This page contains a record of our meetings and news and activities from 2020 to 2022 including our activities during the Covid period. For current news please visit our News page.
2022
Twenty-five of us enjoyed our annual Christmas Lunch on 15 December at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. This is an ideal venue for us as the carpeted floor makes it easier to hear each other.
The second meeting for November on 28, covered a detailed look at distinguishing the consonants p, b,and m. After tea, Chris Shaw took us through an entertaining overview of the different sorts of codes that we encounter in our daily lives, from road signs to the plant pots on our window sills.
November 14 was Part Two of our Managing Hearing Loss course starting off with how to deal with groups of mouth shapes that look identical. After tea we embarked on the basics of the shapes of vowel sounds. In terms of lipreading there are over 40 different vowel sounds to recognise!
The meeting on 24 October began as usual with lipreading practice. After the tea break, Jenny Nickolds talked to us about her trip to Macchu Pichu. Her pictures of the walking trail were brilliant, and quite a few of us have added this to our bucket lists!
The meeting on 10 October was Part One of our Managing Hearing Loss Course which is being run in-house by our trainee lipreading tutor, Liz. We were introduced to the lip shapes for consonants, and, after the tea break we looked at the finger spelling alphabet.
Our meeting on 26 September began with a session on the mouth shapes for the sounds “f” and “v”, and comparing them with those for “p”, “b” and “m”. After the tea break, Dr Judy Hill treated us to one of her beautiful illustrated lectures - this time, her subject matter was the Kill or Cure nature of the Victorian Pharmacy. It is a miracle anyone survived the nineteenth century at all.
The Autumn began with our meeting on 12 September. Lipreading concentrated on the shape of p, b, and m which are notoriously difficult to distinguish. To mark the new inclusive models, Liz gave us a de-voiced presentation of Barbie and her hearing aid. After the tea break, Martyn and Julian introduced some useful things to be found on smartphones. This was an introduction to technology, and we hope will be followed up with further sessions in forthcoming months.
Our final meeting before the August break began as usual with lipreading practice given by Liz and following on from Kay’s lesson the previous month. After the break Doreen ran a Beetle Drive. The first since before Covid which was hilarious as usual.
On 13 July, 16 of our members met for tea at Winkworth Arboretum. The catering staff at the kiosk made us very welcome, providing a shaded spot for us to sit in and an excellent cream tea! We also collected £17.25 for our favourite Charity - Hearing Dogs for Deaf People Click hear for more details
Our regular meeting on 27 June began with the usual lipreading practice. Kay continued working on the OA and OW sounds and rounded it off with exercises using the words House and Home. After the tea break, Dr Anna Pepler of the Audiology department of the Royal Surrey County Hospital brought us up to date with the current arrangements for hearing tests and repairs to hearing aids. The discussion in the question and answer session was vigorous!
Our Jubilee Party on 13 June was enjoyed by 20 members. Particular thanks go to Vanessa, Jean and Martyn for organising the food, and to Kay for the Right Royal Quiz which went down very well.
Lipreading on 23 May was all about the sounds “OA” and “OW”. In practicing these shapes we also identified the mystery object - a tin of cocoa powder. Later on Louise Camby treated us to a terrific talk all about the natural history of bees - honey or otherwise, and the wonderful properties of honey, royal jelly, propolis and beeswax.
Three of us turned out for the Annual Rotary/Surrey Advertise sponsored walk on 15 May, and raised over "£200 for Group funds.
On 9 May, Kay compared the shapes “ee” and “oo” in the lipreading session, ending up with a list of the rules for playing Pooh sticks! Members of Sight for Surrey demonstrated gadgets that can help around the home and talked about their assessment service.
On 25 April, train tutor Liz gave us a session about St George concentrating on the “aw” shape. After the tea break, Group member Jean gave us a slide show of her travels in Israel.
Lipreading on 11 April was devoted to the “ee” shape with exercises about Easter and Easter island. Afterwards, local historian David Rose showed how the arrival of the train line caused Guildford to expand rapidly with new housing development. A process which seems to be never-ending.
On 28 March lipreading was followed by a presentation given by member Ted who showed us the website. He uses it a lot to document how accessibale places are to those who use wheelchairs or have to manage buggies.
The theme of the lipreading on 14 March was colours, practising phrases with colours in them, and comparing the lookalikes red/grey/green which are difficult to tell apart. The AGM followed.
After lipreading on 28 February, Paul Whitle made a very welcome return visit with a talk about Gibraltar.
St Valentine’s Day was the theme of our lipreading session on 14 February. Afterwards we spent time catching up with our news, batteries and tube repairs.
2022 With the number of Covid infections soaring, the meeting on 11 January was cancelled. But on 24 January we met as usual with a general chatter and news swapping after the lipreading.
2021
Just before the Covid lockdown set in again, we had our Christmas lunch on 13 December at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. We were very pleased to welcome the Mayor of Guildford.
Lipreading on 25 November continued looking at “th” and was followed by Jonathathon Jones’ Anthology of Christmas poetry and prose.
The meeting on 8 November began with a lipreading session on the “th” shape and how it changes depending on whether it is soft or loud in the word. Afterwards Group member Martyn gave an illustrated talk on the history of transport between London and Portsmouth starting with pre-historical times, through byways, canals and railways to the present A road.Lipreading on 28 June was devoted to “s/z/ks” mouth shapes which are difficult to tell apart. Discussion on asking speakers to remove their sunglasses so we can read their whole faces.
