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Hoylake, West Kirby & District Registered Charity number 1164889

April 2020

A word from the Chair...

We are going through a time which could not

be anticipated, or even imagined. The

committee hope all members are keeping

calm, but also taking suitable steps for

personal safety and wellbeing.

It is with great regret that we have postponed monthly

speaker meetings and urged our interest groups not to meet.

We will seek to resume as soon as it is safe to do so. In the

meantime, some interest groups are striving to encourage a

degree of email interchange between members. I am able to

do this with the two groups I run, but feasibility does differ

from subject to subject. We would love to hear from you if

you lead or belong to a Group which is managing to keep

going. Such continued participation of group leaders and

members is invaluable in keeping alive our skills or interests -

something so essential to a healthy lifestyle in one's later

years.

National Office of U3A give guidelines for coping in the

present situation, which we follow. Why not look at the

national website for yourselves? (There is a link to this at the

end of this Newsletter) You will find out more about how

much goes on in U3A generally - it really is a dynamic,

remarkably wide-ranging, movement. And as far as local

matters are concerned in the present difficult days, if you

have a query or suggestion, do feel free to contact me 0151

342 5775, or preferably by email via

arthurmaltby08@gmail.com (This is my new email address,

different from that shown in a recent "Newsflash".)

The committee members are very happy with Hope Church as our main meeting

location. Church staff and members have been extremely supportive and helpful. If

you attended the March Speaker meeting you will have seen that the Check-in desk

is now in the hallway, and we are using the adjacent ‘Small Hall’ for Interest Group

Information, Membership and Social events, thus freeing extra space in the main

area and around the coffee bar.

We will continue to listen and explore ways to make your U3A meetings as

comfortable and enjoyable as possible.

Take good care,

Arthur

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Membership Update

We would like to extend a warm welcome to the following new

members who joined us recently. They are as follows:-

December 2019: Jean Buckle, Peter Carew, Edna Johnson, Charles Ward, Cheryl

Whittingham-Jones, Graham Whitehouse.

January 2020: Katie Bristow, Joyce Chaderton, Gillian Creek,Jacqueline Doughty,

Janice Hatton, Barbara Jones, Barbara Jowers, Caroline Loram, Peggy Mercer, Sheila

Walker, Janet Weisenborn, Jenny Pender, John Slope,

February: David Jones, Keith Mercer, John Palszylka, Nancy Rudd, Peter Russell,

Shirley Taylor, Lance Robinson,

March: Josie Godfrey, Win Prebble,

It’s such a great pity that our very new members will not have had the opportunity

to enjoy any of our Groups or events.

When this current crisis is over and we are able to emerge from isolation the

Membership team look forward to arranging some welcome Coffee mornings for our

new members. A good opportunity to put isolation behind us and meet to get to

know each other. Interest Group and Social Information will be available too.

These coffee mornings are now held at The Grange on Meols Drive, Hoylake, which

provides a pleasant and relaxed environment for these social occasions. Good coffee

and great views too! Once we are up and running again, all new members will

receive an email or telephone invitation from a member of the Groups team or the

Committee.

Meanwhile, please direct any membership queries to me, Graham, on 632 2742

The Membership Team: Graham Thwaite, Eirwen Thomas, Jean Graham.

We send condolences to family and friends of the three of our members who have passed away during the last few months.

John Dent. John had been a member and supporter for many years. Latterly he had been unable to attend but had always

taken a great interest in the U3A. Our sympathy goes to Rhoda and all his family.

Barbara Howard was a well-known, enthusiastic, and hardworking member from the very beginning of our U3A. She set up the very popular Art History Group and ran it successfully from her home for many years. Our sympathy goes to David, a

former Vice Chairman, and all their family and friends. Joan Metcalfe, Joan set up our first Local Interest Group in 2014. Since then 4

more of these Groups have formed, all following the same successful formula. Great sympathy goes to all Joan’s family and friends.

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Social Events - ‘normal service will be resumed as soon as possible’

We had some super Social events arranged for this Spring,

and were very much looking forward to them. To our

dismay, the Liverpool Empire closed its doors just hours

before 40 of us were due to see ‘The King and I’! The

Ticket agency won’t refund, but will give a credit for

another show.

Lunch at the the Bickerton Poacher, a country pub in the heart of leafy Cheshire has

been cancelled, also the tour of the telescope at Jodrell Bank. The meal at Lino’s

Restaurant is not until July, but will most likely be postponed.

However, Audrey, Vanessa and Jean are prepared to rebook those events and full

information about them will be detailed in future News Letters.

I couldn’t resist slapping another Test Card on here!

The original black and white Test Card C, first appeared in

1948 and was on our screens until the early 1970’s.

Test Card F was created in 1967 by BBC engineer George

Hershey to help television owners tune their shiny new

colour sets, and featured a photo of his daughter Carole

with Bubbles the Clown.

Did you know that the X on the noughts and crosses board was included to indicate

the approximate centre of the card? It must have been interesting viewing - a

generation of children stared at it for most of the 1970s!

Interest Groups

In these uncertain times, it is really important that we try to keep

in touch with each other; I know several groups are doing this via

the internet or by post.

