Year 2009/10 ENDING

BLOG
It's nice to be reminded that a number of you have missed the blog. I assure you I have not retired, or been off on holiday, nor even watching a so far pathetic World Cup. My only excuse is that I have been taking advantage of our spell of Global Warming in order to catch up on all the jobs neglected in the garden during last year's May and June's excursion to Bali/Lombok, and, have come in exhausted each evening. For our pains Joan and I have been rewarded by a daily incursion of sheep, something we thought we had cracked three years ago after forty years of pain, but now invading from the street and not Clyne Common. Anyone know a good manufacturer of made to measure 6 foot high gates! 

Remember a previous blog I offered a Laser dinghy for sale. Well some kind reader asdvised a friend and within a week it was on its way, releasing the untold luxury of garage space once more.

FRENCH GROUP
Has decided after a very successful year to take a summer break restarting mid September at a date yet to be decided. Thanks are especially due to Gilly Jordan who has been an excellent pro-active convenor and to Beryl Edney who has been an innovative tutor according to my spy, wife Joan. The group is currently divided into two with Gilly taking a 'beginners/refresher' course in French Grammar (taking advantage of the ability to divide the Craft Room into halves). The main group are operating at a single level, always difficult to achieve in U3A language classes.

Assistance to share the load with Beryl and Gilly whenever either is not available (holidays etc) would be most welcome. Surely we have some ex French Teachers out there who would be capable of part time tuition. You would be very welcome and might well enjoy teaching our enthusiastic adults in a low pressure environment. 


ITALIAN GROUP
Will be meeting again on on Monday 28 June at 10 am in Hazel Court. Current intention is to keep the group going weekly throughout the summer.

This group, whilst still too small, is jelling well around new convenor Patricia Morgan (207305) and four regulars with a similar not very impressive knowledge of the language. All four have taken a few years of adult education classes.

New members are welcome to turn up and try. Each week's class is different without the normally structured way of linear progression language learning. To give budding linguists a feel, last lesson she described in Italian her holiday in the USA, meeting cousins as far apart as Ohio and Texas, with descriptions of cousins, second cousins and children's large birthday parties, a rich cousin with a huge ranch in Texas, visits to El Alemo and fabulous restaurants. In her view the holiday of her life. 

We all understood the bare bones of her tale, so she then asked us to reconstruct what she had said. We were intended to do this in Italian but that proved too difficult so we pursued the detail in English and learned from her how to say some of it in Italian. A great deal of detail was uncovered in this way. Collectively we have the British failing of reading and even listening skills but pathetic ability to speak a foreign language. 
Come and try, we are a friendly group.

HISTORY GROUP TRIP TO LLANCHAERON 

SAILING TASTER on Llangorse Lake, Brecon.
Llangorse have a Sail Training School fully authorised by the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) using four Comet Trio 3/4 handed sailing dinghies and some single handed Toppers and a few Flying Fifteen keel dinghies. They have a number of qualified instructors and people to man safety boats, many retired. The Organiser  our member Eddie Ramsden runs a similar school at Mumbles Yacht Club where they teach sailing in a Topper fleet. 

His idea for Llangorse is nothing more than to give a taster of the wonderful feeling of moving across a large lake using natural wind power. How green can you get?

I have been collecting names of those interested via using this blog and the slide show at the Wednesday lectures. Almost all the early volunteers had some sailing experience, one said he used to race small dinghies fifty years ago.  But then I went to the Jive Group and asked around and found that no less than 2/3 the group wanted to take part, so now I have 22 names all but 3 contactable via email.

(There is a lesson here, ask impersonally and no-one volunteers, but ask face to face and the response is stunning - that I remember is how I came to be enticed onto the committee. I think it explains  the main reason for what I regard as the poor take up in our various U3A group activities, given a growing membership setting a new record year on year. Now having reached 725 we ought to have difficulty in creating enough new groups to satisfy demand, but this year we are have been struggling to maintain sufficient attendance at some of the groups we already have. The first big challenge for next year is to replace the retiring Group Leaders (convenors) and to expand the variety).

The probable date is Wednesday 14 July at Llangorse from 10am to 4pm. The charge made for the day by the Llangorse Sailing School is £10 per person intending to sail payable to me in advance, that is excellent value for a day's sailing and includes hire of boats, the tuition, loan of life jackets/buoyancy aids and the RYA recommended number of safety boats. If the weather is unsuitable the event will be postponed until the following Wednesday 21 July. I am now emailing the group to establish, availability of individuals, identify those with enough experience and confidence to sail Toppers without tuition, identify those prepared to drive and establish numbers of spare seats. Llangorse Lake is east of Brecon just off the road to Abergavenny, the AA give the journey time from Swansea centre as 90 mins which implies an 8.30 start. The drivers will expect others to share petrol costs.


Apologies for the clash with the normal Wednesday Jive Morning, but with the vast majority of takers from either Wednesday Jive or Wednesday Lectures (now discontinued for the summer) it seemed likely to be the easiest day to guarantee satisfactory turn out.

Those participating should take a change of clothing and a picnic lunch (there are changing rooms and toilets) . Jean Ramsden will set up arrangements for serving tea/coffee. As all must wear bouyancy aids it is not vital to be able to swim, indeed it is difficult to make much progress wearing such aids, though ability to swim may help with your confidence on the water. The advice in the case of capsize is always to stay with the boat and you will be assisted/picked-up by the safety boat. Others are welcome to join us, subject to availability of transport, and there will be no charge for them.  

YOGA GROUP
Talking of increasing the variety of U3A activities I now have two offers to run such  a group. Chris Bryan (301938) who is just completing a Yoga Teaching course is offering to run classes in the Exercise Room at Hazel immediately following Tai Chi at 11.45 on Fridays beginning on July 16 and running through until September. (You may recall this as the date the Tai Chi switches for the remainder of the summer from three to two sessions per Friday). People attending should wear Comfortable Clothing, a Mat or Rug, and a light Cover for relaxation. Please contact Chris at the above telephone number for more details.

Edna Jones, also a qualified instructor, has also expressed interest in running such a group next year. So we look to be well placed to run a Yoga Group independent of Tai Chi from next Open Day. 
I expect Tai Chi will revert to three classes with the new membership intake swelling their ranks from next October.

PILOT CUTTERS IN MARINA
Remember the Wednesday lecture which mentioned that five remaining Bristol Channel Pilot Cutters would be sailing into Swansea the very next day as part of their racing schedule. A few of us went down to view these magnificent boats. Built in the days of sail to win competitions by speed not for a sporting trophy like today, but to be the first out to the biggest and most lucrative incoming cargo boats. Once the deal was negotiated they went on-board and brought the big boats safely into harbour. Pilots were the real entrepreneurs of their day and the most successful became rich.

SWANSEA U3A is 25 next year.
It's not surprising to find that several of the long established groups have gone through crises as the original leaders are forced by age to give up, that happened the year before to for example the French Group and the Literature Group, both have been restored under enthusiastic new convenors and a significant influx of new blood from the general membership. The Research Group who work on the archives at Swansea Museum is also showing signs of renewal. 

Any ideas on a form of Celebration for our 25th anniversary?


