ENERGY and CLIMATE CHANGE

ENERGY and CLIMATE CHANGE
Should interest all of you who hoped to wave goodbye to cold and snow and ice!! It's facile to think we shall become a Mediterranean country overnight. Weather is well known as an example of a chaotic system in which small disturbances can create major effects. It is thus very risky to predict the weather by mathematical model, as the BBC know to their cost, or finger in the air techniques. The chaotic variability of weather has always been with us, but what we are dealing with here is the effect of a continual increase in carbon in the atmosphere, driving the slow but remorseless warming of our planet earth.

This is one of the big challenges of our age (I might have said 'only' until the Credit Crunch came along) . Finding efficient ways of generating electricity to reduce the lifetime release of carbon into the atmosphere (in manufacture of the generating plant as well as its operation). Winning this battle is vital to ensure the sustainability of our high energy way of life, which few of us would willingly give up, and to which the less developed world will quite reasonably aspire.

This week on Wednesday the Swansea U3A make a two pronged attack on this issue.
First up the lecture by Ian Masters from 'The Marine Energy Task Group for Wales', at 2.00 for 2.30 back in the Grove this week, who will speak on 'Turning the Tide - Marine Power along the Welsh Coast'.

Then after this lecture Mike Wiseman's Climate Change Group will take their second successive session on energy and he has called it simply 'More Energy'.

It is now several weeks since we all received the last U3A magazine accompanied by the January 2009 publication of 'Sources'. You may recall that, with windmills on the frontispiece, this issue was dominated by considerations of Climate Change, a topic close to the heart of the Chairman of the Third Age Trust Jean Goodeve and her husband Graham. Our Climate Change group leader Mike Wiseman had a full page piece entitled Climate Change and Sustainable Development in which he reminded us all to think of our generations poor stewardship of this planet and to reflect on the legacy we were leaving for the following generations, not least the prospect of a shortage of fresh water.

CHESS
The next meeting is tomorrow 16 February at Hazel Court from 10.00 onwards. Joan and I will be there to welcome you. We are hoping for a good turnout. Member Theo Joannides is suggesting cooperation/amalgamation with the Mumbles Chess Club who meet in the Ostreme Hall at 11am on Saturdays. I would be interested in your views either added as comments to this blog or emailed privately.

TOBACCO FACTORY, Bristol
If I am to express my interests in the Arts, top would come high quality theatre (which we have only occasionally glimpsed in Swansea in 40+ years). I am a devotee of 'Theatre in the Round' in which a small audience surrounds the 'stage' (and can almost touch the actors). There is no scenery, just a few props maybe just benches. A form which relies entirely on acting skill. I first came across this style in New York in the Off Broadway movement of the 50's, very often performed in a public upstairs room of an hotel. When we returned to the UK we lived in Stoke on Trent where directors Stephen Joseph (now famous for his theatre in Scarborough) and Peter Cheeseman started, they became the driving force behind the movement in the UK for decades, whilst Alan Ayckbourn practised acting as well as some directing.

Last year we discovered the Tobacco Factory because of the rave reviews for a production of Hamlet with Jonathan Miller as director. That performance Joan and I rate the finest theatrical experience of our life. Recently I read a review in The Guardian decrying the fact that the production failed to get to the West End for lack of a TV star in the cast, itself an indictment of commercial theatre. Incidentally I speak as someone born in Warwick in easy cycling distance of Stratford who as a young grammar school boy attended many productions in what was then called The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. A golden period from the late 40's and when John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson were amongst the actors,though I have no idea whether I saw them. Anthony Quayle was director at the time.

This year the Tobacco Factory are performing Julius Caesar from 12 Feb to 21 March followed by Anthony and Cleopatra from 26 March to 2 May. There is a performance every day but Sunday, with a matinee on Saturday (£15). A matinee is our choice since it allows either go and return in a day, or more enjoyably a hotel and good meal following the theatre. The production is unlikely to reach the heights of last year, but I notice the Bath newspaper acknowledge the high standard of the Shakespeare season over the decade The Tobacco Factory has been re-used as a centre for the performing arts.

YOUR CHRONICLE NEEDS YOU
Jill Govier on behalf of Derrick Jenkins and co. (the producers of the annual Swansea U3A publication THE CHRONICLE) is issuing a call for Articles, Life Stories or Poems on any subject but provides a few pertinent pointers.

We are growing rapidly as an organisation, and occupying an increasingly important and rather articulate section of the population, so written matter should be flowing in - but it is not. I have willing confessed that I was a fellow traveller for several years before discovering the rewards of commitment. Now all of you know that given a typewriter a pen or a computer I can go on a bit!! Please join in and make the most of membership.

It's news to me but to stimulate a few ideas Jill is reminding us that
2009 is the Year of Science
2009 is the Year of Homecoming for the Scots, so why not the Welsh or the Irish. Who wants the English to go home and Why? Because we can outscore the Welsh in tries at least!!
2009 will lead to a new set of Honours. Who would you nominate and Why?

The Homecoming is particularly to celebrate Scotland's great contributions to the world, but leads on to wider thoughts of Nationalism. Why did you choose Swansea for your retirement, was it a home coming or a home leaving?

Many have been investigating their genealogy. Are you willing to share your discoveries and think aloud of the implications?

