PANTOMIME and other news

HONEY BUN'S PANTOMAGORIA (otherwise known as CINDERELLA)


If you attended the Dolphin 14 Jan you had the dubious pleasure of seeing me dance in a grass skirt whilst petite Lyn Evans dressed as an American Sailor sang,' One Hundred and One Pounds of Fun, that's my little Honey Bun' (that's me folks).

After the show I was distressed to be told I was the least feminine cross dresser ever. Contrast Gerwyn, who lead the Jive troupe as the Dancing Queen, dressed in a transparent black dress and made up to kill, false eye lashes and all. He was so ambiguous that he made me wonder if he really was a lady-boy from Thailand. Well it was South Pacific.

That's only the second time in my life that I have tread the boards, and both times I have been a prancing dumb mute. Fifty years ago or so a pretty young girl decided to perform the dance of the seven veils surrounded by the whole 1st fifteen pack virtually naked as Red Indians waving axes. Now that really was worth the ride.

I would not like to distract from many other fine performances. For instance take that cat Marilyn prancing evocatively around in a skimpy dress and a big red scarf miming Big Spender as though the Credit Crunch had never happened. Or Rosemary dressed as Santa Claus and behaving like a Court Jester, something she would never dare to do in our French Group. Or Lawmary, our one paid up member of Equity, confidently over acting as one the Ugly Sisters, whilst whilst the other was so much more subtle. Malcolm Broome the leader of our Singing for Pleasure Group took a solo, a cut above the rest of us in his suit and white bow tie.

I am almost forgetting the elegant impersonation of the Prince, in jack boots, trying to outdo our Gerwyn in the opposite direction, if you see what I mean.They should get together, they would make a lovely couple!




I simply couldn't believe the sudden change from Mrs. Mop to attractive Cinderella, it's amazing what a few pins can do! Then there was Lynn a Yankee from the American Civil War complete with flag and long white hair tied back like some later-day preacher, or a hippy, trying to flag the play together. Not to forget Roly with the music. Did he deliberately fail to switch off the music so the jive ended with actors and audience drawn in until the stage was positively writhing with ancient bodies?




The trouble with tackling such a theme in my blog is that I have forgotten so many other fine performers who all contributed to a joyous afternoon. Gersom, for instance who sportingly made up the numbers in the jive group at the very last second without the opportunity to rehearse a single step.


Thanks above all to Jill Govier, leader of the Creative Writing Groups responsible for the gags, and our talented iron-fisted producer. It's difficult to over state our thanks for the effort she had put into the production. I am sure she feels it was worth while.



Oh and there was a fine cream tea produced by the Dolphin, so there was something substantial for the £5 ticket as well as humorous relief from the winter blues.

Thanks too to Mary Roberts and Marilyn Croft for the photos.











U3A SUMMER SCHOOLS
I have just learned that although I recently published details I did tell how to make enquiries. You have to approach the U3A National Office in Bromley (The Third Age Trust) by either phone or you can download full details of courses including

Application Forms by Internet.
PHONE 020 8466 6139. If you do so on Tuesday or Thursday ask for Philipa who is the administrator of the Summer School.

INTERNET click on
http:// www.u3a.org.uk
Sign in
Click 'Events' on right hand list
Click 'Summer Schools to get summary page
Click link at bottom of page to either 'Harper Adams' or Royal Agricultural College' to get full syllabus and the opportunity to click on links providing download of Application Forms or Full Details of the syllabus.
.......
( If you haven't done so already you will need to 'Register' with the u3a web site before being able to Sign In. Registering is simply a case of giving them a 'User Name' and a 'Password' and then activating your account by clicking on the link they give in their return email. Signing in opens up the full facilities of the u3a web site. If you want to download the forms you will need to install on your computer the Adobe Reader program for reading documents, this essential program is available via a free download. Simply Google for Adobe Reader, select a site offering downloads and clink and then follow the instructions for a free download.)

POSTING 1 JAN 2009
I realized when preparing this posting that the 1 Jan 09 posting was missing, having been taken off-line for editing and not restored. There were significant additions after the initial posting which are now visible.

CHESS
This group runs at Hazel Court on the 1st and 3rd Monday mornings of the month, it is meeting this Monday 19 January at 10.00am. The regulars cover the entire spectrum from absolute beginners, through people like Joan and I who last played at school to our coach who coaches schools and plays competitively.

We need more members to provide variation. I must say that Joan and I have found it a surprisingly pleasant way to keep the brain active, perhaps it is thanks to the U3A attitude to challenges. It is a board game where the sole chance assist is to win the right to first move, but every game soon takes a different path which ensures continuing interest.

LEARN ITALIAN
This course operates at Hazel Court at 10.00am EVERY MONDAY (including 19 Jan), hence sharing the room charges with Chess and the new Reading Group 4. As with Chess, French, Caligraphy and Jive these new groups are very lucky to have experienced leaders, who are prepared to work for free. Carolina taught adult (DACE) classes at Swansea University for years and makes the her lessons interesting as well as instructive.

Nick Hill, our Treasurer, joined last week and he advises me to also publicise the BBC language practice sites. They offer help with French, German, Spanish and Italian. I know several people who follow the Spanish program in addition to going to Night School. For Italian he likes the feel of their offering called Italian Steps

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian

Again we would like more members. When we find good leaders they deserve support. Without it the Swansea U3A will ossify, the tutors and I will be discouraged.

INTERNET
The hoped for facility for accessing the Internet in the Craft Room at Hazel Court has not so far materialised. However I am inviting to my home at short notice people who expressed an interest but, when signing the form, had no Internet access at their own home. The idea is to show how powerful and simple it is to get really significant benefits from this new technology with the objective of helping them to decide whether to buy a computer and get broadband service.

