A very short posting with some very good news Swansea U3A now have an attractive informative Internet web site, thanks to the hard work of Anthony Hughes and his small team.
It is primarily designed for newcomers and describes the wide range of activities we provide along with background information about the aims and objectives of the U3A. It also supplies news to current members.
Importantly it includes an application form for membership which can be printed, filled in, and posted.
You will find it at
http://www.u3aswansea.org.uk/
I suggest you save the address of the home page, the first you see on access to the site, to your Internet page 'Favorites' if you are using Internet Explorer, or 'Bookmarks' if you are using the Firefox browser.
GERWYN
He was discharged several days ago from Morriston following his recent heart attack at the Liberty Stadium. Tonight he phoned Joan having been out for a short walk - he told her that he was calling from Snowdon, nonplussing her for a second.
In fact he is being looked after by his sister in what he claimed was The Ritz. He accepts that he has a long way to go yet and gave thanks for all the support and cards he has had from the U3A.
A new member who immediately threw himself into our activities by founding two new groups Jive and the MOTO (Members On Their Own) for members without partners. Well known and very popular we wish him a full recovery and can't wait to see him back. Incredible to believe he has had such an impact since joining in October 2008.
Happy Christmas and a Great New Year to all my readers. Thanks for your support.
Brian
Sunday, 20 December 2009
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
CHRISTMAS IS COMING
GERWYN'S GROUPS
He is being discharged 18 December, see previous posting for more.
JIVE and MOTO
Both these groups are run by Gerwyn Thomas but note temporary arrangements below whilst he is recovering from his Heart Attack.
JIVE is now being led by Eric Broadbent 891556 (please note number corrected from earlier editions) with Traditional Jazz music provided by me. The change in music appeared to go down well. For last Wednesday's session Eric searched his brains to remember the details of a few moves that Gerwyn had taught us, there are many more to remember. Therefore tomorrow's session will go ahead at the Monkey Cafe, though the special lunchtime arrangements afterwards have been postponed until Gerwyn's return. Then there will be a break over Christmas New Year until Wednesday 13 January 2010, the morning before Pantomagoria in the Dolphin.
MOTO is being led in his absence by Dorothy Little 511127. I gather the group are already in touch and have a rota to check on Gerwyn's progress in the Coronary Care Unit at Morriston and spread the news.
Please note that all information on Gerwyn's condition is to be found at the head of the previous posting, and note that it is still being updated by me.
JAZZ
Jazzlands Christmas festivities with buffet were a huge success. Alan Barnes arguably the best alto saxophonist in the UK, and a multi instrumentalist at that, was there as promised but had brought with him as mystery guest Bruce Adams another frequent visitor to the club, who has the same high standing amongst jazz trumpeters in the UK. Bruce, a big man with the puffed cheeks and easy reach of the trumpets highest notes of Dizzy Gillespie, was at the top of his exciting form.
Alan having left his baritone sax and normal clarinet behind for once came armed with a bass clarinet and the usual range of humour. Referring to the four foot long instrument in the corner he told the audience it had been brought to smoke in the interval - playing on its likeness to a huge hookah pipe! Then he showed its paces on a lilting Ben Webster number. (Ben is one of the all time US greats on the tenor with a penchant for getting heavy breathing sounds from his sax though Alan could not match this feature).
Alan mentioned he had been shown a photograph of him at the club in 1984 and he hadn't changed a bit. I guess I was at that concert assuming he was the little known alto with The Tommy Chase Quartet, with drummer Tommy propelling the band into unadulterated hard bop. They were also the stars of the very first Brecon Jazz which would be about the same time.
Alan Barnes alto, Bruce Adams trumpet, Tom Cottle drums, Alun Vaughan bass
Alan Barnes bass clarinet, Bruce Adams trumpet
JAZZLANDS, St James Crescent, Xmas 2009
NEW GROUP NEWS
BOOKREADING 5
We are concerned that this new group formed to satisfy apparent demand expressed at our Open Day will have to be cancelled. Cecily sent a hand produced card to everyone signing but was very disappointed to have only one person reply and then only one person turn up at the inaugural meeting on 1 December. A room booking has been made for the first Tuesday of each month, the next being Tuesday 2 February 2010 at 10am at Hazel Court, in the Dry side of the Craft Room on the first floor just above Reception.
Those interested should phone Cecily Hughes, our Chairman's wife, on 363875 before the end of December to confirm intention to attend or the room booking will be closed.
BEGINNERS WATER COLOUR
Given the dismal response to many of the group interest sheets collected at Open Day I am concerned we may be over optimistic for this new group. We have booked a room for every Thursday afternoon starting 11 March 2010, once again at Hazel Court, a venue very popular with current group members.
Brenda Sweet, a new member of the Swansea U3A - though previously with Coventry U3A - has offered to instruct this group, finding a tutor is usually our most difficult problem. She emphasises that it was called a beginners course because of apparent demand for this level but she would welcome a group of mixed ability.
However it is vital that those intending to try out this new group should phone Brenda on 850518 ( I apologise for having the number incorrect on previous notification). She will confirm the precise start date nearer the time.
CALLIGRAPHY
Maureen Thomas ran several oversubscribed 4-day courses last year and is intending to start another at 2pm on Thursday 21 January 2010 at Hazel Court in the Craft Room. The course will complete on the following three Thursday afternoons. Maureen did the much praised calligraphy in Dylan Thomas's House.
She has been taking bookings for some time now and members wishing to participate should contact her on 401132.