GARDENING
Margaret Massey as been convenor of the Gardening Group for 17 years and following a scare in hospital with her heart complaint has felt it wise to retire. The Group is very well attended with over twenty five regular attenders, but it will fold unless enthusiastic convenor(s) are found to lead the group forward. Of course she is a difficult act to follow, the same daunting task as faces any-one taking over as Chairman from popular, thinking, innovating, hard working Bob Hughes. Ideally the new gardening leaders will come from the younger energetic age group as in the early days of Swansea U3A.

The Gardening Group meet monthly at Singleton Park. Many will be pre-arranged lecturers (I'm sure Margaret would be pleased to assist with contacts), some led by individual members, an annual group dinner and an outing of gardening interest say to Aberglasney or the Welsh Botanical Gardens. The new leader can be assured of the active support of a large pre-existing group and is encouraged to innovate.



Formal Gardening Group Meetings have finished for this year, but the tradition of a few members opening their gardens this summer will continue with visits already planned for visits to John and Val Day in Ammanford, Margaret Massey in Killay, and Joan in Mayals all scheduled for July. Group Members should contact Margaret 205028 for details of dates and addresses, they will be welcomed with tea, coffee, cakes, as well as flowers and vegetables to view and just maybe plants to take away. Any takers for my Elm Tree seedling?

BOOK GROUP 2 
Happy Eightieth Birthday Lunch - Eileen.

 

GROUP ORGANISATION
The majority of groups have a helper (typically handling such tasks as holding the attendance records, collecting the cash, and paying the room hire) as well as a leader or tutor. Both organise replacements between them to cover their holidays, which our age group understandably think of as the big bonus of being retired - none less so a nomad like me! 


Maureen Thomas has used a different model for her Calligraphy Classes, short courses running each week for a month. It suits her well and she is never short of enthusiastic support.


Most tutors are members who give their time free so the typical cost per session is £1 or £2 to pay for hire of the room. Tai Chi needs a teaching skill outside our scope so we hire a professional tutor and given sufficient support the cost can be kept to £3. Other specialities like Art Appreciation and Pre-Concert Lectures have also used paid lecturers. 


We have an ever larger, younger, membership so we need many new leaders to continue the U3A 'can do' tradition and take the group organisation forward and in turn they need the support of enthusiastic attendees. Very few active members stop at membership of a single group. Too many I think do not take any advantage of one of the major features of a U3A. Everyone's needed, so JOIN IN and you will find we are a friendly bunch. Your first appearance feels daunting but the reality is that we are here to enjoy life.

So often I'm told this organisation has been a personal lifeline, with so much activity on offer and so easy to make friends - let's keep it that way. If you have an idea for a  new group then please discuss it with me and together we will attempt to drum up the necessary. 

JAZZ
Yes I have been several times to Jazzland (St James Crescent) but I must boast that 'my own' group The Bryan Corbett Quartet were quite outstanding. I never realised how well (well what's in a y or an i) I could play trumpet so well with a full tone reminiscent of Art Farmer or 50's Miles Davis. Bryan hails from the Midlands like me so I must get one of the web experts busy proving the hereditary link, otherwise my only memoir will be an autographed CD. Like all the soloists coming to Jazzland he expressed gratitude at the support given by the Dave Cottle Trio saying 'I haven't played jazz for a while because to earn a living I do a real mixture of styles for film and TV etc, but they are forcing me to play Jazz tonight'


The next week was the upbeat Clark Tracey Sextet, very exciting, very precise in timing, polished slick professionals yet somehow less inspiring. 


Next was Tina May singing with Dave Cottle as recommended
in this column, in fact the U3A attenders were almost into double figures that night, instead of the usual five. But for me the highlight of that evening was a local quartet of pre-GCSE juniors, calling themselves The Tourists (such excellent playing is deserving of a more inspiring name). They played before the main act and so impressed international singing star Tina May that she dismissed Dave Cottle late on in order to do a couple of numbers with The Tourists, to rapturous applause, it really was quite an emotional moment as she encouraged each one in turn to play their best.

The Tourists are led by Tom Duggan on alto sax, with two brothers on keyboards and guitar Sam and Mike Vine and Dylan Goldring on drums. They will be playing at Noah's Yard a small wine-bar in Uplands at 9pm on Monday 28 June. I hope I heard all names correctly.

WHAT COUPs
So there we have it the moderation of the coalition politics, I believe in, producing the sharpest budget cuts ever. Do they have the guts to carry the 25% cuts through lower/middle UK whilst the rich whistle. One section losing their dignity, the richest and their accountants made to work harder for a smidgen less tax avoidance! Will it be counter productive? At least for the moment we have enthusiastic leaders, that at least is a step forward.

Meanwhile the Professional Footballers of the highest paid European Leagues join the ranks of the ridiculously overpaid. What a pathetic lot, one should not be surprised if the better value Germany or Netherlands leagues prevail to test their skills with the rest of the world and England and Spain follow France and Italy to an Early Bath.

LOCAL HISTORY
On 12 July at 2.30 in the Footlights Bar, Grand Theatre, Roy Davies will speak on Welsh Rugby.

Their Outing to Fonmon Castle on 27 July will now cost £15 for bus and tea. The bus will pick up at the following points.
9.25 Banana Island, Morriston
9.45 Surgery, De-la-Beche Road
9.50 Sketty Green
10.00 University Bus Stop (Student Village)
Details from Barbara Brimfield 203503

 

All that jazz

JAZZLAND,  St James Social Club
I have rather hurriedly put together this blog posting to advertise THIS Wednesday 26 May session featuring one of the leading UK vocalists Tina May singing with the Dave Cottle Trio. Last year at the Mumbles Jazz and Blues Festival they gave an absolutely superb concert, if tonight's gig is of the same ilk it will be a pity to miss it for the sake of £10 entry, doors open at 7.30 show begins at 8.30 I imagine there will be a good turnout so get there by 8pm. I can do no better than copy my blog entry following last years event, but would caution that saxophonist Mornington Locket will not be part of the line up.

I regret recommending Simon Spillet's concert at this years Jazz and Blues Festival, not because it wasn't good, it was, but because it required an acquired taste for very fast bop music. Simon played tenor at the speed of Charlie Parker's alto, even Dave Cottle on keyboards was surprised by the pace, in fact after the very first number he jokingly held his hands up to show his fingers were dropping off. I remember the learning curve I went through when determined to get to grips with Charlie Parker's music on LP. I am a strong believer in the value of getting to grips with any difficult arts form with an enthusiastic following, eclectic tastes if you will. 

FROM MAY 2009 BLOGThe apple is in the foreground but the light green behind is Elm in flower (not yet leaf). Dare we hope it will continue to defy the beetle which killed off the majority of these beautiful trees.
This photo could have been taken in May 2010


MUMBLES MOSTLY JAZZ and BLUES FESTIVAL May 2009
Who would have been aware of music let alone an important new departure for Mumbles and Swansea. We walked along the sea front from West Cross on Sunday and saw hardly any sign of such an event. The one poster tied to a signpost in the square did acknowledge the festival with pictures of some of the main attractions, but absolutely nothing gave a schedule of four days of concerts, not even the time, location, price and where to buy tickets. Nor was there any sound of music or any sense of festival, though there were times when it sounded like the venue of a motorbike rally. Tickets and details it appeared were available from the Tourist Office, but the Tourist Office is closed on Sundays.