Obviously this exploratory meeting is not for readers of this blog, but if you know another member who would be interested get them to phone me on 424702. The first meeting, and perhaps the only one of its type, will be at my home in Mayals 2pm this Monday 19 January, where I have Wireless Internet.

CALIGRAPHY
The four week beginners class starts at 10.00am on Tuesday 20 January at Hazel Court. The four week Improvers class starts at 1.30pm on Thursday 22 January. Both classes run for just four successive weeks.

I am very pleased to say both classes are fully subscribed. They will be expertly led by Maureen Thomas who did the much praised Caligraphy on display in Dylan Thomas's house.

LITERATURE
On Tuesday 20 January at 2.00pm this group meets for the first time this year in St Mary's Church Priory, at which Lawmary will complete a reading of 'The Inspector Calls by J B Priestly. I shall be attending as part of my intention to visit groups to better understand how they operate and how they could be supported. If interested come along and help shape this years program.

JIVE
This group meets weekly on Wednesdays at 10am upstairs in the Monkey Cafe. Many have a simple lunch there before proceeding to the University for the afternoon lecture. Come along and try.

TAI CHI, Wednesday Lecture and Climate Change
Mike Hart will talk briefly about his proposals for this class at 2.15pm in the university's Grove theatre before the Wednesday lecture which is The Pubs of Mumbles by Brian Davies. After the lecture the Climate Change group will be meeting to discuss Energy The Way Forward - see also the article by Mike Wiseman in your U3A magazine Sources.

FRENCH CONVERSATION
This group meets every Thursday at 10am in Hazel Court. If interested phone Jan Phillips on 411476.

TASTE OF - CELTIC FRINGE
The first of Lyn Holt's 'Taste-Of' evening meals is at 6.30pm on Friday 23 January. Entry is by ticket only and all have been sold for this month's event. If you want a ticket for next month to sample his cooking and enjoy a social evening then phone Angela Holt on 403238.

New Members Coffee Morning

Thank Heaven for New Members
St David's Priory was buzzing on Friday 14 November, well that was my clear impression. Maybe that's my reward for being personally involved this year now world travelling has had to be postponed, but I suspect an independent observer would have had a similar impression. It is heartening to feel the vitality and energy that is flowing out of our age group in the U3A. We are truly part of the Jive Generation, it's rumoured that Gerwyn is swatting up on jitterbug for next year!

Members are showing lots of interest in joining group activities and Hazel Court is well liked by those who have been to classes there. We hope to get sufficient support for Chess to continue on the 1st and 3rd Monday Mornings of a month. The principles of successful competition in a multiple ability group on a handicapping basis were tried today and looked promising. Tuition is available for those wanting to learn, and Maxy played four of us at once to point the way ahead.

Reading Group 4 already looks well supported and therefore safe for the 2nd Monday morning. French Conversation is showing signs of nearing the point where a second group will be needed to complement that on Every Thursday Morning from October to Easter.

Perhaps the most satisfying thing of all was the suggestion of new group topics, first
Italian. Quite by accident I bumped into my old Italian teacher from decades ago at DACE. Carolina Rosati-Jones had not heard of the U3A but is now joining. She has already joined the French course because her son lives in France, and as a successful competition writer wants to join a Creative Writing Group. But from the outset she offered to teach an Italian Group. So for the first time I publicised Italian at the coffee morning and ended up with four signatures - very encouraging. Already enough to pass on to Carolina, but given a few more we could begin to think of a new group at Hazel Court, a venue which would suit her well since she lives nearby.

Then Lawrence Hopes, ( tel 362113 hopes123@tiscali.co.uk )who runs the DVD cinema shows in Ostreme Hall Mumbles, suggested no less than three appealing topics non of which he felt competent to run but offered to assist in each case. Please contact Lawrence to record your potential interest.
1. Cycling needs little explanation but has an obvious attraction similar to walking, but a far more efficient use of energy. Wasn't the wheel one of the great inventions of antiquity! Lawrence foresaw off the road activity, meeting at say Afan Argoed for say an 8-10 mile ride.
2. Playing Guitar (his special interest is in classical guitar, though he also plays electric guitar) He said a simple £25 acoustic guitar is adequate for starters - though he was hoping that we have a more accomplished musician prepared to lead a new group. Keith Roberts plays in the Mumbles Concert Band. There are musicians about perhaps we can find the right mix to form a new group, it doesn't have to be recorders.
3. Photography. Again a widespread interest. I can't help but recall that only last week Mike Wiseman revealed his hand whilst introducing the speaker at the Wednesday lecture. I too must admit to having documented my travels with photographs which now clothe my walls and never fail to bring back wonderful memories, so I confess to an interest in a journalistic style of photography. That's three already and there must be others.


Transport. Keith Roberts (205678 keith.roberts3@sky.com ) spent a lifetime in the electric vehicle industry. He has also rebuilt many vehicles (World War 2 vintage as a hobby. Are there other like minded members out there?

Literature
A very pleasant surprise at last Wednesday's lecture was Equity Card Carrying Lawmary Champion who said she would be delighted to read to the Literature Group. Not as delighted as they will be, at a new injection of life! Why don't the rest of you also help to revitalise what seems to me to be a very worthwhile group? Their new book is 'The Inspector Calls' by J B Priestly. It seems nicely differentiated from the other reading groups. Are George and Judith Davies and Collette Robinson who expressed interest on Open Day going to give it a go?

