Littleborough
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Littleborough March Newsletter 2021 Hello everyone! At last, the sun is shining and, hopefully, spring is on its way and the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. In this month’s Newsletter we have: 1. News 2. Forthcoming Zoom events 3. News from the groups 4. Contributions from members 5. Virtual Quiz report 6. Bits & Bats 7. Answers to Mid-February puzzles 8. Puzzle time 1. NEWS • BYO Coffee & Chat last Tuesday was a jolly event. Sandra tried out using the Zoom subtitle facility which, although amazing, did cause some hilarity in its mis-interpretation of some of our comments! We also shared some interesting websites that we’d discovered – more of that later. • AGM the Committee is currently sorting out the arrangements for our next AGM and Liz Walker, our Business Secretary, has sent this letter to all members: 1 Littleborough February 2021 Dear U3A member, Once again, and hopefully for the last time, the Annual General Meeting of Littleborough U3A will need to be held via the Zoom video conferencing facility due to the Covid 19 situation. The 2021 Annual General meeting will be held on Monday, 14th June 2021 at 2:00 pm All those whose membership is current on that date are entitled to attend the meeting, to put a motion to the meeting and to vote to elect a new committee. Several members of our committee are due to retire this year so we are looking to appoint new members to these roles. Committee Nomination Form, Motion Form and 2020 AGM minutes will be sent out with the next Newsletter in mid-March. In the meantime, if you feel you would be interested in becoming a Committee Member please contact Sandra Kokocki, or one of the other Committee members, for more information. Sandra’s contact details are Tel. 07828 297991 or email [email protected] With best wishes, Yours sincerely, Liz Walker Business Secretary *** 2. Forthcoming Zoom Events Invitations will be emailed to all members before each event Date Time Information Monday 8th March 1.45pm for 2pm Sex, Secrets, Scandal and Salacious Gossip.This ZOOM talk will be given by Sara Slater who is a Qualified Guide Lecturer for Historic Royal Palaces at Hampton Court. Sara will present an insight into the Sex Scandals and Salacious gossip of the Royal Court from 1660 to 1830.This is the History we did not learn at school, covering subjects such as prostitution, sexual diseases and unwanted pregnancies. Bring your sense of humour and enjoy a rollicking good afternoon. 2 Date Time Info Wednesday 24th March 1.45 for 2pm BYO Coffee and chat Monday 12th April 1,45 for 2pm BYO Coffee and chat Monday 19th April 1.45 for 2pm Colin Meredith: 40 years an actor Monday 17th May 1.45 for 2pm John Pearson: Blessed are the cheesemakers Monday 14th June 1.45 for 2pm AGM Monday 12th July 1.45 for 2pm Jim Holmes: Travelling photographer Monday 9th August 1,45 for 2pm Phillip Cook: My family and the Titanic Monday 13th September 1.45 for 2pm Paul Isherwood: Gamblers get the spots the families get the symptoms 3. News from the Groups • Philosophy Group – Val Bracken sent in this report from their last meeting on the group’s discussion on David Hulme: The U3A Philosophy Group met on Zoom to discuss the Scottish Philosopher David Hume born 1711 died 1776. Hume was an Enlightenment philosopher, historian, economist, librarian and essayist. Hume strove to create a naturalistic science of man that examined the psychological basis of human nature. The group had unearthed a great deal of material about David Hume, his life and times. Born in a time when it was a crime to deny the existence of God, his views on the philosophy of religion, including the rejection of miracles and the argument against a world designed by God were very controversial. As always, we endeavoured to discuss Hume in the context of the time he lived in and as usual we strayed into our own times and how his philosophy fitted into current thinking. Hume proclaimed that “Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions” There were many differing opinions about what that actually meant. He had strong views about how our thoughts resulted from our experiences and were not part of a grand plan of god’s creation. A discussion ensued about ‘Nature versus nurture’ and how even twins can develop in totally different ways. It would be impossible to cover the depth and width of our discussions over almost two hours, but I would say that this was probably one of our liveliest meetings to date. Our next meeting on the 16th March will be looking at the