Brian's personal Blog, for three years, whilst I was Groups Coordinator, it was mostly about Swansea U3A . Now deals with topics of interest to retired people like myself.
ASTRONOMY The first group meeting of the year was held after the last Wednesday Lecture in the Grove Theatre. Just under 20 members stayed behind. The group makegood use of the Internet and projector (by virtue of the http://openphoto.net/download/index.html?image_id=18352venue they can log in via the university wireless network). Anyone interested in this group should have a look at some of their key sites starting of course with:-
Maggie Collins, a keen member who earlier had given the group a superb talk on The Big Bang, has compiled a comprehensive list of web sites of interest and maybe could be persuaded to talk at an appropriate time in the future about the current project at CERN. Other suggestions were to investigate the history of astronomy, or follow a course set by say NASA or the Open University.
Nick Hill, who has led the group since its inauguration three years ago is now the Treasurer of Swansea U3A and needs someone else to take over as coordinator of his group, and as I noted in the latest Conveners newsletter he is finding a lack of volunteers. Sooner or later current members have got to step up to responsibility for running (convening) these groups or they will founder and the U3A will lose rather than build up variety. He saw the next meeting Wednesday 12 November as pivotal, for it would be used to draw up the years program. This will be an ideal time for new members to have their views canvassed.
Some keener members are also members of the Swansea Astronomical Society. As with Geology, it seems that those with sufficient the interest belong to two organisations. The Astro Society have lectures twice a month, are responsible for running the observatory in the Marina on behalf of The Council and assist in the provision of University courses. Very good cooperation exists between the two organisations. More details can be obtained from their website:-
It also appears that there is an argument for trying to draw new members into the group and to an extent repeating some of the more successful topics of the past three years, or perhaps even founding an additional Beginners Astronomy Group to provide continuity. The lesson for all groups is grow, develop and seek new members or wither away. In the modern world it is impossible to stay still, companies and organisations either expand or die.
All that being said there were plenty of interesting embryo projects, non more fascinating than RolyGovier's proposal to hire a time slot to control the international Foulkes electron-telescopes (Hawaii and Australia) in order to carry out our own observations. He has already gained membership of that organisation for Swansea U3A, in which we are now classified like say schools as educators. The link below will give a feel for the possibilities:-
Eric Broadbent is proposing a visit to the Spaceguard Centre at Knighton an observatory which welcomes visitors. The proposal was to get there by free tickets on the Central Wales Line from Swansea Station.
FRENCH CONVERSATION We are exceedingly lucky to find another two new members who are keen to take over the failing French Conversation Group, they are Steve Johnson and his partner Susan Hodge (Tel 429683, mobile 07770 941396, or email on suehodge@hotmail.co.uk We have booked the Craft and Hobbies Room at Hazel Court for 10.30am for the inaugural meeting of this new group on Thursday 6 November, the day chosen is the same as that of the previous group, but is not necessarily set in stone. I have an option on the room for all four Thur day mornings in November and will be amazed given the numbers interested if it doesn't warrant a regular slot. We need volunteers to provide continuity when Steve and Sue are away.
An important objective for that first meeting is to fit the sessions to requirements and a questionnaire has been designed to that end. Please attend the first meeting if you are interested in helping formulate a French group.
LEARN MODERN JIVE A new group convened by new member Gerwyn Thomas (Tel 817229, gerwyn@gmail.com). What a way to keep fit! Although only a few people have yet expressed interest they are all keen to get started. Gerwyn is to visit Hazel Court to confirm that the Exercise Room is the ideal, as seems likely. It can be hired for just £10 a half day. The suggestion is that we have a trial afternoon session which could span 1.30pm to 5pm.
MOTO (Members On Their Own) A new group also run by Gerwyn Thomas (Tel 817229) because quite a few have also expressed interest in learning Modern Jive the groups will probably start in parallel, though soon they will be run as quite separate groups.
