Burnley and District u3a News Sheet Issue 12 It's hard to believe that this is the 12th edition of our News-Sheet and that it's approaching its first anniversary. When I first took on the task of editing the News- Sheet I didn't expect it to continue for so long and nor, I suspect, did you. Nonetheless, here we are and here we are likely to be for a little while yet. I hope that, by now, most if not all members will have received at least their first dose of one or other of the vaccines and are feeling somewhat safer and reassured. How was your experience? I received my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine at the St Peter's Centre in Burnley, courtesy of my GP. The whole process took around 20 minutes, with no queuing, and I suffered no after effects. Those of you who went to St Peter's probably shared the same experience. Maria's experience was very different. She went to Blackburn Cathedral for hers on a bitterly cold Saturday morning. What a shambles! Arriving five minutes before her appointed time she found a queue 250 to 300 yards long and had to stand outside with no shelter for an hour and three quarters or more before even arriving at the cathedral door. The whole process took two and a half hours: she was chilled to the bone and didn't warm up for the remainder of that day. To cap it all, she had the Oxford AZ vaccine and felt very ill for a day and a half afterwards, in common, we discovered, with many others who had that particular vaccine. You all know my opinions on the "Covidiots" who don't adhere to the requirements spelled out so many times by the Government and its medical and scientific advisers. Still we see blatant disregard for the rules designed to keep us safe and beat the virus. Maria and I try to take a daily walk and I can almost guarantee that we will see groups of three or more, clearly from different households, breaking the "one person can meet one other outside for exercise" rule. As well as this, when approaching and passing others, we always walk in single file to ensure we maintain "social distance". We find so many couples, usually walking hand-in-hand, who make no effort to move to single file, even on narrow paths. What we find disturbing is that a high proportion are of our generation, hence more vulnerable and should know better. Grrrr! End of rant! In spite of my constant cajoling I am still not being overwhelmed by submissions for the news-sheet and am generally reliant upon the same few regular contributors, although this month I'd like to thank Sandra Clarkson, Margaret Fletcher, Stuart Thorn, Steph Howarth and Lesley Hartley for their contributions, in addition to regulars Brenda Hayman, Lis Robinson and Bob Marks. We have around 200 members. Surely most of you must have amusing or entertaining anecdotes and interesting experiences to share, perhaps from your holidays or work, however long ago that may be. Perhaps you have recipes, or household and money saving hints and tips; jokes you have been sent in emails; anything that would appeal to fellow members. Many of you will have grandchildren. Why not share some of the amusing or quirky things they have said or done? There must be an endless variety of topics that could be shared for the entertainment or education of fellow members. You can even send me photos if you want. What else have you to do during lockdown? Don't worry that people may not enjoy it, or that your grammar or style of writing may 1 not be good enough. Just do it. No-one is going to judge and everyone will appreciate it. At the risk of ruffling a few feathers, is our u3a to be like so many other clubs and societies where 90% of members are content to sit back and let just a few do everything? Remember the u3a ethos is participation: everyone should play their part. Did you know that February 15th marked the 50th anniversary of our change to decimal currency? I still look back with affection on our "old money" and I'm not convinced that the change to decimal is something to be celebrated. We're British and should be proud to be different! It's sobering to realise that more than half of the population alive today wouldn't have a clue what you were talking about if you were to tell them something cost half a crown, or £3 15s 6d. They wouldn't know what a ten bob note was. I well remember when you could go to Freeman Hardy and Willis and buy a pair of shoes for 49/11d, or push the boat out and buy a really posh pair for 59/11d. Eeee! Them were t' days! Thanks for the positive comments about the jigsaws. I have included another one this month. It's a photo of one of our open meetings - Bill Honeywell talking about cycling through Yellowstone. I have just about exhausted my stock of photos of our u3a activities. If you'd like to send me photos of your u3a groups "in action" I shall gladly include them as jigsaws in future issues. Failing that, if they allow it, I'll use photos taken by members of the Photography Group With the vaccine now being rolled out "at pace", to use Government jargon, we should be cautiously optimistic that regular u3a activities can resume within the foreseeable future, although June or July is probably the earliest we can hope for. Fingers crossed. Stay safe, Stuart This month's jigsaw: It's 220 pieces and should be challenging with all that grey hair! Can you see yourself? Here's the link: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=1f38e28646d5 2 The following is from a leaflet sent to us by the TAT Trustee for the North West. It contains ideas and suggestions for maintaining contact with other members and for how groups could continue remotely during lockdown, with clickable links. It could be of particular interest to group leaders. You may note that there is, once again, mention of online Zoom courses. Sorry the font is rather small but I wanted to fit it all onto one page. 3 The Facebook Generation Q: How many people does it take to change a light bulb in a Facebook group? • 1 to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed. • 14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently. • 7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs. • 17 purists who use candles and are offended by light bulb discussions. • 6 to argue over whether it's 'lightbulb' or 'light bulb'. • Another 6 to condemn those 6 as stupid. • 22 to tell THOSE 6 to stop being jackasses. • 2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is 'lamp'. • 15 know-it-alls who claim they were in the industry, and that 'light bulb' is perfectly correct. • 249 to post memes and gifs (several are of someone eating popcorn with the words added, “I’m just here for the comments.”) • 19 to post that this page is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a light bulb page. • 11 to defend the posting to this page saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant here. • 12 to post F. • 8 to ask what F means. • 16 to post 'Following' but there's 3 dots at the top right that means you don't have to. • 3 to say "can't share" • 2 to reply "can't share from a closed group" • 36 People to post pics of their own light bulbs. • 15 People to post "I can't see S$%^!" and use their own light bulbs. • 6 to report the post or PM an admin because someone said "f÷×$" • 4 to say "Didn't we go through this already a short time ago?". • 13 to say "Do a search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs". • 1 to bring politics into the discussion by adding that (insert politician of choice) isn't the brightest bulb. This usually takes place within the first three comments. • 50 more to get into personal attacks over their political views. • 5 admins to ban the light bulb posters who took it all too seriously. • 1 late arrival to comment on the original post 6 months later and start it all over again. Stuart Thorn 4 More items of interesting word history The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperat- ure isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s. Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide their body odour. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married. Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the priv- ilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and fi- nally the children.