Saturday, 24 November 2012

Place Photos of JIVE WEEKEND in TORQUAY, THEATRE, BENEFITS and JAZZ

MONOLOGUE  -  David Lloyd George

Joan and I came home raving about last night's performance at the Taliesin. She repeatedly said, "If it was on tomorrow I'd go back to see it again". A poor audience (50%) as usual for quality theatre in Swansea, and not a single face I recognised from the U3A, but received with huge enthusiasm by those who were there. I am sure the vast majority would have enjoyed it. It was above all very humorous, particularly about his womanising and his portrayal of the rivalry between Welsh chapel-goers in earlier years, but pertinent and insightful when portraying the myriad, conflicting, aspects of his character which led to an outstanding career as a  liberal (and Liberal) politician and PM of a coalition from 1916 to 1922.

The scene was set in Antibes outside a hotel where he and Winston Churchill were staying separately early in WW2. He knew he had played a major part in winning WW1 and hoped he was about to be asked to join Winston's War Cabinet. But he ended the play a old man, disillusioned in love and war.

The monologue was delivered exceptially well by Richard Elfyn who was on stage for one hour, well 75 minutes if you include the beginning whilst we were shuffling into seats, which he spent on stage apparently asleep on a bench covered by a Union Jack.

What possibly put the audience off was fearing an amateur script since it was written by Australian David J Britton, Senior Lecturer in Dramatic Writing at Swansea University. A name to look for in future.

The only thing I would fault was the title, surely they should have used his name not a selection of nicknames 'The Wizard, the Goat and the Man who Won the War'. I still don't know where the first two came from.

BENEFITS
This follows the thoughts expressed in the last posting concerning the purely tactical approach rather than principle based policies being displayed by the Labour Party to which I should have added their decision to vote with the right wing of the Conservative Party to stop a very real chance of at last reforming of the House of Lords.

It was certainly not my intention to imply any support for the reduction of benefit levels overall, though it may well be a prime objective for the Conservatives. I am only too aware of the desperately low level £71/week of job seekers allowance, not a sum I would be able to cope even in the short term. But many face poverty without realistic hope of employment in the near future, an especially dis-heartening situation for our young. What I was not aware of, until U3A Vice-Chairman Michael Edmonds pointed it out, was that terribly disabled people are currently facing similar levels.

Link that to the appalling level of Child poverty, those families having to choose between some heat and some food and think how you could survive on that sort pittance

Nor do I feel at all happy about a sensible cap on over-high Housing Benefit forcing people to move, but as before I fear such a cap is impossible to argue against. The tragedy is that such levels of benefit were ever allowed in the first place and that action should have been taken to built affordable housing a decade or so ago, but is crying out for action NOW. The only winners are the landlords,make them losers instead, remember how the price of installing solar panels halved in a couple of months after the government halved the give away tariff they were prepared to pay householders.

You wouldn't think this is still one of the richest countries on earth, but just think of the billions in China, India, and Africa. There is much talk of corruption in China, which the Chinese we know accept as a fact of life, but it still looked to me a far more equal society, though still poor, when we travelled slowly and independently right across from the old Russian borders to Beijing in 2006.

COMMENTS on BLOG
Anyone is free to add a comment to a blog posting, and for my part would be particularly welcome if used to add discussion onto the issues raised. To read any existing please click "Comments" at the end of the appropriate posting, then proceed to type and submit another. Sorry, it's not my fault that you will have to pass a scrawling text recognition test to prove you are an individual rather than an automaton (if you make a reasonable stab at it you will be offered an easier test instead). Of course there will be none when I send out the Alert, perhaps the right approach would be to look for comments on the previous posting.

PETITIONS
Make your voice heard by voting on the Internet for mass campaigns.  It will literally take only a second of your time to add your name to a petition.

I only recently became aware of 38 Degrees a not for profit organisation raising vital issues such as, Safeguarding the NHS, Child Poverty, Preventing companies such as Starbucks, Google and perhaps above all Amazon from Avoiding Tax. 

Contact 38 degrees a non-profit organisation at www.38degrees.org.uk/ 

Check them out on Wikipedia if in doubt at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/38_Degrees 

Then click the return arrow a few times to return to this site 

U3A JIVE GROUP OUTING
We spent an enjoyable long weekend in Torquay with one of the friendliest of all U3A Activity Groups. The success goes back to the principle of switching partners regularly whilst learning new steps. Please note that there is currently a Beginners session from 10am till 11am which is being increasingly well attended.

I have just sent 18 photos taken during the evening entertainment to which will shortly be found on the website  http://u3aswansea.org.uk/    

In the evenings we chatted and danced but there was plenty of interest on during the days. The coach stopped at Taunton on the way down where many of us found our way to the Coffee Room at St. Mary Magdalene Church and it lovely new glass twin doors engraved by Tracey Sheppard.

Glass Doors at St Mary Magdalene, Taunton

Close up of one door
Church Roof, Taunton
 The following day there was a coach trip to Plymouth

PLYMOUTH HOE where DRAKE first spied the SPANISH ARMADA

THE PLYMOUTH GIN DISTILLERY
Via Dartmoor Prison which was founded to house thousands of French prisoners of war during the struggles with Napoleon and thousands of Americans who refused to fight with the English just before USA became independent.

WELCOME TO DARTMOoR PRISON

Some of us found the way by local bus to BRIXHAM on a second lovely winter Sunday.    Home from Home!!

A REPLICA of the GOLDEN HIND


SEA-FOOD, bound for FRANCE?
Soon to available for sailing trips, eg to Dartmouth
A TRADITIONAL TRAWLER rebuilt with LOTTERY FUNDS by VOLUNTEERS

SWANSEA JAZZLAND
is beginning to get the audiences they deserve. Berry Ray tells me in part that is because they are now selling tickets via their website. For whatever reason the Uplands Social Club was packed on Wednesday to hear the Laurence Cottle Big Band, I couldn't see them all from my position behind a pillar but I guess it was 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, 5 saxophones, a Flautist, percussionist, drummer, led by Mumbles boy Laurence Cottle on electric bass. All superb jazz musicians, amongst the very best in Britain, many of whom have appeared at the club in their own right, with their band or playing with the Dave Cottle's house trio in the past 12 months.
Laurence, not surprisingly, chose a theme of compositions of the bass player Jaco Pastorius, perhaps best known for his popular recordings with Weather Report.

It's a long time since we saw such an large enthusiastic crowd in the club, perhaps going back to the golden days decades ago with a succession of American stars when Russ Jones had the piano seat. What is particularly pleasing is to see a much broader age group, we frequently have very youthful performers, none more so than Swansea's own 16 year old jazz pianist and band leader Sam Vine, but rarely many in the audience, though at £20 a ticket for this particular performance we will not get too many university students. 

