WOKINGHAM U3A
NEWSLETTER September - October. 2005
The September Meeting
Tuesday 20th September 2005
Freshers' Fair
at 12.30 pm in St Paul's Parish Rooms
followed by
Ken Goatly Returns
to tell us more about
The History of Wokingham
at 2.00 pm
Wokingham U3A
Chairman: Len Smith 01344 775517
Secretary: Muriel Froom
Membership Secretary: Gordon Wall, 55 Priest Avenue, Wokingham, RG40 2LT 0118 978 6021
Editor: Paul King
Registered Charity No: 1049995
WEBSITE www.wokinghamu3a.org.uk
E-group sign-up: wokinghamu3a-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Chairman's Notes It was great to see a good attendance at the Garden Party which was again held in Heather Bradly's beautiful gardens at Whiteknights on Finchampstead Ridges. All the feedback I got was that people enjoyed the opportunity to get together in such pleasing surroundings. The weather was pleasant and I did see people playing Petanque (boules). I don't know whether any croquet was played as I wasn't able to circulate as much as I would have liked through convalescing from an operation on my back. I had hoped to participate in both those activities. Ah well, never mind there is always next year!
A working party is preparing for a "Freshers' Fair" to be held again this year and who knows we may see even more activity groups formed. Do come along to see if there are any new activities that might interest you.
Our Monthly Meetings programmes restarts in September with a talk by Ken Goatly who is always a mine of information. At these meetings there is always a necessity to set up whatever equipment is needed by the speaker. As you probably know we have audio equipment to ensure that our members are able to hear what is being said and usually a projector is used. The task of setting this up tends to fall to one person and we would like to feel that the load can be shared, so at the September Meeting I shall be asking for volunteers to take a turn occasionally with the setting up. The only requirement is to arrive a little early to do it and Alan Povall is ready and waiting to brief volunteers on what needs to be done.
I haven't seen any entries yet for the photographic competition but I am sure I shall after you have all returned from your holidays with your cameras at the ready.
Len Smith
If you know of any member who is ill please inform Marion Povall so that she can contact them.
Fresher's
Fair
Tuesday 20th September 2005 commencing at 12.30 until the start of the usual
monthly meeting. There will be some displays from a few groups and lots of Group
leaders to help you find out what the groups are all about.
I would like all those, who have offered help, to be at the Hall at noon to help sort out tables, chairs, Notice boards, Notices, Cold drinks etc. Group Leaders please wear your name badges.
There is a separate notice enclosed with this newsletter containing a list of possible group titles so that you can sign up if you don't get to the Fair. On the reverse side is a list of existing groups with telephone contacts.
Pauline Riocreux
Thank you to Heather
Len Smith presented Heather Bradly with a bouquet as a thank you for using her garden for the Summer Garden Party. Heather's nominated charity, which helps children in India, also benefited by £75
Group Leaders' Business Meeting
There is to be a Group Leaders' and Group Contacts' Business meeting on Friday 4th November 2005 commencing at 2.00 pm. The venue will be notified in due course. This will be a short afternoon meeting to give those attending an opportunity to quiz Committee and brainstorm the problems and delights of supporting group activities. This notice is a forewarning so that you can put it in your diary NOW and dig up plenty of complaints and suggestions.
Further forewarning is of a full day Jamboree with presentations from visiting 'august personages' with regard to the Trust, the Resources Centre, Regions and Areas, Neighbouring U3As, Networking, Summer Schools etc. This will probably be held at the end of January 2006. The newer Leaders and anyone aspiring to start a group or take an active part in the organisation of the U3A would find this a valuable introduction to local and national activities.
Group News
French for Beginners has been launched - using 'Talk French' primer. They will meet on Monday afternoons but check with Brian Sweatman if you want to join the group. Venues are arranged from one meeting to the next. They were last heard dis-cussing a day trip to Calais.
Technology has two visiting speakers advertised in the Diary. It is to be hoped that all the members who signed up for this group turn out as it is embarrassing for the hosts to offer a visitor a small audience. The future of this group hangs in the balance. Please telephone to say whether or not you will be attending.
20th Century Composers
The group starts fully at 7.15 to 9.30pm on Thursday 8 September, with a session listening to and discussing contrasting works by Debussy and Satie.
At preliminary meetings in July and August we talked about the development of the group as well as our shared and differing musical interests.
