Christmas and the New year

2015 Year End

The year 2015 ended with an excellent Christmas lunch in the Park restaurant at the Guildford Technical College which was attended by 43 members. The meal was cooked and served by the students at the College.