Our Creative Writing group should have met this morning but instead, those who

wished to have sent their stories to me on the internet and I have shared with the

group. One person in the group does not have the internet so has sent me her story in

the post.

I hope that some of you are able to keep your groups going, if you are interested in

ways of doing so, there is some advice from the Trust’s Subject advisors in the latest

National Newsletter and a link to some of the suggestions they give on the last page of

this Newsletter.

I appreciate that not everyone has access to the internet, but by using the phone and

post maybe we can hopefully stay in touch in some way.

Stay safe everyone,

Helen Crelley

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Victoria Doran – Holed up in Morocco

Our Hoylake and West Kirby U3A recently

retired Chairperson, Victoria Doran, set out

on an international tour, Victoria calls this

‘Victoria’s Retirement Gap Travels’.

In late January of this year, Victoria set off to Morocco on the first leg of her

itinerary. She planned to spend a couple of months exploring parts of Morocco, then

onto the next destination.

Casablanca was the first place to visit. From there she went on a train trip to the

small town of Azemmour. After a couple of weeks Victoria travelled to Essaouira,

where, Linda Trim, another one of our U3A members, flew out to visit. Linda stayed

for a couple of weeks, Victoria hired a car to take Linda back to Marrakech airport.

Victoria kept the car for a few more days to explore the area around Essaouria.

On Monday, 2nd March Victoria moved to Rabat. She is staying in an Airbnb, in the

medina, with a Muslim family who own the house.

At this point it became evident that the Corona

Virus is spreading and has reached Morocco.

Victoria’s next destination was to be USA, however

by 15th March, Victoria decided to stay put in Rabat

for the duration, the family want her to stay with

them. When danger has passed, the itinerary will

be replanned. It was possible to go out for short

walks, but now, Victoria is not allowed to go out.

This is very frustrating because she is a very active

person and used to lots of walking.

The general plan of all the houses is a central courtyard with the rooms arranged

around it. In this house the courtyard has a pitched glass roof, and that is the only

natural light. So the rooms are quite dark. It can be quite cold inside the house at

this time of year, and they all wear more clothes inside than we normally do in

England. It is probably nice and cool in the summer though. It has been cloudy with

occasional rain lately, and the house has got even colder. It will warm again when

the sun re-emerges.

Victoria is writing a blog, which is viewable www.vdorantravels.com.

If you view the blog, there is a comments section at the bottom of

each post, below the comments section you can enter your name and

e-mail address and tick a box if you wish to be notified of new posts

from Victoria by e-mail.

Jonathan Thornton

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Leaving Spain

Many of you will know Harry Copnall, our previous Speaker Secretary, and his

partner Ann Stott, who you will remember as our previous Interest Groups Co-

ordinator.

For the last two years they have over-wintered in Spain. This year their stay came

to an abrupt and frightening end. Harry will tell you about it here ...

On our last night in Denia I fancied fish and chips, (of course) so we went to a

pub, to The Railway Tavern where the customers are mostly English. The lady behind the bar

said ”You’ve come for your last supper have you?”

We were not aware of what was happening as we didn’t have English speaking TV news, but

were told that Spain was going into lockdown from midnight, with severe travel restrictions being

put in place. So we thought ...get out whilst we can, and get into France. We managed to book

into a Hotel in Perpignan, and first thing next morning we made a dash for it.

The drive into France was very quiet and long on the motorways due to the lockdown, and all the

service area restaurants were closed.

Arriving in Perpignan we found that we were the only ones staying in the Hotel. We found a

supermarket open so had a sort of picnic in the Hotel room.

From Perpignan we moved over to Bordeaux to resume our planned route with pre-booked

hotels. There was a semi lockdown in place, so again nowhere to eat, and another improvised

picnic.

That was the Sunday night, when Macron implemented a total lockdown, and restricted travel.

That was the only time that I got a little perturbed about the fact that we may not get out of

France.

Macron had waffled on in his announcement, and omitted to say that travel was restricted, with

the exception of people returning home, including UK residents in transit.

So I thought..sod it, we’ll keep motoring till we’re stopped, and set off for Calais.

When we arrived at the Hotel in Calais to stay we found it almost full of Gendarme on standby to

enforce the lockdown. The police were being fed in the hotel, but not the guests. I think possibly

the food was being supplied by the authorities but it looked good.

When I enquired if we could have a knife and fork the manager couldn’t do enough for us and

supplied everything we needed to sit down in our room and eat. Although there was no hot food

to be had, we were getting bits from the supermarkets.

Wednesday morning saw us at the pet checking office with our two dogs, a quick process, and

then into the departure check-in for the 10.50 train. Plenty of room (contrary to what I’d been told

two days previously) Through to the train and we caught the 09.25 - something good at last - but

that was handled by the English! And so we arrived home, somewhat shell-shocked.

That folks is the gist of our adventure, there were one or two little hic-ups along the way, a burst

tyre, an engine warning light having to be replaced, and a hold your breath moment at one of the

motorway tolls.