PATCHWORK GROUP
Pearl Wiseman is bringing this group within the auspices of Swansea U3A. They already number about eight with a wide range of skills which include cutting up material to design, sewing and even ironing. Their aim is to make items to donate to various charities so as to aid their own fund raising. She describes socialising, drinking tea, chatting and re-cycling as part of the ethos of the group.
Pearl herself did a City and Guilds qualification and joined Swansea Quilters. She warns potential starters that patchwork is addictive. They meet ot 1.30pm Thursday afternoons at Hazel Court.
PAY and BONUS SCANDAL
It seems the government have taken part of the advice I offered in this blog on 4 August 2009 under the heading Changing Political Landscape. To penalise the banks with a windfall tax on bonus payments, we are missing a good part of my plot for I had anticipated that such a tax would be avoidable by simply giving extra salary to compensate for reduced bonus payments, as Barclays are already proposing.
As far as banks are concerned I believe it is right to tax the banks for ridiculously high incomes when they created the mess in the first place for which everyone else suffers and they are hoping to get off scott-free.
Pre Tax Income is the aggregate of year's salary, cash bonus at time of promise (no avoiding by delayed payment), current value of present year issue of share bonuses, plus the year's pension contributions by the bank.
In my view excessive total annual income, however disguised or delayed, is what needs to be penalised by a tax on the company rather than the individual. Nor is the problem restricted to bankers, cancer spreads indeed it has already, who realised until recently that Jonathan Ross and Jeremy Clarkson are paid many millions annually by our BBC. Yes the Bankers are stars in their own right, star gamblers with our money. Was it Lord Turner who doubted the social value of their tasks? Who thinks that the earnings of Premiership football stars are out of control? I am not proposing we go back to the days of Johnny Haynes and the £20 per week ceiling for footballers, that was ridiculous too.
Lord Turner named fixed-income securities, trading, derivatives and hedging as areas that have grown beyond socially optimal levels, adding that fund management and share trading might also have grown too big.
“I think some of it is socially useless activity,” he said, adding that the financial sector had “swollen beyond its socially useful size” and seemed to make excessively large profits.
The first priority is to make publication of top earnings data mandatory across the board, that alone should help bring in a waft of fresh air. If we want a society which values contribution we should make sure our doctors and nurses, lecturers and teachers, engineers, managers (of industry, shops and enterprises), civil servants, and MPs are suitably rewarded. There needs to be a proper balance and it needs to be seen to be so.
Currently many of our ablest numerate university graduates are being invited into 'The City'. We must inhibit them from being dragged off by the bonanza of the moment as we head to a winner takes all society. Nor do I think it a case of fair cash rewards for Top Management and the Middle Class, we should be challenging our ever increasing differentials throughout society.
If we lose greedy, selfish top performers should we be disappointed? No, there are plenty of talented people with far higher standards even in modern society, there might be a hiccup in the shart term but we would be doing ourselves a favour in the long run.
Just a few simple back of envelop sums will begin to illustrate the severity of the problem.
Ten or more percent of our population are paid at or just above the UK Minimum Wage of £5 per hour.
Assume they work 40 hour weeks and thus get £200 per week.
Assume they work 50 weeks in a year and earn £10,000 a year.
Assume they work 50 years so earn just £500,000 in their lifetime.
Their current value lifetime earnings are are just half a million pounds before tax, before unemployment, before sickness. Even they pay tax and National Insurance, but it is unlikely the firms contribute to their pension, or give bonuses.
Consider next the median earnings in this country, that is the before tax income of the middle person in our workforce ('median' means that half the working population are paid more and half are paid less). The figure is around £20,000 per year, just twice the minimum wage, so his lifetime earning is precisely one million pounds.
Now consider a GP earning £100,000 a year, just five times the median level. Not unreasonable I would think.
Now consider our top paid bankers (gamblers specialised in trading shares, commodities, currency) who earn say £10 million a year, or £500 million in a lifetime. Five hundred times median earnings. I think it unreasonable that our society should endorse such an unfair reward system, which is destroying the fabric of society.
I am also of the opinion that we should impose a tax on each trading transaction, the tax called a Tobin Tax after the name of its proposer aims to eliminate unnecessary transactions and thus greatly decrease the rewards (attraction) of gambling. Ideally that needs to be co-ordinated across countries, but so did our alcohol tax need to be co-ordinated with France to stop the stupid trade across The Channel.
It is for these sort of arguments that I felt on 4 August that it should be made mandatory that firms (public or private) should disclose details of total rewards above £250,000 per year, ie those significantly greater than ten times the median wage.
SPRING TERM
All groups will take a break over Christmas and re-start at differing dates in the New Year.
Hazel Court have their Official Opening ceremony on Monday 25 January, and is thus is closed to us this day.
PANTOMAGORIA
Jill Govier is presenting Sleeping Beauty as her Third Annual Pantomime in the Dolphin Hotel starting at 2.30pm and followed by a cream tea for cast and audience alike. She now has a full cast and seems confident that this will be the best Swansea U3A Panto yet. It will surely be a fun afternoon and one which starts off Wednesday afternoon meetings, the first lecture is the following Wednesday.
It's an all ticket affair. I understand a few tickets are still available at £5 from the Social Committee ie Cecily Hughes, Pat Herbert or Joy Gillard
Although the cast is complete she needs a Couple to Waltz in the Ballroom Dancing scene. They need only attend the Dress Rehearsal on Monday 11 January. Will volunteers please contact Jill Govier ASAP on 455303.
In case there are no volunteers within the U3A has anyone suggestions on dancers to contact.
TASTE OF
Lyn Holt who entertained us with his lecture last Wednesday 'Food for Thought' in which he reflected that his mother, like mine, lost her mind long before her body and that we all need to do as much as we can to save ourselves from the same fate.