Finally along comes Lawmary again saying she would like to organise a group playing Cards for Pleasure. She was advocating a game I had never heard of called Hearts Contract, which is a game of skill rather than luck. Quite a small group would be viable if run in the other half of the Craft Room coincident with say Chess. She, like me, hates the thought of serious card games like Bridge. My dislike goes back to 1956 when in order to save £10 on the cost of crossing the Atlantic (which then was usually done by Blue Riband liners). I paid up for a ten day crossing on the Arosa Kulm, a corpse carrier from North Africa in the 39-45 war.(Several years later Joan paid the full £60 and crossed in five days of luxury with Cunard.) I found I was the fourth English speaking graduate on that boat, the other three were bridge fanatics and there was nothing else to do so we played non-stop. I had never played before (nor have I played since!!). So there I was marooned, the indispensable football vital to complete the quartet. My pair always lost and I was always at fault. Psychologically scarred for life I would have liked nothing more than to have to have met them again on the Rugby field and see how they would stand up, tackling was always the bit I liked best. Even now the thought makes me salivate.

DIY Lunch Parties - cook food, bring recipes, and share skills.
Val Lawton suggested that about twenty people could meet in her home. She is stuck between wanting desperately to get started and the knowledge that she will have time out for a hip operation in the early spring. If however there is sufficient interest and if there was someone keen enough to take over whilst she is hors de combat then there could be sense in an imminent start. There would seem to be no start up costs and therefore few obstacles.

Internet Skills
I now have twelve names on my list expressing interest in the Internet. Very early on in trying to popularise my blogging I realised that many people with new computers were having great difficulty in doing the simple tasks associated with productive use of the Internet. Nothing technical is planned, although the history of the Internet might well make an interesting topic for a later session. As with Digital Media for Fun it would be a question of 'tell us what you want to do and we will show you how to we would go about it'. A series of tasks might include email, searching for appropriate web sites via a search engine like Google, the Internet as an encyclopedia, as a newspaper, for shopping, for advice on health matters; to compare suppliers of fuel, savings, mortgages, cars, cameras; to find what have houses sold for in your neighbourhood, to use for Internet banking, share dealing, research into family history. The possibilities are endless, but the Internet skills required are similar hence a few weeks should suffice to get people up and running. Above all it's a case of building up the self confidence to experiment and hence start self learning.

There is already sufficient demand so we shall be looking to start something early in the new year at Hazel Court, where unlike the Vivian Hall in Blackpill we can have Internet access. It will be ideal for those who have recently got home Internet because consolidating lessons by experimentation on your own is the best way to build up your skills. And even better for those who have laptops with wireless Internet because they will be able to bring them to Hazel Court.

WEDNESDAY LECTURES and Interest Lists
I get members to sign lists before leaving the Grove Theatre, and this is where ideas for new groups germinate. If you don't go to the Grove but do receive this blog the you can email me or the preferably to the individuals named in these blogs.

Promotions
In a recent posting I promoted the Jazz Concert by Gwilym Simcock, Stan Sulzman and Jim Hart 7.30 next Sunday 23 November at the Taliesin, but without making it clear that tickets would have to be purchased from the Taliesin Booking Office. Cecily Hughes is promoting good classical music concerts, (the tickets for which also have to be purchased independently) with her Concert Goers group.
Keith Roberts ( tel 204678, keith.roberts3@sky.com ) tells me that the Swansea Concert Band with guests P A Big Band are giving their annual concert at the Taliesin at 7.30 on Friday 12th December, tickets at £5 for OAP's can be purchased through him.

If one of us is enthusiastic about a forthcoming public local event then the probability is that it will appeal to others. So let's share our passions.
I also intend to get details of the Mumbles Movies Film shows from Lawrence Hopes. He is also suggesting that the U3A could consider its own cinema club with costs of around £65/film for a 10 film year, probably mainly winter afternoons. plus hire of a suitable room.

One Day in 'The Life of Brian'

5 November 2008, Barack Obama President Elect of USA
It's apt that today is named after Guy Fawkes who saw only one way to defeat the government of the day. It takes me back so vividly to early August 1957. I had just turned 22 when I set out on my first summer holiday from employment at Canadian Westinghouse. Many friends, mainly Irish from the engineering school of University College Dublin, who had emigrated en masse because there were no jobs in their own country, had chosen to spend the time in canoes and tents in Algonquin National Park. But Dave Robinson, a laid-back public school boy from Oxford who played trombone like Jimmy Edwards, had the idea that we would drive someone else's car across the USA and Joe Killian a particularly tall and dour Irishman asked to come with us. Dave had written to an organisation called the Detroit Drive Away, a body shopping organisation which supplied individuals willing to deliver cars to all parts of the USA, and volunteered our precious two weeks annual holiday for a trip to the West coast. Three days into our summer holiday we were still waiting for a car, virtually certain we had blown it. Then the offer, take a brand new Pink Cadillac to Indianapolis, like the one just delivered to Elvis Presley. We set off with only a few months driving experience between us. At the first street corner I slammed on the brakes and we all ended up on the windscreen from our front bench seat, our first experience of power brakes. (I've a difficult task for Anthony Hughes, Photoshop Guru, to unravel my only record of the event, a double exposure of me at the wheel of that Cadillac.)

Part of the saga meant we would make our own way from Indianapolis to Memphis where we would pick up a second car to drive Route 66 to Fresno, near San Fransisco.
Dave and Joe opted to travel to Memphis by train, but I, maverick already, decided to hitch hike and agreed to meet them in two days time at Memphis railway station. The first day remains etched in my mind like no other. I had a number of lifts that day, the first I remember was so normal, a farmer proud of his British stock was on his way to a day at the races and took me right to the gates of Ellis Park.