Yet we already had tickets for the festival marquee, purchased earlier from Jazzlands in Swansea, to one of the most enjoyable concerts we have ever attended, everyone we spoke to seemed of the same mind. Jazz is the one arts idiom in which Swansea has shone during my forty years here, this concert was amazing.

Tina May sang beautifully with a style reminiscent of Cleo Lane. Tina stage managed the event so joyfully that she got the very best from her supporting four piece band, mostly interweaving her singing with solos from all the instrumentalists and the drummer Dave Owm. They were improvising on well known standards up to Duke Ellington's time.
Like her tenor saxophonist Mornington Locket is a top British jazz star and nothing surpassed the duet between her voice and his sax towards the end of the concert, passing by even her duet with bassist Alun Vaughan which showed off her low register, plus songs with recital accompaniment from Dave Cottle on the keyboards - a skill I have never heard from him before. The Dave Cottle trio (keyboards, bass guitar and drums) are the backbone of weekly Jazzlands concerts, and they emphasised how lucky we are to have them here in Swansea.
DINGHY SAILING
I already have six or so members expressing interest, Eddie tells me there will be four  Comet Trio (training dinghies) boats plus two Flying Fifteens (keel dinghy which will be nearer to a sailing cruiser experience!). He also stressed that no-one will be expected to do things with which they are unhappy, this is a fun event let me know if you are interested.
 
Eddie Ramsden, a member who helps organise our UK Olympic Team on behalf of the RYA (Royal Yachting Association) is offering to organise a taster day for our members this summer at Llangorse lake near Brecon.

They would use Comet Trio boats (which he described to me as being like the better known very stable Wayfarer training boat. Three members would sail together in a boat with a trained instructor on board. Eddie would arrange the event to suit, probably a midweek day from 10am in July or August, with the probability of being able to change date given an unsuitable weather forecast. He tells me there is a basic clubhouse for changing but that picnic lunches would be the order of the day - hard to think of a nicer place without walking into the mountains. Buoyancy/life jackets would be available but no-one is expected to capsize though there could be some spray, so you would be expected to bring a change of clothing.

Anyone interested should reply to the blog alert but please change the subject of the email to Sailing so that I can easily sort through the replies. Once I have a dozen interested we will attempt to get maximum agreement on the date, so please advise any dates you will definitely be unavailable in July/August .

FAMILY HISTORY (VIRTUAL)

A new departure for Swansea U3A is the whole idea of virtual groups, ie one existing in cyber space like this blog. To learn more about it and understand the type of help available  please access the Swansea U3A website on
http://www.u3aswansea.org.uk/
Anyone with topics for other virtual groups should contact me.

A new “Virtual Group” called Family History (Virtual) has started, based at our website which you can access from the Group Activities page. The Family History website is written particularly for U3A members by members who have direct experience of carrying out such research, and is designed to be used by newcomers to Computing or Family History.

It shows you how to use the FamilySearch website to trace your ancestors and as an example traces Winston Churchill’s ancestors back 800 years. If you are not as illustrious as Churchill the best you can hope for with your ancestors is Henry V111’s time.

There are guides to several other websites including Genuki which has lots of historical details of almost every town and village. You could see what it says about your favourite places.

The writers of our Family History website, whose contact details are given on the website, hope to expand it based on what members say they would like to see there.

A NEW CAMPUS FOR SWANSEA UNIVERSITY

(I am pleased to publish this 'rant' from Jill Govier which expresses disquiet not unlike my own.)

I ought to count to 303 before writing this rant, but just travelling home from the lecture today will have to do so. We heard from our president, Professor Richard Davies, about the exciting developments at Swansea University, the new build by the sea on old BP land, generously donated by that multi-national. The vice-chancellor showed a first design presentation, prepared by architects, which was functional, yet pleasing, innovative, seemed to inhabit the space well, with a jetty and sail motifs, which have also been used in the main campus designs. 

He had his audience thinking about the interior space of this new build – how for his generation and certainly ours, the unthinkable was being contemplated; rooms surrounded by white boards, wireless everything, very likely not even a library, because in this world of global communication students can access so much more information and opinion swiftly through their I Pads/phones. 

 
Prince Charles comes into the story now somehow, even Professor Davies didn’t sound too sure in what capacity, doesn’t like the design, BP bring in new architects on the royal nod, and voila, smaller enclosed pods were revealed, mostly built round central courtyards, a good idea being that the buildings are tiered for the purpose of absorbing and deflecting the prevailing South Westerly winds. We’ve lost the jetty, but that looked rather decorative and right in the firing line of those same winds. 
 
It was when our speaker showed pictures of images, which could inspire the fuller design that I began to get worried. Welsh cottages, the J sheds before renovation, rows of Victorian poky buildings, Singleton Abbey, appeared, images suitable for and indeed used in Poundbury, and Cefn  - a town landscape designed to fulfil Prince Charles’ ideas of architectural sustainability. This is a charming concept for a village but surely not for a state of the art University, built on a stunning dramatic site. 
 
Swansea has become an exciting city for modern architectural design usage. The University has the beautiful building next to the Taliesin, and the first Life Science building. By the Tawe, look at the innovative designs of the Technium and others in the regenerating SA1 district, which we were told would eventually link up with the new University site. What we were shown was Toy Town. I felt that Professor Davies was deeply disappointed in the outcome, but obviously could not comment in such a public arena when someone else is pulling the strings, but I both can and will. 

Jill Govier

----------

It's not so long ago following the Swansea Assembly run by National Theatre Wales that I was commenting on the lost opportunity  to build iconic modern buildings in Swansea and Cardiff, namely the competition winning designs for the Literature Centre here and the Millenium Centre in Cardiff. Surely if ever a project was crying out for iconic modern architecture it is Swansea University's Science and Engineering new campus. That is intended to be a world leading endeavour not a bit of retro!

A new day has dawned, has it not?

SWANSEA U3A GROUPS

BLOG ALERTS
Many members reply to these using them as a convenient pre-addressed way to contact me. Fine, but please first change the subject from Brian's Blog Alert to indicate the nature of your correspondence.

SCRABBLE
This group with an average turn out of 7 or 8 in a bid to increase membership have just decided to move away from being home- based. They now meet at the Sketty Community Centre at from 10am to 12am on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of each month. Anyone interested should just turn up as there is virtually unlimited space.


DINGHY SAILING
Eddie Ramsden, a member who helps organise our UK Olympic Team on behalf of the RYA (Royal Yachting Association) is offering to organise a taster day for our members this summer at Llangorse lake near Brecon.

They would use Comet Trio boats (which he described to me as being like the better known very stable Wayfarer training boat. Three members would sail together in a boat with a trained instructor on board. Eddie would arrange the event to suit, probably a midweek day from 10am in July or August, with the probability of being able to change date given an unsuitable weather forecast. He tells me there is a basic clubhouse for changing but that picnic lunches would be the order of the day - hard to think of a nicer place without walking into the mountains. Presumably buoyancy/life jackets would be available but you would be expected to bring a change of clothing.

