BLOG 13 4.6 · 2020. 6. 4. · BLOG 13 – 4.6.20 Unfortunately, we are seeing the end of the fabulous weather that we have had for the last few weeks, but it will give you more time

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BLOG 13 – 4.6.20

Unfortunately, we are seeing the end of the fabulous weather that we have had for the last few weeks, but it will give you more time now to join in with all our virtual meetings and to enjoy seeing your mates.

As it is volunteers’ week, I have a thank you for you all from the Third Age Trust, and I like to add to it my own and that of our Committee. We could not keep this running without

all of you, our members who make this the BEST U3A around (sorry my opinion).

We had a fantastic Zoom talk on Westminster Abbey by Sue Gil, for the history group this week. She is one of our members and

a blue badge guide as well as many other things.

What has happened in my house this week …..

My Grandson 21, at the end of three University years in Leeds, came home to finish his studies. After being in isolation he returned home to more isolation here and to finish his dissertation, so totally took over my lounge with computers, wires everywhere, playstation for relaxing in the evenings.

He also has dreadful hay fever, sneezes all day which rocked the house, and his extremely untidy room was completely littered with tissues everywhere. I ordered a dozen boxes at a time

from Amazon !!!!

It is a long time since I had a young man living in my home and I couldn’t believe how much he can eat.

Sam has gone back now to collect all his stuff from Leeds and I am really going to miss him.

I have been cooking for the first time in a long while as my daughter is supervising building work turning my garage into a studio.

People keep saying to me “Are you enjoying the sunshine?”

I haven’ t seen much of it.

Adrienne

I have never attended the group Remarkable Women run by Carmel Byers as it used to clash with other arrangements. However, in this time of lockdown and the wonderful ability we are now beginning to have on Zoom to find new interests and to support our wonderful group leaders, I asked if I could join in.

No problem and what a fascinating and stimulating and emotional afternoon it turned out to be.

I think that their remit is for their members to choose a woman that they either admire or feel deserve recognition (I might be wrong on this) and make a presentation on them or their life.

Firstly, it was Laura Yale who presented Diana Beck, 1900 - 1956 the first female neurosurgeon.

She was the first woman to be given charge of men in a consultant capacity in a major London teaching hospital, the Middlesex hospital and she played a large part in establishing neurosurgery in the United Kingdom. becoming a consultant at The Middlesex Hospital in London in 1947. During her 31-year career, she was the only female neurosurgeon in Western Europe and the United States.

Maureen Grossman gave a great talk on Sheila Wilcox her idol 1936 – 2017 who was a British-born eventer who won several national and international three-day events, including the Badminton Horse Trials and the European Championships. She won Bad-minton three consecutive years (1957–1959), and was the first woman rider in the UK to achieve international success.

I won’t go into the others as they were more private but Diana Lobatto and Sandra Clark both gave superb sum-maries of the lives of their mothers, both of whom had a very dramatic and inspiring part to play in their lives.. Similarly Sue Gil talked about her grandmother as a very special lady.

The session was run so well by Carmel and led to many questions and I had a really great afternoon. Thank you ladies who

participated and did a lot of hard work in putting their sto-ries together so well. Adrienne

We also got back to our group on Zoom last Thursday courtesy of Ted and Gary and had a really good discussion. Some of the TV series discussed were The A word, about how an autistic child

can wreak havoc on the dynamics of a family, the much-hyped Normal People about the awakenings of sex and love in a young couple. One person com-mented that if all the nudity was taken our twelve episodes could condensed to one or two. A place to call home - An Australian family saga series/soap about life in the fifties with about 5 series so try it. Lots of interesting films that members recom-mended. including Red Sea Diving Resort, The Boy who Harnessd the Wind, The

Last Dance, Unorthodox, The Capture, White Lines, Fauda.