I first learned to love jazz as a student in London in the early fifties sitting on the stage, back to the musicians watching the highly skilled jivers in the newly opened 100 Club on Oxford Street (606 now), That was during the revival boom for Traditional jazz led by the likes of Humphrey Lyttleton, Chris Barber and very traditional New Orleans of Ken Collyer. 

Many years later my tastes progressed via Coleman Hawkins to the post 1940's Bebop jazz revolution of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk. Monk is still my favourite jazz composer with his twisting melodies, unusual harmonies and plenty of space in his jazz piano, try Bag's Groove. American saxophonist Greg Abate played a superb couple of sets in July with bebop music developed in the very same era by Horace Silver.

Monday, 5 November 2012

INTERMITTENT FASTING, PRINCIPALS IN POLITICS, U3A ACTIVITIES


INTERMITTENT FASTING

This must be my most successful topic because people are still coming forward to ask questions about what exactly to do.

To find out the full thinking behind it you will have to scroll back two postings to the one issued the 7 August 2012. Yes Joan and I are still following the regime she continues to lose at just over 1 lb per week but I'm glad to record that my weight has now stabilised in spite of fasting at about 78/79kg or about 2/3kg less than I weighed as a fit 20 year old at University. A Rugby and Cricket fanatic who occasionally boxed for fun, to develop, speed of response, fitness and courage, as a Light Heavy Weight - yesterdays 12 stone 10 lbs equals today's weight limit of 81kg. I believe I am no longer carrying appreciable excess fat and further weight loss would signify an undesirable loss of muscle, of which the heart is the most critical.

To summarise the regime. We eat normally 5 days per week but only a single meal of 500/600 kilocalories on the other two. We have found it suits us better to eat the fast day meal at around 5/6pm, having missed breakfast and lunch. (Incidentally Michael Mosely who did the original Horizon programme took his meal at breakfast time, still working full time he found that an early meal best prepared him for the day's work ahead.) The choice of fast days can be altered to suit though normally we fast on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Never forget that Michael's main objective was to stave off the prostate cancer to which his family suffered and to avoid cardiac problems and to live longer whilst holding off dementure.

The most frequent enquiry is about what we actually eat. 
We have tried various food combinations but in general we now eat Indian style vegetarian on those two days, because it means we can have large filling and particularly tasty meals.

Joan has noted down today's meal
                                                                                      kcal
Red Kidney beans, one 240 gramme tin                       300
Onions, 400 gramme onions                                         100 
Aubergine, 200 gm                                                         30
Parsnips, 150 gm                                                           130
Tomatoes, 200 gm packet                                               36
Celery, 50 gm                                                                 10
Beetroot, 100gm                                                             44
Olive oil. 10mlitre                                                           30
Indian lime pickle, teaspoonful  280kcal/100gm            15
TOTAL for two                                                             695 kcal
NB it is the pickle which supplies the Indian spices the hot chilli and the taste
Joan emphasises pickle should be added to taste with especial reference to Chilli

Semi skimmed Milk 300ml for two (for tea and coffee)  136 kcal

Total each for the day                                            415 kcal                 
Desert is fruit, say a medium size banana                80 kcal

Being a man!!, I am entitled to 600 kcal (Joan 500 kcal). In general I eat more than a half share of the meal but probably drink less than half of the milk. Michael Mosely suggested black/green tea or tizzane without milk in which case there is another piece of fruit each.

Before someone challenges me on the non Indian vegetables
let me say the essentials are Pulse equivalents, Onion, Aubergine, Cooking oil and Pickle, the rest is a package (or half tin) of tomatoes which Joan always uses (not so common in India), plus what's available from the store cupboard on the day. This is the first time Joan has used Red Kidney beans, usually she uses 100gm of chick peas (200gm after soaking) or 200gm Puy lentils. Normally she uses Indian Aubergine Pickle which is higher in calories at 380kcal/100gm

Joan frequently uses cauliflower, carrot, potato, broccoli, spinach, sweet peppers, courgettes

Note 1  Most vegetables are around 15 to 20 kcal/100gm but beetroot 44 kcal, peas or broad beans are around 50 kcal and potato is 85 kcal. So essentially there is no limit on the amount of vegetables but you do need to watch the amount of Oil,  and avoid Butter, Cheese, Sugar and Nuts, which are full of fat and thus much more potent at around 800 kcal/100gm. Also watch bread which is 250 to 300kcal/100gm

Note 2  One of the beauties of the metric system is that 100ml (millilitres) of water weighs exactly 100grams. Since most foodstuffs have approximately the same density as water (a major component) then one can assume that 100ml and 100gm are interchangeable, except for say foods with a lot of obvious air space eg broccoli or candy floss. All packaged foods will by law state the kcals per 100gram or 100 ml, sadly, thanks to the dispute over traffic lights, these days it is in small-print.

Note 3     10ml of liquid is roughly equivalent to 2 standard teaspoon measures. Most will have small plastic containers for medicine which measure doses of 10 and 20 ml.
 

Cooking method, like a stew in a casserol or large saucepan
Partially pre-cook harder root vegetables.
Fry onions in the oil
Add aubergine & cook to soak up the oil
Add remaining pulses or chick peas and vegetables and cook until soft 
Add pickle to taste, we prefer the Patak Aubergine Pickle which we were originally given by someone who considered it too 'hot', but have recently found a source of supply in Exotica on St Helens Road.

Those who prefer a more bland taste, or indeed for a change should try steaming or grilling (not frying) fishsay cod, salmon, plaice or sole (95), trout (135), tuna (200). We frequently fast with fresh fish and steamed vegetables.

Try pasta (135), roast chicken without skin (150), even a lean rump steak grilled is only (170/100gm). It is the calorie count which matters but we recommend leaving space for vast quantities of non fried vegetables.

I promise to pass on any other favourite recipes I receive.

Recently graduated granddaughter Rachel starting her first hunt at The King Arthur

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LACK OF PRINCIPALS IN POLITICS

We are seeing so many examples currently

Mitt Romney in the US election campaign switched from ultra right wing in order to secure nomination in the Primaries, then back to his normal more moderate position (as state governor he even introduced Medicare to Massachusetts) when face to face with Obama.

David Cameron switched in the opposite way from the pre-election 'Green' and 'Hug a Hoody' to someone now in hock to his own right wing. The only winner from that may be the opening of opportunity for Nick Clegg.

What distresses me most is that Labour are following the same opportunism. In recent memory they have fielded spokesmen on say Newsnight to defend poorly aligned policies eg

1) They have opposed the Liberals Mansion tax when it seems blindingly obvious that a tax on wealth is desperately needed and unlike Income/Tax it is hard to avoid. Simon Jenkins suggested recently that the simple way to deal with this issue is to extend Council Tax to all house values, that would even catch ex-dom Russians or Chinese living in London. 

