All posts by Sue Galley

Group report

Our last meeting together as a group was a year ago on 25th February and we had a good time over tea and cakes discussing the wonderful Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I was able to give out the next month's book Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella, I don't think any one of us had any thoughts that this was the last time we would be able to meet up again till when?? And that there would be no more books as the library closed until it opened up in a very different format in the Summer when lockdown restrictions had lessened somewhat.

Over the last year we have kept in touch by email and occasional phone calls; the meetings in gardens or indoors in small numbers when finally allowed not being practicable for our large(ish) group. However group members were able to collect and return the books on our list to the library lobby each month. A big thankyou to all of the group members for their continuing commitment to our group and their enthusiasm in reviewing the books each month.

Below are the books we have read recently together with some of the comments members sent me.
August - Joanna Trollope - City of Friends
Mixed reactions to this one, some loved it, some thought the friends were not very nice people to know!
September - David Jason - Only Fools and Stories
As you would guess, a commentary on the TV series and a reminder of some of the best bits we watched many moons ago.
October - Ann Leary - The Children
An American family saga found to be quite confusing but not too difficult a read. Not to everyone’s taste but as one person commented ‘it passed some time in lockdown’
November - Robert Harris - Munich
Very strong historical story line, based on events leading up to WW2, but a lot of military names, ranks and characters to keep track of. Not to everyone’s taste, but those who persevered found it a compelling and engrossing read.
December - Ella Griffiths - The House at Sea's End
Unanimously enjoyed, and although a murder mystery it was much light relief after Munich. Everyone wanted to read more by this author
January - Dan Brown - Origins
Very good story telling and compelling storyline. As usual with Dan Brown, there was lots of well researched factual details to augment the plot.

I hope this gives you an idea of what a reading group gets up to in lockdown.

Finally, we would like to add a big thankyou to all of the staff at the library who are always there to greet us with a friendly smile and are doing a great job in very difficult circumstances. Also a big thankyou to Matthew, the reading group co-ordinator, for keeping us supplied with books.

Pat Bailey

This is an article published in the Spring 2021 edition of the Hayling Island u3a newsletter

Group report

We set up a WhatsApp group and have used this and emails to keep in touch.
In July 2020 we all met in the park (distanced of course) and put together ideas for the next year’s programme which started in September. We were hopeful of meeting in the hall by then! How things have changed. We did manage a few weeks of four at a time meeting weekly at the kind invitation of the Men’s Shed. This provided a chance to paint together on a rota basis, but then that stopped with the November lockdown. However we have worked to the programme from home and put pictures of our efforts on WhatsApp.

January programme subject was hats and umbrellas, here are two examples of our work.

 

 

We can’t wait to meet again but in the meantime we will continue to paint and share.

We hope to make an exhibition of work completed in Lockdown for our contribution to the Open Day.

 

 

 

Lesley Vincent

This is an article published in the Spring 2021 edition of the Hayling Island u3a newsletter

Group report

We are all hopeful that by the time you are reading this newsletter that we will be experiencing some form of social interaction but at the time of writing we are still in lock down.

Knowing that we would be unable to meet I have been preparing card kits for the groups to complete at home, This January was slightly different in that I set everyone a competition to produce a 2021 calendar. I provided a few basics and the criteria was to use the piece of white card and the calendar provided, the rest was up to each person's imagination, and entries had to be returned by the end of January.

You can see from the photograph how wide and varied the entries were and choosing a winner was very difficult.

 

 

The first prize was won by Ann Dodson and runner up was Eva Jessett. Everyone received a small gift for entering as you can never have too much stash for making cards!

Anne Hollis

This is an article published in the Spring 2021 edition of the Hayling Island u3a newsletter

Group report

The philosophy group has been meeting during the Covid experience using Zoom, kindly managed by Jim Norman. The group has reduced in number due to issues relating to access to the necessary technology and problems of hearing using Zoom. We hope that those group members who have not been able to join the Zoom group, will rejoin when/if things return to normal. Zoom is definitely preferable to having no meetings at all, but we have found it to be more constraining than face to face meetings (there are particular problems for the group chairman, but everyone experiences the need for patience in order to get a chance to speak). That being said, we have still had some lively meetings, with Covid, and Donald Trump providing us with some obvious topics. Our regular group now comprises about eight people, and that is about the right number for a lively but controlled discussion. Much more than eight and it becomes difficult for people to get a chance to speak. We generally use the method of raising the hand to indicate a wish to speak, but in moments of excitement this discipline tends to break down!