He contrasted our current American/British diet with its over emphasis on saturated fat, processed food and excess calories with our much healthier diet in 1948. Omega 3 he said was undoubtedly good for brain and heart but you needed to eat it in sufficient quantity (1500mg per week) and that fresh mackerel once a week rather than pills was the only route now that cod and cod liver oil was no longer available.
He should be proud of me serving Pilchards on toast with a glass of red wine for lunch, a sure sign I am in Joan's bad books, since pilchards are her delight. According to the label we have eaten over 4000mg each this week of EPA and DHA combined, that being the content in a 425g tin for 60p. Don't tell Tesco or they will jack the price up! For this I'm expecting another 5 minutes of active life!
But he also pointed to the need to keep the mind active and thus continually build new pathways in the brain to substitute for those lost to ageing. I had a similar theme in a recent blog showing the extra importance of some of our groups which stretch the mind. Regrettably those are the most difficult to fill, hence the vacancies in learning a foreign language (eg Italian) or thinking games eg Chess and Scrabble), or a the Creative Writing Groups. The only exceptions appear to be Tai Chi and Jive which also offer physical challenges.
Further investigation of Pilchards revealed an amazing discrepancy for the same make (Glenryck), for the small 155g tin contains 1% Omega 3 (1550mg per tin) but the larger 425g tin we ate contains 2.3% Omega 3 (9800mg per tin, 8080mg of which are EPA and DHA). No doubt to get these doses you have to eat all the tomato sauce in the tin as well.
The small tin and the large tin Joan purchased today,Christmas Eve, both claim 2.1% Omega 3, throwing doubt on the original discrepancy I observed from tin size and perhaps on Lyn's observation that Own Brands contained far more Omega 3 than Named Brands. Incidently both of today's tins contain 0.8% of DHA (3400mg per large tin) which Lyn considers the most benficial of all the Omega 3 oils. He also said the main fault in our diet (UK and USA) was our liking for beef , observing that the Northern French did better than us in spite of high saturated fat levels. What am I to do given my liking for beef and cheese? More lunches of pilchards - of course!
Starting in January he is once again offering to cook meals for around fifty of us (not wholly U3A) at Sketty Community Centre. I understand that tickets for the first one (Friday 22 Jan Best of British at 6.30pm) are sold out, but get in quick for the next two 19 Feb Chinese New Year, or 19 March Anglo Indian. You will need to buy tickets at £7.50 if you don't attend the Wednesday lectures, then phone Angela Holt on 403238 and arrange to buy tickets.
POLITICS and CITIZENSHIP
For January only they will be meeting on 11 Jan at The Waterfront Museum and at 11am. They usually meet at 2pm and in the West Cross Community Centre on the 2nd Tuesday of month.
INFORMATION for CONVENORS Bookings at Hazel Court
The latest is that in another change in procedures Hazel Court will now take twelve monthly bookings for each calendar year. So all ongoing groups need bookings till 31 December 2010. The current situation of bookings held by me is as follows
Chess is now booked through by me to 20 December 2010
Italian booked by me till 21 June 2010 (awaiting new form)
Digital Media booked by me till 25 June 2010 (new booking form with Anthony Hughes)
Creative Writing 1 booked by me till 28 June 2010 (awaiting new form)
Creative writing 2 booked by me till 8 June 2010 (awaiting new form)
French booked by Gilly Jordan till 15 July 2010 (awaiting new form)
Tai Chi booked by me till 27 August 2010 (awaiting new form)
Bookings for new Groups
Beginners Water Colour booked by me all Thursday pm from 11 March 2010 to 26 August 2010.
Reading 5 booked by me till 7 Dec 2010 (may well be cancelled)
Patchwork booked by Pat/Pearle (needs to be extended till 31 Dec 2010)
Bookings can be cancelled verbally if given a minimum of 7 days notice. This is the way to cover breaks for Christmas, Easter, and Summer breaks to suit individual groups.
They will also take cancellations of non-viable groups in the same way and have been warned to expect such in the case of Bookreading 5
CLIMATE CHANGE
Since Dr Geraint Owen's lecture I had felt a good deal more assured that we were dealing with a unique happening. he convinced me that the current rate of change per hundred years was a hundred times greater than in the history of the world which he gave as 0.02 degrees C per 100 years or adding two factors(worst case) to derive the 0.04 degrees C which I used in earlier comments.
Channel 4 on 7 December had a program 'Man on Earth' in which they claimed instances of a drop of over 10 degrees C in a human lifetime (considerably less than 100 years), and a rise of 5 degrees C in a hundred years in Africa (not significantly different to projections for man made world average in the next 100 years). That was claimed to be evidence gleaned from digs archaelogical digs.
A week later on BBC 2 was a program giving evidence from ice cores drilled with similar rates of temperature change over very short time scales way back in pre history. When thanking Geraint for his lecture I said that I liked to have science quantified in figures, but there does seem to be some considerable doubt even about their scale. There's a huge difference between changes per 100 years of 0.04 C and 6 C.
None the less I still take Nicholas Stern's view that we need to reduce carbon emissions urgently now, for they may be catastrophically expensive if ignored.
He is being discharged 18 December, see previous posting for more.
JIVE and MOTO
Both these groups are run by Gerwyn Thomas but note temporary arrangements below whilst he is recovering from his Heart Attack.