2) They consistently oppose Benefit Cuts when there are so many problems, though the ideal time to have put these to right was during prosperity rather than deprivation and high unemployment.
Work must always pay, when so often it does not, or is at best marginal

   I have always had a good regard to the work of Iain Duncan Smith who I thought was particularly impressive on last Sunday's Start of the Week with Andrew Marr. There is certainly a case for unifying and simplifying benefit claims with a Universal Benefit replacing myriads of separate claims.

  There is certainly a case for NOT allowing housing benefits far beyond the rent that could be afforded by a reasonably paid working person. Essentially the problem comes from failure to build affordable housing to rent in all parts of the country, above all London.

   There is surely a case for restricting the number of children entitled to child benefit. China have controlled their population to the benefit of the resources of the whole world by a similar enforced policy, mainly based, I think, by refusing state education to second children. India meanwhile is allowing the poorest in their population to breed like topsy with little regard for their future or ours.

The problems are the result of delay to implement reasonable restrictions in time. It is inevitable that there will be pain for big losers and maybe that should be eased by phasing out gradually. 

Like the sudden attempt to raise school exam standards it will result in distress, the alternative there is that we continue to plummet on world education rankings.

3)  They have failed to take seriously the idea of clawing back benefits from the richer sections of the community, such as winter fuel allowance and free bus passes. To do so would effect quite a proportion of U3A members of whom I with an inflation proofed pension would be one, but I do feel unfairly insulated from the current austerity measures which have a major effect on our family. That I should travel free on our buses whilst they are accordingly far more expensive for the rest doesn't seem right. Part of the irony is that this would be a popular measure, and that includes me.

Recently travelling by local transport in France I was amazed by the low flat rate cost of city transport and the comparative simplicity of their pricing system for rail travel. It stems primarily from their practice of Composting (date and time stamping of tickets on boarding a bus or just before boarding a train). We travelled within La Rochelle, Nantes and Angers, which bear similarity to Swansea, at 1 euro (80p) for one hours journey time including transfer from bus to bus to tram as required or in the case of La Rochelle even to water ferry to the local beach. We also travelled fast and comfortably between these cities by train and to our final destination near Cholet with cheap fares off peak (all except morning and evening rush hours) by taking expresses other than the high speed TSV trains. I shudder when I see young kids paying pounds just to travel to the centre of Swansea. I may return to this issue as composting (allowing for changes of bus) frees up a rethink on time schedules. 
                           
4)  The most recent and blatant is the short term tactic which caused them to side with the Tory right wing solely to give Cameron a bloody nose over Europe. In reality it is much more serious, one really does have to be cautious about what we hope for. We are in great danger of having no friends left in Europe as we enhance our reputation for lack of cooperation. Undoubtedly there are serious problems to be solved in Europe above all to correct flaws caused by lack of flexibility in the common currency, the Euro.

The last Labour Government had it about right, Gordon Brown was determined not to be dragged into the Euro, but Tony Blair was at heart correct to be a European. In my opinion we need to be an active help in sorting out their problems and certainly not be not to making them worse by obstructing.

I always thought we needed a radical change from the tarnished Blair years and was pleased to see Ed beat his older brother for that reason. At the time I would have preferred Ed Balls as leader but now I think Ed Milliband is shaping up nicely - so why oh why not get a clear principal led strategy and start to build the narrative everyone is waiting for, sensible cuts and investment in growth. We must make savings but we must not obstruct Europe over its budget or implementation of a financial transaction (or Tobin) tax, when it is clear that part of the financial instability is caused by far too much trading of high volume for minute profit margins with the sole benefit of increasing banking profit, whilst risking dumping the occasional spectacular multi billion failures on us the public in the name of Limited Liability. Our own Lord Turner, a contender to head the Bank of England, stated so clearly that much of this banking had no social worth.
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U3A ACTIVITIES

There have been a particularly interesting series of lectures on Wednesdays. Eddie Ramsden, who as usual was very involved with the RYA in this case the selection, training, preparation and support of sailing paralympic competitors. An action shot showed early on the dexterity demanded of the crew to race successfully at this level. Then a shot of the same man in question on terra firma showing dramatically that he had an artificial leg. Eddie said that dinghy racing was treated as a 'normal' sport such as say running, but unlike say Rugby which is clearly contrived with rules to suit. I have great admiration for those who run, but moving around a bumping swaying small powerful boat and leaning out on the wire to balance it was for me a show-case of determination to overcome difficulties to the point where he showed immense skill, as did the helming skill of an even more handicapped woman.

Whatever else the Olympics Games achieved the Para-olympics  must have been a tremendous inspiration to newly handicapped people, showing them what can be done.

After science teacher Jon Foster's lecture, which used Death Ray Mathews as an example of line of individual inventors working on wireless, electrics and other forms of radiation, I, and a few others, went up to say what an inspiring science teacher he must be, and in my case to ask specifically if he taught Physics or Engineering. The reply amazed me, his subject is Biology.  

Gerald Grab showed an amazing grasp of the history and development of Swansea since the 1800s to the delight of the audience, most of whom knew it far better than this foreign blogger.

But for me the biscuit goes to emeritus Professor Jon Roper for a wonderful insight into American election process, and of course with special reference to the imminent election. He seemed far more certain than anyone else I have heard that the victor will be Barack Obama. I do hope he is right for I have seen too many inspiring left leaning leaders disappoint, starting with Kennedy, at the time I was just coming to the end of a five year spell in Canada. For me Jack Kennedy's (the first Catholic) election represents the start of my interest in politics. I was particularly interested by Jon Roper's remark that Kennedy was widely acknowledged by viewers to have won the TV debate (including me), but that Nixon was acclaimed the winner by radio listeners. I had not heard that before but it does make one wonder to what extent TV is now trivialising political debate, none more so than our last one when no-one was prepared to tackle the real economic issues then facing this country and the world. Nobody failed as completely as Blair, not even Clinton, good communicators both, but nothing to match expectations to say the least. 

Barack Obama can at least point to the unfortunate timing of his election in 2008 at the start of the global collapse which started with dangerous practices initiated in the USA, and the petty obstruction by his Republican opponents at a time when seriousness was required, both well expressed in the lecture. I personally think history will show he dealt well (in Keynesian not everyone else's Austerity style) with the financial crisis until left powerless by the completely new House of Representatives elected in 2010. For those reasons above all I hope, and think, he will get the chance he deserves and deliver in the next four years. 

Incidentally I recommend the following link explaining the US system, which is very different to our own. President elected for a fixed term of 4 years, the 'House' (lower house roughly equivalent to our parliament) elected every 2 years. Senators (very different to our Lords) serve for 6 years with 1/3 elected every two years. All elections are held at the beginning of November in even years.
www.rogerdarlington.me.uk/Americanpoliticalsystem.html 


POLITICS & CITIZENSHIP will discus the US election on Tuesday 13!! November led by our leader Gabrielle.

YOGA
Last Thursday Chris Bryan had 16 of us to deal with including a fair sprinkling of new faces. She is currently floating ideas of a second class also on Thursday morning. It was nice to see the increase in popularity which is just deserts for her efforts and skill as teacher.

