GROUP REVIEWS and COME SALSA

ANY- ONE for SALSA?
Janet Jones had booked us a long table at the Village Hotel that night drawing largely on the Jive group especially those who also belong to MOTO. Apparently 250 tickets had been sold for this sell out event. It included a not very inspiring meal of paella, but no-one faulted the dancing, a samba display in skimpy Brazilian costumes with full Rio carnival headdress, a display of Salsa by Nelson and Alba who teach at the Dragon on Thursday nights, but above all the mass crash course in Salsa by Nelson with everyone called onto the packed floor to learn four basic steps together with Nelson shouting out the rhythm 1 2-3 (pause) 5 6-7,  1 2-3 (pause) 5 6-7, open-close, open-close, in a sort of multi line-dance to an infectious fast Latin beat.
Sky-Diving/jiving Rita was there, Gerwyn was there, so was the jiving chess tutor Ken and wife Julia, so was our Secretary Pat and Barn Dance Joy, Enid and Wyn from jive, and, and, all having a memorable evening. Thanks above all to the energy and feeling for fun of Nelson - I don't think he will be retiring any time yet , but boy would he make a good convenor!

GROUP REVIEWS

True for once to my avowed intention to visit and get a feel for the activity in more groups. Monday started with Italian for me and Chess for Joan, in the afternoon I went to try my hand at bowling.
SHORT MAT BOWLING 1, every Monday 1.30 at West Cross
I had no sooner entered the room than Jim decided to take me in hand, teach me about choosing bowls, how to stand - in a way no one else did!, how to swing bowls, forehand and backhand, line and weight and length.
My second practice attempt with a Number 3 sized bowl stopped within millimetres of the jack was to be my high point (perfection would have just made contact and the added reward was having my bowl chalked to confer it special status as a 'toucher'). After that using the heavier Number 4, which according to Jim 'fitted my hands better', was all downhill.

Some may be suspicious that Jim, who turned out to be the opposing 'skip', was not entirely on my side. Throughout the game he kept encouraging me with the thought that my line was correct - pity about the weight as they thudded one after another into the backstop and were promptly removed from the field of play. Get the weight just short of perfect and I kept discovering the vagaries of the pitch (a fine flat looking gym floor) - as they bent from the right edge of the mat to the far left before going right off the mat - so those bowls too were removed before they broke any-ones leg. I then began to understand why the group's new convenor Angela Ball, at our Convenor's Meeting way back before the first Wednesday lecture, was so concerned about the possibility of accidents! She was very fulsome in welcoming me and gave me an extra biscuit for paying! That day the group were still below the ideal number, so any-one interested should go along to try/watch or better still after contacting Angela on 412701.


So far as I'm concerned it is a game of frustrations to rival golf  - another game where consistency under pressure is of the essence. I'm not a quitter and found it a good way to spend an afternoon in pleasant company - so when time allows I will resume my apprenticeship.
We did have one other first timer on our team, Angela Bridges from Politics & Citizenship. Luckily my skip Dilys was the best player on our mat (she only plays every day) and nearly always won the frame with scarce help from the rest of us.

WELSH LANGUAGE & CULTURE, every Tuesday at 10am in St Mary's Vestry.
Not being Welsh and without a word of Welsh, though my main interests since retiring have been languages, essentially as an aid to travelling. I phoned Convenor Marjorie Vanston just before going, nervous that speaking Welsh was a prerequisite, and was told that by chance she would be handing round copies of an article in English from an American newspaper on the Welsh Community in Patagonia for discussion. On hearing this Joan decided she wanted to come as well and we hastily raided our files to find a few titbits gathered on our travels there almost three years ago, and especially those relating to our meeting with Welsh community in the Welsh speaking town of Trevelin, immediately east of the Andes just over the border with Chile.


Whether this was a typical session is difficult to judge, surely it would have modified in some way to accommodate us English speakers. On this occasion the Welsh language interest seemed to be mainly in the Welsh vocabulary to be gleaned from a St Fagans pamphlet written in both languages. Although I characterised it earlier with the French and Italian groups this is definitely not a language learning group.



There were 10 members beside us and on the Convenors Questionaire Marjorie indicated that she would like another six members. It would seem to be an ideal opportunity to widen the age band of the group. There must be some fervently Welsh younger members in this organisation who would enjoy helping ensure Swansea U3A continues to address this vital aspect of Swansea's culture.


BEGINNERS WATER COLOUR
On Thursday morning after the French Conversation class I showed Brenda Sweet the Craft Room at Hazel Court  and she agreed it was ideal for the small class of Beginners Water Colours she had in mind. I have therefore booked the Craft Room weekly for Thursday afternoons from 11 March to 26 August, though the exact starting date is still to be confirmed.
Please note that Brenda Sweet is on 850518 (note the number because until now my records were incorrect).

ART/PAINTING meet at 2pm the 3rd Thursday afternoon on Ravenhill Road just north of Carmarthen Road.
Val Day the Convenor was on holiday in Spain but Brian Davies, convenor of Armchair Travel was standing in. About 8 people (12 is a more typical number) were doing their own thing, for this is a class without formal tuition - the main objective being to create an environment in which members feel encouraged to paint.
I was pleasantly surprised by the spacious room in a demountable cabin just behind a snooker hall, it is fitted with around 7 sturdy modern desks intended for two computers each but which double well for for painting. 
Mary Manning was there for the first time - she is one of several new members Val has discovered since she and husband John started with the Jive Group. These jivers get around! I need to find out if the room has wireless broadband, because it might be an alternative for Internet work, though overall less attractive than Hazel Court.