JIVE is now being led by Eric Broadbent 891556 (please note number corrected from earlier editions) with Traditional Jazz music provided by me. The change in music appeared to go down well. For last Wednesday's session Eric searched his brains to remember the details of a few moves that Gerwyn had taught us, there are many more to remember. Therefore tomorrow's session will go ahead at the Monkey Cafe, though the special lunchtime arrangements afterwards have been postponed until Gerwyn's return. Then there will be a break over Christmas New Year until Wednesday 13 January 2010, the morning before Pantomagoria in the Dolphin.
MOTO is being led in his absence by Dorothy Little 511127. I gather the group are already in touch and have a rota to check on Gerwyn's progress in the Coronary Care Unit at Morriston and spread the news.
Please note that all information on Gerwyn's condition is to be found at the head of the previous posting, and note that it is still being updated by me.
JAZZ
Jazzlands Christmas festivities with buffet were a huge success. Alan Barnes arguably the best alto saxophonist in the UK, and a multi instrumentalist at that, was there as promised but had brought with him as mystery guest Bruce Adams another frequent visitor to the club, who has the same high standing amongst jazz trumpeters in the UK. Bruce, a big man with the puffed cheeks and easy reach of the trumpets highest notes of Dizzy Gillespie, was at the top of his exciting form.
Alan having left his baritone sax and normal clarinet behind for once came armed with a bass clarinet and the usual range of humour. Referring to the four foot long instrument in the corner he told the audience it had been brought to smoke in the interval - playing on its likeness to a huge hookah pipe! Then he showed its paces on a lilting Ben Webster number. (Ben is one of the all time US greats on the tenor with a penchant for getting heavy breathing sounds from his sax though Alan could not match this feature).
Alan mentioned he had been shown a photograph of him at the club in 1984 and he hadn't changed a bit. I guess I was at that concert assuming he was the little known alto with The Tommy Chase Quartet, with drummer Tommy propelling the band into unadulterated hard bop. They were also the stars of the very first Brecon Jazz which would be about the same time.
NEW GROUP NEWS
BOOKREADING 5
We are concerned that this new group formed to satisfy apparent demand expressed at our Open Day will have to be cancelled. Cecily sent a hand produced card to everyone signing but was very disappointed to have only one person reply and then only one person turn up at the inaugural meeting on 1 December. A room booking has been made for the first Tuesday of each month, the next being Tuesday 2 February 2010 at 10am at Hazel Court, in the Dry side of the Craft Room on the first floor just above Reception.
Those interested should phone Cecily Hughes, our Chairman's wife, on 363875 before the end of December to confirm intention to attend or the room booking will be closed.
BEGINNERS WATER COLOUR
Given the dismal response to many of the group interest sheets collected at Open Day I am concerned we may be over optimistic for this new group. We have booked a room for every Thursday afternoon starting 11 March 2010, once again at Hazel Court, a venue very popular with current group members.
Brenda Sweet, a new member of the Swansea U3A - though previously with Coventry U3A - has offered to instruct this group, finding a tutor is usually our most difficult problem. She emphasises that it was called a beginners course because of apparent demand for this level but she would welcome a group of mixed ability.
However it is vital that those intending to try out this new group should phone Brenda on 850518 ( I apologise for having the number incorrect on previous notification). She will confirm the precise start date nearer the time.
CALLIGRAPHY
Maureen Thomas ran several oversubscribed 4-day courses last year and is intending to start another at 2pm on Thursday 21 January 2010 at Hazel Court in the Craft Room. The course will complete on the following three Thursday afternoons. Maureen did the much praised calligraphy in Dylan Thomas's House.
She has been taking bookings for some time now and members wishing to participate should contact her on 401132.
PATCHWORK GROUP
Pearl Wiseman is bringing this group within the auspices of Swansea U3A. They already number about eight with a wide range of skills which include cutting up material to design, sewing and even ironing. Their aim is to make items to donate to various charities so as to aid their own fund raising. She describes socialising, drinking tea, chatting and re-cycling as part of the ethos of the group.
Pearl herself did a City and Guilds qualification and joined Swansea Quilters. She warns potential starters that patchwork is addictive. They meet ot 1.30pm Thursday afternoons at Hazel Court.
PAY and BONUS SCANDAL
It seems the government have taken part of the advice I offered in this blog on 4 August 2009 under the heading Changing Political Landscape. To penalise the banks with a windfall tax on bonus payments, we are missing a good part of my plot for I had anticipated that such a tax would be avoidable by simply giving extra salary to compensate for reduced bonus payments, as Barclays are already proposing.
As far as banks are concerned I believe it is right to tax the banks for ridiculously high incomes when they created the mess in the first place for which everyone else suffers and they are hoping to get off scott-free.
Pre Tax Income is the aggregate of year's salary, cash bonus at time of promise (no avoiding by delayed payment), current value of present year issue of share bonuses, plus the year's pension contributions by the bank.
In my view excessive total annual income, however disguised or delayed, is what needs to be penalised by a tax on the company rather than the individual. Nor is the problem restricted to bankers, cancer spreads indeed it has already, who realised until recently that Jonathan Ross and Jeremy Clarkson are paid many millions annually by our BBC. Yes the Bankers are stars in their own right, star gamblers with our money. Was it Lord Turner who doubted the social value of their tasks? Who thinks that the earnings of Premiership football stars are out of control? I am not proposing we go back to the days of Johnny Haynes and the £20 per week ceiling for footballers, that was ridiculous too.
Lord Turner named fixed-income securities, trading, derivatives and hedging as areas that have grown beyond socially optimal levels, adding that fund management and share trading might also have grown too big.
“I think some of it is socially useless activity,” he said, adding that the financial sector had “swollen beyond its socially useful size” and seemed to make excessively large profits.