Philosopher and Politician John Stuart Mill. • Reading Group 2 – Mark Pearson reports that Readers Group 2 has continued to meet over Zoom during lockdown: We have settled into a routine of meeting at 7.30pm on the third Tuesday of the month and find that video conferencing is not a barrier to a good chat. New members have recently joined the group and we do have some capacity should anyone be interested. The plan will be to again meet face to face when the current restrictions are lifted. At our February meeting we had a lengthy discussion of Jasper Rees' biography of Victoria Wood - Let's Do It. A weighty tome (unless you read on a Kindle or other electronic device ... or indeed listen to the audio book version). The general opinion was a thumbs-up with some of the group feeling that it went into too much detail. The die-hard Victoria Wood fans 3 amongst us, enjoyed that extra layer of information. We are currently reading Fludd, by Hilary Mantel, a dryly humorous novella set in a fictional Yorkshire mill town in the 1950s centring on its church and its catholic priest… think "Father Ted meets Henry James” and you’re not far off. We’ll be meeting on Tuesday 16th March to discuss this book and plan our March-into-April read, Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. 4. Contributions from Members Now as you may know, before each Newsletter I send out a cry for help, and kind members come to my rescue by sending in delightful contributions. Last Tuesday at the BYO Coffee and Chat I thought it was an opportunity not to be missed, so suggested … once or twice, maybe… that those present may wish to send in an item or two by Friday…. and it worked! By Friday…. By Chris Thornton With Brian, Ken and Laura, too, David, Margaret, Bob and Sue, Me and Sandra had a chat - ‘bout nothing much, just this and that. Online jigsaws, postcards, too, Virtual trips for us to do… Covid jabs we all had had, Things that niggle, make us mad. Roofing problems (Bob, that’s yours), Finding stuff to do indoors. Wishing we could meet a friend, Praying June will bring an end. Chatting over, Sue declared, ‘That topic’s great – it should be shared. Just write it up and send my way. Be sure to do it…. ….by Friday’ And Bob Coley responded with this: Desperate to go on holiday? Of course, we all are, so your Groups Co-ordinator and his wife Margaret thought they would go on a tour round Venice last week and also a tour round beautiful Sicily. I can hear you all saying, ‘how did they do that?’ Well, it’s easy really and you don’t have to move out of your living room………….. Firstly, you go to Google and put in the following link or type the details into your address bar: Virtualtrips - Sign up , then sign up and follow the on-screen details, it is completely FREE to join, then 4 you are set to go on a LIVE tour in many parts of the world. You can give a Tip to the tour guide if you wish but it is NOT compulsory. Each tour lasts about 45 mins. ENJOY….Good weather not guaranteed! (Having heard about this website at the BYO coffee afternoon, I went off to Paris last Thursday…what a treat!) Jean Mills has been doing some gardening - Maxie decided to help: “WELL....YOU DID SAY WE WERE GOING TO DO SOME DIGGING...SORRY ABOUT THE PLANTS”. Two of our choir members, J and J Webster sent this lovely photograph of the snowdrops in their back garden ‘You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try’. A quote from Beverley Sills (opera singer) sent in by Marilyn Aldred. 5 Someone who most definitely has not failed is Alison Gavagan who has sent these stunning photographs taken in February: Fence encased in ice on Reddy Shore Scout The same fence from a distance Along the Pennine Way above the Summit pub A hump backed bridge also on the Pennine Way above the Summit pub. Another funny one from Martin Luke 6 Here are a few of several amusing extracts sent in by Regina Welsh, of complaints sent to Councils: Lis Kay wondered if an old-fashioned small ads section might be useful in the newsletter for our members as we switch from group to group. She has given up the ukulele as she found her fingers were too stiff to be of much use picking out the chords, so she has a redundant ukulele which may be of use to another member wishing to take up the instrument. Maybe you have books or equipment lying around that you no longer need for your group and that you would like to advertise here in the Newsletter? Let me know if you have…or if you need a ukulele! Something I read this week which made me stop and think: I have learned not to correct people even when I know they are wrong.