SUNDERLAND U3A

FEBRUARY 2013 No: 31

Sunderland U3A Fulwell Methodist Dovedale Road Sunderland

MEETING: 3rd Wednesday of each month at 1.30 for 2.00pm

MEMBERSHIP: 0191 549 0984

Sunderland University of the Third Age: A member of the Third Age Trust

Hello and Goodbye selection of museums own pictures. We will meet in the Laing coffee bar between 10.15 to 10.30am

Hello everyone and welcome to this slightly different version of your magazine. As you know, Due to the dreaded “CUTS” we will be expected to pay £2.00 per person for the tour. This Elsie has stepped down as Editor and I have taken over the daunting task of will be collected before the tour starts at 10.45am. following in her footsteps. She is still there, however, to keep me on the right track, and it is only thanks to her efforts that I can follow on in a similar vein. Thanks, Elsie, for all your hard work over the last five years. There are other collections in the Laing e.g.”Northern Soul” which is limited to 10 visitors at a time, and “Painted Faces”. Everyone can view these free of charge and visitors are welcome In May we hope to publish the larger magazine you are used to, which will to stay on after our tour or return at any time. serve as a kind of ‘Year Book’ with all of the useful information you are used to receiving about groups, committee members, contacts and so on. As well as this there will be Group Leaders Sheila Humby Phone 548 2259 other, possibly smaller, issues during the year with items of interest, news, upcoming dates and Rose Marshall Phone 528 1468 so on. Meanwhile I decided to do this trial run, if you like, in the form of a ‘minimag’.

One thing I do know is that your input is still just as vital so do keep sending me your items for inclusion – group news, events, prose, poetry etc. are all welcome. MUSIC APPRECIATION Held on the 4th Friday of the month at Dock St Tower Block - press 9 to You can be let in; turn left to lounge. • email me at dorothy.mse @ btinternet.com, • post to 4 Kenton Grove, Sunderland SR6 0HH Programme • or hand it to me in person. Friday 22nd February " Music inspired by Shakespeare" 22nd March " Chopin" 26th April " Russian Composers"

Dorothy Scott Group Leader Joyce Hoseason Phone 548 6041 0191 565 2108

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ POETRY APPRECIATION We meet on the second Tuesday of each month at GROUP NOTICES Station Museum from 10.15 to 12.00.

We are currently exploring human emotions expressed in poetry. We th ANTIQUES AND COLLECTORS have found Jealousy and Happiness and February 13 will be Anger. Sadly, due to a combination of circumstances, the Antiques Group has had to cease. I’m sure we would all like to thank Rob Lewin for the very interesting and informative insight he gave us Group Leader Elizabeth Robson Phone 567 1421 into the world of antiques and collectables.

READING GROUP LOOKING AT ART Our Reading Group has been running for 8 years now, we meet at 2pm on the 4 th Thursday The Looking at Art Group meet every 3 rd Thursday of the month. We go to of the month at the Central Library. Books are provided by the Library and the whole group galleries in the North East by public transport to see both Touring and Local is free of any charge. We are now looking for a few new members to bring their opinions to exhibitions. All U3A members are warmly welcomed to join in. add to those we already have.

Following on from our viewing of the interesting DVD about Rembrandt in st We met in December to discuss our recent November reading, which was “Cold Comfort January we will be showing another at our February 21 morning meeting at Farm” by Stella Gibbons, this was a satire on the popularity of novels set in rustic Monkwearmouth Station Museum. This one is about the Post Impressionists communities at the time of publishing in the 1930’s. The author had a wicked sense of including Toulouse Lautrec, Villard and Surat. humour which we all enjoyed.

On the morning of March 21 st we will visit the Laing Gallery at Newcastle, where our favourite Friend of the Laing, Jean Scott, will lead us on a tour of their latest exhibition called “Sunlit Pleasures”. This is a collection of paintings connected to the St.Ives area and consists of a In January we met and talked about “A Tale of Two Cities “by Charles Dickens, BRAINTEASER which has a very interesting and complicated plot taking place in both France at the time of Revolution and England as a refuge. What do the seven following words all have in common?