The first priority is to make publication of top earnings data mandatory across the board, that alone should help bring in a waft of fresh air. If we want a society which values contribution we should make sure our doctors and nurses, lecturers and teachers, engineers, managers (of industry, shops and enterprises), civil servants, and MPs are suitably rewarded. There needs to be a proper balance and it needs to be seen to be so.
Currently many of our ablest numerate university graduates are being invited into 'The City'. We must inhibit them from being dragged off by the bonanza of the moment as we head to a winner takes all society. Nor do I think it a case of fair cash rewards for Top Management and the Middle Class, we should be challenging our ever increasing differentials throughout society.
If we lose greedy, selfish top performers should we be disappointed? No, there are plenty of talented people with far higher standards even in modern society, there might be a hiccup in the shart term but we would be doing ourselves a favour in the long run.
Just a few simple back of envelop sums will begin to illustrate the severity of the problem.
Ten or more percent of our population are paid at or just above the UK Minimum Wage of £5 per hour.
Assume they work 40 hour weeks and thus get £200 per week.
Assume they work 50 weeks in a year and earn £10,000 a year.
Assume they work 50 years so earn just £500,000 in their lifetime.
Their current value lifetime earnings are are just half a million pounds before tax, before unemployment, before sickness. Even they pay tax and National Insurance, but it is unlikely the firms contribute to their pension, or give bonuses.
Consider next the median earnings in this country, that is the before tax income of the middle person in our workforce ('median' means that half the working population are paid more and half are paid less). The figure is around £20,000 per year, just twice the minimum wage, so his lifetime earning is precisely one million pounds.
Now consider a GP earning £100,000 a year, just five times the median level. Not unreasonable I would think.
Now consider our top paid bankers (gamblers specialised in trading shares, commodities, currency) who earn say £10 million a year, or £500 million in a lifetime. Five hundred times median earnings. I think it unreasonable that our society should endorse such an unfair reward system, which is destroying the fabric of society.
I am also of the opinion that we should impose a tax on each trading transaction, the tax called a Tobin Tax after the name of its proposer aims to eliminate unnecessary transactions and thus greatly decrease the rewards (attraction) of gambling. Ideally that needs to be co-ordinated across countries, but so did our alcohol tax need to be co-ordinated with France to stop the stupid trade across The Channel.
It is for these sort of arguments that I felt on 4 August that it should be made mandatory that firms (public or private) should disclose details of total rewards above £250,000 per year, ie those significantly greater than ten times the median wage.
SPRING TERM
All groups will take a break over Christmas and re-start at differing dates in the New Year.
Hazel Court have their Official Opening ceremony on Monday 25 January, and is thus is closed to us this day.
PANTOMAGORIA
Jill Govier is presenting Sleeping Beauty as her Third Annual Pantomime in the Dolphin Hotel starting at 2.30pm and followed by a cream tea for cast and audience alike. She now has a full cast and seems confident that this will be the best Swansea U3A Panto yet. It will surely be a fun afternoon and one which starts off Wednesday afternoon meetings, the first lecture is the following Wednesday.
It's an all ticket affair. I understand a few tickets are still available at £5 from the Social Committee ie Cecily Hughes, Pat Herbert or Joy Gillard
Although the cast is complete she needs a Couple to Waltz in the Ballroom Dancing scene. They need only attend the Dress Rehearsal on Monday 11 January. Will volunteers please contact Jill Govier ASAP on 455303.
In case there are no volunteers within the U3A has anyone suggestions on dancers to contact.
TASTE OF
Lyn Holt who entertained us with his lecture last Wednesday 'Food for Thought' in which he reflected that his mother, like mine, lost her mind long before her body and that we all need to do as much as we can to save ourselves from the same fate.
He contrasted our current American/British diet with its over emphasis on saturated fat, processed food and excess calories with our much healthier diet in 1948. Omega 3 he said was undoubtedly good for brain and heart but you needed to eat it in sufficient quantity (1500mg per week) and that fresh mackerel once a week rather than pills was the only route now that cod and cod liver oil was no longer available.
He should be proud of me serving Pilchards on toast with a glass of red wine for lunch, a sure sign I am in Joan's bad books, since pilchards are her delight. According to the label we have eaten over 4000mg each this week of EPA and DHA combined, that being the content in a 425g tin for 60p. Don't tell Tesco or they will jack the price up! For this I'm expecting another 5 minutes of active life!
But he also pointed to the need to keep the mind active and thus continually build new pathways in the brain to substitute for those lost to ageing. I had a similar theme in a recent blog showing the extra importance of some of our groups which stretch the mind. Regrettably those are the most difficult to fill, hence the vacancies in learning a foreign language (eg Italian) or thinking games eg Chess and Scrabble), or a the Creative Writing Groups. The only exceptions appear to be Tai Chi and Jive which also offer physical challenges.
Further investigation of Pilchards revealed an amazing discrepancy for the same make (Glenryck), for the small 155g tin contains 1% Omega 3 (1550mg per tin) but the larger 425g tin we ate contains 2.3% Omega 3 (9800mg per tin, 8080mg of which are EPA and DHA). No doubt to get these doses you have to eat all the tomato sauce in the tin as well.
The small tin and the large tin Joan purchased today,Christmas Eve, both claim 2.1% Omega 3, throwing doubt on the original discrepancy I observed from tin size and perhaps on Lyn's observation that Own Brands contained far more Omega 3 than Named Brands. Incidently both of today's tins contain 0.8% of DHA (3400mg per large tin) which Lyn considers the most benficial of all the Omega 3 oils. He also said the main fault in our diet (UK and USA) was our liking for beef , observing that the Northern French did better than us in spite of high saturated fat levels. What am I to do given my liking for beef and cheese? More lunches of pilchards - of course!