COMMENTS ON THIS BLOG In a discussion with Anthony Hughes, who runs the highly successful Digital Media Group, I realise that this column is run as a continuous newsletter rather than an interactive blog. That said I would encourage others to leave Comments about their own group, either event dates and times or particularly items of discussion. The instructions for leaving Comments are given in the very first posting INTRODUCTION - START HERE, such comments are probably best left to be shown on the latest blog, so everyone sees them easily, otherwise you have to click on 'comments' to see them.
So far there are only four comments, three are trivial trials from me to make sure the facility worked but just one real, very complimentary comment, on that very first posting from Don Mason. Wonderfully reassuring though it was in the early days, I am not looking for further congratulatory messages but ones that add to the interest or information in this blog/newsletter. Feel free to try. .
INAUGURAL MEETING OF CLIMATE CHANGE GROUP After last Wednesday's lecture Mike Wiseman convened the first meeting of one of the first groups of its kind in the UK. In future the group will meet on the Third Wednesday of the month in the Grove Theatre. In an introductory presentation he outlined the issues of Climate Change and particularly the need for our way of living to become sustainable. He expected future sessions to be discussion based and hoped that we would prepare ourselves for the next session. There was nevertheless a spirited discussion with few of us having prepared. Some of the problems were highlighted including the need to curb the growth of population which Mike said on current trajectories would rise from over 6 billion to 9 billion by 2050. A frightening prospect in itself, especially when considering that 85% of the world are very poor (income of 1$ a day in many cases) and yet as their people become educated they will inevitably seek our standards of living, with all that implies in meat and dairy production, heating ever more living space per person, cars and air travel.
Nor in my opinion, that of an atheist, does it help that society is pushing sick people to a life beyond dignity or meaning. My mother celebrated her 90th birthday by playing her weekly game of badminton at the Leisure Centre with the 'Over 50 Club'. She still had the hand control and timing of the pianist and made winner after winner with her wicked drop shots. But within a couple of years dementia was striking harder and she spent her last four years without memory, short or long term. Joan was first alerted when mum asked 'Tell me, did ... I ... have a husband?' A fond childhood memory from the war years is of her saying, time after time, aloud to herself, 'I love dearly'.
If the developed world does not cut back drastically on its carbon footprint there will be disaster arising from the struggle for resources, not least water. Strange to think that excess water causing sea levels to rise and flood low lying land is another side to the story. It worries me that the worst my kids have seen is the recession of the early 80's, which made it so difficult for school leavers to find jobs. I often think my life has been spent at the high point in terms of prosperity on this island.
We are often inclined to think of China as the problem, but they have achieved far more than any other country by their strict, some in the group would say brutal, enforcement of a one child policy. The implications hit us hard on our visit when we realised that two sets of grandparents share a single grandchild. A four to one population rate reduction in two generations. It was nice to hear Mike admit that the planet maybe entering an orbit which would result in global warming anyway. After all in geological timescales there have been far bigger changes in say sea level than is being predicted for 2050, and they didn't have a human cause.
I probably gave the group the opinion that I was less than sympathetic to the cause, but I was only trying to emphasise the need to be honest (scientific/numerate) in evaluating the solutions. It's nice to think I can help by not digging my garden and releasing CO2, but I don't think that would make a lot of difference. In fact we in the UK represent only 1% of the earth's population, doing only a little each is necessary - small changes do accumulate - but it's just a drop in the ocean. It's a far larger problem than that. I personally go along with the Stern Report which said, as I recall, that the world temperature rise in 200 years since the beginning of the industrial revolution was only a small fraction of one degree, but there were reasons for expecting it to accelerate and increase several degrees in the next fifty years. How is this temperature measured? That being so, the report concluded we need to address the problem because the cost of acting now is cheaper and infinitely preferable to facing disaster in a few decades.
Exactly what will drive that dramatic acceleration I do not understand. But part of it is undoubtedly due the potential loss of the polar icecaps. To melt ice requires enormous heat inputs to provide the latent heat needed for the state change to water, but once ice melts its reflective effect (which transmits the heat back to space) will be lost as well, and that much more heat will be available to increase the temperature of the earth. But in industry I have seen too many mathematical models of complex systems fail to predict what was about to happen. But in a worst case scenario the big ocean currents, which are driven by the heat of the tropics and the cold sink of the polar regions, could fail. If we lost the Gulf Stream then we would revert to the normal temperature for our latitude,so the UK would have winters like the frozen north of Canada.