That should keep you going for a while - I think they are all on Netflix or Amazon Prime. Enjoy. Adrienne

LOCKDOWN QUIZ FROM THE WEBMASTER (answers at the end of the blog)

If two rival, but neighbouring hair salons were to place their chairs

outside in their back yards (2m apart of course!), would his be considered as an outdoor competitive sport? John T

REPEAT OF PEPE MARTINEZ TALK FROM 26TH MAY The Pepe Martinez talk which was Zoomed on Tuesday 26th May on ‘From Bangladesh to Banksy - The story of London’s new East End’ will be repeated on Tuesday 9th June at 11.00. Please follow the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9238501234?pwd=KzdVSno2VkZXM2Q4SGUzaVI3cVl5Zz09 to enter the meeting OR use Meeting ID: 923 850 1234 Password: 9238501234

GROUP ZOOM MEETINGS FOR THE NEXT 9 DAYS – WILL ALL GROUP LEADERS USING

ZOOM PLEASE CHECK THAT THEIR DATES/TIMES ON THE FULL LIST UNDER THE

BLOGS/ZOOM TAB ON THE WEBSITE DARE CORRENT TO THE END OF JULY

Next 9 days of U3A Zoom meetings

Date

Start Time

Please contact the group leader via the website

Film and TV Appreciation 04/06/2020 10:00:00

Russian 04/06/2020 16:00:00

French 08/06/2020 10:00:00

Remarkable Women 08/06/2020 15:00:00

Radlett U3A Talk Pepe Martinez Playback 09/06/2020 11:00:00

Spanish 09/06/2020 15:00:00

Singing Group 09/06/2020 16:00:00

Tai Chi lesson with Elliot 10/06/2020 11:00:00

Discovering Shakespeare 1 10/06/2020 12:30:00

Heart of Herts - Local History 11/06/2020 14:00:00

Russian 11/06/2020 16:00:00

'Reflection' by George Benson

John T

HEART OF HERTS HISTORY

Do join us on THURSDAY 11TH JUNE AT 2 PM when Sandy Walkington, the President of the St Albans and Hertfordshire Architectural and Archeological Society (The Arc and Arc) will be

speaking to us about its 175th anniversary, which is being celebrated this month. This is the oldest local history society in the County and one of the oldest in the country. There was to have been a major exhibition at the St Albans Museum but unfortunately this won't now be taking place. Mr Walkington will tell us the story of the Cathedral, The Clock Tower and various other places in St Albans and the surrounding area. His Zoom presentation includes Power Point.

I hope you will support us by attending our first Heart of Herts History meeting on Zoom. Please email Diana Lobatto on [email protected] for Zoom ID and Password.

A TALE OF THREE TEETH

I was telling a friend that I had done my first Zoom meeting. She knew that I had had the misfortune to have lost my top 3 front teeth in biting on a hard vegetable over a month ago. Obviously, I didn’t want to show the very ugly gap to anyone on Zoom, so without reminding her of my misfortune, I told her without any thought of how funny this must have sounded, “Of course I wore a mask”.......her reply “Oh you don’t need to wear a mask when you are on Zoom, didn’t you realise you are not near anyone!” Carole C

Mon 8 Jun 7.30pm to 8.30pm Soroptimist Zoom Event – Finding Health and Happiness in a world struck by fear – the L.I.F.E.S.T.Y.L.E. FIRST method. There is more information on the Club website www.sigbi.org/st-albans/2020/lifestyle

It’s time to redefine health. Whilst we’re frantically searching for pills and potions to build our fight against COVID-19, the bigger question is how do you find long term health and happiness in a world struck by fear? We’re in an age of precision with tools at our fingertips that let us map out our health. So join Dr Alka Patel to discover the 10 key dimensions of health and the simple steps you can take in your everyday to prevent, reduce and reverse ill health.

This event is not to be missed! By investing just one hour in ourselves we will learn how to find health and happiness, not only during the COVID-19 pandemic but for the entirety of our lives.

Please can all guests book by Eventbrite – just click on the link below

www.eventbrite.com/e/finding-health-and-happiness-in-a-world-struck-by-fear-the-lifestyle-first-method-tickets-106091418288

There is an opportunity when booking by Eventbrite to make a donation to the

St Albans and Hertsmere Women’s Refuge - this is entirely optional.

For information on using Zoom please click on this page on our website www.sigbi.org/st-albans/zoom Anyone is welcome to attend.