Then the real experiences began. A man with a death wish, who had just broken up with his girl friend, stopped. His penchants were for speed, overtaking, and particularly for going blind over the top of the endless undulating hills on the wrong side of the road. Thankfully he was stopped by the police before we went head first into another vehicle. We were taken to a small town, where the local judge was dragged in to sit in judgement. He let me go and I went in search of lunch. I remember being amazed by the incredibly slow slow drawl of the southerners, the ugliness of the one-hick town, and the incredible warmth of all the people I met. Probably I was the first foreigner in town that century! It always helps when travelling to be in a vulnerable minority

But the real impact was in the afternoon. I was picked up by a succession of poor white people heading south, one of whom had lost his job in Chicago and was going back to his shack in the Kentucky Hills where he intended to bed in for winter with his wife, ten kids and the chickens - this was August remember! Hard work was not his forte, contrast the 'work hard, play hard' mentality which had been drilled into me for life, during graduate training in Canada. In 1961, back to the UK, I was appalled by the lazy 'I'm all right Jack - I'm in the lifeboat ' mentality inherent in the English workforce of the day. No wonder we were then economically a failing country.

I had about three lifts that afternoon and each driver displayed the same appalling race hatred of the 'niggers'. They were supporters of the Klu Klux Klan, of lynchings, of hangings, their battle cry was 'Nigger don't let the sun come down on you in this town'. The meaning was starkly explained, if you do we will string you up on a tree on the outskirts of town. It gave a whole new depth of understanding to Billy Holiday's heart felt song 'Strange Fruits' - hanging from the trees. Beneath it all was the fear of violation of their women folk by a negro.

The last lift took me into Nashville for the night. He told me, and I still believe him, that there wasn't another coloured man in the south who would have picked me up. But he had seen the world and was on leave from his posting in Japan as an officer with the US Air Force. Brown rather than Black, intelligent, cultured, informative, liberal in his attitude to race. As he drove into Nashville he told me he didn't know the central white sector because Negroes were not welcome there (the blacks in their ghetto and the whites lived in absolute segregation). Nevertheless he went in and dropped me outside a hotel, and bid me farewell. That was the day I met my Obama, streets ahead of anyone else I met that trip.

There is no stronger reason for hitch hiking, than the experiences that are derived from local people you would otherwise never have met, insights you would never have made.

Next day we three met up at he Memphis railway station as planned and picked up the car we were to drive to the West Coast. Not this time a new Cadillac, but a run down Plymouth which had to be taken back to its rightful owner. Non the less Dave first then Brian coaxed it above 100 mph on those straight deserted prairie roads. Just as I made the ton for the first time in my life I glanced in my mirror to realise we were being overtaken by a police car, but he sped past with more urgent matters to attend to than someone doing twice the speed limit.

Encapsulated in our tin of car, quite unlike the intimate contact of hitch-hiking, we were thus out of touch with the vivid differences of culture in the south lands. We stopped in a little town, found a hotel, a few beers, a dinner and retired to bed. A couple of weeks later Little Rock burst onto the world stage. To think we had seen it as a boring sleepy town where nothing ever happened.

On September 2nd 1957 State Governor Faubus ordered the Arkansas Guard to prevent black students from entering the high school. Eventually President Eisenhower sent 1,000 paratroopers and 10,000 National Guardsmen to enforce a ruling made some years earlier by The Supreme Court of America in 1954, the school was finally desegregated and the civil rights movement was born.

Of all the books we have read as a group over the past five years non registered as strongly with me as Harper Lee's, 1960 novel 'To Kill a Mocking Bird'. It depicted so well the south I saw that day, that improbable mixture of warmth of the whites and their racial hatred of the 'niggers'.

I was moved when, on tonight's TV Jesse Jackson, one of the few survivors of that struggle, was seen with tears streaming down his face, though I later learned it may have been in part a feeling of envy, and in part guilt at having opposed Obama for not being a true representative of the negro people. It was a very hard and very emotional struggle which cost Martin Luther King his life. So very many black people were experiencing today something they had never imagined possible - and not just in the USA but in Kenya and across the world - nor did I ever think to see it in my lifetime.

10 November 2008 GROUP COSTS
I am told that occasionally people are surprised by the need to contribute towards group expenses. The £12 annual fee for joining the Swansea U3A covers the Wednesday lectures, subscription to the national organisation, and subsidises some of the joint activities like the Quiz and the Pantomime and the start up and equipment costs of new groups. But all groups are expected to be be self financing thereafter, and in particular this means that the groups which meet in public halls have to finance the cost of hire, which is typically £10 to £15 per session. A charge of £1 per session or slightly more is therefore to be expected.

In earlier days when the U3A was much smaller it was common for groups to meet by rotation in member's homes. However, whilst this is still quite suitable at times, with a membership of 600 most groups need to be larger and thus have to be located in church halls or alternatives such as Hazel Court. Hiring Halls in the right locations also helps with bus access from any part of Swansea.

I have added Cecily's map of the streets around Hazel Court and my own research into bus access to the previous posting since its original release last week.

CHESS GROUP
The very first new group off the ground this session. Maxy Maxwell the convener, full of enthusiasm purchased eight M&S chess sets from his own pocket to get the group started. Nine people turned up and all thoroughly enjoyed the experience in the spacious well lit Craft Room at Hazel Court. We need a few more members to ensure sufficient continuity in the months ahead, but are already planning to meet on the First and Third Monday mornings of the month. The second meeting is thus booked for Monday 17 November with the session starting from 10am. Hire of rooms from Hazel Court is from 9 till 12.30, or even 13.00 (or alternatively AFTERNOON FROM from 1.30 till 5pm). Maxy's enthusiasm extends to teaching chess to beginners. Most of us were playing for the first time for decades and I must say Joan and I enjoyed it and found it very relaxing. I don't very often get emails from my wife but she was anxious for me to understand that she is going to beat me next time. To which my response is that I won't again miss the opportunity to take the queen that had put me in check, a move which would have spelt curtains for her! Cunning movers these knights!

READING GROUP 4
The last new group on the stocks got off to a flying start yesterday with 13 enthusiastic members, all of whom took to Hazel Court as a venue and stayed for coffee, after a two hour planning session, and some liked it so much they already have plans to stay for lunch next time. Cecily was full of enthusiasm, provided everyone with name stickers and got plenty of suggestions for this months books. Like her earlier group they decided to choose by vote two books per month, with the understanding that some will read both, others just one, with no penalty for reading neither.

