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LEEK U3A NEWSLETTERJuly 2020
Leek U3A Norton House, Fynney Street, Leek, ST13 5LF
https://u3asites.org.uk/leek
Dear Members
Although there have been recent improvements in the Covid 19 situation we have some significant way to go before things get back to any sort of normality.
Your Committee is closely following any changes in government guidelines and also those we receive from the U3A national office - especially as regards group meetings. However we cannot consider normal classes recommencing before September at the earliest which as many groups tend to have a July/August break is hopefully not too problematic for us.
I am sure we are all very keen to return to our many and various groups but please be patient and lets keep the U3A flame flickering by simply keeping in touch with all our U3A friends and colleagues and particularly those who are on their own during these difficult and trying times.
Kind regards and KEEP SAFE!
Ivan Smith – Chair, Leek U3ATel: 01538 382998 or 07860 633988Email: [email protected]
Night-time – By Ena Glogowski
Cars wait in silent ranks to pass the night away.Street lamps compete with roof tops to reach the sky.
The world is still.A busy cat pads by, free roaming the night away.
The world is silent.
By Ena Glogowski14 April 2020
Leek U3A Newsletter
Are your Hearing Aids sufferingfrom lock down?
It's now been quite a time since you could get help from your audiologist or from your hearing centre. If your hearing aids need a bit of cleaning or maintenance such as retubing, the videos on this website are really helpful.
https://c2hearonline.com/
The videos have been produced and tested by a well-respected group at Nottingham University. Whether your hearing aids have moulds or are open-fit, whether they are NHS or private, the videos can help you.
If you need supplies such as batteries or tubes or domes, your usual audiologist should be able to send them to you in the post.
If you have a hearing loss or are worried about your hearing
Action on Hearing Loss is still here to support you.
You can visit the website at: www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk
You can get personal help and advice from:Debbie Hill, Senior Community Support Officer
Her contact details are:
Email: [email protected]: 07939169157
Leek U3A Newsletter
Editorial
This month we have lock-down newsletter No.4. Though lock-down has now been eased U3A continues to protect its older members and, though I have now managed to get an appointment this month to get my hair cut, I am still having to fill my own teeth! Stange times indeed.
So – we have another recipe from Ann – this time Maple Glazed Pork, with rice and Pak Choi. Mmmmm – sounds delicious! Also, this month, a French crossword as well as the usual offerings from our word-smiths and photos/artwork – apologies to photographers if I have defiled your masterpieces by cropping them to make them fit into spaces!
Again, as this newsletter only goes out via email and on the website this leaves our non-I.T. members in the dark. If you are able to print this newsletter out and pass on to anyone you know who does not have computer access – please do so!
If you have any items that could be included in the lock-down newsletter then email to:- [email protected] Particularly anything you can send telling how you are keeping U3A connections going will be more than welcome.
Finally - do not forget the Central U3A web site - loads of stuff on there, things to do, advice and guidance - click on this link… www.u3a.org.ukAlso - to sign up for the national newsletter… www.u3a.org.uk/email
Everybody stay healthy,
Chris ThomasNewsletter [email protected]
Words – By Ena Glogowski
Words are useful as can beFor writing prose or poetry.
We sift them through and sort them outUntil they sort what we’re about.
They come in very handy too,When we’re conversing, me and you.Words are there and we must chooseCorrectly, which ones we should use.
That is a skill we try to masterSo Wednesday morning’s no disaster.
A faulty choice, well, it could leadTo ruffled feathers. Yes, indeed.
By Ena Glogowski14 April 2020
Leek U3A Newsletter
French Crossword
Leek U3A Newsletter
SIBLINGS
We are the three;young legs propel usfor we are free.Out of the garden gatestriding the old grass road,promise not to be late,we’re innocent and bold.We are the three,running to Fairy Dellto make a secret canopyand furnish it to dwell.In tickle-pink grassland,against rubber-soft fern,down flint-shot pathswe run and turn.Scuttling like rabbitsin glades of silver trees,beneath abundant blossomsin worlds of bugs and bees.We leap alongside hoppers,prance like butterflies,lie on backs with legs in air,gaze timeless open skies.Branches, bracken,a den we build;a child’s lairwhere wild flowers gild.
Still the three,Sister, Brother, meand memories remainof times when we were free.
By Susie Watkinson
Leek U3A Newsletter
Maple Glazed Pork
Ingredients
• Cut a Pork fillet into 2cm rounds and fry in a little oil for 2min each side.
• 4 Tbs Maple syrup
• 4 Tbs Balsamic vinegar
• 2 Tbs Soy sauce
• 1 crushed Garlic clove
• pinch of Chilli flakes.
