Choir

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Sadly, for the second consecutive year the choir won’t be performing for the u3a at Christmas. From last Summer our poor musical director suffered a string of accidents and ill health which eventually forced her to resign, we didn’t have time to practise and reach an appropriate standard in time for the u3a Christmas celebrations. It was a source of regret to us all. As well as the pleasure of feeling we were able to make a contribution, we enjoy performing, it gives us something to work toward, and the satisfaction of achieving something together.

We looked forward to this year, and at the time no-one could have suspected, or believed, that we would now be in the current situation! However, the news is good, there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel. We have hope that we’ll make it next year, when this year may just be a distant memory of a horrid experience we coped with, and survived.

In the meantime, stay safe. Happy Christmas everyone, and all good wishes for a peaceful and happy new year. ‘Have yourself a merry little Christmas, let your heart be light….’

And Finally …………

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And People Stayed Home by Catherine M. O’Meara

And the people stayed home.
And read books,
and listened,
and rested,
and exercised,
and made art,
and played games,
and learned new ways of being,
and were still.
And listened more deeply. Some meditated,
some prayed,
some danced.
Some met their shadows.
And the people began to think differently.
And the people healed. And, in the absence
of people living in ignorant, dangerous,
mindless, and heartless ways,
the earth began to heal.
And when the danger passed,
and the people joined together again,
they grieved their losses, and made
new choices, and dreamed new images,
and created new ways to live and heal
the earth fully, as they had been healed.

Weekenders’ Group

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Once again we had a November Newsletter where we caught up with what members had been up to last month, with lots of walking taking place and lots of bulb planting for 2021. The December Newsletter will be sent out on 1st December. Once again, many thanks to Margaret Whilde for printing off copies for those members not on email and for delivering them on her morning walk.

Activities have been varied, from hectic (those members with lots of hobbies and activities) to static (those members who are not able to get out and about as much and who also seem to have lost all motivation (yes, that’s right – me!). But lockdown does give us the chance to have long phone calls and to sort out the Christmas cards mailing list even if we’re not doing things like sorting wardrobes, sheds, etc.

Weekenders will certainly miss the annual trip out to the Blue Diamond Garden Centre at East Bridgford, especially the Singing Penguins, along with our Christmas Lunch, our Christmas Coffee Club session and our Christmas Social Evening.

Let us hope that the new vaccines will do all that it is hoped they can do, so that hopefully by Easter we may be able to meet up again. In the meantime, I hope everyone has as good a Christmas as we are able to have and let’s keep out fingers crossed for a better 2021.

Pub Quiz

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Thanks again to David Rose who keeps us supplied with an excellent month’s puzzle was as follows:

FAMOUS NAMES OF THE PAST ANAGRAMS

1. MARRY NO OILMEN (7,6) (actress)
2. HOMBURG THERAPY (8,6) (actor)
3. TEN ELITE BRAINS (6,8) (physicist)
4. A COOL ROMP (5,4) (explorer)
5. ADMONISH TOES (6,6) (inventor)
6. SILVERY SLEEP (5,7) (singer/actor)
7. ART CHEF HID CLOCK (6,9) (director)
8. A WALTZ OR FUN GAMES GO MAD (8,7,6) (composer)
9. EXTERNAL HATE RAGED (9,3,5) (conqueror)
10. CASUAL JURIES (6,6) (emperor)
11. PUBLIC SO MUCH SHORTER (11,8) (explorer)
12. PEARL COAT (9) (queen)
13. LOCATED MENU (6,5) (painter)
14. ERA LOST IT (9) (Greek philosopher)
15. HERO GETS IN WAGGON (6,10) (former US president)
16. LIKE A WEE SHRIMP ALAS (7,11) (playwright)

Answers

1. MARILYN MONROE
2. HUMPHREY BOGART
3. ALBERT EINSTEIN
4. MARCO POLO
5. THOMAS EDISON
6. ELVIS PRESLEY
7. ALFRED HITCHCOCK
8. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
9. ALEXANDER THE GREAT
10. JULIUS CAESAR
11. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
12. CLEOPATRA
13. CLAUDE MONET
14. ARISTOTLE
15. GEORGE WASHINGTON
16. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

And now try this Christmas quiz – most questions will not tax your brain!

1. Which Rat Pack member died on Christmas Day,1995 aged 78?
2. What were the names of the three wise men?
3. Which Dr Seuss character lives near Whoville and tries to steal Christmas?
4. Father Christmas, Santa Claus, there are many names for the jolly fellow all over the world, but what is he called in Germany?
5. Who was King of Judaea at the time of Jesus’ birth?
6. Who directed ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ starring Jimmy Stewart?
7. What is the surname of the family in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol?
8. Who invented the Christmas cracker and when?
9. On what date does the Feast of Stephen fall?
10. Which country’s parliament abolished Christmas in 1640 and only re-instated it as a public holiday in 1958?
11. Which Bruce Willis film is based around a Christmas Eve office party that it is hijacked by terrorists?
12. What is the name of the traditional Italian Christmas cake?
13. By the end of which date should all Christmas decorations be removed so as to not bring bad luck?
14. What is the star sign of a person born on 25th December?
15. 26th December is known as Boxing Day and which saint’s day?
16. True or False – if you add together all the gifts in the song The Twelve Days of Christmas you get 363 gifts.
17. The German song, ‘Oh Tannenbaum’ is about what object?
18. In which Christmas song do ‘Treetops glisten and children listen to hear sleigh bells in the snow’?
19. What number of pipers piping are there in the 12 days of Christmas?
20. What instrument do Greek children play when singing the traditional Kalanda songs?
21. Clement Moore wrote the poem ‘A Visit From St Nicholas’, but it is better known by its first line. What is it?
22. The song Mary’s Boy Child reached No. 1 twice in the UK charts – name both acts who performed it?
23. What is the greatest selling Christmas single of all time?
24. Who wrote the book “The Snowman”?

Reading Group

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Our set book for October was “Commonwealth” by Ann Pratchett. Commonwealth is the seventh novel by American author Ann Patchett, published in 2016. The novel begins with an illicit kiss that leads to an affair that destroys two marriages and creates a reluctantly blended family. In a series of vignettes spanning fifty years, it tells the story of the six children whose lives were disrupted and how they intertwined. It was not to everyone’s taste; some enjoyed it, others did not.

Our set book for November was The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George which tells the story of a heart-broken bookseller who makes a journey in his bookshop-barge all the way from Paris to Provence. The protagonist in The Little Paris Bookshop, Jean Perdu, runs a ‘literary apothecary’, where books are prescribed for their medicinal properties. No matter the ailment, Perdu can find a novel to ease the pain of his customers and provide them some much-needed perspective. Who doesn’t want to read about a benevolent bookseller with a book-cure for every malady?

The December set book is ‘Becoming’ by Michelle Obama which we will review in January.