Starting in January he is once again offering to cook meals for around fifty of us (not wholly U3A) at Sketty Community Centre. I understand that tickets for the first one (Friday 22 Jan Best of British at 6.30pm) are sold out, but get in quick for the next two 19 Feb Chinese New Year, or 19 March Anglo Indian. You will need to buy tickets at £7.50 if you don't attend the Wednesday lectures, then phone Angela Holt on 403238 and arrange to buy tickets.
POLITICS and CITIZENSHIP
For January only they will be meeting on 11 Jan at The Waterfront Museum and at 11am. They usually meet at 2pm and in the West Cross Community Centre on the 2nd Tuesday of month.
INFORMATION for CONVENORS Bookings at Hazel Court
The latest is that in another change in procedures Hazel Court will now take twelve monthly bookings for each calendar year. So all ongoing groups need bookings till 31 December 2010. The current situation of bookings held by me is as follows
Chess is now booked through by me to 20 December 2010
Italian booked by me till 21 June 2010 (awaiting new form)
Digital Media booked by me till 25 June 2010 (new booking form with Anthony Hughes)
Creative Writing 1 booked by me till 28 June 2010 (awaiting new form)
Creative writing 2 booked by me till 8 June 2010 (awaiting new form)
French booked by Gilly Jordan till 15 July 2010 (awaiting new form)
Tai Chi booked by me till 27 August 2010 (awaiting new form)
Bookings for new Groups
Beginners Water Colour booked by me all Thursday pm from 11 March 2010 to 26 August 2010.
Reading 5 booked by me till 7 Dec 2010 (may well be cancelled)
Patchwork booked by Pat/Pearle (needs to be extended till 31 Dec 2010)
Bookings can be cancelled verbally if given a minimum of 7 days notice. This is the way to cover breaks for Christmas, Easter, and Summer breaks to suit individual groups.
They will also take cancellations of non-viable groups in the same way and have been warned to expect such in the case of Bookreading 5
CLIMATE CHANGE
Since Dr Geraint Owen's lecture I had felt a good deal more assured that we were dealing with a unique happening. he convinced me that the current rate of change per hundred years was a hundred times greater than in the history of the world which he gave as 0.02 degrees C per 100 years or adding two factors(worst case) to derive the 0.04 degrees C which I used in earlier comments.
Channel 4 on 7 December had a program 'Man on Earth' in which they claimed instances of a drop of over 10 degrees C in a human lifetime (considerably less than 100 years), and a rise of 5 degrees C in a hundred years in Africa (not significantly different to projections for man made world average in the next 100 years). That was claimed to be evidence gleaned from digs archaelogical digs.
A week later on BBC 2 was a program giving evidence from ice cores drilled with similar rates of temperature change over very short time scales way back in pre history. When thanking Geraint for his lecture I said that I liked to have science quantified in figures, but there does seem to be some considerable doubt even about their scale. There's a huge difference between changes per 100 years of 0.04 C and 6 C.
None the less I still take Nicholas Stern's view that we need to reduce carbon emissions urgently now, for they may be catastrophically expensive if ignored.
Monday, 7 December 2009
COTTLES for CHRISTMAS
GERWYN THOMAS
Thursday 17 December 18.00
Rita has just had a text message from Gerwyn to say that he is being discharged tomorrow and will be staying with his sister in Carmarthenshire. Wonderful news. I will add more if he wants his location publicised.
Tuesday 15 December
Phoned Coronary Care Unit on 703634 and was told Gerwyn is still making good progress and that they expected to transfer him to a more general ward in a couple of days, which is another good sign.
They are still trying to cure his chest infection. He has been for ongoing series of tests but there is no indication that he will need another stent or other operation. Visiting hours are 11am to 3pm and 5.30pm to 8pm, these hours may be different on the new ward.
Saturday 12 December
Visited by Eric, who has taken charge of Jive, and a little later by Brian and Joan and found in very good form. His nurse bantered that 'he is feeling much better because he is getting cheekier'. He himself said he was 100% better than the day before when Rita had visited. Certainly there was no sign of physical weakness in sitting up and moving around the bed, though plenty of banter that he could stop slipping down the bed however much he adjusted it with his hand held zappa.
He had also been on his feet a little thus proving to himself that he will walk again OK.
Joan, I and a couple of nurses had lots of laughs. Gerwyn remembers the previous U3A visit by Eric as a laugh a minute.
In between he was with Byron and Byron's mother Teresa, who flew over from Cyprus several days ago She is now going home and Byron is to spend a couple of days working in London before returning early next week. Other family will be visiting tomorrow, Sunday 13 December.
It looks to me like a normal recovery from here on in, though he has got a troublesome chest infection to throw off. We stayed an hour and didn't feel we were straining him at all. He thanks the many U3A members who have sent cards and enquired and was pleased Dorothy Little was taking over MOTO for the present. My feeling is that he would enjoy visits next week - try and organise between yourselves.
Friday 11 December
Rita reports back after first attempting to check suitability to visit with his son Byron at Gerwyn's own number 817229, but failing there called his nurse at Coronary Care, Morriston Hospital. Above all she was impressed by his excellent good humour, it would seem to have been a good giggle for them both. Gerwyn of course is still weak and has a lot of recovery to make, as his nurse emphasised to me when I phoned this afternoon. I think Rita (on her first visit) was a little taken back by how little physical strength he had even to change position in bed. He was very pleased with the many cards he had received and got Rita to read them all out, the funnier the better, even the one from Eric (now taking Jive) which suggested this was all just a ruse to miss Christmas, or the one from the Monkey Cafe with two wicked monkeys. He remembered seeing Joan, 24 hours in, last Sunday, but not me - we were together I swear - and I thought he waved on recognition of me; but it was Joan he saw - how like Gerwyn.
