White Cliffs Country U3A

We have had another successful Autumn Term of Structured Learning, and are looking forward to more groups in the Spring. We have also seen some new Interest Groups start up, although there is always room for more.

You will find some advertised in this Newsletter, and if you have an interest to share or spot a subject that is not covered please contact a committee member and we will do what we can to help put you in touch with others who may be interested.

You will see that we have an interesting programme of talks booked, and hope to see you at some of the monthly meetings.

Wishing you all the best for 2019,

Ruth

Postscript to the Summer Programme"The Trials and Tribulations of organising a U3A event..... e.g. A Wine Tasting.Three days before this event I received a call from Kevin from Hercules Warehouse who was leading the event to say that he had fallen off a ladder and that he could not take part!!!However, all was not lost as he explained that the next day an old friend from the Wine Trade walked into the shop, and as it happened this ‘Angel’, Pam Eccles, had also just joined our U3A, (you couldn’t make it up). In short Pam had also booked for the wine tasting and Kevin invited her with the help of his notes to take the group through the wine tasting. Top marks to Pam, and being in the right place at the right time. End result happiness all round.” John Voller

Did You Know?

Smashing things against someone's house might be considered bad luck, but in Denmark people hold on to chipped dishes and glasses all year just for New Year's Eve. That night, they go around to the homes of friends and family and smash them against their front doors. The more shards you have on your doorstep the next morning, the more popular you are.

News from the Groups

Winter NewsletterFrom the ChairJanuary 2019

Literature and Spiritual ConvictionMarion Boyce writes …Seizing the early offer of a hip replacement in September 2018 obliged me regretfully to cancel, which had recruited almost to capacity. Now, in the New Year, with what feels like a lifetime of exercises, forced marches and stumbling dependence behind me, I am really looking forward to offering it again (see details in this newsletter). I hope to meet up with those who originally chose it, perhaps with one or two more. The course begins Friday, February 1st with – hopefully – the coldest weather behind us but neither Christmas nor gardening beckoning us away. All materials will be supplied, along with tea or coffee and savoury snacks around lunchtime. Bring yourself, perhaps a pen and welcome!

NEW GROUP!Military History GroupAre you interested in Military History?Meeting in a house in Deal, the Group would follow no particular aspect but cover an interest in all things Military including, but not limited to Battles, Personalities, Campaigns, Equipment and Weapons from the Ancient World to recent times, with members leading sessions on any aspect in which they are interested. If interested please contact Arthur Russ (arthurruss@waitrose.com 01304 365710) so that an introductory meeting on a mutually convenient date and time can be arranged to consider how the Group would proceed.

Back to Basics in Painting and DrawingThe back to basics course starting in January will cover traditional drawing and painting, together with all the materials and equipment needed, including paper, brushes, pencils etc. We will look at colours and how to mix them, light and shade, using some unusual still life, and using different kinds of paint to improve or rescue your paintings! If you have not painted for some time or have always wanted to know more about it, I hope that this course will be informative and interesting, and some parts of it are sure to be messy- have fun!

Gail Lea

Did You Know?

Get your New Year's health resolutions off to a good start, thanks to Spain's tradition of eating 12 grapes, one for each stroke of midnight. It's harder than it sounds (people even practice for it), but if you're successful, tradition says you'll have a year of prosperity.

Christmas Card making

A group of eight of us spent Monday afternoons in November cutting, sticking and folding to make cards ready for Christmas. Not always easy but satisfying to try new techniques like decoupage, tea bag folding, iris folding using washi tape and trying 3D and pop-up cards. We thought you might like to see some of our efforts!

Did You Know?

In Germany, Austria and Switzerland “Lead pouring” is an old practice using molten lead like tea leaves to predict the future. A small amount of lead or tin is melted in a tablespoon (by holding a flame under the spoon) and then poured into a bowl or bucket of water. The resulting pattern is interpreted to predict the coming year. For instance, if the lead forms a ball, that means luck will roll your way. The shape of an anchor means help in need. But a cross signifies death.

Members’ LivesBy Stephen Bates

I often joke that I had a crab-wise progress through the ideological shoals of the British media. I started my journalistic career after university in the 1970s on local papers in Reading and Oxford and then graduated to the BBC, before being enticed by the lure of money to the Daily Telegraph, then the Daily Mail and finally the Guardian – altogether more than 40 years as a journalist, nearly 30 of them on national newspapers.

During that time I reported on just about everything, starting with local flower shows and golden weddings (always asking the question: “to what do you attribute your married bliss?” in the hope that someone would say: “not speaking to each other for 49 of them…” – they never did) before graduating to covering courts and councils and eventually skateboarding ducks for regional television news bulletins.

Working in Parliament for the BBC exposed my technical limitations (“I don’t think you have turned your tape recorder on,” said one kindly Labour MP as I tried to interview him). Then the swap to the Peterborough column at the Telegraph which sent me to the Brighton Tory conference where I succeeded in sleeping through the bomb which nearly wiped out the cabinet in the next door hotel 50 yards away.

And then the Mail which made me education correspondent in time to cover the school reforms which transformed curriculums and management in the late ’80s (“Couldn’t you just make it true?” Paul Dacre, then features editor, once asked me – so much for his high-minded rectitude!)