That group will meet the Second Monday morning of each month at 10.30, thus the next two dates will be 8 December 2008 and 12 January 2009, which incidentally dovetails well with the plans for the Chess Group. It seems certain to be successful and thus bookings have been made for the whole session including July but with a break for April. The books for discussion on 8 December 2008 are 'A Fine Balance' by Rohinton Mistry, and 'The Clothes They Wore on their Backs, by Linda Grant, a Booker prize winner.

MODERN JIVE
This looks like being the surprise new group of the year, the one I thought might be too young in outlook for the U3A. It helps that Gerwyn Thomas is a very enthusiastic leader, as well as a good teacher of dance. We met for the first time last Wednesday morning around 10.30 in the Monkey Cafe, Castle Street, in the centre of Swansea at the back of what was David Evans. They have a proper dance floor upstairs, though I'm told the whole place throbs, upstairs and down, to Salsa on Tuesdays nights.

With the help of a couple of experienced jivers from a previous class, Gerwyn soon had us moving. A few of the taller women volunteered as surrogate men and took the lead, but this group has far greater proportion of men than most U3A groups. I am continually finding more members who want to join and so this too already looks a success from the start. Gerwyn was getting the partners to rotate every few minutes, an excellent idea both to get people to mix but also because it is essential to learn the basics, of this often free form dance, in a universal style. Joan and I learned to jive together way back in university days but I have always found it difficult to find the same rapport with other partners.

All you have to do is turn up and try.

MOTO, Members On Their Own
After a slow start the numbers signing are starting to accelerate. There are significant numbers who are facing life on their own after partners have died or left. Help with building a new life with new companions is what drives Gerwyn and this group. In fact this rather than jive was the group he really wanted to run. I feed him the names as people sign on and he makes email or telephone contact as appropriate. Their first get together was at lunch time last Wednesday after the jive group had finished in the same Monkey Cafe location.

FRENCH CONVERSATION
Fifteen were present at the first meeting of a new group last Thursday at 10am in Hazel Court. It explored the aims of the members for the sessions ahead, in English to ensure clarity of discussion, and in the second half people introduced themselves in French. It seemed to me that there was a good similarity in the standards of spoken French across the group. Thanks are due to Steve Johnson for leading the group but also to ex French Teacher Beryl Edney who by questioning and prompting was able to draw out conversations. There are several people known to be interested who could not make that first meeting so it seems the group will have sufficient support. On this basis I have reserved the room for every Thursday morning until Easter with a break over Christmas/New Year.

ARMCHAIR TRAVEL
Almost thirty people attended the first meeting of this established group in the Sketty Parklands Evangelical Church (very close to Hazel Court) to hear Brian Davies, the group's convener, describe a cruise right around the smaller islands of the Caribbean to celebrate his seventieth birthday. He had prepared a DVD of the trip with musical backing, though in many ways the thought provoking spoken introduction was the best part of the presentation. Not only were the gorgeous Caribbean beaches on display but a fantastic range of flowers. He and his wife enjoyed the experience so much that they have already booked to repeat the trip next spring.

POLITICS and CITIZENSHIP
Apologies to the group of around fifteen for dashing in late this afternoon, as always, and taking the convener Margaret Hammond unawares. Gabrielle Suff was about to start introducing the chosen topic "Assisted Suicide?". I decided to visit this group on this occasion because the subject presented so many tricky dilemmas that had a special interest for me.

Gabrielle introduced the subject particularly in relation to the two recent cases, one in which a wife with Multiple Sclerosis wanted a court ruling that her husband would not be prosecuted if he took her to a 'suicide' clinic in Switzerland, after she had lost the ability to travel alone, and another in which the parents of a 23 year old professional Rugby player who had broken his neck had done just that at his request. There were over 100 cases where assisted suicide had been procured outside the UK without legal intervention when such a course would have been clearly illegal within the UK and even considered as murder.

Once thrown out to the floor the discussion broadened to thoughts not just of suicide but of adherence to a person's wish not to be resuscitated from a critical illness. But as I pointed out increasingly peoples last years would be spent with dementia, given continual advances in medicine for other easier conditions, without memory without thought. To me as an atheist such a life is worthless and I would not wish my life to be preserved in such a condition. In direct contrast my mother because of her strong religious belief that 'Life was God's to give and Take Away' would have wanted to continue to the very end. Surely the wishes of the person, which everyone accepted were different, are paramount, and surely few of us would follow suicide or wish to pre-empt death without consideration of others.

For me the real dilemma for lawmakers is to guard against death imposed or withheld by others against our clearly expressed wishes, whether their motives are selfish or evil.

The importance of discussing such matters in advance with close family and friends is clearly a lesson to those, like me, who have so far baulked at the need to broach such subjects.

Next month Larry Owen will lead the discussion on 'Accountability'.

THREE NEW GROUPS IN A WEEK

WALKING
Thanks to Lyn Holt for these two photographs of the walking group at our most famous beauty spot. The most popular question of summer visitors to the National Trust car park at Pennard is 'Am I in the right place for Three Cliffs?' to which the answer is 'not quite' this path leads to Pobbles the adjacent bay. But these walkers obviously know their onions!




GROUP NEWS
We have lift off less than a month after Open Day. Three, or arguably four, new groups are starting this week, and with luck we will finally pull together another reading group next week, with twenty interested that shouldn't prove impossible given a little good will.

FRENCH CONVERSATION
The first of what is expected to be a weekly meeting will be held in the Craft and Hobbies room of Hazel Court, Sketty Parklands, at 10am Thursday 6 November. Twenty one people have said they will come. There are two major advantages to that particular room, the first being that it divides into two equal halves with a sound proof partition, the second is the facility for computers which opens up the possibility of computer or Internet based courses perhaps in conjunction with more conventional conversation exercises.