Wednesday 9 December
Bob Hughes visited him in Coronary Care at Morriston, bearing gifts from the Jive Group and cards from both Jive and The Monkey Cafe.
He found him sitting up. He was pleased with the cards and gifts, and pleased to know Jive was running properly without him. Nevertheless he was still looking gaunt, not yet eating properly and sleeping a lot, all to be expected after the trauma he has endured.
I will endeavour to keep this blog up to date with his progress so as to take pressure off the hospital telephone lines, but in general will not be issuing Blog alert emails for these edits. Whenever accessing the blog you will always see my latest published news.
His progress in the 72 hours since the event has been from near death to an encouraging recovery. Although initially in the Intensive Therapy Unit South he is now on the Coronary Care Unit and is off both ventilator and the balloon pump which were assisting breathing and circulation of the blood. Now read on.
This will come as a shock to many readers. Gerwyn Thomas suffered a severe heart attack (I knew this when I wrote stroke earlier - you can't trust everything you see on this blog!). He collapsed at the Osprey's Liberty Stadium on Saturday evening and after being seen by the team doctor was sent by ambulance to Morriston A & E where the blockage was removed and a stent fitted and the heart restarted, following which he went onto Intensive Care at Morriston. Sunday morning his condition was given as unstable but his son was with him from 11pm Saturday, having travelled by taxi from London and been warned his dad may well not survive.
By 23.00 on Sunday 6 December he was classed as stable, not yet speaking (probably still unconscious) but sedated and a continuing concern.
When Joan and I went to visit Monday evening we met Byron, his son, a very relieved young man who told us that on first seeing his lifeless dad he thought there was no hope of his survival. As we approached Gerwyn's bed he recognised us lifted his hand and waved weakly and then asked 'How did you find me here?' Though, as Joan kept reminding me afterwards, he was still very groggy with no recall of events - even being at the match. But his wicked sense of humour was still there. The nurses moved in to with a
'Gerwyn we want to tidy you up'.
'I'd rather be called Mr Thomas'
'We called you whatever we liked when you were asleep'
Tuesdays afternoon's news is that he has now been downgraded again and moved to Coronary Care ward and that the Balloon Pump has been removed, which was I think helping circulate the blood, another clearly positive indication of his recovery. Bob Hughes was going to visit him tonight but on the advice of the nursing staff, who said he was sleeping intends to visit tomorrow instead.
Visiting on Coronary Care ward is 11am till 3pm and 5.30pm till 8pm but visits of U3A members should please be informally coordinated, and if those who do visit will pass news to me I will edit this blog posting to keep it up to date.
GROUP NEWS
JIVE
Will meet tomorrow Wednesday as usual at the Monkey Cafe at 10.30am, a message which may well have been carried over the grapevine. I will bring along my laptop with some traditional jazz to which we can jive. Although there will be no lesson as such we can enjoy dancing and mixing and deciding on the way forward. I feel there is enough know-how in the more experienced members to at least help us retain our knowledge of many moves Gerwyn has already taught us.
ITALIAN
Attendance was just sufficient last Monday for the group to decide to continue meeting in 2010. The next meeting will be Monday 11 January at 10am Dry side of Craft Room. Just five people plus myself attended last week, so the group is on the edge as regards support. The good news is that convenor Mervyn Howells was amongst them and will be available on a regular basis from now on.
Barbara Ellis, painting next door, was amazed at the amount of laughter coming from the room! Carolina with a less structured teaching style not to every-ones liking (though it appeals to me) balances this with good humour, a native tongue gives her excellent pronunciation when speaking or reading Italian, plus a love of her beautiful language.
CHESS
The next meeting will be the third Wednesday 18 January 2010 at 10am.
David Croxall (510470 and david.croxall@ntlworld.com)
Peter Tyler (467405 and petertyler8@googlemail.com)
will together take over the convenors role from me and Joan. Thanks are due to Joan who has seen this group improve in support whilst I have tried to nurture the Italian group.
The group would like and welcome additional members of any standard of either sex.
FRENCH
Their last meeting before Christmas will be Thursday 10 December at 10am. Beryl Edney takes a group increasingly concentrated on conversation.
Celia is simultaneously taking a group in the other half classroom starting the language from scratch, currently with four members and plenty of room to expand. It is fair that the current members have some shaky little used experience of the language from school.
QUILTING and PATCHWORK
Pearl Wiseman is now running this as as an official U3A Group. They are meeting from 2pm to 4pm every Thursday at Hazel Court. They specialise in making quilts for charity, for instance several have already gone to a Baby Care Unit. I have just received 2 photos and a detailed write up which I intend to use on the next blog posting.
BOOK READING GROUP 5
Only one person turned up for the inaugural meeting at Hazel Court on Tuesday 1 December though all the many had indicated interest on Opening Day on the strength of which we had booked a room at Hazel Court for 2010.
Anyone still interested should contact Cecily Hughes, the Chairman's wife on 363875 or bobhughes1504@hotmail.com before the end of December. We will cancel the booking unless there is sufficient support.