EVENING BOOK CLUB I'm happy to say that our book club is still managing to meet and although Zoom isn't our preferred way, we are still able to discuss our books and have a chat, although we miss sharing the tea and cakes at the end! I thought you may be interested to see the books that we've read over the last year or so: Nutshell Ian McEwan Sweet caress William Boyd Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides The President is Missing Bill Clinton and James Patterson 100 years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez This Boy Alan Johnson The Dark Circle Linda Grant Tulip Fever Deborah Moggach Belgravia Julian Fellowes The Power Naomi alderman The Vanishing Box Elly Griffiths American Pastoral Philip Roth Beloved Toni Morrison I am Pilgrim Terry Hayes Most books elicited a mixture of responses from the group- this usually makes for good discussion. But there have been a handful that we have all really enjoyed - An Officer and a Spy Robert Harris The Invention of Wings Sue Monk Kidd Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine Gail Honeyman Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck At the beginning of lock-down I thought that I would sit in my most comfy chair, or maybe go out into the garden, and would devour books and hopefully make a dent in the pile by my bed waiting to be read. I'm disappointed to say that this isn't the case - I'm finding it difficult to concentrate for extended periods of time. Don't know why. I hope you are managing better! Yvonne B

There's a stall selling fruit and vegetables at very good prices fresh from Spitalfields Market next to the Synagogue in Croxdale Road, Borehamwood. It's there between 10.00am and 4.00pm Thursday, Friday and Saturday. They will also delivery locally. Larraine P

Matt Lucas wrote a picture book called 'Thank you Baked Potato' which is about a baked potato (what else) who gives coronavirus advice. Profits from

the book are going to feedNHS.com Anyway, there's a song to go with it and twitter is full of it, including several

duets with Matt Lucas. Here are some of my favourites:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1266096907236999168 https://twitter.com/i/status/1266081808241709056 https://twitter.com/i/status/1263542210647162884

Jane W

Answers at the end of the Blog

…

4th June 1070: Roquefort cheese created in a cave near Roquefort, France

1st June 1533: Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's new queen, is crowned 4th June 1717: The Freemasons are founded in London 6th June 1844: YMCA was founded in London 2nd June 1953: Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey, London, England

6th June 1967: 6-day war between Israel & Arab neighbours begins 7th June 1981: Israeli F-16 fighter-bombers destroy Iraq's only nuclear reactor Marion C

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imGkwyV_C_E

Marion C

REMEMBER – BE KIND As we start to open up... You do You, I'll do me. That's what we should be about. None of us have the same circumstances (medically high-risk child/family member or a business about to go under, etc.).

Let's all stay in our own lanes and keep the judgment down as we begin to reopen. No one should feel pressured either way.

Just a thought...As government are trying to figure out how to ease back into normal, please remember:

Some people don’t agree with opening...that’s okay. Be Kind.

Some people are still planning to stay home...that’s okay. Be Kind.

Some are still scared of getting the virus and a second wave happening...that’s okay. Be Kind.

Some are sighing with relief to go back to work knowing they may not lose their business or their homes...that’s okay. Be Kind.

Some people already lost their jobs and businesses. Be kind.

Some are thankful they can finally have a surgery they have put off...that’s okay. Be Kind.

Some will be able to attend interviews after weeks without a job...that’s okay. Be Kind.

Some will wear masks for weeks...that’s okay. Be Kind.

Some people will rush out to get their hair or nails done...that’s okay. Be Kind.

The point is, everyone has different viewpoints/feelings and that’s okay. Be Kind.

We each have a different story. If you need to stay home, stay home...But be Kind.

If you need to go out, just respect others when in public and Be Kind!

Don’t judge fellow humans because you’re not in their story. We all are in different mental states than we were months ago. So, remember, Be Kind. Jerry P

TV & SKY TV SUGGESTIONS

Did anyone watch last week’s suggestions of Space Force or Gangs of London. I haven’t had a

chance to watch either yet as playing too much online bridge. We are still watching Money Heist

but taking a few days off to give ourselves a chance to catch up with other programmes. I must

ask, did any of you catch The Ella Fitzgerald Life Story on Saturday? We watched it and it was a

sheer pleasure, especially to hear her singing so many of my favourite songs. Last week, I sug-

gested The Bee Gees Live in Melbourne Concert which was also very good.

