TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE RAVENSHEAD U3A RAVENSHEAD U3A Friday 20 March KEEPING IN TOUCH: TO MEMBERS, FROM MEMBERS, BY MEMBERS If you are restricting your travel, social distancing or even self-isolating you may be wondering what social contact there will be with the RU3A. Your Crisis Team has decided to try and maintain some [digital] social contact by turning into an Editorial Team and producing an occasional newsletter which will be emailed to you via Beacon. The format has to be basic because at the moment Beacon does not permit graphics so please understand. We hope this newsletter helps us all to connect, cheers you up, maybe teaches you something and makes you laugh. We would like to include your tips, ideas, stories, jokes as well as facts and useful information. We can only make this work if you send us your contributions and make this your newsletter. As we will not be meeting for a while Judith and Terry will put the RU3A magazine on hold. Any contributions already received will be kept until we are back in business. In the meantime, our KIT editorial team of Maria, Judith, Terry, Margaret and Sue will do what it says on the tin "Keep In Touch". Remember: TO MEMBERS, FROM MEMBERS, BY MEMBERS. ***** Coronavirus: What are social distancing and self-isolation? Do you know/understand the difference? Follow this link to the BBC site and read what each term means: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51506729 ***** LOCAL FOOD DELIVERIES Mark and Mel at the Ravenshead precinct have agreed to help us with food purchases and deliveries: Bradburys (Butcher and Deli) (Mark) 01623 793780. Orders over £20 will be delivered free in Ravenshead. Strawberry Fayre (Greengrocer and Florist) (Mel) 01623 491006. Orders over £20 will be delivered free in Ravenshead, Blidworth, Rainworth, Linby and Papplewick. Mark and Mel are collaborating and have both told us that a combined order over £20 will be delivered free. They will take one overall payment (and sort out the finances between them). Alternatively, phone through your order and collect shopping in the car park at the back of the shop – your shopping and the credit card machine will be brought to your car where you can pay cash or by card. This service is free. ***** PET SUPPLIES Lyn Parkinson (one of our members) has emailed to say her husband runs the family owned Mansfield Pet Stores and has decided to offer a delivery service for those who are struggling to get out to the shops. They live in Ravenshead and so can extend this service to Ravenshead residents. There won’t be any delivery charge but they ask for a minimum spend of £20. If anyone is interested then please give them a ring on 01623 622370 or send a message through facebook (@mansfieldpetstores) ***** GETTING TO KNOW YOU! QUESTION: Which of your committee members once hitchhiked from England to Malta? Answer later in this e-newsletter ***** RB DIGITAL PORTAL If you aren’t aware already, if you belong to Nottinghamshire Libraries you can read magazines for free on screen – the selection is huge – women’s magazines, photography, sports, gardening, food, cookery, birdwatching, health and fitness, homes, knitting, crochet, quilting, craft, TV, computers and other hobbies and interests. Follow this link to get started https://www.inspireculture.org.uk/reading-information/digital/ Whilst Inspire Libraries are closed you can still sign up for library membership online by following the steps in this link: https://www.inspireculture.org.uk/reading-information/libraries/joining-and-using-libraries/ ***** @@@@@ BREAKING NEWS @@@@@ All Inspire venues to close from Monday 23 March including Nottinghamshire County Libraries Inspire Culture and Nottinghamshire County Council are committed to the wellbeing of staff and customers during the current coronavirus pandemic. All Inspire venues will be closing from Monday 23 March until further notice. This includes all Nottinghamshire County Libraries, Archives, Arts, 16-18 Study Programmes, Adult, Community and Family Learning. This is in line with Nottinghamshire County Council’s response to government guidance on social distancing and plans to focus on essential services. Borrow up to 48 items with immediate effect With immediate effect you may borrow up to 48 books/DVDs and all overdue charges will be waived. If you wish to visit a library before Monday 23 March, check the opening times of your local library at inspireculture.org.uk/libraries and also inspireculture.org.uk/servicedisruption for details of existing closure. Mansfield library is open on Sunday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Inspire Onine resources We are providing a number of virtual services