GEOLOGY LATE CHANGE, TRAVEL, THEATRE and ELECTION

GEOLOGY URGENT DATE CHANGE
Because of the state of the tide the Geology Group have at the last minute changed the date of their visit to Caldey Island. The trip will now take place on Tuesday 27 April. Meeting 10.30 am PROMPT in Butts Field, the main TENBY car park on the A478 heading from Saundersfoot towards the Tenby town centre (grid ref OS sheet 158 SN132 011). Allowing just sufficient time to catch the boat scheduled for 11am. You are advised to take a packed lunch, though there is a cafe on the island. Return boat fare about £10 each. Only a leisurely 2 mile walk around the island is entailed. 


A SLOW BUS THROUGH CHINA, Wednesday Lecture 28 April
It's a hard job to reduce the number of slides portraying a 60 day trip to a reasonable number, in fact it seems impossible. My lecture a couple of years ago Patagonia totalled 110 slides, this time it will be 95 out of a possible 1200, which I still count far too many. What I can also do is to save lecture time by explaining a little more than I will have time for on the day, about the way Joan and I travel and the way our style evolved.


When we started this form of travel in 1989 we were still both in full time work. I had finished a few months of heavy unpaid overtime during a blast furnace rebuild at Port Talbot and was offered a four week holiday for the first time. We decided to go to Nepal which had for long been top of our wish list. We talked about it with young friends who had just returned from an umpteenth trading trip to Nepal to buy clothes and jewellery in bulk for resale. They advised us to go without any pre-booking and play it by ear and laid down a challenge we could not refuse. 'If at our (young) age we can do it you then with all your experience you surely can'. A few weeks later we stood with some trepidation in the queue at Heathrow for the initial direct flight London-Kathmandu by Nepal Airlines, to be piloted by their King's newphew. Thin 144 page Lonely Planet (LP) in hand, 'Kathmandu and the Kingdom of Nepal', giving all the information we actually needed, Even budget class passengers were served champagne that day!


Ten hours later we emerged from the airport terminal to be greeted by the colour and squalor of Asia for the first time. A hundred or so hungry touts each offering to take us to suitable accommodation with the motto 'looking is free'. As is still normal we opted for a quiet life and ducked out of the crowd and onto the local service bus heading for the city centre. But young Kim was not willing to lose a potential customer so he jumped on after us, sat on the engine and talked. He persuaded us to at least come to look at the place he was suggesting, it was in Thamel the area recommended by the LP, so we agreed. Our first footfall in Asia was truly an immense culture shock. We wondered, 'How could anyone survive in such filth and poverty?' 


But Nepal Peace Cottage offered a big but basic en-suite room, with breakfast on the roof overlooking a single paddy field and the surrounding city for the attractive sounding price of 10$ per day for two. So we set out to explore Thamel on foot and ended up in the Narayan Restaurant packed to the gunnels with backpackers seated at large bench tables, where we ate the most delicious quiche/pasta/salad and made friends immediately, including with an American, a decade or so younger than us, who said his style was to stay in a good hotel but eat with the backpackers in the evening for lively company and tasty food. That is a scene long since gone, overtaken by western affluence, the gap-year phenomenon, and 1000 page LP guide books. It was a hang over from the days when Kathmandu was one of the world's favourite destinations for 'hippies'. The LP recommended Kathmandu as one of the very few top destinations in the world for tasty food.

Heaven knows how, for we could neither speak the language nor read the destinations in Nepali script on the front of the twenty buses parked at the bus station, but we caught the correct buses for day trips to the likes of Patan and Bhaktapur, the outlying towns


The owners of Nepal Peace Cottage invited us for dinner one evening and sold us the idea of taking a 15 day trek around Annapurna with a guide and two porters, all we would carry was our two small day-rucksacks. Regrettably our ability at that kind of hard mountain walking is now well past, my only regret is that we didn't opt for the 21 day trek Annapurna Round. We went to Muktinath (3500m) virtually the half the distance since we first headed to Annapurna Base Camp, making it 10 days out but only 5 back, but avoided the tough 5400m trek over the Thorung La pass. Fitter and fitter after 15 days of altitude training I knew I could have walked the full round with something to spare, and will always regret not having done it. It would have been touch and go for Joan in spite of many many weeks of circuit training in Swansea YMCA gym.

When we returned to Kathmandu it was like coming home, no longer needing to exist on asking for sweet cup cha didi (cup of tea big sister) and dahl baht (lentil curry) generous helping of rice with only a desert spoonful of curry. If you left any it wasn't thrown away, it was fed to the children. Then we started listening, the other backpackers were paying a dollar a day not ten like us.

For the next holiday we lived like true backpackers for less than we could at home for a three week holiday including the air fare. We chose Thailand because evertone in Kathmandu had raved about the food and found ourselves in Bangkok in a guest house on Khao San Road which doubled as a Chinese laundry, with a sign which said 'no Chinese girls upstairs' as the owners defended the morals of their own race. But Thai girls were a different matter as was all too clear from the sounds emanating from the adjacent rooms without windows but separated at height not by walls but by netting, so as to allow for air flow.