The Old Topics are always welcome: Travellers Tales, The Time of My Life, Let me have My Say

Contributions, hand written, typed or computerised, can be handed to Derrick Jenkins, Helgi Opik or Jill Govier at any Wednesday Meeting

emailed to joyce.jenkins@ntlworld.com

or posted to
Derrick Jenkins
122 Belgrave Road
Gorseinon
SA4 6RB

Time is of the essence because the completed Chronicle is mailed with the notices ahead of the AGM in June. Please participate in the success of your own 'self help' organisation.

LATIN AMERICAN CULTURAL FESTIVAL
My interest in Latin America is well known and stems from our extensive slow, in depth, travel there in the past few years. It is a melange of fascinating, vibrant cultures, not least in music and dance. Brazil and Mexico like China and India will soon become the dominant economies in the world.

ALAS Swansea's Latin American organisation have for years run an annual Festival at the Dylan Thomas Centre. This time it will feature Cuba in the fifty years since its revolution, in a festival running over the weekend from 27 February to 1 March. As usual it will feature a broad program covering film, photography, art, poetry, a Salsa Party and Latin American music. As an organisation they raise funds for charities.
Tickets are already on sale. For more details visit the Dylan Thomas Centre or their website
http://www.alas.org.uk

TAI CHI
The second meeting was as successful as the first, again with a turnout just over twenty members. More could be accommodated in the large room at Hazel Court. If you want to join the sooner you do so the better, we are nearly all absolute beginners so far. The Group meets every Friday at 10.30, the tuition is excellent and pleasant, the exercises ideal for those who give importance to retaining flexibility, precise control of movement, and memorising of sequences. From now on the subscription will be £3 a week for the rest of the initial six session period at least. I feel it should develop into another regular Group activity. Michael Edmonds writes to give me the name of a second tutor should expansion of the group or a choice of days be needed.

AGE CONCERN myfriendsonline

http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/myfriendsonline

This year from 16 to 20 March there will be a international week long campaign to interest older people in social networking. Outdo your grandchildren, join the Facebook generation.

No doubt there will be more to say nearer the date. Our own Publicity section are preparing a presentation to the public in a 'Life begins at Fifty' event at the Leisure Centre on 26 March.

CADW
Angela Brunt writes to say that in celebration of St. David's Day on 1 March that CADW are offering free entry to all of their sites, and that there will be storytellers at many of them. She also informs that anyone over 60 can get a free Pass giving free entry at any time to any of their sites. An application form is on the CADW website.

CARDS for FUN
After a disappointing lack of turnout before Christmas Lawmary reports that nine turned up for their second session on Tuesday at the Taliesin Cafe. It seems as though another group is up and running. Next meeting 24 February.

JAZZLAND, St James Crescent
Come and hear a young, exceptionally talented, saxophonist Oliver Nezhati from Llandeilo. He plays with a sextet of youngsters drawn from old friends (pianist Mitch Jones from Pontadulais and Dewi Young from Cwmbran) and some friends from his studies at the famed Trinity music school in London. I first heard him in his mid-teens play the last half of the set with Bruce Adams, one of Britain's best jazz trumpeters, who remarked jokingly how dispiriting it was to have to play with someone so young and so talented.
For further details of the club program visit

http://www.swanseajazzland.co.uk

BREAK THROUGH FOR BLOG

BLOG
This Blog is not an Official U3A Committee Publication. It is written solely by me and the opinions expressed are therefore not necessarily those of the committee, nor is it restricted solely to U3A matters. However I write it primarily to progress my job as Groups' coordinator by publicising and giving a flavour of the Swansea U3A activities, particularly this year's new groups. Keeping my readership content is a prime objective.

I like to think this Blog has been an important step change on inevitably less frequent and expensive postal mailing shots. To date I have been reliant on the Internet addresses that I have been able to collect personally, starting with about 30 obtained trawling around the conveners at the Open Day in the Dolphin to about 120 in January. I have now received the full set of email addresses held by the U3A for the purpose of passing information to members. This means that future Blog Update email messages will in future go to around 250 members, out of a total membership of 650, a proportion I am sure will increase rapidly as broadband becomes every one's communication medium of choice.

I take that release of addresses as a vote of confidence. Although I do mass mailings the email addresses of recipients does not appear on them, unless by error - just one mistake so far in over 50 mailings.

TAI CHI
This is clearly going to rival JIVE and MOTO as the best supported new Groups, since no less than twenty three members turned up for the inaugural session last Friday. I personally expect an increase in numbers as word spreads of just how successful that session was, and how suitable Tai Chi is for our age group. In addition to which 30 members signed the original list and some would undoubtedly have been put off by the snowy weather. Thanks go to Bob Hughes who received the original contact from Mike Hart and rapidly turned it into action. He has also provided the pictures.

Mike Hart demonstrated that he is a skilled teacher of the discipline but also that he conducts the sessions in the pleasant, relaxed, way which is the hallmark of the U3A Groups. He had offered to do the first six sessions for free, but being aware that teaching Tai Chi is his living and clearly wanting it to remain a U3A Group activity, we are proposing to do only the first two sessions at £1.50 but thereafter to raise the subscription to £3 a session so that we are in position to offer him payment.

Group charges are an issue because, whilst many of us can easily afford the charges, we have also to think of those who live on standard pensions. Charges mount up for active participants, a consideration I have heard expressed on several occasions. We will reassess once we have a better idea of the numbers attending on a regular basis.