Our lipreading session on 25 October was devoted to observing facial expressions and body language as part of the process. Sophie Fryer, of Hats Off to Millinery demonstrated the basic features of hat making. She brought along lots of different examples for us to try on.
11 October continued with lipreading practice recapping the “f “ and “v” shapes and looking at “fr” and “fl” shapes. Our trainee lipreading tutor Liz made her debut appearance during this session. This was also the first meeting back with a visiting speaker. Joanna Foate gave us a talk about the work (very hard, physical, work) undertaken by the women of the Forestry Volunteers during WWII, who came to be known as “Lumberjills”. To add colour to her talk Joanna came dressed in their original uniform.
Our meeting on 27 September was great fun. Our lipreading session looked at the shapes for “p”, “b” and “m” which can cause a lot of confusions. After a break for our refreshments, we held an informal Bingo Session compered by John. Much more successful than the online version at Christmas!
We resumed our regular meetings on 13 September observing anti-Covid precautions. We began with a gentle lipreading session, designed by our tutor Kay to ease us gently back into the habit. We all all brought our own refreshments, and the tea break break was quite extended. People were catching up in a very relaxed way, and were able to get batteries from Doreen and hearing aid repairs done by John. We also had a visitor from HealthWatch Surrey, and quite a few people sat with her to talk about their experiences of the health and social care services during the pandemic.
Our last online lipreading session in this series was held on 25 July. We looked at the shapes for “sh/ch/j and jh”. Discussed the benefits of practicing lipreading using the website at www.storiesforlipreading.org.uk.
On 14 July, a dozen of our most intrepid members met up at Winkworth Arboretum for tea and a chat, and a few even made it down to the lake. Between us we raised £80 to donate to Hearing Dogs for Deaf people.
Lipreading on 28 June was devoted to “s/z/ks” mouth shapes which are difficult to tell apart. Discussion on asking speakers to remove their sunglasses so we can read their whole faces.
On 24 May the session looked at recognising numbers, the pitfalls, and techniques for checking accuracy
(Covid Restrictions beginning to be lifted so fewer people were signing up for lipreading online. )
Lipreading sessions on 12 and 26 April concentrated on the tongue movement of the letter L. We practiced “laugh” phrases, and words ending in “ly”
Our AGM was held online on 15 March 2021. All votes were made by proxy. 21 members sent in proxy forms, thereby securing a quorum, and 14 of them even made it to the online session.
The online lipreading sessions for March worked on the “r” shape again - especially where it falls in the middle of the word.
Another historic first for the Group on 15 February. Paul Whittle gave an online presentation entitled Burmese Days, brought bang up to date with current events in Myanmar. It was very good to have an overview of how this country has got where it has.
8 and 22 February online lipreading sessions were devoted to the “f” and “v” shapes. Again very similar comparing fast with vast and figure with vicar for example.
At the start of 2021 our online lipreading sessions on 11 and 25 January looked at the “w” and “kw” shapes. Very difficult to tell them apart as in water/quarter , white/quite where the context of the sentence is crucial.
2020
Our online Christmas meeting on 14 December was great fun. 14 people joined in and we enjoyed lipreading Christmas Cracker jokes. The Bingo session would probably work better in face to face setting.
9 November saw the first of our online lipreading sessions. For practical reasons we have to limit the number of participants to 6. This was experimental, but the session went well. Kay introduced the lip-shape “r” and we practiced reading phrases including words like room. This was a success, and bodes well for future sessions. The plan is to hold them on second and fourth Mondays in the month at 2 pm in the New Year.
Monday 12 October was a historic date for the Group. The Committee met online using GoogleMeet, to plan how to use the pandemic as an opportunity to try new ways of keeping in touch with our members. The meeting included a taster lipreading session, as a result of which , two pilot sessions would be run before Christmas.
Some of us got out in the countryside on 6 September to walk the six mile route of the Surrey Advertiser/Rotary sponsored walk that normally runs in May. We had with us a member of Guildford Natural History Group who kept us entertained with all sorts of nature notes, including how badgers mark their territory! Along the way we raised £245 towards Group funds.
The Committee met in a beautiful garden on 13 July, observing the “Rule of 6”, and wearing visors so that we could lipread each other. It was wonderful to get together in the flesh!
24 March - activities suspended during Covid lockdown
On 9 March the lip reading session was dominated by a story of the life of a famous person whom we had to determine by reading the clues given to us without voice. Aftwerwards, the Group held its 23rd AGM since becoming a registered charity. Among the highlights was a retirement presentation to Eric Voller stepping down from the role of Treasurer after 10 years of service, and a vote to sponsor trainee Hearing Dog Rico. How could we resist?
Feb 24 - 23 members attended. The lip reading session covered the letter "L" not so much a lip shape as a tongue movement. This was followed by a talk on special images of Sri Lanka.
Feb 10 - 23 members attended the meeting which showed great dedication as storm Caira was in attendance. The lip reading covered the shapes of "sh"."ch" and "g". This was followed by a slide show talk covering the Pyrennees; Land of the Lammergeyer
27 Jan - 22 people attended the meeting. The lip reading lesson this time covered finger spelling both practise and examples of how it can assist. This was followed by a talk on scams that members are likely to experience and how to avoid them.
13 Jan 2020 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..