I won't bore everyone with a list of topics we have discussed, but let me just say we are never short of topics or volunteers to start off a particular discussion. I would issue my usual invitation to anyone wanting to join the group to see if we suit you, but under the present circumstances we don't have the capacity for new members. However when things get back to normal we will review the situation and let everyone know.

Mike Silvester.

This is an article published in the Spring 2021 edition of the Hayling Island u3a newsletter

Group report

Now a familiar scene for many groups, some members from the Thursday and Friday Ukulele Groups have continued to meet. Throughout last summer we played in the garden to occasional applause from the neighbours (thankfully no vegetables) followed by a brief spell indoors when the ‘Rule of Six’ applied. Throughout the winter we continued using Zoom each week but look forward to meeting and playing live again. As backgrounds show we play in varied locations. We can only imagine what we might sound like live together once again when nobody is muted and timing is everything!

We play a range of songs from as early as the fifties to comparatively recent numbers and are always prepared to experiment with new suggestions. The aim is to have fun and we do have laughter.

Whenever Hayling Island u3a has its open day (currently scheduled for September) we hope to be in action, perhaps with a spare Ukulele or two for someone to give it a try.

Photo with kind permission from members of the group.

Peter Haskell

This is an article published in the Spring 2021 edition of the Hayling Island u3a newsletter

Group report

When I wrote the report on this reading group for the last Newsletter, the ‘Rule of 6’ had just come in, and we had arranged that as we only had 8 in the group at that time, 3 members would take the book and not come to the meeting and the other 4 plus myself would be able to space out really well in my lounge. We had 1 meeting like this in October and then the 2nd lockdown came in November and we moved into Tier 4 and then Tier 5 and further restrictions, so we have not been able to meet at all since then.

But I have been able to collect the books each month from the library and the members of the group come to my house and do the swap either safely from a distance or from my doorstep. It is not ideal but better than nothing. The person whose book choice it is for the month and in “normal” times would ‘lead’ the meeting is responsible for sending me the main review and notes on the author, but several others in the group e-mail me their thoughts also and I then put them together and e-mail them to all the group.

We continue to read a variety of books, some we enjoy others we do not, but that is the beauty of Reading Groups, we get to read books that we might not necessarily pick off the shelves ourselves and very often we enjoy the surprise - not always though!!

In the Autumn Newsletter I mentioned that I had a vacancy, I did think that I would have to wait until the u3a was up and running again in the Community Centre before I could advertise it, but to my delight I received an e-mail from Susan enquiring if she could fill it. I met her myself on a sunny afternoon in October, she took the book we had at the time and was looking forward to meeting 4 more members in November. But this was not to be, and so she has not yet met any more of the group, but is taking the book each month and it has been a joy to have her particularly as in January we read ‘The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle’ - not a good read for the majority of us but Susan ‘loved it’. I do have another vacancy now, if anybody reading this article thinks they would like to join us, please do contact me. We hope it won’t be too much longer before we can get back to meeting in person, even if to begin with it is in the garden.

The picture shows some recent titles we have read along with the cups for the tea and chocolate biscuits. We just need the people again!!

 

Pauline Brice

This is an article published in the Spring 2021 edition of the Hayling Island u3a newsletter

Group report

During lockdown the group has been largely dormant.
However there is a proposed u3a Exhibition at present planned for September. S&T will have a poster showing past talks and some ideas for the future. Our first meeting is also planned for September.
Unfortunately Brian Cox will not be giving that talk, but we are always looking for new speakers.