CALLIGRAPHY
Maureen Thomas is running a weekly, four week, course starting 2pm Thursday 21 January again at Hazel Court. Anyone interested should contact Maureen on 401132 or g.thomas37@ntlworld.com
WATER COLOUR
Brenda Sweet a new member is intending to start a weekly water colour class also on Thursdays but starting around 11 March. All those who signed the interest list for Beginners Water Colour who should contact Brenda to confirm continuing interest in joining the course on 850518 or madras@rasweet.entadsl.com
Although initially intended to cater for beginners wanted to get started it is not restricted to this category. Confirmation by members is urgently required as once again we have made bookings at Hazel Court.
NICK and JENNY HILL
Are incomunicado thanks to the storm destruction of all comms in their area. They suggest either leaving messages on their mobile 07881 947779 (note number originally a digit short) or email, since they will check both at 24 hour intervals. He advises that people calling his home number will probably be diverted to his mobile.
MOBILE PHONES
I haven't joined the modern age yet, but for those who have Marilyn Croft suggests finding and making a record of your own phone's serial number.
If you key in
*#06#
the15 digit Serial Number will appear on the screen. Very useful if your phone is stolen because can block access to that phone rendering it useless.
Coming from Gerwyn's problems is the observation the everyone with a mobile phone should include ICE in their phone number directory (ICE stands for In Case of Emergency) and the number should therefore be of the person to contact in case of emergency and perhaps another entry for Next of Kin as well.
Maybe there is something to be said in favour of mobiles after all!
CHRONICLE
Please send articles, poems, photos, snippets for next years edition to Editor Derrick Jenkins at
122 Belgrave Road
Gorseinon
Swansea
SA4 6RB
THE COTTLE FAMILY
It was a delightful evening at Jazzlands last Wednesday, though I certainly called the wrong type of music in suggesting there would be plenty of jazz-rock. It was The Peter Cottle Legacy Band, children and grandsons performing like chips off the old block. They last played together as a family at the club 10 years ago, just before Peter died of a heart attack, the only rock came from the lead guitar of grandson Peter who was presumably born after granddads death, who started like Pink Floyd before becoming more jazzy being egged on by uncle Dave on keyboards who pushed him to show us all what he could do.
But the concert started with as very good traditional jazz band in the form they had played in the family band of their youth - including Butlins at Barry - Dave normally on keyboards was playing trumpet and on vocals, as they say. Richard normally also on keyboards was on clarinet. Laurence now a well respected London based session player on bass guitar was playing trombone so well and with such a beautiful tone that made one wonder why he switched to bass guitar, and Tom (Dave's eldest son) was on drums. Their younger sister Rosemary sang a couple of vocals, remembering her under-age appearances at Butlins (son Peter was the guitarist).
It took Joan and I back to the jazz which originally brought us into the genre, in my case early fifties. Humphrey Lyttleton had just started to play in the basement at 100 Oxford St, still a jazz venue to this day, but then known to afficionados as Macks from its previous life as a restaurant. I recall fondly the evenings I spent sitting on the stage watching the girls jive whilst being blown away by Humphrey, Wally Fawkes and Keith Christie later replaced by Bruce Turner on alto sax, before nipping out to the pub behind Oxford Street where the band drank in the interval. Nostalgia there may have been but the sound and technical ability was so similar it could have been them. these were the great days of British Trad Jazz which included the bands of Chris Barber, Ken Collyer, Sandy Brown, Mick Mulligan, Terry Lightfoot and vocals of George Melly and Otillie Patterson. So much were we students anti modern jazz in those days that we shunned Ronnie Scott's and iconic players like Tubby Hayes. Five years later I was still in the same groove in San Francisco seeking out Turk Murphy rather than Miles Davis (though he was in New York at the time). But now I know so much much better.
The first switch brought on Richards family, son Dave about 12 on drums and his older brother Joseph on keyboards, which he played exceptionally well with the panache of a born showman, whilst Richard continued on reeds clarinet, alto and tenor saxophones, continually encouraging his children to ever better performances.
Not to be outdone Dave played keyboards, son Tom and his younger brother Andrew played modern jazz on alto sax with Laurence on bass guitar. Running out of combinations Alun Vaughan, the trio's usual bass guitar, was elected as Honorary Cottle so Laurence could play trombone and they could operate in even bigger formats.
That so much outstanding musical talent, far beyond anything in my my direct experience including my own musical family, was passed on to two generations by granddad Peter Cottle's genes is amazing. Derrick Jenkins wrote in to say he was at school with Peter. I think it was Richard who remarked that the music followed the male side but the girls were brainy.
COMMITTEE
At the December meeting we discussed the ongoing crisis of renewal and confirmed that at the next AGM due to retirement we will need tio fill the following posts.
Chairman to replace Bob Hughes
Vice Chairman to work with and deputise for the new Chairman
Membership Secretary to replace Pat Herbert
Minutes Secretary (monthly meetings) to replace Esther Searle
But we were all encouraged to set out to establish how the heavy loads assumed by today's Chairman and Membership could be broken down so the committee could itself be better organised to share the load. As so often when posts are filled by such dynamic people as Bob Hughes and Pat Herbert the job expands way beyond its essentials, perhaps that will apply to me too when my turn comes to hand over. In the case of the Chairman my thoughts are to separate the roles of Chairman of Swansea U3A with control of the Committee and in charge of Strategy, from the role of Chairing every Wednesday lecture, a task which itself could be split into say three terms.
But no amount of re-organisation can hide the fact that responsible and rewarding posts need to filled, so we are expecting people to come forward and the more jobs are split the more people will be required. To fill the vacant position of Vice Chairman is especially important so someone can be trained now to move seamlessly up to Chairman at the June AGM.
BOB's PHOTOS FROM CHRISTMAS LUNCH
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