We are currently reading “Perfume” by Patrick Suskind and will meet in late Banana February to exchange our thoughts on this and collect the next book which is “The Dresser Gargoyle” by Andrew Davidson. Grammar Potato Come along to our next meeting, you will be very welcome. Revive Uneven Assess Group Leader Rose Marshall Phone 528 1468 (answers on back page)

======Dates for your Diary Computer Tips As well as all the interesting things on offer from U3A here are numerous other groups providing a wide variety of activities. Here are some you may be interested in. At times I feel that working on the computer is rather akin to having my teeth pulled without the benefit of novocaine. If you are similarly disposed you might be interested in a series FOSUMS (Friends of Sunderland Museum) giving some hints and tips. Here are some for starters. +++++++ Meetings at Sunderland Museum, on second Saturday of each month 2-4pm. £1 entry fee for When you type in a webpage address you do not need to put in the non-members. http://www , or even just the www. The web address is all you need. For example typing in ebay.co.uk will take you straight to the homepage of 9 March Bill Coates The Life and Times of the Lifeboat ebay. +++++++ 13 April Bill Griffiths To Study the Monument – Hadrian’s Wall If you are filling out a form online, such as a car insurance quote, it is very tedious moving from one information box to the next by means of the 11 May Glass Centre Roadshow mouse. Instead, you can use the tab key (on the left side of your keyboard with arrows going either way). Once you have filled in the first line of your address, say, just hit the tab key to move you on to the next Wearside Field Club required field.Shift + tab will move you back to the previous field. +++++++ If you are looking at a web page, spreadsheet , word document and so on and want to zoom The Wearside Field Club meets every second Tuesday of the month at 7.30pm in the Fulwell in on something just hold down the Ctrl key and use the wheel on your mouse (if you have Community Centre, Chapman Street, Fulwell. Admission is £1 and all are welcome. Here are one) to zoom in and out. some upcoming events.

th More tips to follow – feel free to pass on any you may have Tues 12 March AGM John George Lambton and Monument

(Bernard Hope) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

rd Sat 23 March Local walk - led by Ray and Jean Sharratt. Meet at Great Lumley at 10.30am Did you know .... Wednesday is Seniors Day at the Empire cinema. th Tues 9 April Scratching the Earth’s Crust Round Sunderland. (Jack Inch) All tickets cost £3, which includes tea or coffee and a biscuit. A leaflet is available at the cinema for the films Sat 27 th April Goathland and Whitby. A walk led by Allan and Norma Major.

Tues 14 th May The Press Gang . (Doug Smith) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eating in the UK in the Fifties Another very pleasant daffodil walk is to be found at Farndale in North Yorkshire, where wild daffodils bloom along a picturesque riverside Do you remember when...... walk, although you might need to consider appropriate footwear if the weather is bad. * Curry was an unknown entity. * Olive oil was kept in the medicine cabinet Of course, closer to home there is always the fine display of crocuses in * A takeaway was a mathematical problem. Backhouse Park. * All crisps were plain; the only choice we had was whether to put the salt on or not. Wherever you venture this spring I hope you find good weather * Condiments consisted of salt, pepper, vinegar and brown sauce if we were lucky. * Soft drinks were called pop - coke was something that we mixed with coal to make it last ======longer. * A Chinese chippy was a foreign carpenter. * Rice was a milk pudding, and not part of our dinner. Easter Fun * A Big Mac was what we wore when it was raining.