JIVE
Like Yoga is being rearranged a little with beginners having the floor to themselves from 10 to 11am when the rest invade. Ken Huntley is tutoring on his own, Pam Williams is having an arthrosopy on a troublesome knee and we wish her well, she hopes to be fit and well again to dance at our long weekend away in Torquay shortly. 

SOCIAL HISTORY
Well over 30 enthusiastic members turned up at the inaugural meeting on where Anthea introduced us to a sample of what will be studied, and emphasised the major impact of public health measures (clean drinking water, sewers etc) which so far outweighed the impact of doctors & medicine. I told you Engineering was important!!!! It is hoped there will be two groups a smaller 'hands on' group will contribute to the study on the 2nd Thursday starting 8 November, plus a much larger group who come to be 'entertained' at 2pm each 3rd Thursday.

ARMCHAIR TRAVEL
Our mountaineer Ian awed the whole group (over 60) with a fascinating account of the planning, organisation and sheer guts of getting to the summit of a high peak, plus a wonderful photographs and videos. It was a 6 week expedition to the Pakistan side of the Himalayas. I could identify with the trip up the Karakoram Highway as being something Joan and I would attempt, but sleeping on glaciers on thin ground sheets at -20 C and climbing without oxygen whilst sweltering at +30C plus in fierce sunlight is something else.

Ian Smith giving his talk



The audience 1



The audience 2

All I can claim is empathy with people who take such risks for I did know Nick Escourt slightly, a software developer with Ferranti Computers. He lost his life in an avalanche climbing K2 with Chris Bonington and the commemorating poster hung on my bedroom wall for several years. I remember too walking up the local 2000+ metre volcano with a Dutchman in Sumatra who explained that his wife had recently died climbing in the Alps, but he rationalised it by saying 'I have no regrets at least she died doing something she loved'.

For me those memories just underlined the danger of being on high mountains. For one reader at least it will be closer to home. 

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I'll sign off now with the thought that another fabulous year has started well for Swansea U3A 
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Monday, 8 October 2012

Dyslexia, Fasting, Justice, National Theatre Wales



BLOG NOTES
I have been so busy these last couple of months that although I had plenty I wanted to blog about I couldn't find the time to write it up. The house has been in chaos for the past month due to a major re-decoration project. Outside I have been engaged in an ongoing landscape project in the garden, which as usual involves moving tons of material as I change levels yet again, this time cutting off the highest point of the lawn and using the soil to restyle the 40 years overgrown ditch between us and Clyne Common. One day I'll have things as I want them.

This week I had the outpatient's eye operation for cataracts so I am banned from risky activity for a month, hence the writing. I will try to make more frequent postings in future, keeping them shorter at the same time.  

GROWING CHILDREN - DYSLEXIA

I listened to the recent BB4 program because of a very real personal interest in this issue. It demonstrated how far thinking has progressed in the 40 years since we first became aware of the severe problem faced by one of our children. At that time an otherwise absolutely excellent primary school teacher would not accept the existence of Dyslexia, maybe thinking it was a case of informed parents attempting to get enhanced results for less bright children. We first became aware of the name dyslexia from a full page article in the Observer pointing to the single school in the country then attempting to improve outcomes, Millfield, who were offering a summer school which we jumped at.

Some years later Esther Rantzen presented a TV documentary which left me fuming. It followed a frequent stereotype that dyslexia was a problem associated with bright, talented children. I saw no reason why, in absence of evidence to the contrary, it would not have a normal distribution of varying intensity across the whole population range.

Over the years dyslexia has become a commonly accepted problem but never until this latest Growing Children series have I seen a documentary so pertinent, which is why I am recording its findings here. In particular it concluded that dyslexia had nothing to do with intelligence, visual acuity or eye tracking problems, but is associated with extreme difficulty the brain has in processing written work (reading and writing), and is now estimated to affect one in ten children.

Moreover these children would go through life always needing several times as long to process written information. They will always have to combat ‘this life long incurable condition’.
It was estimated that we each deal with around 100,000 written and spoken words per day. The negative affects on their lives being ‘poor self esteem, high stress and low achievement’. If left untreated they lead to frustration.

The program was presented by a child psychologist, Leverne Antrobus, who had previously been a primary school teacher. Two children with caring homes were portrayed. Lettie from the age of 10 for a couple of years up to the point she started at a unique (paying) secondary school for dyslexics. No doubt her progress there will be followed by researchers.

Alyce was diagnosed at the age of 7 and followed right through normal state schooling where she obtained a clutch of good GCSE results, though assisted by having her own reader and being allowed 25% more time. She said her main problems were spelling and that dictionaries were no help if you couldn't spell, but was good at mathematics. In Further Education she specialised in child care. She was shown teaching young children to read in her first job as a teaching assistant, and accepted with good humour that they sometimes were able to correct her. Perhaps the most telling comment of all came from a far older dyslexic member of staff who advised ‘Don’t let it destroy you – it doesn’t have to’. Alyce will be OK, but it so nearly ruined the life of someone precious to us

One line of research pursued at Southampton University’s Centre for Visual Cognition related to a dyslexic’s lack of a stationary view of written work, of that I was well aware. Words move around, letter order changes so they confuse say ‘dog’ and ‘god’, and the sequence in which words appear also alters. It was observed in Lettie’s case that repeated fixations and to-ing and fro-ing of the eyes extended overall reading time by a factor of six.

There were telling computerised examples of how written sentences might appear to a dyslexic, with which anyone would have problems. We know only too well that under stress the dyslexic child will say written text appears blurred, or to be double, and doesn’t make any sense.

In our case uncertainty of letter order applied equally to the ordering of written numbers, leading to problems with written arithmetic quite unrelated to mathematical ability.  

Of course they can improve, and with familiarity will learn to adapt (guess) better, but they will always have difficulty converting phonic representation to and from written work. Especially so with new, long, or unfamiliar words which were shown by the Department of Cognition and Brain Sciences at Cambridge to follow a different path through the brain.

(Interestingly Cambridge were also studying the process of learning by tasking adults with learning a completely new language with its own distinctly different character set. It could have been Mandarin without the help of the Romanisation of Pinyin which uses our alphabet and modified phonics, though Chinese characters are better thought of as syllables not letters.)

What was completely new to me was the avenue of research being followed by Usha Goswami at the Department of Neuroscience in Cambridge. She observed that dyslexic young children often had problems listening to spoken language and compared it to being colour blind. The core problem lay in the child’s failure to distinguish changes of sound intensity leading to a complete lack of awareness of the rhythms and emphasis so helpful in normal speech. She felt this aspect of learning is normally instilled from the over emphasis in the ‘baby talk’ of mothers, and that because of it babies recognise stress rhythms before they learn to distinguish sounds.