ITALIAN and READING 4 will share the Craft Room at Hazel court on Monday 9 February.
The Italian class starts at 10am and would welcome additional members. We are conscious there is a difference in levels, but we are determined to make the class suitable for keen beginners, which was not done at the last session with Carolina, whilst providing an opportunity for those of us who studied the language in the past to strengthen our knowledge of the basics. The Convenor is Pat Carpenter 519997

The Reading group start at 10.30am. The books being discussed are Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks and No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay. Any particularly interested should attend as a taster but we appreciate demand may be high enough to justify setting up yet another reading group. The Convenor is Dorothy Little on 511127

CREATIVE WRITING 2 also meets at Hazel Court on Monday 9 February but at 10.15 and in the Exercise Room. In future it will revert to Tuesday meeting at Hazel Court in the Craft Room.

POLITICS and CITIZENSHIP meet in the West Cross Community Centre at 2.00pm on Tuesday 10 February to follow up on their fascinating guided visits to the Jewish Synagogue and the Muslim Mosque, and to discuss the political changes to be expected in the USA now that Barack Obama has taken over as President.

CHESS
The next meeting will be the following Monday 16 February at 10am in the Craft Room in Hazel Court. I mention this today because Joan and I would welcome new members of any standard from absolute beginners to skilled players. Indeed we need increased support or we will lose our fine tutor Ken Huntley. I hope some will be forthcoming from the vastly extended circulation of this blog.

WEDNESDAY LECTURES
Esther Searle writes to remind me that the Grove is not available for the lectures on 11 Feb, 26 Feb and 11 March, all of which will be held in the ground floor Faraday Lecture Theatre in the Engineering Block.
She also informs me that Ian Masters cannot come on 18 Feb but that his colleague Miles Willis, from the Marine Energy Task Group for Wales, will substitute. There will however be a change of title and the paper will be more general in nature.

BRIDGE
Thanks to Chairman Bob for the photographs of this seemingly happy group! The regular readers will have read of my particular aversion to this game - but it certainly adds to the diversity of offerings from the Swansea U3A Groups and I welcome that above all.

ARMCHAIR TRAVEL
Last Friday Tony Searle took us round Southern Peru, featuring Macchu Picchu especially but also the Nazca Lines and the Amazon basin on the east of the Andes. The next talk will be given by Joan on our independent travel by colourful 'chicken buses' across Guatemala, though this will not be until April since the March meeting has been cancelled.

CONCERT GOERS - ELGAR VIOLIN CONCERTO
Over twenty turned up on an unpleasant afternoon for the meeting organised by Cecily last Monday in the Council Chamber of what was County Hall. We got a thorough and very enjoyable insight to this work with musical illustrations on his viola by Dr Bernard Kane from Cardiff. The remaining talks will be split between him and Clive John.

In the event the actual concert was poorly attended largely because of the weather conditions, though there was plenty of representation of the U3A. The concert itself by the National Orchestra of Wales was a big success with some wonderful violin playing by James Ehnes. I thoroughly enjoyed the work which, being musically more challenging than the Mendelssohn symphony which preceded it, held my rapt attention throughout.

JAZZLANDS the night before featured Dave Cottle's excellent house trio with Mark Bassey on trombone and Simon Savage on saxophone playing in the cool relaxed jazz style associated with the (USA) West Coast in 50's and 60's. It was an excellent evening which I enjoyed rather more than the bigger names a week earlier and it cost only £8, with a 25% reduction for members.

However I write about it now not because of the music but because of the inspiration of seeing someone overcome adversity. Thalidomide had left Mark Bassey without forearms or fingers and just one vestigial thumb. It wasn't immediately obvious as he was playing superbly, but Joan noticed first as he flicked with great precision through the pile of sheet music on his stand using his thumb and a steel hook on his right hand, which we assume he was also manipulating. Next we noticed the hook on his trombone hand which was clipped on to control the slide. Joan wondered if there was any other instrument he could have played.

For the encore he gave us an unexpected answer, the keyboards. He adjusted the hook on his right hand so that he could play chords with two notes (thumb and hook), he unscrewed the hook from his left arm, then pulled off the wooden forearm extension, which made it possible to play trombone, and proceeded to play single notes of melody with the ungainly stump. He chose Cjam Blues, the Duke Ellington tune, probably to avoid having to cope with black notes. Being a talented jazzman his timing was perfect and he wisely adopted the style of Thelonius Monk, who frequently played his strange harmonies with incredible spacing between notes. Anyone interested in the style should play his classic recording of his own tune Bags Groove made in the 50's with Miles Davies. Meanwhile Dave Cottle picked up Mark's trombone to complete the group (his party trick is to play jazz keyboard chords with his left hand and jazz trumpet with his right). I doubt that I have ever witnessed everyone on stage and audience grinning uncontrollably like Cheshire Cats. It was a truly uplifting display - and good lesson in simple modern jazz.

Incidentally this Wednesday 11 February at 8.30pm they are featuring another hugely talented five piece group called Protect the Beat, led by Derek Nash (Jools Holland's saxophonist) and the second appearance in two weeks of Jim Mullen on guitar. They are expecting a big audience with probably a greater thn usual appeal for students, so thet advise early arrival. Entrance £12.