Method
• I like to cut the pork and marinade in the sauce before frying.
• I also add some mushrooms and onions to the pork.
• Once marinated fry then transfer to an oven proof dish cook 170ºC/Gas 5 for 20 min
• Serve with rice and pak choi
Pak Choi...
Either:
Cut small slice from root end, separate leaves, wash well in cold running water.
Heat a frying pan small amount of oil put pack choi into hot oil with the water that is on the leaves, it will only take a few minutes to wilt, don’t cook too much keep it green.
Or:
Cut Pak Choi in half. Wash well, either fry in small amount of oil till just light brown, or cook on tinfoil on the BBQ.
Leek U3A Newsletter
Memories of VE Day
I think that I should first explain what six years of war was like. A war which touched everyone - men, women, young or old, we all paid a price.
I was ten years old at the outbreak and remember Mr Chamberlain waving his bit of paper and declaring “no war in your lifetime”. I think that my next memory was all the men seemed to disappear. I was told they had been called up. And then the householders started digging big holes in their back gardens and installed air raid shelters. Women were now called up and working in arms factories, on the land and armed forces. I remember many of the big battles won and lost, the bombing of major cities with thousands of civilian casualties and row after row of houses destroyed. I remember the domestic front - the mothers who worked miracles every day feeding their families on meagre rations.
In school the morning was for evacuees, and the afternoons for the local children. There were very few male teachers - mostly lady teachers who had retired and been called back to work.
In today’s world communication is king. Facebook and Twitter have more disciples than religion. Who today could live without their computer or fancy phone? Back then we had newspapers and the little wooden box in the corner of the room called the wireless. News wasoften days late and not very reliable. Transport was a bus or train - take your pick - definitely no cars and no petrol.
Eventually the day came when the Germans surrendered and we were given a day of celebration.
Early in the mornings in the residential streets, out came the trestle tables, and the bunting andthe flags were put up. The ladies were making sandwiches and bringing what food they had been able to save from their rations. I spied a tin of salmon on the table. I had never seen one before. Anyone who could play a musical instrument was welcomed and they even managed to drag a piano into the street. Everyone was singing and dancing and having a good time as evening fell. The leftover food was carefully put away, the piano was put back
cont.
Leek U3A Newsletter
into the parlour, and the children were put to bed. The trestle tables were put back from whence they came. Everyone, especially the children, had had a great day.
In the evening of VE Day, some friends and I went to Hanley - I have never seen so many people in one place. All the pubs were overflowing with revellers and crowds of all nationalitiesstretched from Piccadilly to Stafford Street to Hope Street and to the Market Square where a brass band was playing.
At one time we were then taken with the flow into the Regent Theatre. The big Wurlitzer organwas belting out songs and the people were dancing and singing in the aisles. As morning broke the crowd started to thin out and go home - most were exhausted. People from the outlying districts were running for their buses home. The pubs were still full - I think most would stay until the beer ran out. After the streets were cleaned things went back to normal asif nothing had happened, but after six years of austerity we deserved our day of victory.
But we should never forget this day. Never forget the sacrifice of the millions who died getting us to this day, VE Day.
Roy Fishwick (Age 91)
2020
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Sent in by Judith Cope – received from a friend in Australia…
Some clever artist has created this “Pelican on its Nest” from driftwood.
Leek U3A Newsletter
MINNEHAHA, JOY RIDER(Or The Sad Tale of a Maiden Who Went Motoring With Many Men.)
DRESSED in nattiest of clothing,Plus-fours long and very baggy,Rode the mighty Hiawatha,Sportiest of sporty laddies.Far his scarf trailed out behind him,Gorgeous scarf of many colours,Waving, flying in the West Wind,In the wind that blows from Ealing.
Mounted on his sporting solo,With a badge upon the mudguard,Bearing these strange words upon it:“Speed on. Big Boy; Hell ain't full yet."Blue his cap, as used for ski-ing,Red the tassels on his hose-tops,Pink and White was his complexion,On his lip a Ronald Colman.
On the pillion seat behind him,‘Proper’ pillion, be it noted,As defined by legislation,Sat the maiden, Minnehaha.Dark her eyes, as dark the night-time,Red her lips, as red the colour,Of the paintwork on a ‘General,’And her teeth were like a graveyard.Hiawatha let his clutch in,Gently in and very slowly,Until every cork was gripping,And the model glided forward,Glided till it gained momentum,And the taps he opened wider,Answered by the engine's roaring,As he changed from first to second.Into top he thrust the gear-change,With a grinding and a clatter,With a clash of teeth he changed it,That his speed might be the faster.Minnehaha, close behind him,Sitting on her ‘proper’ pillion—As prescribed by legislation,As defined by House of Commons.