* Oil was for lubricating your bike not for cooking, fat was for cooking Easter is on its way and no doubt lots of us will be involved in buying Easter * Bread and jam was a treat. eggs and maybe making Easter decorations or gifts. These days there are * Tea was made in a teapot using tea leaves, not bags. plenty of organised events over the school holidays – for example, the * Tea had only one colour, black. Green tea was not British. is running the Easter Egg Trails again this year in conjunction * Coffee was only drunk when we had no tea….. and then it was Camp, and came in a bottle. with Cadbury’s. * Cubed sugar was regarded as posh. * Figs and dates appeared every Christmas. * Coconuts only appeared when the fair came to town. Thinking back to when we were young my mind conjures up images of painting paste eggs * Salad cream was a dressing for salads, mayonnaise did not exist. and blown eggs. Some people coloured eggs with onion skins too. And do you remember * The starter was our main meal. ‘egg jarping’? This is a game where contestants bash each other’s hard boiled eggs (at the * The menu consisted of what we were given, and was set in stone. pointed end) in an attempt to break their opponents whilst keeping their own intact – a bit * Only Heinz made beans, any others were impostors. like conkers really. Although the game is played all over the world it may surprise you to * Leftovers went in the dog. know that the National Championships are held here in the North East. They used to be held * Fish was only eaten on Fridays and it didn’t have fingers on Easter Sunday at Peterlee Sports and Social Club until a fire in 2010 brought it to a halt. * Ready meals only came from the fish and chip shop.. Then last year the competition was resurrected and held at the Hearts of Oak in * Frozen food was called ice cream. Peterlee. I don’t know if that will be the venue again this year. * Nothing ever went off in the fridge because we didn’t have one. As you might guess, the symbolism of the egg dates back to pagan More fifties reminiscences to follow – do you have any to share? times when it represented rebirth of the earth and featured in pagan celebrations of spring. It was subsequently adopted by Christians as a ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ symbol of the rebirth of man.

So if the young ones in your family are at a bit of a loose end why not Spring is in the Air get those eggs boiling and have a smashing time this Easter.

Isn’t it lovely to see plants bursting into life after the dreadful winter we have had? If you would like to take a trip out to enjoy the spring bulbs at their best and most impressive, here are a few ======suggestions for places to visit.

Howick Hall Gardens, near Alnwick, began their Snowdrop Festival If you go down to the Woods today...... on 9 th February and this is followed by displays of daffodils in March/April, followed by other spring flowers. They are open Wed to For details of woodlands to visit either near or far, just Sun 10.30 to 4.00. VisitWoods.org.uk where you will find places quite near which you may well have not realised were there to be visited. Just entering Sunderland Those who have been to Thorpe Perrow Arboretum,(pictured) will as the search area brings up ten woods to visit within a five mile radius know that it provides a lovely display of daffodils and bluebells, and Harlow Carr is renowned for its collection of primulas.

RECIPES Method

Preheat oven to 170c/325F/gas mark 3 PEANUT BUTTER SQUARES Grease and base line a 900g (2lb) loaf tin with baking parchment

If you fancy a very moreish traybake which does not involve any cooking then why not Place all of the cake ingredients into a large bowl and beat using give this one a try. You will need – an electric hand whisk until just smooth and pale.

Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for 55 – 65 minutes until a skewer comes 150g butter out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake. If you think the top of the cake 200g dark chocolate (min 70%), or milk chocolate or a is getting too brown as it nears the end of cooking just cover with a bit of baking mixture of both parchment. 250g digestive biscuits

200g soft light brown sugar Leave the cake to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes then remove from tin and 300g crunchy peanut butter leave to cool completely on a wire rack. 1 tsp vanilla extract

When the cake is completely cool, make the icing by mixing together the icing Line a 20cm cake tin with baking parchment. sugar and the juice, a little at a time, then drizzle over the cake and sprinkle Melt the butter, add the crushed biscuits, sugar, peanut butter and vanilla extract. over the zest. Put this in the tin, pour over the melted chocolate.

Put in the freezer for 30 min or the fridge for 1 hour. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cut into 16 squares.

