Fun with Languages

by WebmasterFun with LanguagesPosted on Comments are Disabled

After meeting on Zoom for many months now, we managed a face to face meeting in a garden! And it was dry! Many were unable to come due to holidays and appointments and we missed seeing you. We shared ideas about the future of the group and hope to meet at JGC if permitted in September. We also did a jumbled words game in Spanish.

A social has been planned for 10th August chez Ann Murray and those in the group need to contact Liz to say if you can come and bring a drink/nibbles to share please.

After many months on Zoom it will be great to move on to proper meetings, if we are able to, obviously in a safe as possible way. I would also like to know if any existing members of the group want to opt out of it, and if anyone new wants to come and join us, you are welcome.

To contact Liz and Ann, the group leaders, please use the form below:-

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    National Trust Group

    by WebmasterNational TrustPosted on Comments are Disabled

    When we wrote our last report a month ago we were hoping that the promised “Freedom Day” would follow on June 21st and hoped to email out some good news to the group. However, this was not to be so the promised email would have been pointless!!!!

    July again promises to bring “Freedom Day”, however, while writing this note we see the highest number of Covid-19 cases recorded since mid February. As you will be very aware Social Distancing rules remain the greatest hurdle to resuming our visits. If we get positive new guidelines, then we will contact J B Tours and Fountains Abbey immediately to try to arrange a date for the visit. When we reach this stage we will email or phone all of you who are booked on the visit.

    We know that we are all frustrated beyond belief but we will get things organised on the first day that we possibly are able. In the longer term, if it is possible we intend to organise a visit to Belton House to see the Light Trail as well as trying to get some other trips in before the year ends.

    Thank you all for your patience and keep your fingers crossed that things improve in the near future.

    Sue and Barrie Saunders

    Choir Group

    by WebmasterUncategorizedPosted on Comments are Disabled

    It is difficult to join an established group, especially when, as with the choir, the group is given knowledge which is needed at future meetings.

    Last month, I suggested that we could hopefully look forward to returning to choir meetings, and that the break caused by the pandemic had created a wonderful opportunity to make it easier for anyone interested in singing, to join in. It’s such a rare opportunity that I thought I would repeat it. I have received some responses, but the more members who decide to try it, the easier it will be for everyone, including established members who will no doubt enjoy a refresher, (and who may even gain a greater understanding than they did the first time round). It’s a tiny benefit from the pandemic, and if you’ve ever been tempted to join us it would be a pity to miss what hopefully will be a unique opportunity. Who knows how well you’ll do?

    When I joined the choir I hadn’t sung with others since my primary school days, but a few years ago was able to perform with the Halle Choir at their Christmas Concert at the Royal Concert Hall. It was a challenge, I didn’t know the standard required, and went into the first rehearsal prepared for rejection and disappointment, but I was accepted and didn’t have any difficulties. Not a tremendous achievement, but an unexpected and happy memory for someone with my limited training and experience, singing, facing an audience of 2000, with a prestigious orchestra at the Royal Concert Hall. If you’ve ever been tempted to join a choir, do give yourself a chance to see where it could take you, or just be happy to have fun with us.

    I’d like to thank choir members for their good wishes whilst I have been incapacitated in recent weeks, I appreciated your kind thoughts. I’m sorry I couldn’t respond to each of you, but typing continues to be extremely painful, and remains for some time afterward. (Obviously, I didn’t type this!)

    Enjoy the Summer, everyone, and keep safe.

    To contact Christine, the group leader, please use the form below:

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      Message from the Chair – July 2021

      by WebmasterAnnouncementsPosted on Comments are Disabled

      Hello everyone, I hope you are enjoying the warmer summer weather. I especially like the weeks around the summer equinox on 21st June when dawn starts really early and the evenings are so light. So, while still being extra Covid variants careful, I hope you are enjoying the warmth, the great outdoors, the garden flowers and the displays of wild ones around many of the local footpaths and grass verges.

      Several of our groups, many of them the sports/outdoor groups, have re-started which is great news and we hope to support more activity over the coming months. I know that many members are looking forward to meeting up again soon with the friends made in our various u3a groups to enjoy our shared interests in person.

      We are pleased to have a new group ‘Indoor Short Mat Bowls’ starting on Monday July 5th, 2pm to 4pm at a new venue, The United Reform Church Hall on Farleys Lane.

      Since it is also the holiday season I have found a postcard from about 100 years ago which shows a comic seaside scene.

      Many were produced by James Bamforth from West Yorkshire and one of the most celebrated graphic artists was Donald Fraser Gould McGill whose name has become synonymous with the genre of saucy postcards, particularly associated with the seaside. The cards mostly feature an array of attractive young women, fat old ladies, drunken middle-aged men, honeymoon couples and vicars. He has been called ‘the king of the saucy postcard’, and his work is collected and appreciated for his artistic skill, its power of social observation and earthy sense of humour. They were always a source of innocent blushes in those days and I remember being pulled away by concerned parents from the racks outside the novelty shops in Skegness.

      The caption seems relevant as it looks like it will be a UK coastal holiday for most of us to enjoy this year –just like the couple on the card.

      David Rose, Chairman

      Opportunity for Chess players

      by WebmasterAnnouncementsPosted on Comments are Disabled

      u3a Chess Network – Chess can be enjoyable (and good for you)

      After two successful u3a Zoom meetings, support has been gathered from u3a members
      representing all parts of the UK for the start of the u3a CHESS NETWORK. The Network aims to promote the study and playing of Chess in the u3a – both in local u3as and nationally on web-sites and Zoom, etc.

      Chess, unlike Bridge, has never flourished in u3a – probably because it has the reputation of being a difficult, aggressive, complex game, played in silence. On the contrary the rules are straightforward and easy to grasp and after a short while interesting, thought-provoking games can be played. Also, we have shown in the last few years that a Chess Club can be sociable, interactive and co-operative – where the intention is to explore the theory and play well but also to enjoy playing the game and meeting other people. There is little doubt that playing a game like Chess improves concentration, memory, decision-making and spatial comprehension – so a real advantage for all of us in u3a!!

      In September, we are starting a nation-wide u3a Chess League which will be available to all members of all abilities from learners to experts.

      The objectives of the new u3a Chess Network are:

      – to help and encourage new Chess Clubs; (one of the most common questions we have received has been `how do I start a Chess Club?`)
      – to collect, and make readily available, information relevant to u3a chess players and
      clubs.
      – to encourage Zoom or on-line u3a Chess groups or leagues; (another typical complaint to the Subject Advisors is that there are no u3a chess groups in my area!).

      It is now possible to join the u3a CHESS NETWORK by going to: www.u3aChessNetwork.org.uk – where it is also possible to register for the u3a Chess League starting in September. We need as much publicity and support as we can obtain to help give this initiative a strong start.

      David Castle, Chess Subject Adviser