Twenty years on after several years of ill health, in which Joan developed rheumatoid arthritis shortly after retirement and had to have both knees replaced in order to walk at all and I had written off a hip doing too much heavy building whilst restyling three sides of our house on a hill, we have changed our method somewhat. We now use 3/4 star hotels or equivalent rooms in residential blocks and eat the best food we can find, and always stay centrally so we can explore on foot, by tuk-tuk or rickshaw, usually armed with a modicum of their language, using our eyes rather than guide books to choose between their restaurants and using their scheduled public transport (bus, train or shared taxi/minibus) to move around. But spending less all in on a leisurely 60 day holiday than many spend on exhausting 15 day package flying visit tours, which check all the boxes.

Such a style we used successfully in China from 1 September 2006, with say 200 words of spoken Mandarin but without ever once getting on the wrong bus, and only once in 60 nights putting up with less than adequate accommodation, and that because it was almost midnight when we arrived in town. Nothing was booked ahead except flights London-Beijing return and Beijing-Kashgar one way, Holiday Inn in Beijing and two nights in a new business class hotel Wen Zhuo in Kashgar, all booked by Internet. All in cost Swansea - Swansea of £3258 for, flights, visas, travel, food, drinks (little - it's not Asian culture), purchases (few), nearly half (£1422) on flights.

THE SWANSEA ASSEMBLY, NATIONAL THEATRE WALES
Around ten of us from the Jive Group took part with a fifteen minute demonstration including getting newcomers to join in order to kick-start the evening with the first of several short performances, the rest being cabaret singing and theatre sketches. The walls were hung with a collection of excellent enlargements of photographs taken of us at our Jive Group practising the previous day.

The space was divided into four tables equipped with nibbles, wine and olives, and each new arrival was assigned to one of the colour coded groups. Four leaders were assigned to the groups to lead discussion on Swansea, Facilities, ideas for Swansea Town Planners, supporting Asylum Seekers, supporting Teenagers Leaving local authority Care. A pile of bricks were on each table and members were asked to chalk comments on in chalk to remind them of key points in the discussion. Each group had about 6/8 participants, the groups stayed put every twenty minutes or so the leaders rotated after a break for a short theatrical performance.


Following the order my group followed
FACILITIES (my term). Lead by Senior Labour Councillor and Chairman of Volcano Theatre,  David Phillips
The least successful of the groups because leader and participants were finding their way. The main observations were the absence of good shops, whereas years ago Swansea was the equal of Cardiff. My beef was the lack of good public entertainment when my family and grandchildren were on holiday for one or two weeks in their Christmas or Easter holidays. My advocacy of Jazzlands which equals or exceeds any jazz venue in Cardiff, to which for most of the year I would add Taliesin.
'Swansea was the End of Ambition' for several of us, but we had stayed for positive reasons in my case associated  with the superb natural environment of Swansea Bay (winter exploration, sailing and swimming in summer), Gower and Brecon Beacons for mountain walking.
More should be made of the Grand Theatre. Why shouldn't it be a centre of excellence in theatrical terms like the Royal Theatre in Bath?

TOWN PLANNING
Sorry I forget the architect's name but he was advocating preserving the castle with a large overhanging roof as a way of enabling it to become a distinctive, visited, feature at the centre of the city

Them he went back to the plan which would have given Swansea a new 'heart' around the Grand Theatre. We both remember the publicity around the recent architectural award for the new library in Lewisham, but it was news to me that this was the design originally developed then rejected for Swansea's Year of Literature. (A missed opportunity equivalent to the rejection of the prize winner for Cardiff's Millenium Centre). Instead of which we got a restoration of what is now the Dylan Thomas Centre, highly desirable in itself, without moving towards unification of the city centre and with nothing like the long term use that the library would have given us.

To me that makes all the more attractive the other plan he reminded me of, the idea for the main Oystermouth road being an underpass to free up pedestrian access across the city centre, which day by day becomes ever more dispersed, with the library being relocated to the Civic Centre, Dylan Thomas Centre, Industrial Museum, original museum (Royal Institution of South Wales as was) all near the sea front, Whereas shops, central bus station, railway station, theatre and castle are dispersed in the more tradition centre.in the.

He also presented a plan for a mini barrage around Swansea Bay as an amenity ring with the added advantage of generating electricity from tidal movement. Remember though that electricity cannot be stored and without large scale water storage the generation would be as cyclic as the tide and bear no correlation with demand.


I know Joan found this the most interesting group discussion of all.

CARE LEAVERS
Describing the huge problems facing young people leaving care in this country, housing, very low income (£50 Job Seekers Allowance), no aspiration, no qualification. It was an almost insoluble burden for those trying to help people find their way in the world, no wonder many turned to drugs.


ASYLUM SEEKERS
Another discussion leader trying to grapple with a very difficult task
of helping them through the legal battle to prove they were genuine asylum seekers rather than illegal immigrants, made almost impossible because they were allowed only 5 hours free consultation with a lawyer.
The secondary school teacher in the group said that school leavers, let alone the population at large, did not understand the huge moral difference between asylum seekers who faced persecution or even death if they returned to their own country, and economic migrants who also arrived  by illegal means hoping for a better life. 
A surprising fact to me was that the majority currently seeking asylum in Swansea were mainland Chinese, who had run into trouble with the Chinese state for trade union or other political reasons.