LEARN MODERN JIVE
The first of what are expected to be weekly sessions will start on Wednesday 5 November at The Monkey Cafe in Swansea's central square overlooked by the castle. The sessions will start at 10am and can last till 12.30. This location has been chosen by tutor Gerwyn Thomas (817229) in preference to Hazel Court, above all because it is already laid out for dance with a stage on which he can demonstrate the steps in full view of the audience. It is easy to reach by bus from any part of Swansea. He used to teach dance Modern Jive there on Monday nights. It is also the location for Salsa dancing at night, used by others including ALAS (Association Latin American of Swansea) of which I am now a member. There is also a cafe and restaurant.

I say that three new groups are starting but it is arguably four because almost all of those who have signed on for MOTO (Members On Their Own) will be there as well. As I explained earlier, longer term we see these as separate groups but both run by Gerwyn Thomas. Regardless of a persons interest in dancing the Monkey Cafe should prove a good venue for socialising with like minded people on Wednesday mornings.

I feel Wednesday morning is an excellent choice which will allow members to go on to the Wednesday Lecture at the University by bus.

CHESS
This group is starting first, Monday 3 November at 9 till 12.30 at Hazel Court. The credit for this is entirely due to its convener Maxie (George Maxwell) 07733 43 00 57 working on his own bat. He expects 10 to 12 people will turn up for the first session, and has bought the required number of chess sets. Hazel Court will set out the tables and chairs.

JAZZ
Joan and I have just booked for an exciting concert by Neon on 23 November at the Taliesin. Those who follow modern jazz will be well aware of this event, but others may not realise how a good an opportunity it should be to hear jazz at its musical best. It may be worth explaining that the huge divide between traditional jazz as invented in New Orleans and modern jazz occurred with the invention of bebop in the early 40's by such as Charlie Parker (alto sax) and Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet) who took mastery of their instruments onto a new plane. Not to denigrate the musicians such as Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins (tenor sax) and Art Tatum (piano) who developed the idiom during the inter-war years.

Neon is a trio with three outstanding instrumentalists, all, I guess, classically trained at one of our most prestigious music colleges. Gwilym Simcock, Piano, from the Northern School, appeared at Llanrhidian Church in last year's Gower Music festival with an almost classical trio called Acoustic Triangle, and this spring at Jazzlands (Uplands) with a more traditional boppish style. I imagine this group with a vibraphone will be somewhere between the two. Gwilym was nominated for the 2007 BBC Jazz Award as the best instrumentalist. Both he and Jim Hart, vibraphone, were award winners in 2007. They link up with old-stager Stan Sulzmann, a brilliant jazz saxophone player, who also plays flute, and commands a huge variety of styles. He has the reputation of being an outstanding sight reader, but modern jazz is musically complex, often very fast - which takes some listening to - but by the end of the concert you will have acclimatised. It is of course 100% improvised not read.

With concessions tickets cost only £9, cheap for opening your eyes!

EPILEPSY a Wednesday Lecture by Dr Ann Johnston
Review from Virginia Jones, retyped and truncated by the Old Bee (Oldie Backpacker)

Dr Johnston is Clinical Fellow at the Wales Epilepsy Research Network. She took us through a historical perspective from Babylonian times, when this disorder was first documented. No distinction was drawn between sufferers of the Plague and Epilepsy and it is still the source of many other myths. Dr Johnston was keen to dispel these myths, some of which have been kept alive by films and stories.

It was interesting to note that epilepsy does not have a single cause but that 40% are associated with genetics, thus clinicians need to look at family history and interview members, not easy because of the stigma involved.

She works for Professor Mark Rees who formed the research network in 2004 which is currently scheduled to continue till 2010. Epilepsy affects 30,000 people in Wales, and currently about 70 families are being studied who conveniently live near the M4 corridor. It is hoped to identify all the genes involved to help pharmacists to develop better drug therapies. Today in the lucky cases epilepsy is already successfully controlled by drugs, but the unlucky ones form, stigmatised, unemployable generations.

Mike Wiseman pointed out P B H (Peter) May was an epileptic controlled by drugs. He was Captain of England for 41 tests, and one of the best and most elegant of batsmen to play cricket for England post war, alongside another beautiful stylist my hero T W (Tom) Graveney who I first saw playing for Gloucestershire at Bristol when I, on holiday with my grandad, was 11 and he still a teenager. I immediately adopted 'Gravy Browning' for life.

BUSES TO HAZEL COURT
I have looked on the Internet for information about First bus routes to Sketty Parklands and established that the following go past The Spinning Wheel.

A) Route 18 runs from Swansea Quadrant at 40 mins past the hour to Upper Killay

B) Routes 20, 20A, 21, and 21A between them run from the Quadrant at 5, 15, 25, 35, 45, 55 past the hour. (21 goes to Three Crosses once per hour , and the rest to Derlwyn.)

C) Route 37 to Quadrant leaves Oystermouth at 58 mins past the hour

D) Route 82A from Quadrant via University to Hendrefoilan is not listed but exists and runs frequently, though perhaps not to precise schedule.

NB The Spinning Wheel pub is mentioned because it is a key location on the bus routes. It should be possible to get off closer to Hazel Court , for instance at the junction Sketty Park Drive and Heather Crescent.

