QUIZ plus groups

QUIZ
Why don't we have one more often? That comment alone showed how much the event is liked. Not everyone was there for the mulled wine. I remember writing at the very beginning of this blog that the U3A wasn't really a university because there is no formal tuition and no exams. Wrong, the quiz is nothing but an hour long written exam of the most exacting sort. Very valid questions which I can't answer, something called Palindromes and yet a third mystical section called Dingbats. I need tuition.

However I now know how to win. Go and sit at the biggest table with a maestro called Colin Thomas calling the shots and wishing he had stuck to his guns and chosen Sudan as the biggest country in Africa. There was a debate about whether the answer was Congo, but a later look at an atlas showed that country and Algeria were simply Sudan's nearest rivals.

I contributed just one answer, which gives me a personal mark of 2%, hardly anything to blog about, except that there weren't many who have worked outside in a Eskimo parka and snow shoes at 40 below (commissioning on what was then the world's biggest hydro-electric station station at one million horsepower, with the Russians poised to improve on that by 30% to one thousand MW) . That sort of experience is imprinted in the memory, and by the way the temperature scale can be Centigrade, Celsius or Fahrenheit it makes no difference - but it's bloody cold. Take your gloves off and your finger will adhere to metal as if by super glue, pull it off and leave the skin behind - it would be painful and bleed if the finger wasn't frozen! In that weather it is safer to stick to fishing through a hole in the ice with a brazier and a bottle of Scotch.

A well loved event but nothing like as successful in finding new group interests than the Open Day or the New Members coffee morning. Nevertheless this has been a very successful year for the creation of new groups. Define the unit group size as being a group of around 12 meeting once per month then at the start of the year there were 32 groups with a score of around 60 units. The new groups French, Modern Jive, MOTO, Reading 4, and Chess 2 add about 15 units or 25%.

The Italian Group is having its first meeting to explore the way ahead on Monday 8 December at 10am in Hazel Court. The idea behind the choice of Monday morning is the intention to share the room at Hazel Court with Reading 4 (second Monday) and with Chess (first and third Mondays). The Craft Room can be partitioned into two rooms - we will have to see how that works in practice, but clearly it keeps the hire cost within bounds for smaller groups.

Cards for Fun
Late news Lawmary says they are holding their first meeting in the Taliesin at 1.00 just before the Wednesday lecture 3 December. Anyone else interested make themselves known to her Joy Gillard, Joan Norley or Ann Twomey.

Cecily Hughes thinks there may be sufficient call for a fifth Reading group in the New Year. Clearly we have to get at least an initial meeting on Internet Skills to assess requirements, in the interim Digital Media Group are trying out Hazel Court on Friday 12 December.
Harold Williams 232207 wondered if there was any interest in forming an Archaeology Group. Anyone interested should contact him and report back if there is sufficient interest and someone prepared to lead such a group.

Some interest has been shown in forming a cycling group. Anyone interested should in the first place contact Lawrence Hopes on 362113, regardless of level of difficulty in the first instance. Given sufficient interest we can always organise around differences in interest.

Promotions
Last posting I said I would promote Mumbles Movies run in Ostreme Hall by Lawrence Hopes, under the auspices of Mumbles development Trust. He has now sent me details of the imminent showings.

Friday 19 December doors open at 7.15 for 'Mama Mia'
Saturday 20 December at 2.30pm repeat of 'Mama Mia'
Price in advance £4, at door £4.40

Wednesday Lecture 'Coloured Light – the Art of Stained Glass,

by Alun Adams

as reviewed by Virginia Jones

Alun Adams was a civil servant for many years but decided to change course and did a BA programme and later an MA in glass. He now works at the Swansea Institute and among other things lectures on the history of stained glass.

Stained glass has a track record covering over 1000 years but in order to fully appreciate the history of glass one has to consider social and political history as well as the history of materials. Mr. Adams’ particular interest is stained glass after 1900, that is after William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement. One cannot mention the revival of Arts and Crafts in glass without mentioning the great Christopher Whall who was not only a fine artist but also an inspirational teacher. One of his pupils was Karl Parsons, who Mr. Adams greatly admires and forms the subject of this talk.

Karl Parsons considered himself a ‘designer in coloured light’. He believed that the first thing one needed to do was draw and he was indeed a very fine artist. He loved rich, exuberant colours and used pigment, acid etching and plating to achieve the effects he wanted.

We are fortunate in Wales to have examples of his work in churches in Tenby, Pyle and Porthcawl. At one time, of course, stained glass windows were the Bible for the common people. Parsons understood this and the importance of the symbols of Christianity in the design of Church windows. In 1924 he travelled to Chartres and was impressed not only by the symbols and iconography but also by the ageing of the glass that he saw, in particular the effect of 500 years of weathering. When he returned to this country he wanted to simulate this ageing process and if one looks at the window at Pyle Church depicting the story of the Good Samaritan one can see that he did indeed achieve this process.

Perhaps the greatest window that he made anywhere is in All Saints Church in Porthcawl. It is a war memorial and very detailed. Unfortunately, a part of this window cannot be seen as the wall of the vestry behind the altar obscures it. However, the detail is amazing and shows Parsons’ understanding of art, of glass and of light.

It also reinforces the view that stained glass is an Art not just a craft.

Mr. Adams, through this talk, demonstrated that stained glass is not a dying art but does need people of vision to take it to new heights. It is capable of transforming space and creating something inside a building that is changing all the time just as light shifts during the seasons and the day.

This introduction to a master artist such as Karl Parsons and to the artistic medium of stained glass was both interesting and illuminating (in more ways than one!) The speaker captured the imagination of the audience and translated his obvious enthusiasm in a way that was both entertaining and memorable.