The view was correctly stated that the argument as to what extent global warming was natural or a consequence of human activity was clouding the picture, and too often being used as an excuse for inaction.
For my part I definitely don't buy into the consumer society. I have never forgotten 'waste not want not', which was ingrained into our generation. I hate shopping, so does Joan. We have a well insulated house and low gas/electricity costs for its size As an electrical engineer I reluctantly believe the only realistic solution to a producing bulk electricity with a lowering of carbon emissions is nuclear power (don't forget that's how the sun does it!!). As a world travellers we move around using scheduled local buses (plus a couple of long haul flight per year!!!), and even went vegetarian in India. All that makes me feel good for I can argue that I'm doing my part. But come off it Brian, You have a very comfortable style of living. Yes, I am still part of the problem, I'm not even going to convert to vegetarianism, I love beef (even raw beef) and cheese. It adds up to nothing if 9 billion people live like me. But I'm not going to give up my comforts until forced to, nor is realistic to think the other 99% of the world won't want to live like us in the UK. But that is not an argument for doing nothing. Let's not be dinosaurs. We in the developed world must show the way and going nuclear would make a big impact, and big problems need big solutions. Let us also hope that the models are exaggerating the rate of deterioration, and we have a little more time to go till doomsday.
Just Musing
I'm in a good mood because I watch BBC 4 like some friends listen to Radio Four. Did you see that wonderful series on Wild China? It registers so vividly with us because of our travels there. Tonight I watched a program on Les Paul. Very special to me because the very first record I ever bought (age 12?) was Whispering, a demonstration of his melodic jazzy guitar playing. When I look back many things in my past make me shudder, but I'm delighted to recall my early taste in music.
Les Paul like pianist Nat (King) Cole started off in the pre-war jazz scene in Chicago and then moved to New York alongside greats such as the jazz pianist Art Tatum. Nat Cole could sing as well as play, but Les Paul squared the circle by marrying vocalist Mary Ford, and all three became hugely successful popular artists. Rock and Roll signalled the end of them as a popular artists and Les returned to his early roots of Country and Jazz, playing in small clubs. He was still playing well for his 90th birthday celebration.
Do those of you who prefer a different genre remember Segovia the Spaniard who, with the help of composers like Villa Lobos, demonstrated to the world that the acoustic guitar could produce beautiful classical music. Florrie Toft claims the same is true of humble recorders, but they have not yet gained similar international recognition. Anyone who heard the 90 year old Segovia play one of his very last concerts, in the Brangwyn Hall, will not have forgotten the experience. Clearly by then physically an old man, and a little down on technique, his unique guitar voice shone out and left an enraptured audience in tears of wonder.
Perhaps even more astounding is Les Paul's reach, because not only was he a brilliant musician, comparable with say Django Reinhardt, but a brilliant electronic engineer. He designed the first solid wood electric guitar after demonstrating the potential by fixing a finger board to a heavy block of hardwood just wide enough to anchor the strings and mount his own design of electric pick ups. (In early soundings he had favoured the notes made by steel railway lines rather than wood, but his mother convinced him that this was not a practical proposition). The guitar firm Gibson commercialised the ideas in their most famous, widely revered model. Thereafter almost everyone rich and famous, like Jimmy Hendrix and the Beatles, played Les Paul Guitars.
Having cracked the production of an electric guitar he started to use his early training in electrics to cut his own records, moving to a newfangled tape recorder he learnt to superimpose tracks one at a time, painstakingly building up a complete modern style hit recording.A technique which heralded the much logistically simpler parallel multi-track recording of today. Many of the massive hits of Les and Mary Ford were recorded by themselves in their own home.
