Hi Alphas,<\/p>\n
Welcome to Alphaday 12, Season XI. This is the penultimate Alphaday of the season; do make the most of it. The last Alphaday is in only two weeks\u2019 time, 28th<\/sup> May. By then we\u2019ll have done a good job of summing up praise and criticism of this season and we\u2019ll already be waiting impatiently for the start of the 12th<\/sup> season.<\/p>\n The agenda has shrunk \u2013 as you\u2019d expect. All the same there are still some not to be sneezed at items, as follows:<\/p>\n These four items actually cover all our basic Alphaday activities; the only difference being that the challenges take up only one point instead of the usual three. Once I\u2019ve digested the results, I shall announce the name of the winner of our battered, much coveted, virtual Alpha Cup for Season XI. The highlight of the season!<\/p>\n Looking ahead to next season I\u2019m pleased to say that I\u2019ve received many encouraging offers of help. I\u2019ve also had some helpful suggestions from members and I feel very optimistic about our future activities.<\/p>\n Membership news:<\/u><\/p>\n You\u2019ll all be aware that the membership list had 18 names on it. Some of these members were \u2018sleeping partners\u2019 who for some reason were unable to take part in this season\u2019s activities and they\u2019ll be unfamiliar to some of our newer members.<\/p>\n On the whole, as an Alpha member, you\u2019ll want to be actively involved in everything. Our \u2018sleeping partners\u2019 were given that status for a while to allow them to keep up with events and slip in smoothly as soon as they were ready to continue.<\/p>\n Sally has been an active member since we started. She set up the web site in the very early days. She\u2019s a busy garden writer and she missed the whole of Season XI because there simply wasn\u2019t time. She\u2019s decided to make Alpha time next season, and I\u2019m sure those of us who know her are very happy to welcome her back.<\/p>\n Zena has also been with the group from the start. A combination of circumstances kept her away for most of this season. She\u2019s now ready to join in again and we look forward to her input.<\/p>\n Geoff will announce his departure (as you all know by now) and he\u2019ll be very sorely missed. A lot of us have enjoyed his wry take on challenges, his lively anecdotes about this and that over the years, his great sense of humour\u2026 and so on. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s ever missed a challenge since day one, and they\u2019ve all been so memorable that the famous Alpha (virtual) Cup has spent a couple of seasons adorning his mantelpiece.<\/p>\n Rachael has informed me that unfortunately she\u2019s unable to take part in Alpha next season. We\u2019re sorry she can\u2019t stay, but her work takes priority and that\u2019s understandable.<\/p>\n I\u2019m still waiting to hear from three members about next season.<\/p>\n So far we\u2019ve got twelve Alphas, all of whom are now seasoned members well past their newby infancy. That\u2019s a good, solid basis to start with and we\u2019ll easily make any newcomers feel at home.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve had lively email exchanges since last Alphaday. Please keep your comments coming about what you wouldn\u2019t or definitely would like to change. I\u2019ve jotted down a lot of useful suggestions and all your input is really helpful. I expect we\u2019re in for a very busy fortnight.<\/p>\n Then we got started on fairytales. Some of us love them in all their shapes and implications, and then they leave others cold. I find them fascinating.<\/p>\n Finally,<\/p>\n I keep thinking about the film The Artist. <\/em>He was so lovable even while he insisted on sticking to the glory of the past and refused to accept that things change. The silence was beautiful, but it turned into a nightmare of failure of communication. He wanted everyone to change to his outdated views. He nearly killed himself with all the pathos of melodrama, farce and slapstick that accompanies so many ordinary and extraordinary events\u2026 like elections where people promise to eat their hats and sulk and resign when they lose, or continue the battle for values that belong to past glory and ignore present troubles when they win.<\/p>\n That Jack Russell was the real star, though, wasn\u2019t he?<\/p>\n Christine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hi Alphas, Welcome to Alphaday 12, Season XI. This is the penultimate Alphaday of the season; do make the most of it. The last Alphaday is in only two weeks\u2019 time, 28th…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alphaday-bulletins","tag-alphaday-bulletins-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n