MUMBLES MOVIES
Member Laurence Hopes writes to say he will be showing 7.45pm Friday 27 February Very Annie Mary, a humorous look at life in South Wales, at Ostreme Hall. He advertises it as an alternative to the wall to wall Rugby for St David's weekend. Starring Mumbles actress Joanna Page, alias Stacey in TV's Gavin and Stacey.

ENGINEERING
I found huge ironies in the presentation by our President Professor Richard Davies last Wednesday. In his presentation engineering headed the list of the subjects which lead to the best career prospects, both in terms of salary and vacancies. Indeed he made clear the large demand for graduates of all numerate disciplines including Mathematics, Accountancy and Economics. He rated only Law in the same category of opportunity from what we used to call the Arts subjects.

Yet if my knowledge is still current then engineering is now amongst the least demanding university courses in which to enrol because the demand from potential students is simply insufficient. I am surprised to hear that in de-industrialised Britain there is unsatified demand from the workplace. At which point I should declare that he and I both started life as engineering graduates. The irony here is that now the poorest qualified students end up on the best career paths - that portends ill for the British economy.

When I left Imperial College in the mid fifties British engineering was still world class. If I talk specifically of the electrical industry, I know best, then think of the world ranking firms which have disappeared, British Thompson Houston (BTH) in Rugby where I spent my first summer vacation, or English Electric in Stafford, Rugby and Kidsgrove where I worked before coming to Wales, Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) and Metro Vick in Manchester, General Electric Company (GEC) in Birmingham, and many other medium sized and small companies.

I went for interviews at factories around the country and found little sign the firms had thought how best to use graduates. They offered the standard £550/annum to enrol on a 2 year graduate apprenticeship. Then Canadian Westinghouse came to college to interview and offered me their standard rate, more than three times the salary, to go on a well thought out one year graduate training. Hence I emigrated to Canada. A decade later that minute trickle became a flood to the USA and was head-line news as The Brain Drain.

When I returned in the early 60's those world names were still around, but not for long. British engineering firms were not performing well and accountants were taking the senior positions in industry. In particular Arnold Weinstock of GEC was bent on consolidating and asset stripping the electrical industry. One by one those firms disappeared as separate entities and he built up a huge firm and huge cash fund. What's left of them is now largely under French control in Alstom and Alcatel. The one British engineering company of that era, Rolls Royce (aero engines not cars), to hold on to top world rating was managed throughout by engineers. Though even they had to be rescued by government due to the huge investment needed to built their revolutionary and world beating RB211 engine.

By 1966 I came to work on the automation and computer control of the steel industry, mainly at Port Talbot. I was convinced that the British trained graduate engineers of my day given the opportunity to express themselves were first class - a confidence that never failed me - and we were able to design build and program very large and reliable control and instrumentation systems across the works from large British designed and manufactured sub systems. Computers from Ferranti with every single word of software written to purpose by a small in-house team at Port Talbot, one of the world's very first colour CRT based monitors from Serck and later using colour VDUs from Microvitec, Instrument and Control interfaces from GEC 'Media' and Transmitton giving way to the first digital three term controllers from Turnbull Control Systems and then GEC PLCs. All bolted together (as the jargon has it) by racks of purpose designed serial line communication electronics units from the Swansea based firm Digitrol.

At that stage Britain was still at the forefront of so called 'real time' computing, following on the lead gained in the war at Bletchley Park with the world's first electronic computer called Collossus. Firms like Ferranti, Marconi, English Electric and AEI designed and manufactured computers and software suited to industrial applications. Two decades later all those firms had virtually disappeared swamped by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) who set about designing high quality but slashed costs by selling and manufacturing in bulk. ICT and Lyons however were already dwarfed by the IBM 360 from the USA in the commercial end of computing (largely payroll at that time). Both American firms used secrecy to make their systems less approachable and more complicated than they need be, a policy pursued by MicroSoft to this day.

So what chance now to build a successful industrial economy with today's lower grade engineering graduates? Not so bad to be starting afresh so long as they concentrate on innovation and this time drive it through to really productive industry.

But it is not a question of numeracy or innovation alone, it is what that intelligence is directed towards that counts. Think who created the problems of Asset Stripping, Excessive Leverage (debt), ever more sophisticated International Tax Avoidance, Packaging Debt (including 'toxic' sub prime mortgages) so it could not be valued properly - but it could be sold across the globe. The Credit Crunch in short. These operators didn't lack numeracy.

After the Panto

A bit of an anti-climax after the revelry of last weeks panto but the show goes on.

TAI CHI
Following the Wednesday lecture on The Pubs of Mumbles the audience were obviously elated in spite of the fact that Brian Davies had no free samples, just his best selling book to nourish us.

I say that because there was an unprecedented rush to sign lists and I now have the names of no less than 30 members interested in Tai Chi. Chairman Bob (following Chairman Mao) has decided we are going on this Long March, and will therefore thrash out some of the details with coach Mike Hart. Expect more news at Wednesday's lecture.

I am sorry that some of you thought I was being sexist from my initial headline question in Mandarin 'Women you Tai Chi ma' and its answer 'you'. I had thought I had given enough clues to allow the sentence in Mandarin to be deciphered, the five words translated in the order they appear are 'We have Tai Chi?' and the answer is 'have' implying yes. You may think that Chinese is written in strange characters, not our alphabet, and you would be right, but they also use our phonetics to write their language.This phonetic version of Mandarin is called Pinyin. It is used not just by foreigners learning the language but increasingly as a way of teaching their schoolchildren their own language and as a jumping off point for learning English and other languages using largely the same alphabet.

