Summer Break, Research Group and European Elections

This is the 29th and final posting of Brian's Blog this U3A year, the next will be heralded by the usual Update email probably in September. I have enjoyed doing it, and believe it has made a difference. The pleasure expressed by so many at the crocus and daffodils of earlier posting encouraged me to use the diary to keep a record of Joan's lovely flower garden.

Thanks for all the words of support I have received during the year, the latest from Susan Hodge, at their second home in Brittany, who says The Smugglers at Port Eynon 'is a favourite place'. Unfortunately Steve still has some health problems and I am sure his friends from the French Class and other readers of this blog want to join me in wishing him well. Susan would have liked a trip to Wells and enthuses about the embroideries on the walls of the Nave, so don't miss them!

Internet is a wonderful thing as far as communication at least. I first started blogging to keep a diary of my travels in China and then Chile/Argentina which had the additional advantage of letting friends in the UK know what we were doing and thinking as we travelled. All you need, anywhere in the world, is a computer with Internet access, say an Internet cafe or your own laptop and wi-fi access. E-mail is OK but Blogging is better if like us you otherwise kept a hand written diary. If anyone wants to try blogging then sign on free at Google for your own blogspot (a rather long winded pain but the main issue is to choose the type of blog( either a private blog which is accessible only by those to whom you release the address (like this one), or a blog accessible to every-one via an Internet search engine like Google. Once set up a blog is far simpler and thus easier to use than say Microsoft Word - which is too clever by half for the likes of me.

BILL MASSEY
We all wish him well as he prepares to celebrate his 80th birthday, little dreaming of the kick in the tail.












BEWARE OF DEVIOUS AMAZON
Joan has just been taken for £47.97 by Amazon in payment for a Prime Membership which she didn't even know she had asked for.
It appeared on the monthly bank statement with the following unhelpful details

10 April Prime Member Fee 8002796620 £47.97
(Recurring Visa Transaction)

Not even a whisper of which company it had come from. Nationwide (any bank) could not help and because it was a Visa transaction, so we would have to contact the firm issuing the authorisation, but Nationwide at least could point out that the number was a contact telephone number when you added a leading 0. It turned out to be an out of date number for Amazon but the recorded message gave the modern number. Yes she said it could be cancelled and we would be sent details by email. That email gave a web link top Amazon's Prime Member site where we discovered that there was absolutely no way it could in fact be cancelled, though they did say that had stopped the charge recurring in future years.

We could not even find an email to register a complaint, though we did lodge one on an irrelevant order number - probably futile.

UPDATE 18 MAY (one day later original posting)
In response to the email complaint we were sent a link to details of Joan's Prime Membership and apparently given a second chance to cancel and a refund if the service had not been used, clicking 'cancel' led to the same old page asking 'do you really want to cancel?' But providing absolutely no opportunity to confirm and thus complete the transaction.

Even worse the offer of a 'month free'was shown to mean she had been given 13 months for the price of 12, from 9 March 2008 to 9 April 2010!! (the first time we realise about the charge was 16 May). SO BEWARE OF DOUBLY DEVIOUS AMAZON. COM, I say.

END of UPDATE

HOW DID IT HAPPEN?
Our best guess that on a recent order, probably 9 April, Joan was confronted with 3 delivery options something like the following

Free Delivery
Another forgotten option
A month's free trial of express delivery

The form would not accept choice of Free Delivery, so she opted for the Months Free Trial. A month and a week later, just a few days after receipt of the bank statement we could not Cancel, even though the few books we had received were obviously delivered by camel!

ADVICE TO READERS
First be very careful on the Internet and remember there is no such thing as a 'Free Lunch'.

You need to be especially careful with so called free software which is often only a free trial. Some like AVG anti-virus have a good free version called 'avg_free', but even they attempt to persuade you to try a unnecessary professional version on a free trial.