HAZEL COURT Chairman Bob, Cecily, Pat Herbert, Jan Phillips, Brian Davies and myself paid a them a much postponed visit. It is a well designed complex of 120 flats for over 55's in the location of the previous Sketty flats. It is jointly owned by the housing charity Family Housing Association and the Welsh Assembly. The attraction for us is the availability of a range of a pleasant modern rooms for hire, for half days and at attractive prices. It is an obvious venue for the activities of our Groups. The attraction is mutual because they want organisations like us to help develop a rich environmentThey will begin with by concentrating on their 200 residents, but once established they intend to open up to the Parklands/Sketty community.
Two rooms stood out. A pleasant quiet room for groups of about 20 which seems likely to be taken up by the revived French Conversation Group and Reading Group 4. Plus the large Craft Room with power sockets all around the walls plus wireless and probably ethernet broadband, It is thus ideal for computer based classes as well as the craft based activities like painting for which it was intended. In addition on the ground floor there is the Main Hall, with a large adjacent patio, which would seat 100 or more in a lecture or would be an ideal location for large social events or dancing. There is also a Hairdressers, a DIY laundry with large machines, a Restaurant with reasonable prices both for snacks and meals, and a Bar - though we did not see one, honest!
The minor drawback is the need to pay 13 weeks rental in advance which means it is only suitable for established groups or those fairly certain of continuity. We were the first organisation to be shown around, although others like Life Long Learning are following, and need to consolidate what we all believed would be a fruitful partnership.
WEDNESDAY LECTURE
Hidden Meanings in Holbein’s ‘The Ambassadors’, reviewed by Virginia Jones
The first lecture in Swansea U3A's 2008/9 season was delivered by Dr. Louise Govier, the daughter of Jill and Roly. Dr. Govier has spoken to the group before and her talk was eagerly anticipated. Her subject was The Ambassadors which was painted in 1533 in oil on wood. It has ben the subject of much scrutiny and discussion over the years, and gave rise to many theories about the occult measages which were hidden within it.
Dr Govier pointed out that this painting was done at a time of great religious and political tension. King Henry V111th’s court was waiting for the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and the subsequent break from Rome. Anne Boleyn was already pregnant at this time and astronomers had announced that the child would be a boy. The French King was more than interested in the outcome of the situation and had sent an Ambassador, Jean de Dineville to the English court. He is the gentleman on the left of the painting. The other person in the painting is Georges de Selve, Bishop of Lavour, a close friend of de Dineville.
So, does the painting refer to the troubled times, both religious and political? It certainly shows two men of status and power, illustrating their wealth and confidence. The room itself also shows great richness and expense.
The many objects in the painting are laid out in two layers – the top layer depicts the tudy of the heavens with the celestial globe, whilst the bottom layer depicts more earthly pursuits as shown by the terrestrial globe, book of arithmetic and so on. – saying also that the men are learned and educated.
However, the painting is also famous as an example of anamorphosis – showing things in a distorted way that can only be seen from a certain angle. The strange shape at the very front of the painting is in fact a skull, if viewed from the side at the correct angle – symbolising perhaps that, despite wealth and status, death is always in front of us. If this is also seen in conjunction with the crucifix at the top left hand corner, then one is also being reminded that the after-life is the REAL focus here.
Dr Govier went on to show us many other symbolic references in the painting – too many to mention here - but suffice to say that the conspiracy theorists have been kept busy over the years with ideas about cabalistic numbers and occult devices.
It is impossible to know if the artist meant all this to be read into the painting but it has generated a great deal of interest over the years.
This talk was a truly memorable one – the speaker was not only very knowledgeable but also erudite and amusing in her delivery. This was an exciting start to the 2008-09 academic year for Swansea U3A and we look forward to a year of equally memorable lectures and events.
Chairman Bob it was who persuaded me to use the prominent About Me section on the first page to give some instructions instead. Sorry about the layout but Google only provide a single linear paragraph - hence all the ....... You got here so now jump on the ARCHIVE link to INTRODUCTION - START HERE and as a reward you will get a Noddy but more complete guide - with the instructions in some sort of background context.
OPEN DAY
As usual it was a great success. Pat tells me we signed up 45 new members. But as always it's quality not size that matters. As Group Coordinator I felt a bit of a supernumerary so I decided to act as convener for two groups with problems, Recorders and French, as well as to try and publicise this blog.