TAI CHI

I finished off Friday with my usual 9am Tai Chi class, the numbers are still a little short of those ideal for each of the three classes run that morning. On this occasion we were 8 rather than the ideal 11, but I know a couple from Thursday's French Group were intending to start that morning at the Beginners session at midday. Once members get involved in one class they are soon looking for other activities to try.



A GEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Wednesday's lecture made me think. I had been prepared to expect that the colossal climate changes in hundreds of millions of years of the earth's life in which the comparatively recent ice ages were only one feature would lead to a sceptical reading of current climate change. But no, Dr Geraint Owen showed that today's rate of change of temperature was quite unprecedented. 
Long term changes had been huge but the rates of temperature change up and down had been a miserly 0.04degrees C per hundred years, whereas the rate during the industrialisation of the last hundred years has been up 0.6 - 0.74C in the last 100 years, 15-20 times as great, and the rate is predicted to rise up to 1.1 - 6.4C in the next hundred years, more than 100 times the historic rate. It seems unavoidable to conclude that this is the result of man's ever increasing demand for energy, satisfied so far by combustion of wood and fossil fuels.
What was chilling was the feeling, I gained from him during questioning, that other than discarding our life style there was little we would, or could, do about it. Maybe a massive population cull is around the corner.
Natural cynicism, from a life full of  basic measurements like temperature might lead me to question how accurately we can measure the average temperature of the earth today or how safe is our derivation of temperature from geological records, but for the rate to be 100 times out is very unlikely. Cynicism also about the application of dynamic process modelling (intended to predict future trends) which is made to fit the past but so often fails to predict future trends, eg weather forecasting - remember we were expecting last summer to be the hottest on record, were we not!

COMMITTEE

Bob Hughes, the Chairman who has overseen so much positive development of Swansea U3A during his three years in office, is standing down at the next AGM. He wants enquirers, nominators, volunteers, or press-gangers, to come forward immediately offering to fill the vacant posts of Vice-Chair (men or women, one or several) so that they can be trained up with a view to a smooth take over in June 2010.

He also warns that over half the Committee will be standing down at the same AGM, including it is rumoured Mrs Swansea U3A herself -  Secretary Pat Herbert, having served one or several three year stints.

So it's over to a younger, newer, age-group to take us forward 


AN EARLIER MEXICAN EVENING AT THE MONKEY CAFE

Sheila Grey and Pat Herbert caught on picture with Mexican Pirate Gerwyn Thomas



CHRONICLE
Derrick Jenkins writes in asking me to remind you all that the Editorial Sub-Committee are ready to accept articles for next years Chronicle, and pleads that all will make the best use of the cold dark winter with writing and submitting articles to

Derrick Jenkins

122 Belgrave Road

Gorseinon

SWANSEA

SA4 6RB

or emailed to derrick.jenkins@ntlworld.com

BOBBY WELLINS AT JAZZLANDS
I have missed a couple of nights but I am not going to miss any more before Christmas. This Wednesday Bobby Wellins will be playing at the club with the Dave Cottle Trio. Some may know the Under Milk Wood Suite composed and recorded by Stan Tracey in 1965, which was also featured in a revival at the Taliesin with Stan Tracey at the piano some years back. Bobby Wellins was the lyrical tenor saxophonist who made sure of his place in posterity with his work on the original recording. He is one of the leading British tenor players of his time, a little younger than me, very much associated with contemporaries like Don Weller and guitarist Jim Mullen both of whom have appeared several times at Jazzlands. I expect him to feature 'cool' melodic modern jazz which will be an excellent introduction to the genre

Bobby Wellins to my knowledge only came once before to Swansea, in the days before the break up of the Swansea Jazz Club when they met in what once was Munday's wine cellar behind the 'No Sign Bar', and before the movement to Ellingtons and the break off of traditional jazz to Mumbles. Unfortunately Bobby stormed off the set without playing a single note, leaving an inadequate trio to entertain us for the evening. He is lucky to be getting a second hearing from me, though there is the consolation that if needed the Dave Cottle Trio would entertain excellently by themselves.

Quite a few U3A members now attend Jazzlands, some 7 or 8 at the last count, though they do not form a group.



The year culminates on 16 December with Alan Barnes my favourite British alto saxophonist, who appeared a few years ago with the suite he had composed in Tracey's Under Milk Wood fashion, his being called Sherlock Holmes (2003). Each suite combines reading and music, unfortunately the narrative palls after many listenings.




COMING SOON - repeated from last weeks blog
Friday 27 November Annual Wine Tasting at Nic John's (wine merchant) 90 Walter Road from 6pm. Contact Cecily Hughes on 363875

Monday 30 November, Pre-Concert Talk by Clive John on 'The Five Decades of the Swansea Philharmonic Choir', in Council Chamber Civic Centre at 2.15pm. (associated concert is Sat 5 Dec tickets from 371665). Contact Cecily Hughes on 363875

Tuesday 1 December, Inaugural Meeting of new Book Club 5 in HC at 10.30am. Contact Cecily Hughes on 363875
 
Friday 4 December , Armchair Travel in Evangelical Church immediately south of HC at 2.30pm when Alan Penhaligan will talk on Tuscany and Italian Riviera. Contact Brian Davies 520927 who was disappointed that after having so many express interest at Open Day only one new person turned for his first lecture.