More helpful instead of shopping at Amazon go to the book comparison site where you will find listed possible sources for the book you require and will find that Amazon is by no means always the cheapest supplier.
For instance try
http://www. booksprice.co.uk

RESEARCH GROUP
I had a talk with Margaret Hammond about the functioning of this group. All the current work is carried out on the archives in the old Museum by two groups of four under the direction of museum's own researcher. There are currently two vacancies and it would be ideal to get new members in place to ensure continuity of the group so that it eventually passes seamlessly to a new generation. Anyone interested to know more should contact Margaret Hammond on 883680.

They are rightly proud of their achievements. The Research Group was set up in the early days of Swansea U3A in the late 80's at the request of their first President who asked for a team to help Professor Maurice Broady catalogue the archives of Swansea Celtic Studios , manufacturers of stained glass windows from 1948 to the mid 1990's. He had acquired an extensive archive of 1o00 plus files. The documentation of that company, included informative, and sometimes very amusing, correspondence from across the world. In 2000/1 cartoon designs for 450 stain glassed windows for delivery abroad, especially Canada, were added to the team's resources.

Maurice was determined to write a book on the subject, but as some of you may know he is severely afflicted with the aftermath of a stroke. However the cudgels have now been taken up by the County Archivist Kim Collis, who directed the initial exercise, Maurice's daughters Alison and Elsbeth, and Alan Adams who was our excellent stand in lecturer earlier this year on the topic of Stained Glass. It looks as though a book will finally be published.

The research essentially consisted of reading, understanding and cataloguing the interesting information with clear references to the location of the source material. In this they were aided by the first U3A Computer Group led by Roger Knight.

By then fully conversant with the techniques needed to research archives, they were asked by the old Swansea Museum who had as a multi-faceted project to research the history of Social Life in Swansea to choose a topic. They elected to study Swansea Markets using material held by the Royal Institution (museum), University Library, University Archives and Press clippings. That project finished a couple of years ago when they handed over the catalogued information to the Swansea Museum staff. It concluded with the publication of 12 copies of the now structured information and photographs three of which they were able to keep as personal memoires.

The third project was to research and catalogue the history of the Swansea branch of The Royal Institution (the founders of the museum). There were vast archives, including many boxes which had never before been opened, of the proceedings of the Royal Institution of South Wales. Students are now editing of this material.

Research has now turned to the study of Scrap Books mostly dating back to 1880-1920. Marjorie Vanston explained the material as cataloguing boxes of cuttings from newspapers, photographs and documents which had been donated by individuals or organisations to the museum. I keep a few boxes of a similar nature, mostly concerning my interest in non-party politics, world events, travel and sport, which I will bequeath to the U3A if they still have a Research Group!!

There must be younger members who would share their enthusiasm for this type of study, and I do hope they will contact Margaret. It would be a shame to lose the experience of the group handling archive material, which has played - should continue to play - and is recognised by the museum as playing a very valuable role in recording key aspects the history of Swansea.

SMILE TRAIN BARN DANCE
This event was run on her own bat by Joy Gillard. It was not an official U3A event, though perhaps more than half those attending and a large proportion of those helping were our members. The proceeds went to the charity Smile Train who treat patients with hare-lip and other facial deformities in 76 of the less prosperous parts of the world. She collected £800 for the charity by the way of entrance tickets, refreshments, raffle and donations, that is after expenses for the hire of the Ostreme Hall ecetera.

She is to be congratulated on the success of the event, which must be very satisfying considering she had initially been warned of the danger of making a loss.

EUROPEAN ELECTION HUSTINGS
Last Tuesday Gabrielle Suff led the second phase of a discussion on the EU in the Politics and Citizen Group with an excellent exposition of the workings of the EU. Contrast the unreasonable and uninformed hostility, led by virtually the whole UK press, to the European Process. She pressed people to exercise their democratic right to vote, whether for parties intent on co-operation or withdrawal from the EU.