FRENCH Steve Johnson and his wife were my very first contacts, they were standing back glancing at the laptops of me and Anthony Hughes (Digital Media for Fun) so I went over.
'Do you know anything about NTL? 'Well it so happens that as one of their early customers I do.'
In return I enticed Steve to view the blog and asked if they played Recorders (No) or were interested in the French Group. He speaks good French whispered his wife. It turned out he had lived in Paris for 30 years. 'Would you be interested in leading our French group?' A smile and firm handshake later and he was deep in conversation with Jan Phillips. Several others expressed an interest in French including an old dinghy sailing friend from Mumbles Yacht Club, Eddie Ramsden, who was awarded the MBE for his work as Swansea's Environment Officer. He is still heavily into sailing with the RYA and has good friends in France and so wants to improve his fluency in the language. So do I, for my eldest son married a Mademoiselle and lives in France - we really shouldn't be content to converse entirely in English. Years ago we spoke English to their kids and they responded in French (as every baby, and no secondary school kid, knows listening comes before talking). Now it's so easy since they all are fully bilingual. Jim passed all his 'O' levels except French. Now he's fluent - makes you sick, doesn't it. Steve had a word for it which I have forgotten - something to do with dormir; I got the drift.
RECORDERS I made no progress on Recorders. Does no one want to start learning an instrument?
eMAILS In between time I made my way around the Group Conveners whenever their tables were free. By subterfuge I got their email addresses, thus disproving the theory that they would not release them. Only a few don't have access to a computer with the Internet, though it's available to all in for example the library.
As I explained to MajorieVanston I won't join the modern world either. For instance I stubbornly refuse to have a mobile phone. As one who tried hard to avoid being contactable outside working hours, carrying a phone wherever you go seems crass. But deny yourself access to the Internet and you are turning your back on probably the most powerful resource invented in our lifetime. After all without it you won't be able to read my blog!
MODERN JIVE/SALSA Practically the last person I met was Gerwyn Thomas. I asked him the usual questions about French and Recorders and he volunteered
'But I AM a teacher of modern jive and salsa'. Back in the 50's I (Mr Bloggie) used to jive at 100 Oxford Street (London) to the music of Humphrey Lyttleton, Ken Collier, and others. Not too long ago we helped make the floor vibrate and break all the valuable crockery at a Christmas Party in the Glynn Vivian, well it sounded like it! Salsa is wonderful, Latin music and nightly dancing in the streets is one of the things which continually draws me to Latin America. I like doing many activities in company with young people (eg learning Spanish or Mandarin), but a more restrained form of dancing could be interesting, not to say vital given the present state of our creaky joints. 'KEEP FIT FOR FUN WITH SALSA', sounds OK to me? Any Other Takers?
MOTO But Gerwyn had an even more interesting idea. 'I would like to start an OTO group like they have in Aylesbury'. 'What's that?'. 'I often don't go simply because I dislike going places on my own.' 'Ah, like the MOTO Group in Wokingham' (Members on Their Own). How does it work?' 'Essentially it's a network of people with the same problem.'So MOTO it is (my choice of acronym). I will be amazed if it doesn't fly.
READING GROUP 4? Elsewhere in the hall a lot more people expressed interest in reading than could be accommodated in the present groups. In addition there are probably still people from last year waiting. So I am thinking about a new group, bigger than can be accommodated in peoples homes. Hazel Court is due to open early November and they have offered us a whole range of rooms at reasonable prices. It sounds like an ideal venue for larger new groups like French and Reading.
DIGITAL MEDIA for FUN Sharing a table with Anthony Hughes I noted the enthusiastic reception he was getting. He is prepared to run a second class in the afternoon every other Thursday.
I must say, as someone who is horrified at the laborious way computers are taught to adults, that it is invigorating to see someone who approaches it from - 'Tell me what you want to do and I will show you how.'