Anyone interested should reply to the blog alert but please change the subject of the email to Sailing so that I can easily sort through the replies.

Eddie and I go back a long way since we were both keen dinghy racers at Mumbles Yacht Club for longer than I care to remember. He was the best GP14 helm in the club, whereas I never got past being second best, first in a home built Mirror Dinghy (the best £84 I ever spent) and later in a Laser Dinghy. We both spent years as Fleet Captains and members of the committee. Incidentally if any ones interested I still have my Laser which has been cluttering up my garage for 15 years now, sail number 100,000 plus a bit, available at knock down price.


GEOLOGY of the Llandovery area led by Dr Robert Owen
This Monday 17 May at 10.30am
Meet for car parking at grid ref map OS sheet160, SN76342 
These photographs were taken by Joan Corbett working on my behalf.

Geology Group Lunching on Caldey Island

Tenby Harbour

JIVE
All the photographs in this section were taken by JORGE LIZALDE, who on this occasions was acting as the photographer for the National Theatre Wales

Rita Reed-Jones and John Day

Tess Atherton and Brian, Mike Lewis and Angela Blewett

Nicky Brown and Des Finlay

  

Rosalie Kidd and Mike Lewis

Val Day left and Tutor Pam Williams 

Brian and Val Day

Those of us who assisted the newly formed National Theatre Wales with a dance demonstration to kick off their first attempt at contact with Swansea public opinion (via their ASSEMBLY held in the Monkey Cafe) were offered a reward of two free tickets to their first all-professional production of The Devil Inside Him, apparently John Osborne's first long lost play, at the New Theatre Cardiff.

Joan and I took up this offer on Sunday afternoon, thoroughly enjoyed it and were most impressed with the quality of the acting. It was not until reaching home that I began to look in detail at the program and realised that Jamie Ballard had played Hamlet in the outstanding production directed by Dr Jonathan Miller at the Bristol Tobacco Factory in 2008. That is not to single Jamie out for the cast was uniformly strong, with many having acted with the National Theatre in London, the Royal Shakespeare Company and TV.


Since I missed Jive this week I do not know if others took up the offer which applied to the pre-production run on Friday, Saturday or Sunday last week. The final performance is tomorrow 15 May for which there may still be tickets on sale.


WEDNESDAY LECTURE
Helgi Opik's sister Tiiu-Imbi Miller educated us all whilst promoting the small charity of which she is an enthusiastic member, The Rainforest Saver Foundation, and whilst it was not an appeal for funds I was pleasantly surprised by the number of members who handed her donations at the end of the lecture. Clearly it is a topic close to the heart of many members.


The idea was to introduce modern thinking to improve on the way inhabitants of the rainforest cultivate, an essential part of their survival. For centuries if not millennia they have used a technique called Slash and Burn, whereby they cut down trees and burn them
to provide immediately a fertile bed for cultivation. Unfortunately due above all to erosion in heavy rainfall that fertility does not last more than say three years, hence more slash and burn. The technique she was advocating was to plant hedges of the fast growing Inga trees which quickly forms a canopies over the 5 to 6 metre wide strips cultivation between them. The strips are made fertile in three years by pruning the Inga trees and using the cuttings and leaves as a compost, the canopy shades from direct sunlight and also acts to inhibit weed growth as in the forests. Hence the title of her lecture Inga Alley Cropping, a technique developed by a university in Honduras.

The alleys can be used to grow food like beans (Inga like beans is a nitrogen fixing legume) and pineapple, or cash crops like vanilla.

I have travelled in many areas of rainforest in both Latin America and Asia, but the most dramatic by far was on the island of Borneo which fifteen years ago still had a large primary rain forest, which is to say dense forest composed of the biggest and tallest trees we have ever seen, with a leaf canopy almost out of sight. My impression was that, though 'slash and burn' was still used by the long house dwellers, by far the bigger threat was from logging. There are no roads to speak of so huge rivers are the highways along which one speeds in so called torpedo boats (think huge coaches). These rivers were full of huge tree trunks, most in large neat 'carpets' being guided downstream by lumberjacks walking the logs, others almost submerged had broken free to become waterlogged and a serious threat to water traffic. Frighteningly large muddy brown areas in the otherwise unbroken green carpet of primary rain forest were a testament to the scale of logging and clearly visible on our flight inland to the beautiful protected area of Mulu.
 

OUTINGS
There are 4 current proposals

Llanerchaeron House, Aberaeron 28 May contact Rob James, 8824508

Hay on Wye, 8 am Saturday 29 May contact Cecily Hughes 363875

Stratford on Avon, 7 July contact Barbara Garnham 0781 1728 184

Fonmon Castle, 27 July contact Barbara Brimfield

CALL for NOMINATIONS for Officers and Committee by 16 June
Forms to post to Michael Edmonds, Business Secretary with your invitation papers
AGM at 2.30pm on Wednesday 23 June
All members invited so please attend if only to learn more about how this organisation is run.


GORDON BROWN
Many readers will no doubt associate with his unpopularity and be glad he has departed the political arena - but not me, because, as I will explain later, so much that he did vastly improved the lives of persons in my own family circle as well as millions beyond.

Yes on becoming PM he made some bad judgements, to churlishly turn up a day late to the signing of the Lisbon Treaty, to agree overnight to almost match the Tories intention to slash Inheritance Tax when he intended to rush into an early election and feared he was being wrong footed, and more recently to withdraw his own 10% rate of income tax - the later two being over hasty and at odds with what I judge as his true political instinct.

Then of course there were the personal failings, chiefly in my view his refusal to simply accept his poor judgement over the 10% rate of tax so when under pressure from his own side instead of just reversing it he attempted to correct it by less satisfactory complex means. Denial of any responsibility for continuation of the policy of light financial regulation started in the Thatcher era, to the point where Prudence of his early years had clearly gone out of the window. Then his initial dogmatic rejection of nationalisation as the solution to the financial crisis. He finally went for part nationalisation which has left us with insufficient control over the reform of banking purpose and structure, and curtailment of its excesses - and all because he with Tony Blair had taken Clause Four out of the Labour constitution (which had advocated nationalisation of the means of production) to produce New Labour and could not accept there were extreme situations in which nationalisation still made sense.

He has been unmercifully, unceasingly, pilloried by the press for two years. To describe what he correctly described in his resignation speech as the global financial meltdown (which has affected all parts of the globe) as Brown's Recession was disingenuous and cruel. True he allowed the UK economy to become far too reliant on banking, but again the term de-industrialisation goes back to the Thatcher era.
Yet he won international recognition as the statesman with an unrivalled grasp of the financial system. Our finest expert will now but watch others grapple with the problems, and, like me, hope they do not upset his exceptional social achievements.


So why is my overall verdict so favourable. Firstly the New Deal which gave so many the chance of employment. Swansea was one of the initial trial areas and being poorly prepared tried it out on an age group far older than the target, and one of our sons who had been largely unemployed for a decade got a new start - only a recession can take that away.