So ends another episode, but depending on what the future holds, God willing, we may well go

back next winter again. We’ll sit on it for a couple of months then decide what we’ll do but if

anyone would like any more info or wants to know more about the places we stayed in Spain I’ll

be only too pleased to help. harry.copnall@talktalk.net

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The Virus

Can I catch if from my post?

According to the World Health Organisation risk of catching the virus from a package

that has been moved, travelled, and exposed to different conditions and temperature

is low.

Do I need to wash my groceries?

NHS says it is unlikely to be spread through packages or food. You should dispose of

any packaging and wash your hands thoroughly after handling your groceries.

After that, here’s a little ditty that will make you smile:

Tae a Virus

Twa months ago, we didna

ken

Yer name or ocht aboot ye,

Lots of things hae changed since then,

I really must revile ye.

Yer spreading rate is quite intense,

Yer feeding like a gannet.

Disruption caused is so immense,

Ye’ve shaken all oor planet.

Corona used tae be a beer.

They garnished it wae limes,

But noo it’s filled us awe wi fear.

These days are scary times.

Nae shakin hawns or peckin lips.

It’s whit they awe advise.

But scrub them weel, richt

tae the tips.

that’s how we’ll awe survive

Just stay inside the hoose an hide.

Nae sneakin’ oot for strolls.

Just check the lavvy every hoor

And count your stock o’ rolls.

Oor holidays are all pit aff,

So says oor high heid gaffer.

Pit oan yer thermals, hae a laugh,

And paddle ‘Doon the waater ‘

Canary isles? No for a while.

Nae need for suntan cream,

And a’ because o’ this wee bug

We ken tae be 19.

Boredom surely will set in,

But have a read or doodle,

Or plan yer menu for the month,

Wi lots o’ big pot noodle.

When the noodle pots run oot.

A change. It would be nice.

We’ve beans and pasta by the ton.

And tweenty stane o’ rice.

Ye might be gallus noo, ma freen,

As ye jump fae cup tae cup,

But when we get oor vaccine made,

Yer nummer will be UP!

Written by Willie Sinclair and submitted

by Eirwen Thomas

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The Online Garden/Outings Group

We were all looking forward to some lovely outings this year - but it

was not to be.

I kept your cheques for a while, but as hopes faded of each months

trip the cheques were destroyed. I have optimistically kept the ones

from August to the end of the year. Lets keep all fingers and toes

crossed that we manage some of them.

You won’t be surprised to hear that Carvers are doing nothing, and are not expecting to

resume until (hopefully) the schools return in September. All our regular, friendly

Drivers have been laid off on 80% of their pay, but Carvers still have huge overhead

expenses during this shutdown.

At the moment we can only look back on all the lovely times we have had together, and

hope they come again soon. I have made many, many friends in this group, we must

keep it going because I miss you all!

Stay in, stay well,

Marjorie.

Newsletters

We hope to continue to keep in touch with members by Newsletters, but

regret that they can now only be sent via email. We would normally

have printed copies available to collect at Speaker meetings, and

Committee members would deliver a copy to those without an email address. This is

not possible,and postal charges are prohibitive. If you know of anyone who has an

email address and is not receiving this Newsletter please let Graham know. Phone

632 2742 or email gray711@gray711.plus.com

We’d love to hear from you!

Please send us an email and let us know how you are getting

on during these dreary days.

How are you keeping in touch with family and friends? Has

anyone tried Zoom? Our Yoga group are using it successfully

and the Committee intends to meet this way. Its also a good

way for families to get together. There is a link to the Zoom

app and instructions how to download and use it in one of

the U3A links given below.

We, on the Committee, all miss the buzz of our monthly speaker meetings, we miss our

Interest Groups, we miss our Committee meetings, but most of all, we miss you - our

members.

Nobody joins the U3A unless they enjoy meeting people. Nobody stays on a Committee

unless they enjoy what they’re doing. When this scary time is over we want to pick up

where we left off with our U3A. So let us know that you are still there, send a message

to: marbroom@gmail.com

Write a little piece for those in your own Interest Group, or tell us how you are managing

to get your shopping, or about anything that is interesting or entertaining you during

this confinement. You could cheer us up no end!

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Useful Email Links

Click or tap on the link, or copy and paste it into your browser window.

U3A National Website. Loads of interesting items on this site:

https://www.u3a.org.uk/

The U3A National Newsletter. Sign up to have it delivered by email:

https://www.u3a.org.uk/newsletter

A link to advice on how to download and use Zoom:

https://www.u3a.org.uk/advice/policy-downloads/using-zoom-on-phones-and-

tablets/viewdocument/600

Our own Website:

https://u3asites.org.uk/hoylake/home

Cryptic crosswords:https://www.u3a.org.uk/resources/subjects/272-cryptic-

crosswords

Quizzes: https://www.u3a.org.uk/resources/subjects/480-quizzes

TED talks. Many subjects of interest:

https://www.ted.com/

Wirral Website with current info and assistance:

www.wirralinfobank.co.uk

https://wirralview.com/news/new-online-resource-help-residents-get-help-they-need

· Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/wirralcouncil/photos/a.217857648259595/321611667843366

2/?type=3&theater

· Twitter: https://twitter.com/WirralCouncil/status/1243589648322039811