In retrospect we had dealt with problems in learning to speak, but it was not until years later that we observed the classic problems with written language. I have never before linked the rhythm and stability of vision as two stages appearing at different ages.

Alyce took six times as long as presenter Laverne to translate written syllables into phonic sounds, or spoken sounds into written syllables, but found the latter improved greatly when facing the speaker and thus able to lip read as well. The same factor of six as found at Southampton University in tracking the excessive eye movements needed to sort out confusion.

Professor Clare Wood at Coventry suggested that texting by mobile phone is a huge help because it makes it easy to relate text to phonic sound, unhindered by the complexities of English spelling, and because kids will be stress free and highly motivated to learn to communicate freely with their friends. 

Add poor spelling to slow reading and an inability to memorise stories, in book, film, theatre or joke form, and I am even more convinced there’s something undesirable in my literary genes !!

On the positive side Dr Nicola Brunswick of Middlesex University suggested that it was not purely a coincidence that so many creative artistic people are dyslexics but that deficiencies in language by the left side of the brain can lead to additional development of the right side dealing with spatial visualisation and shapes.

Forty years ago frequent reference was made to actor and film star Susan Hampshire and the naturalist Peter Scott the son of the Antarctic explorer. In this TV program they pointed to the famous architects Norman Foster and Richard Rogers, the painters Picasso and Andy Warhol, and the clothes designer Tommy Hilfiger. To which list hundreds of other dyslexics could be added including Cher, Albert Einstein, Jamie Oliver, Jackie Stewart and Richard Branson

Maybe Dyslexia should be seen less as a Disability and more as a Difference and as Nicola suggested this should lead them on to multi-sensual education, rather than the solely verbal approach.

POLITICS & CITIZENSHIP GROUP

RESTORATIVE JUSTICE
The process aims to get perpetrator and victim to understand each other and produce a sort of closure in a final, short (one hour), meeting together. A major effect of reconciliation is diffusion of anger. A motion to make such procedures mandatory in British prisons was defeated by a single vote in parliament.

Swansea U3A member Don Mason has been involved in a new procedure instigated in Swansea prison since its start a year ago, and having just successfully completed his first case on GBH (grievous bodily harm) was in an excellent position to lead our discussion.


Facilitators like him and prison staff are given 3 days training and vetted by the Home Office. There are now 40 accredited Facilitators in Swansea. Crimes involving drugs, rape and domestic violence are excluded otherwise the first essential is to ascertain that the prisoner wants to follow the process by asking for volunteers. The cases followed are generally serious involving at least two years of outstanding sentence. The first meeting is with the prisoner to find more about the crime and the motivation. 


The next contact is with the victim to establish his/her willingness in working towards a face to face meeting. In the case of murder the 'victims' will be close family or friends. Typically their interest will be to get an answer to their main concerns, 'Why was I targeted? and Will it happen again?' 


In the discussion I was pleased to hear him say he had found the prisoner's attitude very positive and that he did not over-dwell on his own circumstances or misfortunes in life. Indeed he said that here were many examples of prisoners becoming ambassadors for the process and starting for example Youth Clubs, so as to help others avoid the pitfalls he had met. 

He thought the younger group of prisoners were particularly responsive to the scheme and benefited from understanding the effect on the victim. 


Many victims benefited to, because many were initially frightened of a recurrence on the prisoner's release but after the face to face meeting felt far more secure. 

It was thought that offenders following this procedure would be far less likely to re-offended.
He also pointed out that the process assured a good start for the Probation Service.

I am sure Don 402309 would be willing to speak to anyone interested in volunteering as Facilitator. Alternately contact Austin Smith the Prison Officer involved at
 
austin.smith@hmps.gsi.gov.uk or phone 01792 673183.

It was pointed out that the approach of getting the two sides to understand each others point of view was often used in schools for tackling bullying. Also such face-face procedures were common in Maorie culture.


UPDATE ON INTERMITTENT FASTING (see previous posting)


Joan and I have now been following two fast days per week for two months, with only 500/600 calories on fast days. Initially Joan found it hardest to 'starve' on Fast Days, but then she had been overeating for 20 years or so and suffered greater risk since she has always done the cooking in our household. However time has made it easier to bear, otherwise apart from bringing forward the time of eating to around 4pm and a greater concern to avoid extra eating on fast days little has changed.

We both continue to lose weight, though my rate has slowed to 0.4kg/10 days whilst hers is almost double that figure at 0.7kg/10 days (0.5kg, or just over 1lb per week). Only by graphing daily measurements can I convince her she is still winning, but the trend is clear and close to a straight line descent. Anyone else taking daily measurements should be very careful since the day to day figures, especially around fasting day, will fluctuate widely by over a pound a day and in my estimate merely reflect the amount of food, fluid and waste carried at weigh in.

My GP could not arrange for measurement of IGV-1, the rate of cell growth factor used in the TV study, but I have just submitted a blood sample for lipids which will measure cholesterol.  

My own weight is now just below 79kg, well below the 81kg weight I used to squeeze under when boxing at 20, but then I was much stronger and really fit at with much more muscle. In recent decades I have been happy with a weight between 85 and 89kg, only at the later did I start to take myself in hand. A vital factor is that I feel better, perhaps weight loss alone or better self control. 


Joan's aim is to lose a good deal more weight, mine to improve my chances of living a long and healthy life. She saw the Orthopaedic specialist recently who scheduled a second replacement on her first knee. We hope it will be done early in the new year to avoid further pain and damage to the bone, and once mobile again look forward to resuming independent travel.



WOULD YOU PAY to be a PLEB? - We did

In fact Joan took part in the National Theatre Wales latest production of a mixture of Shakespeare's and Bertolt Brecht's  Coriolanus. A slight exaggeration! But at the very outset 'The First Citizen' had his arm around Joan's shoulder as he whipped up a political rally on film and stage. 


The promenading audience were on the stage as extras, very appropriate given the nature of this play, political and election rallies, and battle scenes.


The theatre was a huge aircraft hanger at St Athan, the stage was the floor where actors and audience met. The props were cars and caravans giving mobility as the scene changed from one city to another. 


Fights broke out between actors in street, breaking up the audience crowd who learned to keep out of the way of the fights and cars on the move. Everyone in the audience had been issued with high quality headphones, which Joan found these excellent for the hard of hearing, and the actors wore small head microphones.

The action was filmed by a couple of film crews following the action, so you had the choice of promenading, or sitting watching the events unfold on a large screen, or sitting anywhere you liked on a simple chair and just listening - very effective by itself.  I promenaded, Joan sat, we met up again on the way out. It took me about a quarter of an hour to get into the swing but thereafter the clear as a bell text was as inspiring as I have ever experienced.


One night at the theatre we will never forget thanks to the innovation of directors Mike Pearson and Mike Brookes, and thanks to Spark Notes I had already got familiar with the plot and characters. Somewhat previously they had staged a Greek Tragedy, The Persians by Aeschylus, on a military Firing Range near Brecon - but we didn't hear about that in time to go. It doesn't take much to inspire me to go to Brecon! 