Secondly the Minimum Wage which brought so many, including him, within touching distance of a living wage. This benefited Care Assistants in private nursing homes, where Joan was working (as Nursing Sister) having their income almost doubled overnight, a rise she thought would put such homes out of business - but as I argued at the time the homes were an essential service and would reach a new equilibrium, so people and the government now have to pay a fairer rate for having ageing people looked after by others.


Thirdly Sure Start meant disadvantaged infants got a better start in life and also gave new employment for some who had first hand knowledge of the hardships of family life.

Fourthly Child Tax Credits for Working Mothers which gave them an incentive to find employment and in return offered fairer net wages.


Finally Working Tax Credits which benefited so many men in low paid employment, including many on minimum wage, who got closer to a fair wage.

Each of these five measures benefited someone within my own family sphere and put new hope and dignity into wasting lives.

For me the second big downside of the New Labour years (the first being the invasion of Iraq) was that in spite of all this help the range in UK earnings was allowed to reach obscene proportions, mainly through the greed of those at the top (not restricted to bankers) who still believed there was no such thing as society. The state turned a blind eye to unsocial behaviour and the winner takes all mentality in the higher reaches of society, no wonder it became a problem with the disadvantaged. We and New Labour saw one side but not the other.

My lasting memory will be of Jeremy Paxman wreathed in wry smiles at the end of his half hour interview with Gordon Brown just before voting day. Rarely I suggest under briefed so I concluded on this occasion he knew he been out debated.


COALITION GOVERNMENT
People who advocate a fairer, more proportional, electoral system have now seen the down of a hung parliament at a particularly testing time, or have we? Any of the other voting systems (AV, AV+, STV, or proportional) would on this occasion have given the Liberals more seats at the expense of the main parties and in so doing would have allowed a Labour/Liberal alliance to have a simple majority of seats, sufficient though not as great as the Tory/Liberal coalition we now have. Clegg made his intention clear in interview with Andrew Marr, to side with the Tories. But given a fairer voting system but at least the alternative Lib-Lab linking would have been mathematically feasible.


Now begins the issue of real information, concealed in the TV debates by all three parties. To paraphrase what Matthew Parris said recently on radio Democracy and Deception inevitably go hand in hand at election time. It is as well that two parties are locked together for five years to share the pain. I doubt if even Labour, clearly set against cuts this year for fear of bringing on a recession, would in practice have been able to avoid early cuts in view of the even worse debt problems of other European countries. So we have to grin and bear it whilst the Millionaires and Hedge Funds make a fortune betting and driving the next twist to volatile stock markets.
Labour have the chance to regroup away from the flak, let's just hope they don't just re-invent Tragic New Labour. The big gain for Cameron will be able to modernise and centralise the Conservative Party whilst portraying it as in the interests of the country to work constructively with the Liberals. As for the Liberals whether they have a future depends on getting a fairer voting system, without it expect Clegg and Laws at least to show their true colours and do a Kinzett.


COMPULSORY VOTING
One member comments on this blog of its merits whenever I write of politics, and there is little doubt that low turnouts are another problem. I would hope that turnouts in seats with huge majorities would improve given a system nearing Proportional Representation which would make all votes for smaller parties relevant.
I have the liberals dislike of making things compulsory, as opposed to giving encouragement, a voice which will be heard and thus eliminating tactical voting such as I was recently advocating.


I also worry if the unwilling would vote in good faith, but that view admittedly has some of the echoes of the battle for Universal Suffrage, whether the outsiders could be trusted to vote knowledgeably.

U3A GROUPS
GARDENING
Following a recent episode in hospital with her heart problems Margaret Massey is not going to carry on as Convenor for the new year starting October 2010. The group was advised of this at last week's meeting but there were no indications that a member of the existing group, who have been together for a very long time, was prepared to take over. Stressing once again the vital importance of keeping movement in the membership of groups.


Perhaps a newer member, ideally an active gardener, would put themselves forward to run a Gardening Group. Anyone interested should contact Margaret Massey on 205028 to discuss the task without any compulsion. As Group's Co-ordinator I too would be prepared to help.

OUTING TO STRATFORD Wednesday 7 July
Barbara Garnham 0781 1728 184 is organising this trip. She is considering cancelling unless about 10 vacancies on the coach are reserved. She also needs people to pay her the £14.50 fare in advance so she feels confident enough to book the coach.

HISTORY GROUP OUTING Friday 28 May
They are visiting the National Trust  property Llanerchaeron House in Aberaeron.

There are still a few places available so please contact Rob James if interested on 882508. By this blog I am asking him to include Joan and I on the list.

GEOLOGY VISIT TO CALDEY ISLAND
Joan thoroughly enjoyed this outing though she returned home very stiff after a comparatively easy ramble. King Eric was also there. Not so long ago we regularly attended their monthly visits to sites of interest. The next of which is to the Llandovery area on 17 May 2010 led by Dr Robert Owens, meeting at 10.30 at grid reference SN767342, see OS map sheet 160.


WEDNESDAY  LECTURE 5 May 
Please note the change of speaker to Garethe El-Tawab the Curator of Swansea Museum. She will be speaking on 'Carry on Collecting'


SPECIAL U3A DAY at LLANDOVERY 19 May
Keith Richards, former Chairman of Third Age Trust will be speaking on 'U3As, Past, Present and Future'. If interested contact Mary Mac Gregor by tomorrow 1 May on 01550 720182 or mary@macmyddfai.demon.co.uk



THEATRE
Last week I was pointing up the similarity between the pioneering work done with theatre in the cultural desert of Stoke on Trent to the current tasks facing National Theatre Wales, and in particular to the work of Peter Cheeseman, Stephen Joseph (who died of cancer at the age of 46 in 1967) and Alan Ayckbourn in the early 1960s. I was amazed to open today's Guardian and find the featured obituary was for Peter Cheeseman, who died two days ago. He directed theatre in Stoke until retiring in1998, by which  time the 600 seat Victoria Theatre had been built specially designed for theatre-in-the-round. 

I was struck by the similarity of aims with National Theatre Wales to set up theatre which built on the local community, and was anxious to find the few programs I kept from that initial era. They start, like the obituary, from the touring Studio Theatre Ltd. of Stephen Joseph and a 1961/2 performance of 'A Doll's House' with Alan Ayckbourn in the leading male role. The Victoria Theatre (that name obviously pre-dates the New Vic as it was known later before returning to the original name with the purpose built theatre) had its first season in 1962/3. A season from which I have programs for The Rehearsal by Jean Anouilh directed by Peter Cheeseman and The Caretaker by Harold Pinter directed by Alan Ayckbourn.

A program from 1964 was for Look Back in Anger by John Osborne, but the program missing from that year was The Jolly Potter, a locally written musical staged during pantomime season as I recall, which told the story of the Potteries town which was still manufacturing a very high percentage of world's quality china - manufacturing now sadly virtually entirely transferred to Asia. To my chagrin we had decided to miss that iconic play, a fitting reward for the snob I still was! That was evidently the first of a whole series of productions featuring the concerns and history of the local community, and that is the real link with the aspirations of National Theatre Wales.