That was followed by a lucky break: I swapped to the Guardian where I was made education editor, direct from the Mail, and spent three years covering the reforms as they started to fall apart – and discovered that education folk who wouldn’t give me the time of day when I was at the Mail, suddenly queued up to speak to me once I’d moved. At the Guardian over 22 years I went from education, to politics, covering John Major’s government during the Maastricht Treaty (and once got shoved out of the way by an angry prime minister exclaiming: “Out of my way little boy”, which was kind-of flattering as I was 40 at the time). The paper subsequently moved me and my family to Brussels to cover the European Union for five years – the happiest and most fulfilling time of my career: such a fascinating story, with such a sad denouement now.

Finally, there was a return to London where I found myself writing about religious affairs and the royal family for the paper – two institutions I used to say that the Guardian didn’t believe in. But they sent me round the world to cover them: wonderful trips to Canada and the US several times, Pakistan with Prince Charles and New Zealand and Australia with Prince William: royal weddings and funerals, royal butler trials and Princess Diana’s death and later inquest. I reported from more than 40 countries in all.

My Life as an Accountant 1971 to 2006

Back in 1971 I was persuaded to train as a Chartered Accountant. I took articles and became a “Ticked Clerk” quite late in my career. I was employed by a City firm looking to expand and we opened offices in Ware, Herts. It was just me to start with. In those days you learnt everything from book keeping, payroll, taxation, company law and auditing (very boring). I married in 1972 and juggled housework and study, mostly at home, with running an office for the firm.My training in auditing took me to Lansdowne Recording Studio in London where I muddled through but did get to meet Acker Bilk. One of my favourite clients was a meat wholesaler/retailer based in North London. I was asked to stocktake many sides of beef, lamb and pork in their cold room. Armed with a thick coat and hat how was I to tell the difference? I just pretended I knew what I was doing. My expertise was farming. I soon learnt about the herd basis, milk quotas and crop rotation. I sat in a farmer’s office one day and he was looking worried as it was raining heavily. This is not doing my corn any good he said. Without thinking I replied that he should visit a chiropodist! He never let me forget my faux pas!I qualified in 1976 and became the first lady partner of the firm in 1979. The whole firm continued to expand considerably and I knew this was not for me. In 1983 my life changed completely and I moved into a chicken farm in Royston. The new man in my life reared day-old chicks and kept them for laying eggs. I became an expert on egg production and rearing systems. My friends thought us an odd combination.My earlier training stood me in good stead and in December 1983 I began my own General Practice with a few clients in a rented Portakabin on the farm. I was also pregnant. I made local contacts with banks and the like. They were sceptical and it was difficult at that time for any woman to start in business on her own without financial backing or guarantees from a partner or family.Robert was born 6 weeks early in June 1984 but only a week later a client knocked urgently on my door. You didn’t get much maternity leave in those days. My business expanded and I took on staff, all ladies. I was involved with my Institute locally and in 1990 became the first lady President of the Beds, Bucks and Herts Society of Chartered Accountants (based in Luton).This involved many formal dinners, chairing committees and meetings, making speeches and travelling all over the country with the 21 other Presidents (all male except myself and Elaine). I met lots of interesting people including Ken Livingstone and Giles Brandreth, and sat next to Dennis Healey for dinner in the Metropole Hotel in Brighton.My business suffered but it was a wonderful experience with happy memories. I continued to meet my fellow past presidents annually for the next 25 years in such places as Venice, the Republic of Ireland, Bath, Liverpool, Cambridge and Cornwall. As part of my retirement plan I sold my practice in 2000 to a local firm and continued with them as a partner until December 2006. I must say however that I preferred working for myself.

Jacqui Dodds

Upcoming Events

Talk: January 9th – “The Pubs and Beerhouses of Victorian Deal”, Andrew Sargant Maison Dieu, Dover at 2pm Deal had an exceptionally large number of public houses in Victorian times. We know because the Victorians collected statistics of the number of pubs per head of population. Why were there so many? Andrew Sargant, author of “Drinking in Deal: Beer, Pubs and Temperance in an East Kent Town 1830 – 1914” provides the answer in an interesting illustrated talk. Andrew draws on reports in Victorian and Edwardian newspapers, local archives and many other sources to discuss the role of pubs and beer houses including the history of the men and women who ran them, the boatmen and marines who used them, and the local disputes generated by the “drink question”

Coffee Morning: January 23, Sandwich Jury Room 10.30-12pm.Ken Usher from CROP, (Citizen Rights for Older People) will talk on the work of the organisation. They have been successful in helping older people to secure services and rights to which they are entitled.

Talk: February 6th – “500 years of the History of Sandown Castle and our Community Garden”Linda Ford, Astor Community Theatre at 2pm One of the three castles built on the order of Henry VIII to guard the sea off Deal, Sandown Castle suffered sea damage in 1785, was remodelled in 1805 and garrisoned to assist in the defences against Napoleon before finally being demolished in 1863.The area is now maintained as “a pleasant place to linger” by the Sandown Castle Community Group” and we are pleased to welcome Linda Ford from that group as our speaker.

Coffee Morning: 20th February, Astor Theatre Deal 10.30-12pm.Susan Moody, a local Author, will talk about ‘Crime Novels’. Susan has written a number of crime novels in her time and will talk generally about the genre.

Talk: March 6th – “Characters, wacky, weird and wonderful”, Chris McCooeyAstor Communty Theatre at 2 pm Chris McCooey is a freelance journalist, photographer and author. He researches local Kent and Sussex history to find interesting and amusing stories and his books include scandals, rogues and rascals, tales, titbits and trivia. In this talk he will speak of some of the wacky and weird characters he discovered in Kent.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!