Tuesday, 7 August 2012

Live Longer, Dyson, Barenboim, Groups

Brian's Blog
I started blogging several years ago after deciding to keep my travel notes of two months of independent travel across the Silk Road in China on the Internet instead of a notebook. An important advantage was that interested parties anywhere in the world would be able to follow our progress. This was never a blog in the conventional sence of floating ideas but simply my way of keeping a diary. I tidy up those often badly written and poorly spelled efforts on return to the UK into a record with summary, conclusions and photographs, reversing the posting order so they read from from start to finish.

When I undertook the role of Group's Coordinator for Swansea U3A four years ago under 30, of 650 members email addresses were known to the committee and email was barely in use. But it was obvious to me that email offered a far more efficient means of mass communication than telephone, word of mouth, or slide shows at the Wednesday Lectures, then the main source of information on Group activities. So I decided to collect email addresses at every opportunity and to write a blog to promote the new groups being formed and those in need of more members. It would also give members a reason to use the Internet. At its peak new email posting alerts went out to over 500 members and the number of groups doubled over the period. Things of course developed a lot in those four years and the main point for information exchange has now become email, the Swansea U3A website plus an emailed Newsletter.

Often postings were written weekly whenever I was in Swansea, over 70 have now been made. Since retiring from the committee last June after a three year stint postings have been very intermittent, being issued only when I feel I have things to write about, which may have little direct connection with the U3A except for comments about those Groups which interest me as an ordinary member.

Anyone interested can find links to all my blogs by Googling 'Oldie Backpacker', the pen name I use when blogging, and following the link given to my profile

EAT, FAST and LIVE LONGER

A recent Horizon program by Michael Mosley, medically trained and with a GP wife interested me a great deal because it suggested a do-able way forward to improve physical and mental, health, and stave off ageing. But first I will set our scene to explain why we were so attracted

I am well known as a good eater, who will eat anything even raw sago worms, considered a delicacy by tribes living in Long Houses in Borneo. With our style of pay as you go travelling both Joan and I find we lose weight on holiday but have put it back on again within a few months of getting home. It has been particularly noticeable that we tend to lose around 5kg on a 1 or 2 month trip to India. In India we eat well three good meals a day and one of my favourite breakfasts is Puris a fatty deep fried bread crisp the size and shape of a football. We eat vegetarian like most Indians do, including the rich middle class. I think theirs is delicious food but Joan who has a more sensitive pallet tries to avoid over much chilli. The talk here in the UK seems to be Madras curry because it's hot and macho but curries are more varied over there so watch out for Hyderabad on the menus.

During this spring trip to France we proved, much to Joan's surprise, that a travel style which had worked well in Asia and South and Central America for over 20 years, worked equally well in France. We didn't miss not having a car, nor did we need to join a tour party in order to travel about (see my blog). We found we were tired in the evening after an active day on our feet and so lived quite naturally (without trying to diet) on a good breakfast and a good three course lunch. When we returned home we found we had each lost weigh, in spite of finishing the holiday with 8 days eating extremely well, at our son's house.

A few days before leaving home for France Joan started to have extremely painful spasms in one knee (both hers are artificial, this one is over 13 years old and starting to fail). By the time of return she came to the conclusion she needed to reduce the strain on the joint by losing weight. I came to the conclusion we had to eat smaller quantities and at least continue the progress made in France. Eating less means cooking smaller quantities for those like us brought up in the era of 'Waste not, Want not'. Too often I would finish off oversized casseroles with glee which could have been enough for two days. 

Once home we now ate two meals a simple but cooked breakfast dinner, but little except fruit in between. Our weight continued its down ward path, 3.5kg in my case, but had started to plateau when we noticed the Horizon program about intermittent fasting, since following that advice our weight is going down again in my case another 2.8kg. 

HORIZON PROGRAM ON FASTING

Michael Mosley aged 50 and medically trained was seeking an acceptable route to better health, physical and mental, in old age, with particular fears of prostrate cancer and dementia. 

He started with exercise and asked Harbinger Singh 101 years old who had just finished the 26 mile London Marathon in under 8 hours the secret of his longevity. The answer was 'eat less and follow a normal Punjabi diet', Michael estimated Harbinger's portion size at a half that of most adult males. 

He then headed for America to talk with those involved in the search for better outcomes in older age, who named reducing the risk of diabetes and cancers, and the delay of dementia as being possible via diet and fasting. It had been noted that during the 30's depression, when the dust bowl resulted in a shortage of affordable food, average American longevity had actually risen by 6 years. He approached universities in Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago and Baltimore all of whom were researching into the benefits of Fasting and eating less. The benefits were measured in terms of loss of body fat, lower total cholesterol (inspite of higher 'good' cholesterol), IGF-1 (Insulin-like Growth Factor), Blood sugar and Blood pressure.

In Washington he was introduced a daily diet rich in nutrients but low in calories and told it would eliminate the risk of cardiac problems or cancers. One long term cronie took it to the point of eating a huge plate of raw fruit for breakfast which included apple skin without the rest of that sugary fruit. This was not for him or me.

In Los Angeles he was introduced to experiments comparing normal mice to those genetically modified to have much lower IGF-1. The modified mice lived 40% longer, if transferable to humans this would mean living to 120 rather than 80. Also to a small section of the Equadorian population with Leron Syndrome who for the same genetic reasons exhibited similarly low IGF-1, physical smallness and vastly improved longevity than the rest of human population, inspite of poor lifestyles. The explanation given was that this genetic type led to slow production of new cells balanced by better maintenance of existing cells.

Protein consumption increases human IGF-1 by creating a 'go-go' effect powering cell production and pushing the body to eat more. Research in the USA has shown fasting to be an alternate route and to be much more effective than simply reducing to the same number of calories per week.

He asked the obvious question since genetic modification is not on. 'How else can I reduce my IGF-1?' Answer By Fasting. Here that meant fasting with only 50 calories for four sucessive days followed by a lower calorie and protein diet, maintained by one 50 calorie day per month. Michael tried a four day 50 calorie diet and halved his IGF-1.

In Chicago he was won over by the principle of feasting and fasting as a way of treating overweight people. Alternate Day Fasting at just 600 calories, eat what ever you like on the others. Alternate Day Fasting/Feasting was shown to give impressive reductions in weight, cholesterol, glycerides and blood pressure, though there was no mention of IGF-1.

At the National Institute on Ageing in Baltimore Mark Bratson showed him the benefit of Intermittent Energy Restriction in mice prone to dementia which resulted in impressive delay in the onset of dementia in mice, equivalent to an increase from say 50 to 80 years old in humans, whereas a high sugar diet lowered it to 30-40 years. The fasting was seen to have resulted in brain cells growing in an experiment which made them remember where to find food. In mice hunger stimulated evolution of an improvement in cognitive ability, so as to improve the search for food and thus to avoid starvation.