To convert the abandoned Victoria cinema into a theatre-in-the-round venue apparently cost £5000 (the price of two good houses in Stoke at the time), affordable and incredibly good value for money, yet provided the platform which together with outstanding artistic talent set theatre in Stoke off to the real success it was to become.

The other performance we remember from that era was a production of Hamlet, a play particularly powerful in 'theatre in the round' format as demonstrated superbly a couple of years ago at The Tobacco Factory in Bristol, with a performance directed by Jonathan Miller.

Theatre to Peter Cheeseman to quote from the Guardian obituary 'meant a permanent company of professional actors living in the town and making theatre that "springs from our contact with this community".'

Stephen Joseph (son of Hermione Gingold) left Stoke in 1966 and returned to Scarborough, the base of his touring Studio Theatre Ltd, and soon opened the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough with Alan Ayckbourn as Artistic Director, which is still active to this day. Like me he had first become an enthusiast of theatre-in-the-round in the USA in the 1950s - another program I found was a memorable Off-Broadway production of The Crucible by Arthur Miller in an upstairs room of the Martinique hotel in New York City in 1958.

In April 1966 I left English Electric-Leo-Marconi in Stoke to further my career with The Steel Company of Wales at Port Talbot. 
Apologies to Newcastle-under-Lyme which might lay claim to the theatre, but like it or not it is physically part of Stoke, which in any case consists of five towns according to Arnold Bennett author of The Five Towns - though I remember it as six, Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Longton, Fenton and Stoke. 


ELECTION
So the final TV debate by the candidates for Prime Minister is over. A series of three debates which for me began so engagingly ended disappointingly without exposing the plans of any of the parties for dealing with the UK's debt crisis. It was far too repetitive. If I hear again of the £6 billion pound immediate cuts ( sorry for earlier error) by the Tories or the proposals of the Liberals to exclude everyone earning under £10,000 from Income Tax (in the wrong direction), or the National Insurance Increase (in the correct direction but delayed) of Labour, then I will wretch - as for differing reasons I so nearly did during my presentation of last Wednesday's lecture! All are minor changes in the face of the cuts to come, whoever wins the election. I tend to agree with the commentator who said 'it is a good election to lose', for I feel that whatever the result a decade of austerity lies ahead.


As for the election Nick Clegg seems to believe the result in this election is to be judged as though proportional representation is already in place (ie by the number of votes cast nationally rather than the number of seats won), and if Labour come third in votes (looking likely according to the polls) he is going to work with the Tories. Well that was the situation at the last posting of this blog, but since then he has rowed back from that position and said he could work with Labour but not with Gordon Brown, no doubt in part from the pressure of so many left-leaning colleagues. In effect his price now would be to appoint a replacement leader of the Labour Party (very democratic, I don't think!).

If this were truly an election conducted on the proportional basis, which I have long favoured, if only to enfranchise voters in all seats, then I would be voting Liberal, who for me have got the best and most explicit policies. But I doubt that the Liberals can win the majority of seats under the current 'first past the post rules'. I also feel a Tory-Liberal coalition would fly apart on fundamental policy differences but that a Labour-Liberal coalition would be much more secure, since in the most important areas like the economy they are singing the same tune. Many of the liberal values of the Liberals ought in my view never have been ditched by the party of Blair and Brown. I believe there will be plenty of Labour MPs who think likewise. 


I think it salutary to remember to be very thankful that Gordon Brown was at the helm during the eye of the 'credit crunch crisis'. The Tories were all over the place at that time. Vince Cable was perhaps ahead of Gordon at times but then he did not face the responsibility of making the decisions and he did not face the obstacle of returning his party to the policy Nationalisation. In the going Full Nationalisation was avoided when that would have been the best mechanism to alter bank behaviour in the long term (including salary and bonus for senior employees), instead of which we are left with a running sore. The Liberals want to break up the banks - but will they ever be able to do this from here.

As for Gordon  Brown's temperament I don't find it attractive either, but I as I think anyone who has worked in high pressure industrial environments will have come across managers with volatile tempers to say the least, but on reflection will remember them also as being passionate and effective, if not pleasant to work for. Being Prime Minister is a high pressure occupation at the best of times, during a world crisis of the scale he encountered must have been very hard, fainter hearts may not have coped. That crisis is not yet over, the current problems faced by Greece are a pertinent warning.



So how to vote. If you want to see a Tory Government then vote Tory, or Liberal as the positive way to a Tory-Liberal coalition.
If like me you want to see a Labour-Liberal coalition then there is no doubt you should vote Labour. It will not occur if the Labour vote falls further than now predicted by the polls.


JAZZ
Don't forget the 'Mumbles Mostly Blues and Jazz Festival' this weekend from 7.30pm Friday 30 April, from 1pm to 11.15pm Saturday, Sunday and Monday.


If you want to hear good jazz then I suggest Saturday 1 May at the Conservative Club to hear the Oliver Nezhati Quintet at 5.30 for £6 or my choice Simon Spillet with the Dave Cottle Trio for £10 at 8.45pm. If you enjoy Saturday then think about attending the fine concerts on Sunday.

Oliver Nezhati, a saxophonist from Llandeilo, is currently a student at Trinity (music college) in London and his band will be of similar ages. The audience for jazz in Swansea may well be long in tooth but there are many great young UK musicians coming through and many appear at Jazzland (St James Crescent, Uplands). The stand-out example is Welshman Gwilym Simcock who is already entering the higher echelons of world jazz, and like so many of his era was classically trained to the highest level.



Jazzland have just issued their May-August program. On Wednesday 26 May singer Tina May will appear with the backing of the Dave Cottle Trio. Last year that partnership, with the addition of London based saxophonist Mornington Lockett, gave, on May Day  Holiday,  perhaps the most enjoyable concert I have ever heard. Though  that occasion owed something to a glorious weather on the seafront at Mumbles and the 'Great American Songbook', although not helped by motorcyclists making as much noise as possible.


Next Wednesday 5 May at 8.30pm guitarist Fabian Farnandez will appear with his trio £8 but only £6 for members. Arrive early for a better choice of seats.

GEOLOGY LATE CHANGE, TRAVEL, THEATRE and ELECTION

GEOLOGY URGENT DATE CHANGE
Because of the state of the tide the Geology Group have at the last minute changed the date of their visit to Caldey Island. The trip will now take place on Tuesday 27 April. Meeting 10.30 am PROMPT in Butts Field, the main TENBY car park on the A478 heading from Saundersfoot towards the Tenby town centre (grid ref OS sheet 158 SN132 011). Allowing just sufficient time to catch the boat scheduled for 11am. You are advised to take a packed lunch, though there is a cafe on the island. Return boat fare about £10 each. Only a leisurely 2 mile walk around the island is entailed. 


A SLOW BUS THROUGH CHINA, Wednesday Lecture 28 April
It's a hard job to reduce the number of slides portraying a 60 day trip to a reasonable number, in fact it seems impossible. My lecture a couple of years ago Patagonia totalled 110 slides, this time it will be 95 out of a possible 1200, which I still count far too many. What I can also do is to save lecture time by explaining a little more than I will have time for on the day, about the way Joan and I travel and the way our style evolved.