Street Map by Cecily Hughes

Please check the bus routes in detail, but this information should at least point you in the correct direction

Astronomy, French, Modern Jive and MOTO

ASTRONOMY
The first group meeting of the year was held after the last Wednesday Lecture in the Grove Theatre. Just under 20 members stayed behind. The group make good use of the Internet and projector (by virtue of the http://openphoto.net/download/index.html?image_id=18352venue they can log in via the university wireless network). Anyone interested in this group should have a look at some of their key sites starting of course with:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space

Maggie Collins, a keen member who earlier had given the group a superb talk on The Big Bang, has compiled a comprehensive list of web sites of interest and maybe could be persuaded to talk at an appropriate time in the future about the current project at CERN. Other suggestions were to investigate the history of astronomy, or follow a course set by say NASA or the Open University.

Nick Hill, who has led the group since its inauguration three years ago is now the Treasurer of Swansea U3A and needs someone else to take over as coordinator of his group, and as I noted in the latest Conveners newsletter he is finding a lack of volunteers. Sooner or later current members have got to step up to responsibility for running (convening) these groups or they will founder and the U3A will lose rather than build up variety. He saw the next meeting Wednesday 12 November as pivotal, for it would be used to draw up the years program. This will be an ideal time for new members to have their views canvassed.

Some keener members are also members of the Swansea Astronomical Society. As with Geology, it seems that those with sufficient the interest belong to two organisations. The Astro Society have lectures twice a month, are responsible for running the observatory in the Marina on behalf of The Council and assist in the provision of University courses. Very good cooperation exists between the two organisations. More details can be obtained from their website:-

http://www.classroominspace.org.uk

It also appears that there is an argument for trying to draw new members into the group and to an extent repeating some of the more successful topics of the past three years, or perhaps even founding an additional Beginners Astronomy Group to provide continuity. The lesson for all groups is grow, develop and seek new members or wither away. In the modern world it is impossible to stay still, companies and organisations either expand or die.

All that being said there were plenty of interesting embryo projects, non more fascinating than Roly Govier's proposal to hire a time slot to control the international Foulkes electron-telescopes (Hawaii and Australia) in order to carry out our own observations. He has already gained membership of that organisation for Swansea U3A, in which we are now classified like say schools as educators. The link below will give a feel for the possibilities:-

http://www.faulkes-telescope.com

Eric Broadbent is proposing a visit to the Spaceguard Centre at Knighton an observatory which welcomes visitors. The proposal was to get there by free tickets on the Central Wales Line from Swansea Station.

http://www.spaceguarduk.com

FRENCH CONVERSATION
We are exceedingly lucky to find another two new members who are keen to take over the failing French Conversation Group, they are Steve Johnson and his partner Susan Hodge (Tel 429683, mobile 07770 941396, or email on suehodge@hotmail.co.uk
We have booked the Craft and Hobbies Room at Hazel Court for 10.30am for the inaugural meeting of this new group on Thursday 6 November, the day chosen is the same as that of the previous group, but is not necessarily set in stone. I have an option on the room for all four Thur day mornings in November and will be amazed given the numbers interested if it doesn't warrant a regular slot. We need volunteers to provide continuity when Steve and Sue are away.

An important objective for that first meeting is to fit the sessions to requirements and a questionnaire has been designed to that end. Please attend the first meeting if you are interested in helping formulate a French group.

LEARN MODERN JIVE
A new group convened by new member Gerwyn Thomas (Tel 817229, gerwyn@gmail.com). What a way to keep fit! Although only a few people have yet expressed interest they are all keen to get started. Gerwyn is to visit Hazel Court to confirm that the Exercise Room is the ideal, as seems likely. It can be hired for just £10 a half day. The suggestion is that we have a trial afternoon session which could span 1.30pm to 5pm.

MOTO (Members On Their Own)
A new group also run by Gerwyn Thomas (Tel 817229) because quite a few have also expressed interest in learning Modern Jive the groups will probably start in parallel, though soon they will be run as quite separate groups.

COMMENTS ON THIS BLOG
In a discussion with Anthony Hughes, who runs the highly successful Digital Media Group, I realise that this column is run as a continuous newsletter rather than an interactive blog. That said I would encourage others to leave Comments about their own group, either event dates and times or particularly items of discussion. The instructions for leaving Comments are given in the very first posting INTRODUCTION - START HERE, such comments are probably best left to be shown on the latest blog, so everyone sees them easily, otherwise you have to click on 'comments' to see them.

So far there are only four comments, three are trivial trials from me to make sure the facility worked but just one real, very complimentary comment, on that very first posting from Don Mason. Wonderfully reassuring though it was in the early days, I am not looking for further congratulatory messages but ones that add to the interest or information in this blog/newsletter. Feel free to try.
.

OPEN DAY AT DOLPHIN HOTEL, 8 October 2008

GUIDE TO USE OF INTERNET and BLOG and Having Fun

Chairman Bob it was who persuaded me to use the prominent About Me section on the first page to give some instructions instead. Sorry about the layout but Google only provide a single linear paragraph - hence all the ....... You got here so now jump on the ARCHIVE link to INTRODUCTION - START HERE and as a reward you will get a Noddy but more complete guide - with the instructions in some sort of background context.

OPEN DAY

As usual it was a great success. Pat tells me we signed up 45 new members. But as always it's quality not size that matters. As Group Coordinator I felt a bit of a supernumerary so I decided to act as convener for two groups with problems, Recorders and French, as well as to try and publicise this blog.

FRENCH
Steve Johnson and his wife were my very first contacts, they were standing back glancing at the laptops of me and Anthony Hughes (Digital Media for Fun) so I went over.

'Do you know anything about NTL?
'Well it so happens that as one of their early customers I do.'

In return I enticed Steve to view the blog and asked if they played Recorders (No) or were interested in the French Group. He speaks good French whispered his wife. It turned out he had lived in Paris for 30 years. 'Would you be interested in leading our French group?' A smile and firm handshake later and he was deep in conversation with Jan Phillips.