LITERATURE
As promised I attended this group last Tuesday pm and was duly amazed. There were eight of us and we each took a part and read through the last act of An Inspector Calls. At the end of the meeting I was duly chastised for my Wednesday slide saying the group needed someone to read for them, when what they really wanted was a new leader. In spite of the fact that one of the number has Macular Degeneration of her eyes and another has reached the fine age of 90 they all read fluently and expressively to rub in my transgression. I cannot overemphasise how enjoyable this reading was. I have heard the play many times and forgotten it soon afterwards, but this time the plot and the fine characterisation has really sunk in.

However insensitive the Wednesday Slide worked, and Lawmary Champion, our actor, offered to help out and is now enthusiastically running the group. She did not herself read a part but underlined the positions taken by the characters involved. I think the group devoted four meetings (two months) to this play, one preliminary discussion and then to read the three acts of the play.

The next book selected is Mary Webb's 'Gone to Earth', but thereafter Lawmary will be directing them towards more modern choices and obviously hopes the subsequent book will be 'St. Agnes Stand' by American author Thomas Eidson, or Paul Ferris's book 'Infidelity' about a real murder not a million miles from here. Later reverting to more traditional works like Ibsen's play 'A Dolls House', and novels by Trollope, 'The Warden' and Thackeray, 'Vanity Fair'.

From the outset in this groups' coordinator role I had a gut feeling that this group had an important place in the U3A, and this single meeting confirmed it. They need an increase in numbers and in Lawmary, Collette Robinson and Jenny Levin they have a nucleus to give this group expansion and a new lease of life. I can't be the only one who wants something beyond Richard and Judy.

MOTO (Members On Their Own)
Gerwyn is obviously doing a good job of running this group. At Jive last Wednesday he told me that 16 of them were going out for dinner in the Pump House, and another who shall be nameless said she shouldn't really be going as she had a husband at home!

A few days later Rosemary Brangwyn told me she had had an excellent evening, though she didn't normally go out at night - perhaps even that is a question of regaining confidence. She was full of praise for Gerwyn's approach which separated the men and enforced changing seats to ensure everyone had the chance of speaking to all the others. A technique he practices also at the jive lessons.

TASTE OF CELTIC
Haggis, kipper pate and whisky from Scotland to celebrate Burn's Night, colcannon from Ireland, laverbread from you know where (England), Breton fish soup from Brittany and mulled wine from the Elisabethans. You name it Lyn Holt cooks it and I nearly cooked my goose for drinking whisky like wine! Good job Joan can and will drive!
Fifty tickets sold, the most successful event yet. Watch out for touts selling on tickets for the next event, Asian food. If anyone has photos please email them to me for this blog.

CONCERT GOERS
Their first meeting this year is at the Civic Centre at 2.30 pm on 2 February. The topic is the Elgar Violin Concerto which is to be performed in the Brangwyn Hall by NOW on Thursday 5 February. Buy tickets yourselves for the actual concert. I know Cecily Hughes 363875 is hoping for a large audience for her new speaker, Dr Bernard Kane, who is coming from Cardiff.

COMPUTERS
Don Foster emailed me to say he had just saved his computer from a fate worse than death by using a clean up and repair tool called 'Advanced System Care', this program can be downloaded free from the site http://www.iobit.com though it will take a while to download if you haven't got broadband.

I was nervous about passing this news on untried. So I tried it out first on this computer which seemed reasonably healthy but it claimed to have fixed many problems not least with the program Registry. It has made some noticeable little improvements like eliminating a couple of error messages which pop up from time to time to warn for instance that .dll files are missing. The important thing was it did no harm .

So I tried it out on the U3A laptop which was showing considerable sign of trouble, for instance the Internet browser Microsoft Explorer would no longer run. Luckily I had previously downloaded another free alternative browser Mozilla Firefox so I could still surf the Net and download Advanced System Care. Running this tool in fact got rid of all but one of the the errors and I can now once more surf the Web using either Explorer or Firefox. That demonstrated that it can be very useful to cure a computer in trouble and I would recommend that you download Advanced System Care immediately for use when you do run into trouble. Now I have only to reload a copy of PowerPoint which can crash the entire computer so that it has to be switched off directly at the mains

OTHER DOWNLOADS
There are many other very useful FREE software downloads available from the Internet , including

'Mozilla Firefox', which many of us prefer in use to MS Explorer and is less prone to letting in virus problems

'AVG' an excellent anti-virus which automatically updates as new virus threats are discovered and takes corrective action against those discovered.

'Zone Alarm' which is a good firewall, though is probably confusing for beginners as its alarm messages will stop other programs running until the alarm is acknowledged. When downloading this do watch carefully to ensure you are asking for the free version rather than a short free trial of their saleable version, they deliberately don't make the free one easy to find.

'Adobe Acrobat Reader' which is essential for reading documents, eg insurance policies.