When we started this form of travel in 1989 we were still both in full time work. I had finished a few months of heavy unpaid overtime during a blast furnace rebuild at Port Talbot and was offered a four week holiday for the first time. We decided to go to Nepal which had for long been top of our wish list. We talked about it with young friends who had just returned from an umpteenth trading trip to Nepal to buy clothes and jewellery in bulk for resale. They advised us to go without any pre-booking and play it by ear and laid down a challenge we could not refuse. 'If at our (young) age we can do it you then with all your experience you surely can'. A few weeks later we stood with some trepidation in the queue at Heathrow for the initial direct flight London-Kathmandu by Nepal Airlines, to be piloted by their King's newphew. Thin 144 page Lonely Planet (LP) in hand, 'Kathmandu and the Kingdom of Nepal', giving all the information we actually needed, Even budget class passengers were served champagne that day!


Ten hours later we emerged from the airport terminal to be greeted by the colour and squalor of Asia for the first time. A hundred or so hungry touts each offering to take us to suitable accommodation with the motto 'looking is free'. As is still normal we opted for a quiet life and ducked out of the crowd and onto the local service bus heading for the city centre. But young Kim was not willing to lose a potential customer so he jumped on after us, sat on the engine and talked. He persuaded us to at least come to look at the place he was suggesting, it was in Thamel the area recommended by the LP, so we agreed. Our first footfall in Asia was truly an immense culture shock. We wondered, 'How could anyone survive in such filth and poverty?' 


But Nepal Peace Cottage offered a big but basic en-suite room, with breakfast on the roof overlooking a single paddy field and the surrounding city for the attractive sounding price of 10$ per day for two. So we set out to explore Thamel on foot and ended up in the Narayan Restaurant packed to the gunnels with backpackers seated at large bench tables, where we ate the most delicious quiche/pasta/salad and made friends immediately, including with an American, a decade or so younger than us, who said his style was to stay in a good hotel but eat with the backpackers in the evening for lively company and tasty food. That is a scene long since gone, overtaken by western affluence, the gap-year phenomenon, and 1000 page LP guide books. It was a hang over from the days when Kathmandu was one of the world's favourite destinations for 'hippies'. The LP recommended Kathmandu as one of the very few top destinations in the world for tasty food.

Heaven knows how, for we could neither speak the language nor read the destinations in Nepali script on the front of the twenty buses parked at the bus station, but we caught the correct buses for day trips to the likes of Patan and Bhaktapur, the outlying towns


The owners of Nepal Peace Cottage invited us for dinner one evening and sold us the idea of taking a 15 day trek around Annapurna with a guide and two porters, all we would carry was our two small day-rucksacks. Regrettably our ability at that kind of hard mountain walking is now well past, my only regret is that we didn't opt for the 21 day trek Annapurna Round. We went to Muktinath (3500m) virtually the half the distance since we first headed to Annapurna Base Camp, making it 10 days out but only 5 back, but avoided the tough 5400m trek over the Thorung La pass. Fitter and fitter after 15 days of altitude training I knew I could have walked the full round with something to spare, and will always regret not having done it. It would have been touch and go for Joan in spite of many many weeks of circuit training in Swansea YMCA gym.

When we returned to Kathmandu it was like coming home, no longer needing to exist on asking for sweet cup cha didi (cup of tea big sister) and dahl baht (lentil curry) generous helping of rice with only a desert spoonful of curry. If you left any it wasn't thrown away, it was fed to the children. Then we started listening, the other backpackers were paying a dollar a day not ten like us.

For the next holiday we lived like true backpackers for less than we could at home for a three week holiday including the air fare. We chose Thailand because evertone in Kathmandu had raved about the food and found ourselves in Bangkok in a guest house on Khao San Road which doubled as a Chinese laundry, with a sign which said 'no Chinese girls upstairs' as the owners defended the morals of their own race. But Thai girls were a different matter as was all too clear from the sounds emanating from the adjacent rooms without windows but separated at height not by walls but by netting, so as to allow for air flow.

Twenty years on after several years of ill health, in which Joan developed rheumatoid arthritis shortly after retirement and had to have both knees replaced in order to walk at all and I had written off a hip doing too much heavy building whilst restyling three sides of our house on a hill, we have changed our method somewhat. We now use 3/4 star hotels or equivalent rooms in residential blocks and eat the best food we can find, and always stay centrally so we can explore on foot, by tuk-tuk or rickshaw, usually armed with a modicum of their language, using our eyes rather than guide books to choose between their restaurants and using their scheduled public transport (bus, train or shared taxi/minibus) to move around. But spending less all in on a leisurely 60 day holiday than many spend on exhausting 15 day package flying visit tours, which check all the boxes.

Such a style we used successfully in China from 1 September 2006, with say 200 words of spoken Mandarin but without ever once getting on the wrong bus, and only once in 60 nights putting up with less than adequate accommodation, and that because it was almost midnight when we arrived in town. Nothing was booked ahead except flights London-Beijing return and Beijing-Kashgar one way, Holiday Inn in Beijing and two nights in a new business class hotel Wen Zhuo in Kashgar, all booked by Internet. All in cost Swansea - Swansea of £3258 for, flights, visas, travel, food, drinks (little - it's not Asian culture), purchases (few), nearly half (£1422) on flights.

THE SWANSEA ASSEMBLY, NATIONAL THEATRE WALES
Around ten of us from the Jive Group took part with a fifteen minute demonstration including getting newcomers to join in order to kick-start the evening with the first of several short performances, the rest being cabaret singing and theatre sketches. The walls were hung with a collection of excellent enlargements of photographs taken of us at our Jive Group practising the previous day.

The space was divided into four tables equipped with nibbles, wine and olives, and each new arrival was assigned to one of the colour coded groups. Four leaders were assigned to the groups to lead discussion on Swansea, Facilities, ideas for Swansea Town Planners, supporting Asylum Seekers, supporting Teenagers Leaving local authority Care. A pile of bricks were on each table and members were asked to chalk comments on in chalk to remind them of key points in the discussion. Each group had about 6/8 participants, the groups stayed put every twenty minutes or so the leaders rotated after a break for a short theatrical performance.


Following the order my group followed
FACILITIES (my term). Lead by Senior Labour Councillor and Chairman of Volcano Theatre,  David Phillips
The least successful of the groups because leader and participants were finding their way. The main observations were the absence of good shops, whereas years ago Swansea was the equal of Cardiff. My beef was the lack of good public entertainment when my family and grandchildren were on holiday for one or two weeks in their Christmas or Easter holidays. My advocacy of Jazzlands which equals or exceeds any jazz venue in Cardiff, to which for most of the year I would add Taliesin.
'Swansea was the End of Ambition' for several of us, but we had stayed for positive reasons in my case associated  with the superb natural environment of Swansea Bay (winter exploration, sailing and swimming in summer), Gower and Brecon Beacons for mountain walking.
More should be made of the Grand Theatre. Why shouldn't it be a centre of excellence in theatrical terms like the Royal Theatre in Bath?