PRESENTATIONS
Finally each group was asked to find two people to present via microphone and video camera a two minute summary of their group's key observations.

Emma was keen to put forward her views from my group, whereas I was happy to opt out until it was obvious that someone had to help her with the presentation. In the event like the other groups we made a joint presentation for Emma's choice (bearing three bricks) of the Care Leavers and Asylum Seekers. My contribution was to say that I considered that the major problem with care leavers was caused by the complete failure to deal with their problems whilst they were in care. Since they were leaving care without qualifications, without aspiration, and in consequence with little likelihood of finding jobs it was hard to see a satisfactory conclusion.
As regards Asylum one key reflexion was that secondary education leavers needed to understand and be able to evaluate moral values. In the past we may have relied on the churches to teach such issues - but as an atheist I recognise it as vital part of the armory of good citizens.

Steven Allen
As one of the very latest to join Swansea U3A, attracted initially perhaps by the activity of the Jive Group and intended to be part of our display on the night, it was interesting to see him seized for a role in one of the theatrical presentations. He has obvious talent in that direction, so it looks as though we have another valuable U3A new member. 


We jivers all stayed to enjoy the whole meeting and the feedback I got from our members towards the meeting was entirely favourable. The vibes from the National Theatre Wales group were likewise. One suggestion from me is that the Discussion Leaders ought to have worn name tags with an indication of affiliation.
The second observation is that I thought the event was inadequately served by the publicity I saw. Not until the night did I understand the real form of the occasion with the key objective being to create discussion, the jive being a way to break the ice and theatrical presentations being the means chosen to break the evening up and showcase some of the issues to be discussed. I know this was a first off for National Theatre Wales and no organiser could be expected to know how it would turn out, but with a more complete prior understanding I would have been able to publicise it better to U3A members, and a number of them would have been keen to contribute, even though the event clashed with the second prime ministerial debate on TV.

SHELF LIFE
Having discussed with David Philips, the poor review in the Guardian, by Lyn Gardner who is normally particularly supportive to new theatrical ideas, I decided to change my original decision not to go and Joan and I just squeezed into a nominally full house at the last minute on Saturday evening. Not myself a past lover of Volcano Theatre, who I saw murder a Shakespeare play in the Grand a couple of decades ago, I must say we both found it an enjoyable evening and one we are pleased not to have missed.

I found the presentation unfocussed but with some excellent moments, though without doubt innovative and therefore very interesting. I personally prefer text based theatre, with a strong message which leaves you thinking, and found many of the physical theatre aspects both pointless and distracting (not that I object to distraction by naked young women!). The use of space, outside, in the store room, and around a circular dinner table in the beautiful old library building, was excellent, but we are still unsure what the message was.

Readers of this blog will be aware of my love of 'theatre in the round'  - what better venue could there be than this circular library room with its glass dome! Thinking as I do of how to develop theatre in Swansea I see this as the rich man's alternative to Bristol's Tobacco Factory. We lived in Stoke-on-Trent during the inauguration of their Victoria Theatre (in the round) in the early sixties by the now famous trio of Peter Cheeseman, Stephen Joseph and Alan Ayckborn, who was then an actor. If they could do it in the cultural wilderness of Stoke we could surely do it here and put Swansea on the theatrical map. Whilst we are here how about the  Grand Theatre emulating the quality theatre of Royal Theatre Bath. We could not emulate Bristol's Old Vic without a theatre school.


ELECTION
'A week is a long time in politics.' A week ago I was enthusing about the TV debates and now I am concerned about the presidential form of this election and by the overwhelming media role of analysing polls and the opinion of  groups of 'uncommitted voters', rather than the issues. It has become a case of waiting for the big mistakes of the leaders and Nick Clegg made one for me on today's Andrew Marr Show.


Over forty five years now as a Swansea resident I have voted Labour and Liberal several times, and Plaid Cymru too (though not I think in a General Election). I guess that qualifies me as a floating anti-Tory voter. 

I want to see proportional representation and I favour many of the Liberal's policies in this election but above all wish to see realignment on the left of politics, all of which over confident Blair failed to deliver a decade ago when it would have been so simple.

Currently I would regard the following outcomes as probable.
1) That the Tories will get more votes than Labour as they have done even in winning recent elections.
2) That the Liberals will get more votes than either or both the other main parties without a commensurate gain in seats.

If so when Nick Clegg said he wouldn't prop up Labour if they were third in the popular vote in real terms he was saying he would join a Tory led coalition but not a Labour led one. So he is in favour of a realignment on the right but not the left of politics - thus confirming my original feeling that Clegg was a right leaning opportunist (Blairite) politician. From my point of view it was a pity he beat Chris Hulme, who is clearly on the left of the party, in the recent election for leader of the Liberal Party. I doubt either  Chris Hulme or Vince Cable, and possibly other leading Liberal MPs, are too happy about the commitment Nick has just made, which emphasises the presidential nature of the current election contest.

Will that position change in the next 10 days?  We will see.