The normal evening for the meetings is the second Thursday of the month but because of a family wedding the October meeting will be a week later on Thursday 20 October, when we will listen to the original version of The Soldier's Tale by Stravinsky and watch a stunning ballet version by the Nederlands Dans Theater.
Alan Sutcliffe
U3A 2006 Diaries
U3A Diaries are now available at £1.85 each. They will be on sale at General Meetings. We have a limited number. If you wish to reserve one contact me. Alan Povall
Theatre Group
We started up at the beginning of the year and have so far been to four local productions. Our aim is to go to a play every other month. We are an open group so you don't need to be a member to come with us. Just look in the U3A diary, where you will find the date of the theatre visit, usually in the second month in the diary, and a final booking date for that visit, usually about three weeks earlier. Please book as early as you can.
We are trying to build up a list of interested people so we can keep them posted on forthcoming visits. If you have access to the Internet and would like to go on the email list please let me have your email ad-dress. Otherwise let me know your telephone number.
The next trip is to see "Otherwise Engaged" with Richard E Grant at Woking on 19th October. Tickets will be a bargain at £8.
Maurice Mingay
In Pursuit Of The Black Necked Grebe
Did you see Simon King reporting from the London Wetland Centre on BBC's "Springwatch" programme? Our Bird Watching group visited the Centre in May, so many of us were delighted to see again the familiar landscape on the TV.
Upon our arrival at the Centre in Barnes, we were greeted by an excited volunteer telling us "two Black Necked Grebes have flown in we don't often get them here". Our amateur group has become familiar with Great Crested Grebes, but Black Necked Grebes meant nothing to us! We searched our various bird books for the Black Necked Grebe and discovered a small, attractive, reddish brown duck like bird, but with a striking red eye surrounded by fan like pale golden tufts. Ever ready to learn about a new bird, we set out in pursuit of the Black Necked Grebe!
The Wetland Centre at Barnes is 105 acres of lakes, reedbeds and marches attracting the best wildlife in the country. As we walked we saw Carolina Tree Ducks, Red Breasted Geese, Snow Geese, Shovellers, Tufted Mergansers, and Mandarin ducks, but no Black Necked Grebe!
After lunch at the Centre's restaurant, we walked the eastern paths around the marches and eventually climbed the "Peacock Tower", a three story hide, and watched a sweet little Lapwing chick dabbling along the water's edge in search of insects. His long and chunky legs looking rather out of proportion to the fluffy black and white powder puff body. A fox scurried furtively around the edges of a pond searching for eggs or chicks, before disappearing in the reedbeds. We watched Sand Martins swooping into their nests, Lapwings, Redshanks and even Ruddy Ducks diving for food, but no Black Necked Grebes! One of the volunteers suggested we retrace our footsteps along the western edge of the Wetlands, and try another smaller hide.
We returned to the opposite side of the reserve, only to be told that the Black Necked Grebes had recently disappeared from the water! With disappointment we decided it was time to make for home, when someone called out, "no, look, there they are". To our delight we saw swimming around in the distance our first Black Necked Grebes. A volunteer offered us a peek through her viewing scope which enabled us to see in greater detail the pale golden eye tufts of this unusual little bird. Find-ing a completely different bird is one of the joys of bird watching. I wonder what our next new find will be! Another trip to the Wetland Centre will shortly be on our agenda!
Joyce Sweatman
Where Is There?
Most
of us are born there,
Most of us will die there.
Some will love to be there,
Some will hate to go there.
Some of us are sent there,
Then are made to stay there.
Some are dragged away from there,
Whilst hoping they could stay there.
Some can't wait to get there,
Others put off going there.
Some fret and worry there,
Others solve great problems there.
Some share with others there,
Whilst some spend time alone there.
One thing's for certain though,
We all have to go there.
Joyce Humphreys Poetry & Creative Writing Group
(Answer at end of pages)
Copy date for the next issue is Friday 7th October
Origin of Musicality & Music
The Series on the Origins of Languages held last winter was highly successful. The Archaeology Group is continuing to learn about the origin and evolution of human culture in pre-history and will hold the following series of two meetings on the Origin & Evolution of Musicality.
Thursday 26th January 2006 - 'Musicality in Pre-History' I am delighted to advise that Prof. Steven Mithen will return to give this talk based on his new book 'The Singing Neanderthals' which has been so well received in the press.