The following discussion was concerned with how to decide which of the twelve UK parties to vote for, which ranged from UKIP to Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party, via Conservative, Liberal, Green, Plaid Cymru and The Labour Party. It highlighted the lack of information on the issues, with the press, the main UK parties and the EU itself to blame. I got an amused response when I pointed that in the past few days I had received a flyer from the Liberal Party (the one party apparently unwavering in its support for the EU process), which did not mention Europe at all!

Marjorie Vanston circulated details of Hustings at which the main contenders including UKIP will be represented by candidates. The meeting headed 'Come and Meet the Candidates' takes place at the Swansea Guildhall on 19 May at 7.30pm. Which one hopes will not be drowned by controversy about the current expenses corruption in our parliament. Surely the current expenses debacle, a 20%+ devaluation in our currency, and failure of banking practices in the USA and UK should allow the thought that there may be a better way - maybe there is merit in Euroland after all.

French and German banks and financial firms were largely non contributory bystanders to the banking crisis, but neither they nor other blameless countries of the world have been able to escape the consequences of the banking crisis - a global recession and unemployment brought about by the 'credit crunch'.

The fury which was directed at bankers is now being directed at MPs. These expenses had been treated as an entitlement which came with the job by far too many. I see them as minor (albeit dishonest and wrong) if only because it is necessary to multiply by a thousand or more to reach the similarly 'within the rules' backscratching and tax avoidance by directors and senior officials in the finance industry. Our 'winner take all' society is displaying a lack of moral underpinning. I fear an angry undiscriminating voting backlash which could open the door to increased support for fascist parties such as the BNP, and that could start the sort of popular revolt which led Germany to Hitler.

PAINTING FOR PLEASURE
Mary Lane is starting a new group next year with this title which is definitely not for beginners. She is going to keep it to twelve members and envisages there will be plenty of applicants from her original beginners classes.

This emphasises the demand for painting and the necessity to find other Group Leaders. If you are interested in taking such a role please let me or anyone on the committee know.

WEDNESDAY LECTURE SLIDE SHOW
Nick Hill the Treasurer and the Convenor for the Astronomy Group has agreed to take over from me the production and display of the slide show of U3A activities for the last five Wednesday Lectures in the Grove Theatre Swansea University.

Group Leaders should notify him by of any activities they want to publicise by email
hill_n_j@hotmail.com

BUILDING UP SQUAD of PLAYERS for SWANSEA U3A
By choosing to go on extended holiday I have highlighted the paucity of our reserves. Ideally my tasks should not have to be picked up by hard working members of the committee like our Treasurer and Astronomy Group Leader Nick Hill who has taken over the Wednesday slide show.

What applies to me applies even more to Chairman Bob Hughes, who has recently taken on production/communication by regular printed newsletter for dissemination by the Group Convenors plus the editing and assembly of the Annual Report which will go out before the AGM, on top of his heavy commitments as Chairman. I add too a well deserved recognition of the very dedicated and time consuming work by Pat Herbert (and husband Mal) in her role as Membership Secretary.

People, especially younger members, prepared to commit to assist with some of these roles, outside formal membership of the committee, will become evermore essential as this organisation grows at its present rate.

People with experience in specialist IT tasks would be exceptionally valuable for that undoubtedly is the efficient way forward to ease everything from membership records to pamphlet production. We ought to have a good informative Web Site and the maintenance needed to keep it up to date.

GEOLOGY GROUP
They are arguably the most attractive of the Network groups in South Wales. They have revised their proposals for their June Meeting which will be an 8 mile return coastal walk from Dunraven Bay to Nash Point, leader Tom Sharpe. Meet at 10.30am on Monday 22 June at Dunraven (Southerndown) public car park, Grid Reference OS Sheet 170 SS 885 732. Take a packed lunch.

If you leave your email address with Yvonne Thomas (01554 832337) she will send details of subsequent walks direct to you.