Several others expressed an interest in French including an old dinghy sailing friend from Mumbles Yacht Club, Eddie Ramsden, who was awarded the MBE for his work as Swansea's Environment Officer. He is still heavily into sailing with the RYA and has good friends in France and so wants to improve his fluency in the language. So do I, for my eldest son married a Mademoiselle and lives in France - we really shouldn't be content to converse entirely in English. Years ago we spoke English to their kids and they responded in French (as every baby, and no secondary school kid, knows listening comes before talking). Now it's so easy since they all are fully bilingual. Jim passed all his 'O' levels except French. Now he's fluent - makes you sick, doesn't it. Steve had a word for it which I have forgotten - something to do with dormir; I got the drift.

RECORDERS
I made no progress on Recorders. Does no one want to start learning an instrument?

eMAILS
In between time I made my way around the Group Conveners whenever their tables were free. By subterfuge I got their email addresses, thus disproving the theory that they would not release them. Only a few don't have access to a computer with the Internet, though it's available to all in for example the library.

As I explained to Majorie Vanston I won't join the modern world either. For instance I stubbornly refuse to have a mobile phone. As one who tried hard to avoid being contactable outside working hours, carrying a phone wherever you go seems crass. But deny yourself access to the Internet and you are turning your back on probably the most powerful resource invented in our lifetime. After all without it you won't be able to read my blog!

MODERN JIVE/SALSA
Practically the last person I met was Gerwyn Thomas. I asked him the usual questions about French and Recorders and he volunteered

'But I AM a teacher of modern jive and salsa'.

Back in the 50's I (Mr Bloggie) used to jive at 100 Oxford Street (London) to the music of Humphrey Lyttleton, Ken Collier, and others. Not too long ago we helped make the floor vibrate and break all the valuable crockery at a Christmas Party in the Glynn Vivian, well it sounded like it! Salsa is wonderful, Latin music and nightly dancing in the streets is one of the things which continually draws me to Latin America. I like doing many activities in company with young people (eg learning Spanish or Mandarin), but a more restrained form of dancing could be interesting, not to say vital given the present state of our creaky joints. 'KEEP FIT FOR FUN WITH SALSA', sounds OK to me? Any Other Takers?

MOTO
But Gerwyn had an even more interesting idea.
'I would like to start an OTO group like they have in Aylesbury'.
'What's that?'.
'I often don't go simply because I dislike going places on my own.'
'Ah, like the MOTO Group in Wokingham' (Members on Their Own). How does it work?'
'Essentially it's a network of people with the same problem.'So MOTO it is (my choice of acronym). I will be amazed if it doesn't fly.


READING GROUP 4?
Elsewhere in the hall a lot more people expressed interest in reading than could be accommodated in the present groups. In addition there are probably still people from last year waiting. So I am thinking about a new group, bigger than can be accommodated in peoples homes. Hazel Court is due to open early November and they have offered us a whole range of rooms at reasonable prices. It sounds like an ideal venue for larger new groups like French and Reading.

DIGITAL MEDIA for FUN
Sharing a table with Anthony Hughes I noted the enthusiastic reception he was getting. He is prepared to run a second class in the afternoon every other Thursday.

I must say, as someone who is horrified at the laborious way computers are taught to adults, that it is invigorating to see someone who approaches it from -
'Tell me what you want to do and I will show you how.'

For decades now the buzzword in designing software is Make its Use INTUITIVE. Grasp that and you can teach yourself merely by prodding around, try this way and that, and, learn by experience - the only way for many of us?. But first you have to get the feel of the way your computer software operates. A Windows PC has a different regime to an Apple but they are both logical. ( I say that arrogantly without the slightest experience with an Apple, but acknowledge that decades ago Macintosh (Apple) showed Microsoft the way with its wonderfully intuitive operating system Lisa).

A typical class on say word processing is so boring, so stereotyped, and so avoids the self learning process. If schools approach learning by teaching just what you need to know to pass the exam and ignoring the context, then that explains some of the problems with our education system. I seem to remember the kids saying in effect, 'dad, cut the crap and for god's sake give us the answer'.

Anthony's idea is to point you in the right direction and free you to experiment. I picked up quite a lot in a few minutes at the end of the last session as four of us put our heads together. He will notice I'm picking up on his phrase 'For Fun' - that is what our U3A is all about. I still think learning is fun, which squares the University of the Third Age (U3A) circle.

LITERATURE for FUN

A few signed to indicate interest even though there was no-one promoting this group. It has apparently separated the roles of leader (expert) from telephone contact (usually the convener does both). With all the interest in the Reading Groups I do wonder if there is not a latent interest in a group reading, but perhaps not studying in so much detail, classic literature (though my reading group and Barbara Ellis's cover a bit of both).

CHESS

I had a good chat to 'I'm Maxie' who was sitting in front of his chess set offering to play passers-by. He was pleased with the response, and, seeking a central venue was another waiting for Hazel Court to open.

CALIGRAPHY

Maureen Thomas is trying to revive this group and looking for support. My wife Joan was a member of the earlier group which had good numeric support but rather lost its way when the leader was away for a few months; Joan wanting more than a social morning lost interest and stopped going. I am sure Maureen will put it on an a more interesting footing. She is starting a trial by meeting in Mumbles for all four weeks in February 2009.

DISCUSSION

In search of emails I stopped by with Roly Govier. I was quite taken by surprise at the group he was running. I had thought it would be esoteric discussions of a philosophic nature, but no it was very down to earth. He is delighted when someone new gets confident enough to take the lead. Each month someone volunteers to lead the discusion at the following meeting, next month it could well be proposed to discuss savings given the Credit Crunch or finding the best supplier of Gas/Electricity (ideas off the top of my head). I almost volunteered to slag off British Gas but Roly said touche, they are entirely banned from his house.

APOLOGIES

If I haven't mentioned your group it's probably because it looked too successful to benefit from my intervention last Wednesday.