A Reading Group meet-up in Margaret White’s garden took place in early June, when the weather was excellent. We had a full house or should I say garden and it was great to meet up again to discuss our books and do a book swap – and of course enjoy Margaret’s banana bread.
Weekenders’ Group
The July Newsletter will be sent out after 1st July. Once again, many thanks to Margaret Whilde and Lindsay Smith for printing off copies for those members not on email and for delivering them on morning walks.
We had two garden meet ups at the end of May on the same day but different venues so that in spirit we were all together and also our birthday lunch for Janice White took place in June at The Broomhill and it was excellent and well organised. Only eight of us but we thoroughly enjoyed the occasion!
We have made plans for outings, lunches and hopefully social evenings up until Christmas so watch this space. Due to bus size restrictions for our outings, the Weekenders Group is limited to 16 members and is full at the moment.
Lunch Group
Unfortunately we are still not able to book large groups in for lunch anywhere so let’s keep our fingers crossed for the end of summer.
Film Study/Opera Study groups
As a new initiative across Notts u3a’s network of online groups, Carlton and Gedling u3a is sharing a:-
Film Study Group
Nearly all of us have computers, laptops or tablets. All of us have TVs, many with some sort of ‘smart’ capability. Many of us love films and there are loads of interesting films available for free on YouTube, BBC iPlayer and All4. What we do is select a couple of films to watch, then discuss and share our thoughts about them. Quite often, especially with classic films, we can find short YouTube videos to enrich our understanding and enjoyment of the film.
We meet on the fourth Monday in the month, 2 – 3.30 pm. We alternate a focus on a couple of classic films from the history of cinema with a focus on more recent films. We watch the films at times of our own choosing and then meet over the internet using zoom for the discussion and to choose our next films. To be able to join the Zoom discussion you will need a computer/laptop/tablet with a camera and microphone capability.
Opera Study Group
Our opera group has taken on a whole new lease of life since the lockdown started. We are now meeting twice a month, instead of once as previously. At each meeting we discuss an opera we have all watched in the preceding fortnight and one of us introduces the next opera we are going to watch in the next fortnight. So far, we have never had to pay to watch an opera, since there are so many operas available to stream for free.
We are a mix of opera novices and quite experienced opera fans and everyone is welcome whatever your level of prior knowledge. We meet on the first and third Wednesdays of the month, 10.00am to 12 noon. To be able to join the Zoom discussion you will need a computer/laptop/tablet with a camera and microphone capability.
We have been watching operas on YouTube, usually on the Operavision website. The Operavision operas are usually high quality in performance, picture and audio. There are 30-40 operas available at any one time and they are usually available for a couple of months each. ALL FOR FREE. The repertoire is, if anything, particularly strong on operas which are less well known although there are lots of popular classics as well. Although we are not terribly advanced technically we are making use of the zoom facility for the host to introduce the next opera by showing clips using the shared screen.
There are no affiliation fees
If you are interested please contact (pkmartinez14@gmail.com)
Fun with Languages
We had a month off in may so were pleased to see each other for our June Zoom. It had seemed a long time. A big thank you to Phil and to Sue and John for their great sketches in Spanish, which we all enjoyed. Well done for that. We were looking at Covid situations in Spanish.
It was so good to see Liz return too after her long illness.
The main thing we are lacking is more practice and conversation, so on 8th July we shall hope for good weather to meet in reality face to face!!!! This will be in Ann’s garden or the nearby playing field, depending on numbers. We will have a chat about our future plans. Please bring a chair and a drink. I will email out to the group again with my address.
Enjoy the sunshine while it lasts!!!
To contact Ann and Liz, the group leaders, please use the form below:-