Thursday 23rd February 2006 - 'Ancient World Music' Our Research Team of Irene Roberts, Sylvia Nathan, Elaine Poole and Foy Rees are applying their musical talents to present how voice, movement and music developed from the earliest cultures and the importance of religious and secular music in ancient civilisations. Their presentation will include examples of musical instruments and their performance.
The two meetings will be held from 10.15 to 12.00 hrs in Wokingham Town Hall (no coffee served). Cost for the series is £2 pp. U3A Members from other groups are welcome.
Bookings from 1st October with me. Alan Povall
Final Call for the U3A Photo Competition
You still have a little while to enter your photographs into our competition. The Closing date for entries is 15th September 2005 and entries must be with Len Smith by that date.
The rules are as follows:-
1. Three sections :- Travel People Nature
2. Enter any one or all three sections
3. Separate awards for each section, and perhaps "Best in Show"
4. Prints only, 10" x 8" Max, 6" x 4" Min, unmounted, with sticky label on back with name and address and which section(s) entered.
5. Judging will be by an external judge.
Please send your entries (with a stamped addressed envelope if you want your prints returned) to:- Len Smith (Competition), "Four Pines", 19 Bramley Grove, Crowthorne, RG45 6EB. Please enter, we want it to be a success.
Lets inundate Len with entries! Ed
A National U3A Film Project
The British Film Institute with U3A are undertaking a joint research project under the title Older Women in Film.
This project will culminate in a study day at the National Film Theatre in London during Adult Learners Week next May to which members of U3A are invited. We hope to present the findings to a panel of people involved in the film industry and screen a relevant film.
The theme is about what opportunities there have been and are available to older women in film (defined as those over sixty years) and the extent to which suitable parts are created for them. Similarly, what storylines and themes have been dealt with satisfactorily on the subject of women of older age?
This research and the study day are being conducted to produce a joint document which the sponsors hope will influence film makers, encourage further research and provide wider opportunities on such topics and for mature actresses.
Two members of Wokingham U3A Film Group, David Tinker and Clive Tomlin are currently taking part in the project, attending meetings in London.
The Wokingham U3A Film Group as a whole will also be taking part in this project, showing three of the selected films over the next few months. Members of the group will discuss these films and prepare comments and observations to feed back to the project.
Wokingham U3A members who have a particular interest in this subject, but who don't normally attend the Film Group meetings are welcome to join in.
Please call Clive Tomlin or David Tinker for more details.
Woof!!
No, this is nothing to do with dogs, but is the abbreviation for Wokingham Older Peoples' Forum. This was set up in August 2004, and is a joint venture by Age Concern, Berkshire, and Wokingham District Council. It gives an opportunity for people over 50 to meet and 'have a voice in identifying and addressing local and national issues, relevant and pertinent to older people, and to learn about current developments from representatives of organisations that provide services for the elderly.
Meetings of the Forum take place on the second Tuesday morning of the month from 10am. to 12 noon in the Rose Room at the Methodist Church Centre in Rose Street, Wokingham. Several of us from Wokingham U3A attend these meetings, but we would like to encourage more of you to join us. Dates of meetings for the remainder of 2005 are 13th Sept, 11th 0ct, 8th Nov, and 6th Dec.
If you require more information contact Rose Green at Wokingham District Council on (0118) 974 6793 or E-mail rose.green@wokingham.gov.uk
Rosemary Goldschmied.
Sixty Years Ago
July 9th. Eclipse of the sun 2-4 pm. Joan lent us Clive's sunglasses. It was very distinct like a fat crescent moon.
July 27th. I still feel depressed and disheartened over the Socialist re-turn. Well, Attlee and his Government will have their work cut out. I feel really shattered. I look forward to the day when I can write 'Churchill Is Back As Leader'. The whole world is shocked at the way we have rewarded our great victory leader.
July 28th. Attlee and Bevin are flying to Potsdam - Attlee and Bevin in place of Churchill and Eden: could anything be more ludicrous, incredible! People imagine that a Labour Government will bring a Utopia - money for nothing. How silly they are, and what a disillusion is coming to them.
August 6th. August Bank Holiday. Jim went to the White City to an athletics meeting this afternoon. I spent the afternoon making jam and bottling apples. Philip came in for a little while this morning, but didn't stay long as he had a rival attraction in Mr. Prentis who had come to take the chimney pot off the roof of their bungalow. Mr. Prentis has a very smart white motor-car, like a little white house with two chimneys, with a Union Jack on one and the Red Flag on the other. I noticed when he was on the bungalow roof how smart and polished his boots were. Mrs. Deeks has a new black Utility costume which looks very smart.