For decades now the buzzword in designing software is Make its Use INTUITIVE. Grasp that and you can teach yourself merely by prodding around, try this way and that, and, learn by experience - the only way for many of us?. But first you have to get the feel of the way your computer software operates. A Windows PC has a different regime to an Apple but they are both logical. ( I say that arrogantlywithout the slightest experience with an Apple, but acknowledge that decades ago Macintosh (Apple) showed Microsoft the way with its wonderfully intuitive operating system Lisa).
A typical class on say word processing is so boring, so stereotyped, and so avoids the self learning process. If schools approach learning by teaching just what you need to know to pass the exam and ignoring the context, then that explains some of the problems with our education system. I seem to remember the kids saying in effect, 'dad, cut the crap and for god's sake give us the answer'.
Anthony's idea is to point you in the right direction and free you to experiment. I picked up quite a lot in a few minutes at the end of the last session as four of us put our heads together. He will notice I'm picking up on his phrase 'For Fun' - that is what our U3A is all about. I still think learning is fun, which squares the University of the Third Age (U3A) circle.
LITERATURE for FUN
A few signed to indicate interest even though there was no-one promoting this group. It has apparently separated the roles of leader (expert) from telephone contact (usually the convener does both). With all the interest in the Reading Groups I do wonder if there is not a latent interest in a group reading, but perhaps not studying in so much detail, classic literature (though my reading group and Barbara Ellis's cover a bit of both).
CHESS
I had a good chat to 'I'm Maxie' who was sitting in front of his chess set offering to play passers-by. He was pleased with the response, and, seeking a central venue was another waiting for Hazel Court to open.
CALIGRAPHY Maureen Thomas is trying to revive this group and looking for support. My wife Joan was a member of the earlier group which had good numeric support but rather lost its way when the leader was away for a few months; Joan wanting more than a social morning lost interest and stopped going. I am sure Maureen will put it on an a more interesting footing. She is starting a trial by meeting in Mumbles for all four weeks in February 2009.
DISCUSSION
In search of emails I stopped by with RolyGovier. I was quite taken by surprise at the group he was running. I had thought it would be esoteric discussions of a philosophic nature, but no it was very down to earth. He is delighted when someone new gets confident enough to take the lead. Each month someone volunteers to lead the discusion at the following meeting, next month it could well be proposed to discuss savings given the Credit Crunch or finding the best supplier of Gas/Electricity (ideas off the top of my head). I almost volunteered to slag off British Gas but Roly said touche, they are entirely banned from his house. APOLOGIES
If I haven't mentioned your group it's probably because it looked too successful to benefit from my intervention last Wednesday.
I am writing the day before the Swansea U3A Open Day at which the Groups will present themselves to the public in the Dolphin Hotel. Blogs always show the latest posting (chapter) first, so if you are reading this blog for the first time then scroll back to the first posting, headed Introduction-Start Here, and read forward through the postings to get an idea of what it's all about. Then if you feel you have something to contribute to a posting click on the 'pencil' and get writing. Blogs are interactive so you too get published on the internet, but don't expect me to field every query.
It seems ironic for someone charged with helping the formation of new groups that the first task is to help saving two valid ones, but here goes.
RECORDER
This is an 8 year old group facing breakup because Florrie the current convener has to drop out with eye-sight problems. We all hope the imminent cataract operation will be a huge step back to normality for her.
Recorder groups are a feature of almost all U3A organisations right across the UK. It seems a great shame that this one is failing. Volunteers please, ideally two or more. Surely the role below suits someone, given our 600 strong membership in Swansea. It's as true as ever that you get out more than you put in.
The person would need to be a capable player but would not have to lead the group technically merely to co-ordinate the meetings which are in member's homes, and join in the playing.
Secondly I would like someone to form a separate Beginners Recorder Group. Overtime some players would move to the more advanced group, an approach which seems to have been immediately successful with the last year's Watercolour Painting Group. If such a group were to include the likes of me it would have to be prepared to start with learning to read a single line of music and find the appropriate notes on a recorder.
Florrie Toft knows that the recorder played well makes beautiful music, even to concert standard, and way beyond the sound produced by a typical primary school group. In other parts of the country adjacent U3A join forces occasionally to form much bigger orchestras and socialise.