ESSENTIAL MINIMUM OF FAVORITE SITES
I have advised many to store the blog Internet address on Favorites (Bookmarks, if using Firefox) so it is easy to access. I do carry out minor mods between notifying the posting of updates and the next major update, often to correct errors in the original posting, eg an incorrect date. But everyone's Favorites should include

http://muses-of-an-ageing-groupie.blogspot.com
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/
http://www.wikipedia.org/
http://www.skyscanner.net/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/242450
http://www.moneysupermarket.com
http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/
http://www.kelkoo.co.uk/
http://www.energylinx.co.uk/
http://www.theaa.co.uk/
http://info.cwlfly.com/en/
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/
http://www.nationalexpress.com/
http://www.tripadvisor.com/
http://www.wotif.com/
http://www.wales.nhs.uk/
http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/

Google to find other Internet addresses such as, your bank, your favorite stores, and in general store the address (http://www......) of each sites 'Home' page because from here you should be able to easily jump (link) around the whole of their website.

That's enough to be going on with. Happy Surfing. I adjudge last last Monday afternoon at my house a success and am inviting a few others this Monday for a single 'get you started session'. These sessions are not for those who already feel confident with the basics. From that point on you're better to prod, experiment and try. No need to be nervous until your asked for your credit card number - after that its serious business you're doing.

JAZZLANDS
On Wednesday 28 January at Jazzlands(originally the Liberal Club) in St James Crescent, an extremely good group will be performing at 8.30pm. They have recently toured most of the top venues in England. Jim Mullen and Stan Sulzmann are amongst the very best UK musicians on guitar and saxophone respectively and this group includes the organ of Mike Gorman with Matt Skelton on drums, which should set the joint jumping. The admission is £12, but only £8 for members and you can join at the door.
Jazzland claims with good reason to be 'The Premier Jazz Club' in Wales. It deserves to be , and usually is, well supported.

Women you Tai Chi ma

LEARN TAI CHI
For those not versed in Mandarin the title of this posting simply says, 'Do we have Tai Chi ?', ma being a question word. To which the reply in a Asian language without words for Yes and No is simply 'you' or have, implying yes we do have. So the scope of group activities is now poised to go Chinese. Chairman Bob informs me that a teacher by the name of Mike Hart is prepared to run around six classes for free, except for the normal share of room hire. Since it seems likely that few will dare to ignore our Cultural Revolution I am putting my name at the head of the list, so you know whose side I am on! For the rest of you those lists will open on 21 January at the Grove when Mike Hart will explain his plans before the Wednesday Lecture on 'The Pubs of Mumbles' by Brian Davies.

LEARN ITALIAN
This course resumes tomorrow (12 January at 10am) for its second meeting at Hazel Court. Anyone even vaguely interested is welcome to come along and try, no prior knowledge is required, just interest.

CREATIVE WRITING 2
The very next day (13 January at 10.15) this group will meet at Hazel Court, co-ordinated by John Barber 774741 in the absence of Tony Crisp, who is recovering from a stroke and to whom we send our best wishes.

CARDS FOR PLEASURE
Lawmary plans to restart this group for 2009 at a meeting in the Taliesin on Wednesday 21 January at 1pm which will rearrange the days of card playing sessions. Be prompt or you will miss out on Tai Chi presentation at 2.15pm in the Grove.

JIVE
Will restart the regular weekly sessions in the Monkey Cafe at 10.30 on Wednesday 14 January. A team of eight will be performing in the Panto on Wednesday pm 14 January, with a rehearsal tomorrow 12 January at 1.30pm at the Dolphin.

PRE-CONCERT MUSIC TALKS
Cecily Hughes has booked the room in the Civic Centre for 2.30pm on the Monday before the following concerts by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at the Brangwyn Hall. Contact Cecily Hughes 363875.

U3A TALKS,......... CONCERT
Mon 2 Feb,........... Elgar Violin Concerto, Thurs 5 Feb
Mon 2 March, ...... Dvorak 8th Symphony, Fri 6 March
Mon 27 April,....... Mahler Das Lied von der Erde, Sat 9 May
Mon 1 June, .........Beethoven Violin Concerto, Fri 5 June

She is especially pleased to have secured a well known lecturer from Cardiff, Dr Bernard Kane, for the first talk on 2 February at 2.30. Clive Jenkins will give the talk in March.

There will be a charge of £2 for the talk, but as previously you are responsible for buying tickets for the actual concert.)


DIRECTIONS including BUSES to HAZEL COURT

Information repeated now that Hazel Court is fast becoming the venue of choice for U3A groups.

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, now under a name in Welsh 'Hen ?????' which I keep forgetting to make a note of.

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

PROMOTIONS
Vince Cable is the after dinner speaker at the Dragon Hotel on Saturday 31 January. Even Jeremy Paxton on Newsnight recognised him as the political authority on high finance and the credit crunch. He recommended nationalisation of banks long before it became Labour Policy. It is difficult to think of a topic of more immediate impact. A complete dinner is £25/head at 7 for 7.30pm, and is open to all. Tickets may be obtained from Marion Harris on 206044, who will also take menu choices.

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.

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

Hazel Court and Climate Change

INAUGURAL MEETING OF CLIMATE CHANGE GROUP
After last Wednesday's lecture Mike Wiseman convened the first meeting of one of the first groups of its kind in the UK. In future the group will meet on the Third Wednesday of the month in the Grove Theatre. In an introductory presentation he outlined the issues of Climate Change and particularly the need for our way of living to become sustainable. He expected future sessions to be discussion based and hoped that we would prepare ourselves for the next session.
There was nevertheless a spirited discussion with few of us having prepared. Some of the problems were highlighted including the need to curb the growth of population which Mike said on current trajectories would rise from over 6 billion to 9 billion by 2050. A frightening prospect in itself, especially when considering that 85% of the world are very poor (income of 1$ a day in many cases) and yet as their people become educated they will inevitably seek our standards of living, with all that implies in meat and dairy production, heating ever more living space per person, cars and air travel.