Eventually Michael decided on Mark's advice on 2:5 intermittent fasting each week. Eat normally for five days and fast with only 600 calories on the other two. He adopted this and chooses the fast days to suit his regime, he chose to eat breakfast on fast days. He chose breakfast as his time of eating, we have decided to eat our only meal after 6pm. During the period of his 5 week trial he had even spent days trekking on The Pennine Way! 

At the time of the broadcast he had completed 5 weeks of 2:5 fasting. His GP wife was obviously pleased to find his IGF-1 and his Blood Sugar had halved. 

Previously in Los Angeles every other day complete fasting for 4 days a month had shown IGV-1 falling from 215 to 125 mg/dl.

Good cholesterol had increased though overall cholesterol had dropped.

His weight had reduced by well over a stone (say 7.5kg) to 174lbs (79kg). 

He intends to continue this regime, 2 fast days at 600 calories each week with 5 days eating normally. Fast days chosen to suit.

Our Trial is Ongoing
Joan and I are were convinced and have now completed just over two weeks, for five days we are eating two meals a day as before and two days/week fasting with a single 500/600 calorie meal. We have completed just five 600 calorie fast days. On normal days we continue to eat just breakfast and dinner, which is absolutely no problem.

I have seen a weight drop of 2.8kg in those 16 days. I am now 80.6kg, just under the 81kg weight at which I used to box light heavy annually at university against other London colleges. (I finished with the nickname of One-Round after a 'bottled' fiasco in the London University heavy weight final. Having made the 12 stone 10 lb light-heavy limit already and been asked to move up a weight by my skipper in search of points for Imperial, because no-one else entered at heavy weight. Unfortunately the Royal Vet skipper had the same thought and sent for a giant who had boxed in the army. The referee stopped what he, and I, thought was an unequal fight - but note that it was the future Vet, not me, who ended up the round sporting a closed eye!)

Not bad progress on weight reduction since I left for France at the end of May at 87.0kg, six weeks ago. For those who deal only in Christian units (the ones that measure weight in ounces, pounds, stones, hundred weights, quarters and tons) that 6.4kg reduction is just over 1 stone. But losing weight is only one of the benefits. Putting off diabetes, cancer, cardiac events and dementia sound even more important. Joan and I intend to continue for it really isn't hard. The only modification to my previous home diet is a reduction of quantity, the restriction we had already decide on to two meals per day, and so far avoiding only one of my main weaknesses -  cheese.

A chance discussion over dinner with grand-daughter Rachel's slim boy friend elicited that he too had followed intermittent dieting recently. He had continued eating the huge quantities of a fast growing teenager and felt he had to take action. So maybe this fasting method is well known - but it was new to me. He also mentioned to Joan to avoid reaching the point where you are burning off muscle, the cause of which I intend to establish.

My regret is not to have started on retiring 16 years ago, though blood pressure was then already a problem, but my power sapping/stroke risking/breath stealing arrhythmia arrived just less than three years ago. Significant memory recall deterioration, even completely wrong word selection, has become clearly evident in the last twelve months. 

I really do not want to follow my mother who was playing badminton weekly at the Leisure centre at 90, though even then her memory had deteriorated to the point of being a danger to herself. This made living alone risky and making making new friends. 
But, although still in good health, not in pain, and pleasant to the very end, she didn't recognise me 4 years later and frequently asked if she had ever been married. My hope is that when my time comes euthanasia will be allowed to prevent those pointless last years existence without memories. Indeed I tend to go further and say for me that point will be reached when, for unalterable reasons associated with old age, I can no longer live independently in my own home.

Joan's knows her artificial knees would have had a far less stressful and prolonged life if she had weighed less. 

I should add a warning, as in the Horizon programme, that no-one already underweight or sick should contemplate fasting without the agreement of a doctor. 

In terms simply of weight reduction dropping to two good meals a day, one we could easily follow for life, was very effective and is a good starting point. We have found that absolutely painless. But we do feel hungry on 600 calorie days which is the whole point, you might say it is a case of 'no pain - no gain, though unexpectedly find the hunger pangs easier when we are physically active - even working very hard all day.  


'Failure can be an Option'
 Geoff Dyson (vacuum cleaners) writes Guardian article
An interesting article highly relevant to a man like me who spent a career in creative engineering design/development. Few people perhaps see engineering design in terms of creativity but since motherhood is not in my realm few opportunities compare, think Brunel for Railways and Steam Ships, think Mitchell and his Spitfire, Rolls Royce aero engines, Rockets and Space, think Fertilisers and Glass, think Electricity Generation and Grids, X-Ray and Scanners, Wireless and TV, think Computers and Internet, Software and Google's searching prowess. If you must, think Vacuum Cleaners and Washing Machines, but they don't excite me too much.

All were the result of scientific concepts being converted by ideas into reliable applications, useful, exciting products created by engineers. Designing and selling, then manufacturing, commissioning, maintaining, and refining. Almost all result from team working taking the idea through all stages of its development, as we often said the process is 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration. A few, perhaps unfairly, think of it all as the work of the originator, but the team too need moments of inspiration as well as perspiration. After decades of evolution the originators would scarcely recognise its modern face. 

The point James Dyson was making in these Olympian days is that instantaneous success is not the be all and end all, and that failure can often be a spur to eventual success.

Incy Wincy spider  climbed the water spout, down came the rain and flushed the spider out. Out came the sun and dried up all the rain, so Incy Wincy spider climbed the spout again.

He goes on to point out that engineering design work is a continual search for better and better solutions. In my experience the early ideas are almost always over complicated, but that simpler more appropriate solution are hard to find. But when you do they are much better, easier for others to understand, and far more reliable. Continual evolution is the name of the game and not just in the present form but reacting to new technology as it arrives. 

In so many things success needs time, patience and perseverance. It may be hard to achieve Olympic Gold Medal standard but in his case it took 15 years of trying and failing to arrive at an outstandingly successful vacuum cleaner.

He says he excelled in Invention and Art and honed the trial and error skills he needed at The Royal College of Art. His plea was to persuade more schoolchildren to follow D&T (Design and Technology), not just to GCSE level but through 'A' Level as well. It teaches them to sketch, build, test, rebuild, not to learn the answers to exam questions by memory and rote. (In my field sketch means outline an idea rather than draw it.) He feels there is a need for inspiring teachers with an in-depth appreciation of this approach - that is my worry too. He believes D&T 'just needs to be reinvigorated, brought up to date'.

As a society we can't really afford to have a select bunch of winners with the rest thinking, and allowed to think, of themselves as losers.

The PROMS and Barenboim's Beethoven Symphonies
Weren't they wonderful, I could  kick myself for missing the first four on TV especially the Eroica and the 4th, but to compensate we listened to the replays on Radio 3. 