I speak as someone whose mother taught piano and desperately wanted to help me play piano and then the violin, her response after I cut off the little finger on my right hand because you see the right hand merely bows - such a stupid mistake I made! She was far more successful with my younger brother and sister who both play beautifully.
Music is nevertheless one of the passions of my life, and one of my chief regrets is not having learned to play. Something simple like the recorder would be an ideal recovery route. Surely I am not alone. It seems like an ideal topic for a U3A group and once playing who knows where it would lead, clarinet, keyboards .... now what I would really dream of is to playing full speed harmonically improvised bebop on a saxophone - an impossible objective which does but shouldn't stop me trying something. By the way we went to Cardiff recently to hear the Welsh National Opera production of Otello, which appears shortly at the Grand. They say I have eclectic tastes, I guess that's a sign of being through the mill and being influenced by so many wonderful different people and cultures. When I suggested to the class in my best Spanish that I didn't like the word University in U3A, the advice was to think of it as the 'The University of Life'. I rest their case!
In the last posting I got hung up on the topic of simplicity, the departure in my mind then was recorders. For Simple does not limit something to Trivial. The simpler the instrument, I guess, the more it responds to sensitive playing, and therefore the more rewarding it is to an improving player.
A few weeks ago I had reason to take the underpass in the centre of Swansea across the Mumbles Road to buy tickets for a Latin American event. As I crossed alone with my wife a busker started up on a tin whistle with a plaintive traditional tune, and kept playing until we left by the steps on the other side. We both remarked on the beautiful sound that was being produced from such a simple instrument in this echo chamber. On our travels in Peru, our first trip to South America, we found a back room in a cafe in Trujillo where the enthusiastic owner encouraged itinerant musicians to drop in at night and play. Every night was a wonderful experience, but none matched the man who brought only his poncho and simple wooden flute and played traditional Andean music evocatively, and then stretched to 'Yesterday' , by the Beetles, in order to welcome us two gringos.
FRENCH CONVERSATION
A group with plenty of enthusiastic members who are folding for the sake of a French Tutor to lead the group. Jan Phillips feels they need a tutor, who feels at home with both the grammar and the spoken language. Surely there is a member out there with experience in teaching French who would be prepared to help people enthusiastic to learn. Maite, my Spanish teacher, has largely converted to teaching adults because she finds it so much more rewarding. If there isn't a volunteer then perhaps the group should consider sharing the cost to employ someone with the necessary skills.
Another avenue would perhaps be to change emphasis, maybe reading and discussing books written in French a chapter at a time, maybe listening to and exploring one of my passions the French Chanson where the words count for more than the music. People like Georges Brassens, Georges Moustaki, Jacques Brel and Barbara or even Madame Sarkozy, the Italian born Carla Bruni, whose first album (Quelqu'un ma dit) is tuneful and uses simple French. They often use poetic language to explore left wing politics, liberal thought, love and life.
Have always combined independent travel with a normal life style, from cycle touring on the continent as a schoolboy, to hitch-hiking into the polar circle in Norway when a student, to hitch hiking in the USA during my first job as an Electrical Engineer. Since our children flew Joan and I have taken the opportunity to travel widely in Asia and South America, firstly in a backpacking mode, but thankfully without the necessity to minimise cost, and now as joints decay we are reduced to pulling small wheelie bags instead, but still retain the urge to travel slowly by established local transport. Now over a decade into retirement I can look back serenely over a career, largely spent in the Steel industry with real-time process control and automation, which saw the changeover to computer and other digital techniques. I can only wonder at the vast vertical range encompassing electronics, software and telecommunications, and a horizontal one which spread from system design in all these areas, through installation to lifetime software maintenance. A scope no longer open to engineers since digital techniques became commonplace and very specialised.
ical Society. As with Geology, it seems that those with sufficient the interest belong to two organisations. The Astro Society have lectures twice a month, are responsible for running the observatory in the Marina on behalf of The Council and assist in the provision of University courses. Very good cooperation exists between the two organisations. More details can be obtained from their website:-
