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.

PANTOMIME and other news

HONEY BUN'S PANTOMAGORIA (otherwise known as CINDERELLA)


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

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

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

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

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




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




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


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



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

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











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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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