The squares will keep for a good few days (if you can keep your hands off them!) AMUSING ANAGRAMS

PRESBYTERIAN: When you rearrange the letters: BEST IN PRAYER *************** ASTRONOMER: When you rearrange the letters: MOON STARER

And just as easy is this recipe for THE EYES: When you rearrange the letters: THEY SEE COCONUT AND LIME CAKE GEORGE BUSH: When you rearrange the letters: HE BUGS GORE Ingredients THE MORSE CODE: When you rearrange the letters: HERE COME 175g butter, softened DOTS 3 large eggs, beaten 250g condensed milk SLOT MACHINES: When you rearrange the letters: CASH LOST IN 40g desiccated coconut ME 1 lime – finely grated zest and juice of 175g self-raising flour 1tsp baking powder ANIMOSITY: When you rearrange the letters: IS NO AMITY

For the icing ELECTION RESULTS: When you rearrange the letters: LIES - LET'S RECOUNT 100g icing sugar 1 lime – zest and juice of

POMPEII AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM ANNIVERSARIES

th th From 28 March to 29 September the British Museum will be featuring an exhibition entitled 200 years ago: Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, was first published. Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum, in which they will seek to give an insight into this catastrophic event and will display over 250 objects, some of which have never been seen 200 years ago: Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone was born. He died 60 before outside of Italy. These include pieces of wooden furniture from Herculaneum which were years later in present day Zambia, where his heart is buried beneath a mvule tree. carbonised due to the extreme heat of the ash. They include a linen chest, an inlaid stool, a garden bench and a baby’s crib. 100 years ago: The first Tour de France was staged on 1st July 1913.

In AD79 Mount Vesuvius erupted and within 24 100 years ago: The first Chelsea Flower Show was staged, although it was then called hours had buried the cities of Pompeii and the RHS Great Spring Show. It was held as a one-off event but has been held almost every Herculaneum in volcanic ash, molten stones and year since. other debris. This picture from Wikipedia shows a view of Vesuvius from the ruins of Pompeii. 100 years ago: On 4 th June 1913 suffragette Emily Davison threw herself on front of the Although many were able to escape the King’s horse at the Epsom Derby. She died of her injuries four days later. devastation it is thought about 16000 people lost their lives. 75 years ago: In 1938 the A4 class steam train Mallard set the world speed record for a steam train, attaining an incredible 126mph (downhill) and that record still stands. To The only eye witness account of the events comes commemorate the event, all six surviving A4 class steam engines, from all over the world, from Pliny the Younger, who was living in will be on display at York Railway Museum. Misenium, across the Bay of Naples. His uncle, Pliny the Elder, was commander of the Roman fleet at Misenium. He set sail to investigate the situation but lost his life at the hands of the 60 years ago: Queen Elizabeth ll crowned. eruption. 50 years ago: On 8 th August 1963 the Great Train Robbers carried out their notorious Sited on the Bay of Naples, the two cities lay undisturbed under the volcanic ash for nearly 1700 raid on the Glasgow to London mail train. They stole £2.6 million, which in today’s terms is years until they were discovered by archaeologists and so a fascinating glimpse into Roman life equivalent to £40 million. was preserved for posterity, albeit in tragic circumstances. In fact, excavation is still going on.

Famous finds show people, and even a dog, frozen in ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ time, such was the sudden and ferocious nature of the eruption. As trapped bodies decomposed they left voids Inverness Castle seen from across the River Ness. in the surrounding ash, which were later filled with plaster to recreate the original figures. This picture We visited Inverness – Britain’s northernmost city – as shows the casts of some of the victims and was taken part of our December trip to Kingussie and Cairngorm by Lancevortex, 30 Jan, 2000. with Bob Younger’s Travel Group. As you can see it was a glorious day and the city has an attractive riverside. Vesuvius is still an active volcano, having erupted The whole trip was really enjoyable and gave us our first within the last hundred years, and still poses a danger taste of snow this winter! to the millions of people who live nearby. The last eruption was in 1944. As you can imagine, it is now Thanks Bob. closely monitored by an array of modern technology in order to detect any signs of magma rising beneath the volcano and thus giving early warning of any potential ANSWER TO BRAINTEASER danger. In all of the words listed, if you take the first letter, place it at the end of the word, and then spell the word backwards, it will still be the same word! Ta Da!