TOWN PLANNING
Sorry I forget the architect's name but he was advocating preserving the castle with a large overhanging roof as a way of enabling it to become a distinctive, visited, feature at the centre of the city

Them he went back to the plan which would have given Swansea a new 'heart' around the Grand Theatre. We both remember the publicity around the recent architectural award for the new library in Lewisham, but it was news to me that this was the design originally developed then rejected for Swansea's Year of Literature. (A missed opportunity equivalent to the rejection of the prize winner for Cardiff's Millenium Centre). Instead of which we got a restoration of what is now the Dylan Thomas Centre, highly desirable in itself, without moving towards unification of the city centre and with nothing like the long term use that the library would have given us.

To me that makes all the more attractive the other plan he reminded me of, the idea for the main Oystermouth road being an underpass to free up pedestrian access across the city centre, which day by day becomes ever more dispersed, with the library being relocated to the Civic Centre, Dylan Thomas Centre, Industrial Museum, original museum (Royal Institution of South Wales as was) all near the sea front, Whereas shops, central bus station, railway station, theatre and castle are dispersed in the more tradition centre.in the.

He also presented a plan for a mini barrage around Swansea Bay as an amenity ring with the added advantage of generating electricity from tidal movement. Remember though that electricity cannot be stored and without large scale water storage the generation would be as cyclic as the tide and bear no correlation with demand.


I know Joan found this the most interesting group discussion of all.

CARE LEAVERS
Describing the huge problems facing young people leaving care in this country, housing, very low income (£50 Job Seekers Allowance), no aspiration, no qualification. It was an almost insoluble burden for those trying to help people find their way in the world, no wonder many turned to drugs.


ASYLUM SEEKERS
Another discussion leader trying to grapple with a very difficult task
of helping them through the legal battle to prove they were genuine asylum seekers rather than illegal immigrants, made almost impossible because they were allowed only 5 hours free consultation with a lawyer.
The secondary school teacher in the group said that school leavers, let alone the population at large, did not understand the huge moral difference between asylum seekers who faced persecution or even death if they returned to their own country, and economic migrants who also arrived  by illegal means hoping for a better life. 
A surprising fact to me was that the majority currently seeking asylum in Swansea were mainland Chinese, who had run into trouble with the Chinese state for trade union or other political reasons.


PRESENTATIONS
Finally each group was asked to find two people to present via microphone and video camera a two minute summary of their group's key observations.

Emma was keen to put forward her views from my group, whereas I was happy to opt out until it was obvious that someone had to help her with the presentation. In the event like the other groups we made a joint presentation for Emma's choice (bearing three bricks) of the Care Leavers and Asylum Seekers. My contribution was to say that I considered that the major problem with care leavers was caused by the complete failure to deal with their problems whilst they were in care. Since they were leaving care without qualifications, without aspiration, and in consequence with little likelihood of finding jobs it was hard to see a satisfactory conclusion.
As regards Asylum one key reflexion was that secondary education leavers needed to understand and be able to evaluate moral values. In the past we may have relied on the churches to teach such issues - but as an atheist I recognise it as vital part of the armory of good citizens.

Steven Allen
As one of the very latest to join Swansea U3A, attracted initially perhaps by the activity of the Jive Group and intended to be part of our display on the night, it was interesting to see him seized for a role in one of the theatrical presentations. He has obvious talent in that direction, so it looks as though we have another valuable U3A new member. 


We jivers all stayed to enjoy the whole meeting and the feedback I got from our members towards the meeting was entirely favourable. The vibes from the National Theatre Wales group were likewise. One suggestion from me is that the Discussion Leaders ought to have worn name tags with an indication of affiliation.
The second observation is that I thought the event was inadequately served by the publicity I saw. Not until the night did I understand the real form of the occasion with the key objective being to create discussion, the jive being a way to break the ice and theatrical presentations being the means chosen to break the evening up and showcase some of the issues to be discussed. I know this was a first off for National Theatre Wales and no organiser could be expected to know how it would turn out, but with a more complete prior understanding I would have been able to publicise it better to U3A members, and a number of them would have been keen to contribute, even though the event clashed with the second prime ministerial debate on TV.

SHELF LIFE
Having discussed with David Philips, the poor review in the Guardian, by Lyn Gardner who is normally particularly supportive to new theatrical ideas, I decided to change my original decision not to go and Joan and I just squeezed into a nominally full house at the last minute on Saturday evening. Not myself a past lover of Volcano Theatre, who I saw murder a Shakespeare play in the Grand a couple of decades ago, I must say we both found it an enjoyable evening and one we are pleased not to have missed.

I found the presentation unfocussed but with some excellent moments, though without doubt innovative and therefore very interesting. I personally prefer text based theatre, with a strong message which leaves you thinking, and found many of the physical theatre aspects both pointless and distracting (not that I object to distraction by naked young women!). The use of space, outside, in the store room, and around a circular dinner table in the beautiful old library building, was excellent, but we are still unsure what the message was.

Readers of this blog will be aware of my love of 'theatre in the round'  - what better venue could there be than this circular library room with its glass dome! Thinking as I do of how to develop theatre in Swansea I see this as the rich man's alternative to Bristol's Tobacco Factory. We lived in Stoke-on-Trent during the inauguration of their Victoria Theatre (in the round) in the early sixties by the now famous trio of Peter Cheeseman, Stephen Joseph and Alan Ayckborn, who was then an actor. If they could do it in the cultural wilderness of Stoke we could surely do it here and put Swansea on the theatrical map. Whilst we are here how about the  Grand Theatre emulating the quality theatre of Royal Theatre Bath. We could not emulate Bristol's Old Vic without a theatre school.


ELECTION
'A week is a long time in politics.' A week ago I was enthusing about the TV debates and now I am concerned about the presidential form of this election and by the overwhelming media role of analysing polls and the opinion of  groups of 'uncommitted voters', rather than the issues. It has become a case of waiting for the big mistakes of the leaders and Nick Clegg made one for me on today's Andrew Marr Show.


Over forty five years now as a Swansea resident I have voted Labour and Liberal several times, and Plaid Cymru too (though not I think in a General Election). I guess that qualifies me as a floating anti-Tory voter. 

I want to see proportional representation and I favour many of the Liberal's policies in this election but above all wish to see realignment on the left of politics, all of which over confident Blair failed to deliver a decade ago when it would have been so simple.

Currently I would regard the following outcomes as probable.
1) That the Tories will get more votes than Labour as they have done even in winning recent elections.
2) That the Liberals will get more votes than either or both the other main parties without a commensurate gain in seats.

If so when Nick Clegg said he wouldn't prop up Labour if they were third in the popular vote in real terms he was saying he would join a Tory led coalition but not a Labour led one. So he is in favour of a realignment on the right but not the left of politics - thus confirming my original feeling that Clegg was a right leaning opportunist (Blairite) politician. From my point of view it was a pity he beat Chris Hulme, who is clearly on the left of the party, in the recent election for leader of the Liberal Party. I doubt either  Chris Hulme or Vince Cable, and possibly other leading Liberal MPs, are too happy about the commitment Nick has just made, which emphasises the presidential nature of the current election contest.

Will that position change in the next 10 days?  We will see.