Nor in my opinion, that of an atheist, does it help that society is pushing sick people to a life beyond dignity or meaning. My mother celebrated her 90th birthday by playing her weekly game of badminton at the Leisure Centre with the 'Over 50 Club'. She still had the hand control and timing of the pianist and made winner after winner with her wicked drop shots. But within a couple of years dementia was striking harder and she spent her last four years without memory, short or long term. Joan was first alerted when mum asked 'Tell me, did ... I ... have a husband?' A fond childhood memory from the war years is of her saying, time after time, aloud to herself, 'I love dearly'.

If the developed world does not cut back drastically on its carbon footprint there will be disaster arising from the struggle for resources, not least water. Strange to think that excess water causing sea levels to rise and flood low lying land is another side to the story. It worries me that the worst my kids have seen is the recession of the early 80's, which made it so difficult for school leavers to find jobs. I often think my life has been spent at the high point in terms of prosperity on this island.

We are often inclined to think of China as the problem, but they have achieved far more than any other country by their strict, some in the group would say brutal, enforcement of a one child policy. The implications hit us hard on our visit when we realised that two sets of grandparents share a single grandchild. A four to one population rate reduction in two generations.

It was nice to hear Mike admit that the planet maybe entering an orbit which would result in global warming anyway. After all in geological timescales there have been far bigger changes in say sea level than is being predicted for 2050, and they didn't have a human cause.

I probably gave the group the opinion that I was less than sympathetic to the cause, but I was only trying to emphasise the need to be honest (scientific/numerate) in evaluating the solutions. It's nice to think I can help by not digging my garden and releasing CO2, but I don't think that would make a lot of difference. In fact we in the UK represent only 1% of the earth's population, doing only a little each is necessary - small changes do accumulate - but it's just a drop in the ocean. It's a far larger problem than that. I personally go along with the Stern Report which said, as I recall, that the world temperature rise in 200 years since the beginning of the industrial revolution was only a small fraction of one degree, but there were reasons for expecting it to accelerate and increase several degrees in the next fifty years. How is this temperature measured? That being so, the report concluded we need to address the problem because the cost of acting now is cheaper and infinitely preferable to facing disaster in a few decades.

Exactly what will drive that dramatic acceleration I do not understand. But part of it is undoubtedly due the potential loss of the polar icecaps. To melt ice requires enormous heat inputs to provide the latent heat needed for the state change to water, but once ice melts its reflective effect (which transmits the heat back to space) will be lost as well, and that much more heat will be available to increase the temperature of the earth. But in industry I have seen too many mathematical models of complex systems fail to predict what was about to happen. But in a worst case scenario the big ocean currents, which are driven by the heat of the tropics and the cold sink of the polar regions, could fail. If we lost the Gulf Stream then we would revert to the normal temperature for our latitude,so the UK would have winters like the frozen north of Canada.

The view was correctly stated that the argument as to what extent global warming was natural or a consequence of human activity was clouding the picture, and too often being used as an excuse for inaction.

For my part I definitely don't buy into the consumer society. I have never forgotten 'waste not want not', which was ingrained into our generation. I hate shopping, so does Joan. We have a well insulated house and low gas/electricity costs for its size As an electrical engineer I reluctantly believe the only realistic solution to a producing bulk electricity with a lowering of carbon emissions is nuclear power (don't forget that's how the sun does it!!). As a world travellers we move around using scheduled local buses (plus a couple of long haul flight per year!!!), and even went vegetarian in India.

All that makes me feel good for I can argue that I'm doing my part. But come off it Brian, You have a very comfortable style of living. Yes, I am still part of the problem, I'm not even going to convert to vegetarianism, I love beef (even raw beef) and cheese. It adds up to nothing if 9 billion people live like me. But I'm not going to give up my comforts until forced to, nor is realistic to think the other 99% of the world won't want to live like us in the UK. But that is not an argument for doing nothing. Let's not be dinosaurs. We in the developed world must show the way and going nuclear would make a big impact, and big problems need big solutions. Let us also hope that the models are exaggerating the rate of deterioration, and we have a little more time to go till doomsday.

Just Musing

I'm in a good mood because I watch BBC 4 like some friends listen to Radio Four. Did you see that wonderful series on Wild China? It registers so vividly with us because of our travels there. Tonight I watched a program on Les Paul. Very special to me because the very first record I ever bought (age 12?) was Whispering, a demonstration of his melodic jazzy guitar playing. When I look back many things in my past make me shudder, but I'm delighted to recall my early taste in music.

Les Paul like pianist Nat (King) Cole started off in the pre-war jazz scene in Chicago and then moved to New York alongside greats such as the jazz pianist Art Tatum. Nat Cole could sing as well as play, but Les Paul squared the circle by marrying vocalist Mary Ford, and all three became hugely successful popular artists. Rock and Roll signalled the end of them as a popular artists and Les returned to his early roots of Country and Jazz, playing in small clubs. He was still playing well for his 90th birthday celebration.