DISCUSSION GROUP
Roly Govier writes to say that the next meeting of the group scheduled for 26 May has been cancelled as St Mary's Church is celebrating th anniversary of the Post War Rebuilding. The next meeting will thus be 23 June, and an extra meeting has been arranged for 25 August.

LOCAL HISTORY GROUP
Bob Hughes sends the following

Local History Group Outing is on 14 July:

Tour & Tasting at Penderyn Whisky Distillery (£3.50).

Lunch at The Glancynon, Hirwaun. Visit Brecon.

Coach £9. Deposits of £5 to Barbara Brimfield a.s.a.p. please.

NICK Please make a slide of this for Wednesday 20 May

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.

TAI CHI PLUS

TAI CHI
Thanks to the contacts of Chairmen Bob these classes will start at 10.30am next Friday 6 February in the large ground floor room of Hazel Court. For details of the location of Hazel Court or details of the buses scroll back in this blog to the repeat entry of these details in the posting dated 11 January 2009. Wear normal comfortable loose fitting clothing. The cost will be £1.50 for the early classes which Mike Hart will lead for free.

CHESS
The next meeting will be held on Monday 2 February at 10.30am in Hazel Court (first and third Monday mornings of month). If you are interested, or would like to try what is an interesting game in a very pleasant low pressure environment, then please put in an appearance because the next few meetings will be make or break for this group. Having set up so many new groups I am loath to see the very first to meet at Hazel Court fail. We have an excellent tutor in Ken Huntley.

ITALIAN
Shares the Craft Room with Chess this Monday. This group is steadily gaining new members, a healthy sign.

CREATIVE WRITING 2
They will meet in Hazel Court on the second MONDAY, 9 February at 10.15, but in the Exercise Room to avoid a clash with Reading 4/Italian. THEREAFTER they will meet on the SECOND TUESDAY of the month in the Craft Room at Hazel Court, since the Caligraphy sessions will have finished.

ANNUAL LUNCHES OF GARDENING and TRAVEL Groups


Both were held at Olchfa House carvery,Gardening last Thursday and the Travel Group the following day. A pity they were scheduled so close together as Joan and I were not alone in belonging to both groups but willing to attend only one lunch. I can thus only talk of the Travel lunch but that was attended by 32 people who enjoyed the carvery meal with ice cream and coffee/tea, in loquacious company, for the excellent price of £5 - slightly subsidised from the float held by convenor Brian Davies. This weeks photos are of that event.



GARDENING held their monthly meeting at Singleton Park after their lunch. As a change from the usual lecture Margaret Massey had borrowed a DVD from the U3A Headquarters which was displayed via laptop and projector. This is a principle well worthy of consideration by other groups. Another possibility instead of DVD source would be say a learning program from BBC Learning or Open University. Don't forget that anything which can be displayed on a computer screen can be projected onto a much larger screen. This digital age is opening up a huge range of possibilities, arguably no group should ever fail today for lack of tutors, just for lack of imagination in using this new technology.

Convenors should approach Tony Searle to arrange to borrow the laptop and projector belonging to the Swansea U3A, or Brian Corbett for the more modern laptop used as the source of slides before the Wednesday lecture.

The DVD film was about the beautiful Royal Horticultural Society gardens at Wisley, and the work of the RHS in research into plant disease and the presevation of seeds from a wide range of species. An approach quite contrary to the concentration on a small range of efficient high yield srains by today's comercial growers, abetted by the supermarkets and other quantity suppliers.

Do you know for instance that you can send Wisley plant specimens (say a leaf) or a bug for identification of disease or species? Suitability of a range of lessor known Delphiniums was judged by growing them together in a bed and ensuring that seeds of the best performing varieties were collected and made available for sale. An arboretum was developed
as a nursery to supply trees to the old estates which lost so much of our heritage in say the storms of 1987.