I have seen some great conductors in my life including monthly concerts by Barbirolli and the Halle at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. I will never forget him opening with a rendering of Brandenburg No. 3 and wishing it would never stop, or with a fine concert version of the opera Otello. Nor will I forget Karajan with the wonderful strings of the Vienna Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in the late 50's with Schubert's Unfinished, or Klemperer and our own Philharmonia with Beethoven on the South Bank. One of my most treasured possessions is the first ever complete set of LP recordings of Beethoven symphonies by Toscanini.

But I felt the way Barenboim conducted the 9th was for me the best ever, with little obvious time keeping but full of subtlety and expression in his hand movements to bring out nuances I hadn't heard before. Using his face, and even protruding his tongue slightly on one occasion, to get the sounds he wanted. He felt that Beethoven needed a text to make his ideas clear to all and thus chose the Schiller's 'Ode to Joy', hence the choral movement. He rightly congratulated our National Youth Chorus for a superb performance.

Barenboim's Talk
His hour long talk about  the symphonies was magic. Beethoven first conducted in Salzburg at the age of eleven in 1781, and continued to compose even though he became deaf in his late 20's. The discussion on the then revolutionary steps in music composition follow, moving harmonically far beyond Haydn and Mozart, and beyond the religiously inspired music of pre-Bach. The symphonies often start with unresolved harmonic chaos to provide tension, instability which is always resolved into stability - to give a sense of morality. 'Complexity and conflict', switching from major to minor keys brought 'darkness and light ... despair, sadness, hope and humour'. Beethoven 'deals by sound with everything which exists in the the human condition'.

How his symphonies were always full of sudden dynamic changes of sound intensity, tempo, mood and key, which keep the instrumentalists on their toes. Beethoven's composing 'converts simple parts into cathedrals' as one of his violinist's said, a thought which resonates to me as a innovating engineer.

This musical theory would have meant more had I listened to my mother so many years ago, but it was intriguing none the less. My mother taught classical piano and played in our front room whilst the bus queue outside stood and listened.

But it was the importance of philosophy that was most intriguing. In his opinion Beethoven was saying 'this is right, and this wrong, and this is how I want to live'. Beethoven was very political and a great supporter of the French Revolution, though he fell out of love with Napoleon when he elected himself Emperor, feeling thereafter that he was just like the rest of the self seeking politicians.

Then again he felt Beethoven was saying, 'religion is gone and God is gone, now we are faced with our own sense of responsibility, morality, justice', a theme which resonates to me as an atheist. I remember wondering, after a very religious upbringing, where I would get my standards in a future without religion, and later realising it was from within myself. Nor do I think are the standards of my children have been reduced by the lack of religious instruction.

Barenboim dealt only briefly with the East-West Divan Orchestra itself though it is composed solely of Israelis and Arabs, gradually learning to work in harmony. Divan by the way is a Turkish term for one of their highest Councils of government

His message like Beethoven was of freedom and peace. . Barenboim emphasised his views saying
'I believe very strongly in the universality of music, that it can take this message which is part of our inner feelings.'

U3A GROUPS

JIVE
I apologise for leaving less space than normal but I must say a word for Jive the first new group formed in my time as Coordinator following the ideas and endeavour of Gerwyn Thomas, who also founded MOTO (Members On Their Own). In spite of a near fatal heart attack he returned to running this group on a weekly basis. He has now decided to hand it on to Pam Williams, who has taught throughout, and continued with 'King' Eric Broadbent whilst Gerwyn was ill. Ken Huntley, who tried long and hard to establish a Chess group, will now work with Pam. They will try to work out how to deal with the demand from beginners.

Thanks a lot, Gerwyn.

Free of U3A duties I have gone back to being a regular and feel a lot fitter for it. Every now and again Angela Blewett, like me one of several founder members still dancing, boosts my confidence after a couple of years off by telling me I am dancing well again .

It's amazing remembering the excess of women early on how many men are now regular attenders, in fact we get there first! Surely it's the only Swansea U3A group to boast equal numbers of men and women. The clientele changes from week to week but that gender balance somehow continues. We change partners every minute or so whilst learning new moves. It's a great social group too, with quite a few going out together weekly to jive as far abroad as Cardiff, with long weekends in places like Eastbourne and Painton.

YOGA
I am a regular every Thursday and am glad to see satisfactory turnout at last, there were 10 of us last week. Chris Bryan moved to the big downstairs room at Hazel Court this year so there is plenty of space for several more members.

It's another excellent way of staying physically fit, breathing, stretching, bending, twisting, and my weaknesses balancing and posture. Around 90 minutes per session  finished with a few minutes relaxing when some of us have been known to fall asleep!

Next sessions 13 September until 4 October, then a short break until 25 October.
  
Contact Christine Bryant at   c.bryan682@btinternet.com  
or Telephone 301938 



POLITICS & CITIZENSHIP
Another great group which could well have folded with the death of its founder Margaret Hammond a year ago. It was taken over by Gabrielle Suff and is in rude health, though it would be nice to see new faces especially from more recent members. We had an outing and dinner last week to the Coastguard Station at Mumbles, but I promised Gabrielle to submit a write up to the Website so that's enough for now, but give me a day or two. 

Gabrielle reminds me that she has completed two years as convenor of this group having taken over when Margaret Hammond wished to retire. She can be contacted at
gabrielle.suff@googlemail.com 

WEDNESDAY MEETINGS
Barbara Ellis and team are doing a great job providing us with stimulating talks on a wide variety of topics. Nevertheless I have the feeling that attendance is dropping off, a great pity for what, as I mentioned in the preamble to this posting was once the major meeting point of the membership.

One big problem is the absence of parking on the University campus so most people now go by bus. Easily solved for motorists by parking on a bus route to the University, say to catch Bus 82 from Hendrefolian which run around every 10 minutes, the Bendy Bus, or any bus going to, or past, Singleton Hospital.

ARMCHAIR TRAVEL
Will start again in the new university year. It is now run by Bob Hughes who would be delighted to send potential new members details of next years programme, which will see more members than ever contributing.
Contact him by email at   bobhughes1504@hotmail.com
I will be talking next spring on our trip to Turkey in autumn 2010.

BLOG NEWS
There are two new blogs besides this one.

1) Transferring our Style of Asian travel to France 
If you are interested in the recent holiday that led indirectly to intermittent fasting then follow this link.
http://francemay2012.blogspot.co.uk/

2) Our 2 month trip by the Silk Road across China in 2006
This has just been updated to bigger typescript and made easier to read, but above all to include over 100 photographs.
http://silkroadchina2006.blogspot.co.uk/ 

NB I intend to work on a similar modification on our trip south in Chile and Argentina in 2007

Get to the website by Googling, U3A Swansea,

Get links to all my Blogs by Googling, Oldie Backpacker.
(Follow the link to my profile to get the links to the latest blogs)