Do those of you who prefer a different genre remember Segovia the Spaniard who, with the help of composers like Villa Lobos, demonstrated to the world that the acoustic guitar could produce beautiful classical music. Florrie Toft claims the same is true of humble recorders, but they have not yet gained similar international recognition. Anyone who heard the 90 year old Segovia play one of his very last concerts, in the Brangwyn Hall, will not have forgotten the experience. Clearly by then physically an old man, and a little down on technique, his unique guitar voice shone out and left an enraptured audience in tears of wonder.

Perhaps even more astounding is Les Paul's reach, because not only was he a brilliant musician, comparable with say Django Reinhardt, but a brilliant electronic engineer. He designed the first solid wood electric guitar after demonstrating the potential by fixing a finger board to a heavy block of hardwood just wide enough to anchor the strings and mount his own design of electric pick ups. (In early soundings he had favoured the notes made by steel railway lines rather than wood, but his mother convinced him that this was not a practical proposition). The guitar firm Gibson commercialised the ideas in their most famous, widely revered model. Thereafter almost everyone rich and famous, like Jimmy Hendrix and the Beatles, played Les Paul Guitars.

Having cracked the production of an electric guitar he started to use his early training in electrics to cut his own records, moving to a newfangled tape recorder he learnt to superimpose tracks one at a time, painstakingly building up a complete modern style hit recording.A technique which heralded the much logistically simpler parallel multi-track recording of today. Many of the massive hits of Les and Mary Ford were recorded by themselves in their own home.

HAZEL COURT
Chairman Bob, Cecily, Pat Herbert, Jan Phillips, Brian Davies and myself paid a them a much postponed visit. It is a well designed complex of 120 flats for over 55's in the location of the previous Sketty flats. It is jointly owned by the housing charity Family Housing Association and the Welsh Assembly. The attraction for us is the availability of a range of a pleasant modern rooms for hire, for half days and at attractive prices. It is an obvious venue for the activities of our Groups. The attraction is mutual because they want organisations like us to help develop a rich environmentThey will begin with by concentrating on their 200 residents, but once established they intend to open up to the Parklands/Sketty community.

Two rooms stood out. A pleasant quiet room for groups of about 20 which seems likely to be taken up by the revived French Conversation Group and Reading Group 4. Plus the large Craft Room with power sockets all around the walls plus wireless and probably ethernet broadband, It is thus ideal for computer based classes as well as the craft based activities like painting for which it was intended. In addition on the ground floor there is the Main Hall, with a large adjacent patio, which would seat 100 or more in a lecture or would be an ideal location for large social events or dancing. There is also a Hairdressers, a DIY laundry with large machines, a Restaurant with reasonable prices both for snacks and meals, and a Bar - though we did not see one, honest!

The minor drawback is the need to pay 13 weeks rental in advance which means it is only suitable for established groups or those fairly certain of continuity. We were the first organisation to be shown around, although others like Life Long Learning are following, and need to consolidate what we all believed would be a fruitful partnership.

WEDNESDAY LECTURE

Hidden Meanings in Holbein’s ‘The Ambassadors’, reviewed by Virginia Jones

The first lecture in Swansea U3A's 2008/9 season was delivered by Dr. Louise Govier, the daughter of Jill and Roly. Dr. Govier has spoken to the group before and her talk was eagerly anticipated. Her subject was The Ambassadors which was painted in 1533 in oil on wood. It has ben the subject of much scrutiny and discussion over the years, and gave rise to many theories about the occult measages which were hidden within it.

Dr Govier pointed out that this painting was done at a time of great religious and political tension. King Henry V111th’s court was waiting for the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and the subsequent break from Rome. Anne Boleyn was already pregnant at this time and astronomers had announced that the child would be a boy. The French King was more than interested in the outcome of the situation and had sent an Ambassador, Jean de Dineville to the English court. He is the gentleman on the left of the painting. The other person in the painting is Georges de Selve, Bishop of Lavour, a close friend of de Dineville.

So, does the painting refer to the troubled times, both religious and political? It certainly shows two men of status and power, illustrating their wealth and confidence. The room itself also shows great richness and expense.

The many objects in the painting are laid out in two layers – the top layer depicts the tudy of the heavens with the celestial globe, whilst the bottom layer depicts more earthly pursuits as shown by the terrestrial globe, book of arithmetic and so on. – saying also that the men are learned and educated.

However, the painting is also famous as an example of anamorphosis – showing things in a distorted way that can only be seen from a certain angle. The strange shape at the very front of the painting is in fact a skull, if viewed from the side at the correct angle – symbolising perhaps that, despite wealth and status, death is always in front of us. If this is also seen in conjunction with the crucifix at the top left hand corner, then one is also being reminded that the after-life is the REAL focus here.

Dr Govier went on to show us many other symbolic references in the painting – too many to mention here - but suffice to say that the conspiracy theorists have been kept busy over the years with ideas about cabalistic numbers and occult devices.

It is impossible to know if the artist meant all this to be read into the painting but it has generated a great deal of interest over the years.

This talk was a truly memorable one – the speaker was not only very knowledgeable but also erudite and amusing in her delivery. This was an exciting start to the 2008-09 academic year for Swansea U3A and we look forward to a year of equally memorable lectures and events.