I’ve received some lovely emails from many of you, so keep them coming in. Remember, any

comments or suggestions, do please email me on [email protected]

__________

I have no Netflix suggestions for the next 7 days but I’ve spotted a few things that look very

interesting and hopefully you will agree with me.

THE PLASTIC NILE Sky/Now TV - Documentary – Available Now

This shocking documentary reveals the horrifying impact of plastic on the River Nile, a vital life

source for the thousands of people and animals who live within it or along it’s banks. Award-

winning correspondent Alex Crawford exposes the harm done to food chains and captures on

camera fishermen and vets trying to help creatures stricken by accidentally ingesting the stuff.

But what really brings the tragedy home is the hideous sight of tons of single-use plastic thought-

lessly disposed of as it clogs this once majestic waterway.

DAS BOOT Sky/NOW TV – WWII Drama – Available now

A solid sequel to the anti-war drama about the crew of a U-boat that controls the Atlantic in search

of British convoys. It’s autumn 1942, nine months after the events of the original story and the

tide has turned against the Germans in the Battle of the Atlantic. The series focuses both on the

claustrophobic intensity of life on board a German Submarine – the U-boat fleet had the highest

casualty rate in the German military – and on the activities of the Resistance in the sub’s home

base. La Reserve in occupied France.

PARASITE Sky Store/Rakuten – 2020 Oscar for Best Foreign Film – Available Now

If you missed this film at the beginning of this year, I strongly recommend it. A 1st Class Korean

film not to be missed. We loved it and completely understood why it got the Oscar.

WATCH OUT FOR THE FOLLOWING ON SKY ARTS

Thursday 4th June – 8 pm (60 mins) – The Great Film Composers. Music of the Movies.

Thursday 4th June – 11 pm (3 hrs) - Bee Gees Live in Melbourne 1989

Friday 5th June – 7.00 am (120 mins) – Royal Ballet: The Nutcracker

Monday 8th June – 6.00 am (3 hrs) – Royal Opera: Cosi Fan Tutte

Tuesday 9th June – Early Morning at Midnight (2 hrs) – We Remember Marilyn (Monroe) PLEASE DO LET ME KNOW IF YOU AGREE OR EVEN DISAGREE WITH MY SELECTIONS ON THIS PAGE. STEPHEN GOLD [email protected]

RECIPE CORNER

FLAPJACKS

175g/6oz butter 175g/6oz golden syrup 175g/6oz muscovado sugar

350g/12oz porridge oats ½ unwaxed lemon, finely grated zest only (optional) pinch ground ginger (optional) Method

Preheat the oven to 150C/130C Fan/Gas 2 and line a 20cm/8in square baking tin with baking paper. Melt the butter in a medium pan over a low heat. Dip a brush in the butter and brush the baking tin with a little bit of it. Add the golden syrup and sugar to the butter and heat gently. Once the sugar is dissolved and the butter is melted, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the porridge oats, lemon zest and ginger. Pack the mixture into the baking tin and squash down. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.

Once cooked, remove from the oven, leave to cool for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a chopping board and cut into squares. Marion C

THE WONDERFUL RADLETT U3A SINGING GROUP

The first tentative steps back to my favourite school – St John’s in Radlett

LOCKDOWN QUIZ ANSWERS

1. Drive 2 a Holly Day Cottage

2. Shake hands with a Strain Jar

3. Throw a Party

4. V Sit A Hare Dresser

5. Watch a Cricket Match

6. Meat ones Grand Pear Ants.

7. Fly to Hamster Dam.

8. Sink Brow Nail in a Baaaah.

9. Goat 2 A Moo v.

10. Fire up A Barber Cue By the Serpent Tine.

DINGBATS

Short Sighted Rock Star Pat on The Back Ants in Your Pants

Forty Winks Balancing Act Head in The Sand Head on Collision

Welcome Back United States A Drop in The Ocean Up for Grabs