ARMCHAIR TRAVEL next meeting is Friday 6 February at 2.30pm in the Evangelical Church next to Hazel Court which has its own car park. The talk will be given by Tony Searle about his and Esther's trip to Peru.

CARDS for PLEASURE will start in the restaurant of the Taliesin. If there are sufficient numbers Lawmary is thinking of transferring to an upstairs venue in the Dragon.

POLITICS and CITIZENSHIP
Their last meeting which I thoroughly enjoyed, along with a dozen or so others, was a three in one offering. The last part being their annual lunch in the Dylan Thomas Centre which, as the committee found earlier, is a very pleasant and relaxing place to have a group lunch.

The morning was in halves, the first being a visit to the Synagogue where Norma Glass gave us a very informative insight into the rich Jewish religious tradition, their rituals and their symbolism, in a modern but ornate church, as befits the world's first religion, if excluding Hindu and the Chinese traditions. She obviously gives many such explanations to school parties but adapted her presentation and humour to a mature adult audience, providing us with coffee and traditional home made cakes before we rather prematurely moved on.

Unfortunately the once strong Jewish community in Swansea has decreased to the point where even their synagogue (built in the aftermath of the second world war as the earlier building had been destroyed in the bombing) is being handed over to an expanding evangelical church. An irony highlighted by the visit to another church which makes a point of simplicity.

In very striking contrast the second part of that morning was spent in the main Mosque on St Helen's Road. Nothing ornate except for a luxuriously thick carpet on the floor, but quite perfect for its purpose as a welcoming house of prayer. Muslims are required to pray five times a day.

Worldwide this religion has more adherents than any other and is particularly strong in Africa and Asia. The visit was arranged through Mr S Rahman, who greeted us at the door and led us to the largest of several prayer rooms, where they had gone to considerable trouble to produce a poster display for us illustrating various aspects of their religious traditions. Another member of the church, with a school age family and fluent English, told us a great deal about their traditions in a question and answer format. He emphasised the common ancestry with the Jewish and Christian religions through a common acceptance of the Old Testament and stressed the importance of Moses. Not until around 600AD did Muhammad (who they regard as the last of God's prophets) reveal from Allah (God) their distinct scripture the Qu'ran. He made surprisingly light of the distinction between Shia and Sunni and said there was some movement in Swansea between the sects.

I can only wish I had chosen to write earlier of this day when everything we heard was so much clearer in my mind.

I write now to say the group's next meeting is on Tuesday 10 February with a follow up discussion on these two contrasting visits, and also to consider the huge political changes taking place (in tone at least) in the USA's foreign relations. No doubt in part to reflect on how fortunate Americans are to have elected a leader who was during some of his most formative years brought up in a Muslim country. We too got a totally different view of Muslims during prolonged slow travel around Sumatra (Indonesia), being totally amazes by the fun loving, inquisitive, friendly schoolgirls in headscarves. In the end that Muslim background may prove more important than the fact the breakthrough of America's own colour bar.

SUNDAY LUNCH
The next lunch will be at 12.30 for 1pm at Adams in Mumbles (previously Knights) on Sunday 15 February.
Details from Barbara Brimfield 201274, or Margaret Winter 771725.

COMPUTERS
A second 'get started' Internet session was held at my house with the Joan accompanying the men upstairs to teach them a thing or two, on the desk top, whilst I struggled downstairs with two laptops, the U3A one in the trouble which led to there being no slides show before last Wednesday's lecture. These slides are the only way for those without Internet to keep up with the fast moving scene of U3A group activities.
Once again I thought it went well but the test is on to see who first comes back with stories about my blog and in particular how they got on with the key sites listed in the last posting.

Val Lawson gives me two other links of special interest to the bargain hunters in the membership. She warns not to try them if you object to being bombarded daily with emails giving details of which stores have sales and what is on special offer.

http://www.myvouchercodes.co.uk

http://vouchercodes.com

MORE PANTO

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'.