August 7th. A very weary dreary day. Release of first atomic bomb on Japan. God knows how this fearful discovery will affect civilisation. Will it finally destroy mankind? Mrs. Deeks gave us a pike for dinner: quite nice.
Rosemary Goldschmied.
Information received from the U3A National Office.
Summer Schools 2006
Next year's U3A Summer Schools will be held at Chester University from 11th to 14th July and at the University of Gloucestershire from 18th to 21st July. Colin Mitchell will be a lecturer at one of the courses.
Details of both schools will be included in January's newsletter.
Exhibition at Manor Gardens
This is as shared learning project at the Manor Gardens Centre, off the Holloway Road, in the autumn of 2005. This centre which now provides health and community services for the area, was founded in 1913 by Mrs Keen, a philanthropist as 'The North Islington School for Mothers'.
Work is needed to create a permanent exhibition from a great many documents and photographs already available. The project will run from September to December 2005 and the team will meet initially at the Centre on Friday 16th September at 10.30 am.
For more details contact Phyllis and Martin Rosenberg on 0208 9588519
Unsung Heroes at the Science Museum
This is a shared learning project at the Science Museum from September to December 2005 working with their Outreach Officer in the 'Unsung Heroes' series on 'Women in Science'.
The material produced will be used as the basis of a workshop to be presented at the Museum on International Women's Day, 14 March 2006.
For more details contact Max de Boo on 020 8922 5623.
New BBC Holiday Programme
(A flyer from the BBC)
Are you looking for something more from your holiday?
A new BBC holiday programme swaps the drudgery and disappointment of the traditional package holiday for a fabulous week you never knew you could have right here in the UK.
Avoid airport nightmares and shabby all-inclusive resorts and discover why every year 28 million people from around the world choose to come here for their holiday.
If you've got the confidence to hand over your entire holiday budget to us, our experts will take on the challenge of creating a completely bespoke holiday - designed and tailor made perfectly for you.
Contact Sophie at the BBC on 020 8752 6941 or ukholiday@bbc.co.uk and leave your name and phone numbers.
U3A Travel Network
A Wokingham U3A member, recently browsing on the Internet, came across the U3A Travel Network. Have you considered joining it? Have you any experience of it? If you have, how about penning a few words to give our members benefit of your experience.
The following is taken from the U3A Travel website.
U3A Members that subscribe £5.00 pa to the Travel Network receive regular newsletters about U3A travel matters, including details of the group tours that are currently being offered by the Travel Network Committee. Tours are intended, in the first instance, for members of the Travel Network. Relatives and Friends of U3A members are welcome on tours in reasonable numbers, if space permits.
U3A members wanting to join the Travel Network should write with their payment, payable to U3A Travel Network, to the Membership Secretary, giving their name, address and telephone number, together with details of which local U3A they are a member.
The Membership Secretary, Margaret Ward, can be contacted at: 33 Masons Ryde Pershore WR10 1JG
Monthly Meetings Programme
The provisional programme of monthly talks until May 2006 is given below (please note no programme card is being issued this year). Unless otherwise announced, all meetings will take place at St. Paul's Parish Rooms, Reading Road, Wokingham at 2.00pm. There is normally a charge of £1 for attending these meetings.
2005
September 20th Ken Goatley "History of Wokingham"
October 18th Colin Mitchell "The Nelson Touch"
November 15th Vic Botterill "Moments, Memory & Magic"
December 20th Christmas Party No invited speaker
2006
January 17th Richard Day "The Fire and Restoration of Windsor Castle
February 21st Annual General Meeting followed by Gordon Wall "The Ladies Sing Jazz"
March 21st John Harrison "The Pennine Way"
April 18th Neil Paxton "Dr 'Miranda' Barry, 46 years as a military surgeon"
May 16th David Tinker "In Your Dreams - The World of Travel Posters"
The OCTOBER MEETING The Nelson Touch
Colin Mitchell discusses the qualities of Nelson, man and leader, as a celebration of the bi-centenary of Trafalgar
Tuesday, 18th October 2005 St Paul's Parish Rooms at 2.00pm
(Answer to "Where is There?" is "The bed")