at inspireculture.org.uk/online including Learning, eResources such as eReading, eAudio and eMagazines at inspireculture.org.uk/eresources. We will be reviewing and increasing our online offer to provide other eServices during this time. MESSAGE FROM RACHAEL PARKER, Information Assistant Our virtual service for you to access at home! Whilst our library buildings are closed we’ve gathered details below of all the online resources you can still access from home. To be able to access some of these resources such as eReading and eAudio you will need to have a library membership. It is free to join and you can do this online as follows; • fill in the application form online here • once you have completed the form the next screen will give you your temporary membership number • email your name and temporary number to [email protected] • the ASK Inspire team will email you back with a membership number If you are already a member but have forgotten your PIN don’t worry, you can reset this when you login with your library account here. You can also sign up to receive emails from us so we can let you know when new resources and activities become available over the following weeks. Click here to sign up. If you have library books at home that you were unable to return before the libraries closed please don’t worry. We have suspended all late charges and you can just return the books as normal when we re-open. Unfortunately we cannot take reservations or make inter-library loans at this time. If you do have any enquiries during this time please contact our ASK Inspire team via email – [email protected]. Please do bear with us during this busy time as we endeavour to respond as soon as possible. If you don’t have access to email you can call the team on 01623 677 200. Kind Regards Rachael Parker Information Assistant Inspire Culture, Learning and Libraries Editor: Very many thanks to Rachael for this information. Rachael is working from home (along with lots of colleagues) on the Nottinghamshire Hub throughout this uncertain period. ***** RECIPES Share recipes – maybe wartime recipes – for a bit of fun! Do you know what a mug cake is? It takes minutes to prepare and seconds to ‘bake’ in the microwave – the time it takes to brew a pot of tea. Follow this link to the BBC site where there are lots of recipes to try out. In our view the chocolate ones look better as the plain ones turn out rather anaemic. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/mug-cake ***** YOU GOTTA LAUGH! What’s a quarantini? A regular martini but you drink it alone. The other day, my wife asked me to pass her lipstick but I accidentally passed her a glue stick. She still isn't talking to me. Two committee members of RU3A are talking: Maria says to Terry: “My memory is gone, Terry, so I’ve changed my password to ‘incorrect’. That way when I log in with the wrong password the computer tells me “your password is incorrect” Yesterday I received a catalogue. Among the articles on offer were 'elasticated women's belts'. I think in these times we should all be elasticated as we are in for a long stretch of isolation. “Ran out of toilet roll, so reduced to wiping my bum with lettuce leaves. I fear that’s just the tip of the iceberg……” On Facebook: Pack of toilet rolls in exchange for a 4-bedroom bungalow Why can't you find good photography jokes? They haven't been developed yet. Ever since buying a digital camera, I can only think of its positive points. There aren’t any negatives. Supermarkets have now introduced purchase limits in light of the panic buying: Asda: 2 hand sanitisers, 16 toilet rolls Morrisons: 1 hand sanitiser, 18 toilet rolls Tesco: 1 Hand sanitiser, 16 toilet rolls, 3L milk Aldi: 2 Trumpets, 1 canoe & 3 cement mixers ***** A MESSAGE FROM REVD KATE BYROM What strange times we are living in! You will probably have already gleaned that St. Peter’s and St. Mary’s Abbey Chapel are now suspending church services in response to the public health guidelines over COVID-19. I’m grateful to Maria for this opportunity to update U3A members about the life of our church and chapel at this time: • While we are allowed, the church will remain open and people are welcome to come in to pray individually, as long as distance between people can be retained if you should find you’re not alone. Prayers and reflections are available to inspire reflection. • If you would like to be kept in touch with church, we have a growing email community and anyone is welcome to join (whether they normally attend church or not). Please send your email address to [email protected] to be added. • For those who would like to worship from home, we will be attempting to livestream on facebook Sunday Holy Communion at 9.30am.