When they hit the Sidcup by-pass,“Hang on tight here, Minnehaha,"Quoth the mighty Hiawatha;But he might have saved his trouble.Minnehaha fell off wallop,And he never knew he'd dropped her,Till he got locked up in Maidstone,(Poked his tongue out at a copper).
In the meanwhile, Minnehaha,Sitting where the toss had left her,By the roadside, Tarma Kadam,By the Ant-is-Kid she sat there.And she murmured things and muttered,Words unkind of Hiawatha,Who had left her by the roadside,By the roadside, Tarma Kadam.
Then along the road towards her,Came a racing two-port Pip-Squeak,With an empty chair beside it,And a rider quite nice-looking.Struggling to her feet, she hailed him,Waved her hand and smiled so sweetly,That he stopped for Minnehaha,And she stepped into his sidecar.
On they went and on together,On the road that leads to Folkestone,On the roadway, Tarma Kadam,On the Ant-is-Kid they speeded.And the mighty racing driver,Quite forgot his petrol level,Did not know his tank was empty,Till the carburettor gurgled.
Leek U3A Newsletter
Gurgled, spat and spitting, gurgled,Like a dying duck, it gurgled,Like a duck that kicks the bucket,And the model stopped beneath him.When he went in search of petrol,Minnehaha saw a Bentley,Rapid, roaring, racing Bentley;Driver stopped and raised his chapeau.
“I’m in luck," quoth Minnehaha,As she stepped into the Bentley,In the great big shining Bentley,And sat down beside the driver.Forth they went, the Bentley roaring,Till a policeman held his hand up,Held his great big awkward hand up;“Stop!” he said. “Let’s see your licence.
Then to Minnehaha's horror,Bentley driver started sobbing,Wept and whimpered to the Bobbie.“Sir, I haven't any licence,Never had a driving licence; Nor can I show my insurance, As by law I am compelled to; This fine Bentley isn't mine, sir."So the policeman looked quite chirpy,Pleased as policemen are at such times,When they find a case of stealing,Find a case of Bentley stealing.“Now I caution you and warn you, Both of you, I hereby warns you;What you say be taken down and,Used in evidence against you”
That is why sweet Minnehaha,Spent three months in Brixton Prison,Sewing bags for postmen's letters,Sewing canvas bags for postmen,And her eyes are wet with weeping,Salt her tears as salt the sea is,While her old flame Hiawatha, Joy-rides other girls to Folkestone.
Leek U3A Newsletter
From Rose Baxter…
Our U3A drumming group practising safely distanced in Ian’s (one of our group) lovely garden
On-line gatherings
At this time there has been a surge in meetings on-line, via computer/iPad/mobile phone, to avoid spreading the virus by holding face-to-face meetings. There are a number of “apps” (I used to call them programs) which now exist for you to hold on-line meetings. One of the popular ones is called Zoom. I myself am involved in a couple of Zoom meetings for different purposes and I have to say it works exceedingly well, enabling you to see and speak to the others in the meeting.
It is available to run on computers running Windows or Apple macOS. It can also be run on your iPhone/iPad or Android mobile phone or tablet and there is now a link on the Leek U3A web-site with instructions on installing and running Zoom on your mbile device…
https://u3asites.org.uk/files/l/leek/docs/zoom.pdfCheck this out if you think it may help you to get some of your groups moving again before we are able to meet again face-to-face.
Chris Thomas - Editor
Leek U3A Newsletter
THAT TIME OF YEAR
Cut and fresh grass laying there in the fields,With noise and rumble of those big wheels.
The aroma of diesel in the airAnd always hoping the weather stays fair
Loading the trailer in rows so neatStopping every hour for something to eat
Hands kind of hurting from the string on the bales But keeping is going is the thought of the ales
“Let’s get some help” were the words from my DadSo eagerly we waited the arrival of lads.
Bare chested and eager and working so good.Expecting a kiss later they would…..But for now the harvest has to be got.
And on those days when the summer is hot.With the hayloft getting dusty and filled
Guess it’s time only for the strong and the willedWith us three girls demoted back to the farm,
We all skipped together arm in arm.To make cheese and ham sandwiches together with Mum
Because that was always the rule of thumb.Then with everyone eaten, washed and brushed down
The best of it all was then up to ”The Crown “
BREN BASNET 9.6.2020
Leek U3A Newsletter
Leek U3A Newsletter
And finally, answers to the French crossword…
Results of June’s caption competition…
Baa Code
Judged by Leek U3A committee, the winner who sent in the above caption is Susie Watkinson - many thanks for all who contributed.