Mike Lynch and Ann Pearcey

This is an article published in the Spring 2021 edition of the Hayling Island u3a newsletter

Group report

So far, we have been unable to meet this year. Whilst some Groups have been able to meet on Zoom, Music Appreciation does not lend itself to Zoom Meetings. Andrea has been busy researching Bach and put together an excellent programme, which we should all enjoy when we are able to meet as a Group again. Last year, we had a very varied programme exploring music by Elgar, Clara Schumann, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, King Henry V111, Johann Strauss (both the Younger and the Elder) and Bizet. In the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Music is the universal language of mankind.”

All Group members will be contacted as soon as we are able to meet again.

Sue Humphrey and Maura Chapman.

This is an article published in the Autumn 2020 edition of the Hayling Island U3A newsletter .

Group report

We managed to have a meeting in March, a talk given by Terry Downs on Stephen and Matilda. Since then we have been communicating by phone or e-mail just to keep in touch. Norma Downs sent us a quiz during this time, which was won by Sue Humphrey.

Recently we had a get together at Northney Tearooms, sitting on two tables and social distancing, it was wonderful to see members in person. With the new rules now we have no plans for the present but look forward to when we can resume our usual meetings. We had a plan for all this year and hopefully we will be able to implement this in 2021.

Andrea Burton

This is an article published in the Autumn 2020 edition of the Hayling Island U3A newsletter .

Group report

Our first book for 2020 was ‘The Plague’ by Albert Camus - very apt we told ourselves 2 months later!! It was acclaimed and an immediate triumph when it was first published in 1947 as it is in part an allegory of France’s suffering under the Nazi occupation and a story of bravery and determination against the precariousness of human existence. The townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague, which condemns its victims to a swift and horrifying death. Fear, isolation and claustrophobia follow as they are forced into quarantine. Each person responds in their own way to the lethal disease: some resign themselves to fate, some seek blame, and a few, resist the terror.

We did find it a rather depressing read.

In February we moved on to ‘The Silk Roads’ by Peter Frankopan - The sun is setting on the Western world. Slowly but surely, the direction in which the world spins has reversed: where for the last five centuries the globe turned westward on its axis, it now turns to the east.... For centuries fame and fortune were to be found in the West - in the New World of the Americas. Today it is the East that calls out to those in search of adventure and riches. The region stretching from Eastern Europe and sweeping right across Central Asia, deep into China and India, is taking centre stage in international politics, commerce, and culture - and is shaping the modern world. This region, the true centre of the Earth, is obscure to many in the English-speaking world. Yet this is where civilisation itself began, where the world's great religions were born and took root. The Silk Roads were no exotic series of connections but networks that linked continents and oceans together. Along them flowed ideas, goods, disease, and death. This was where empires were won - and where they were lost. As a new era emerges, the patterns of exchange are mirroring those that have criss-crossed Asia for millennia. The Silk Roads are rising again. A major reassessment of world history, The Silk Roads is an important account of the forces that have shaped the global economy and the political renaissance in the re-emerging East.

In March we had ‘Do Not Say We Have Nothing’ by Madeleine Thein. However although this novel was shortlisted for the Baileys Women’s prize for fiction in 2017, also for the Man Booker prize in 2016 and the winner of the Scotiabank Giller prize in 2016, none of the group were fans of it and several of us did not finish reading it. Lockdown came 2 weeks into March and the library closed. The instructions were that books could be put through the letterbox of the library or retained until they reopened.

In July I received an e-mail from Hampshire Libraries informing me that from 1st August book sets could be re-ordered if we so wished. After discussing via e-mail with group members whether they wished to continue it was decided that we would and we began in August with Edna O’Brien’s ‘Little Red Chairs’. We all felt that although the author is an acclaimed writer over several years, this novel could surely not be one of her best. She wrote it in 2015 at the age of 85 and after a gap of 10 years since her previous book. We were unanimous in not enjoying the book at all, feeling it was very disjointed, dark and depressive.

We do read a variety of books, chosen each year by the group from the lists of New Additions that are on the Hampshire Libraries website. I then e-mail the choices to Matthew at Hayling Library and he orders them for the year for us and kindly tries to ensure that as many of the group as possible get one of their choices. There are 10 books in a set and there has for several years been 10 in this group. However just before lockdown one lady decided she wouldn’t come any more; although she had always enjoyed it she felt her age had caught up with her. Another member is unwell at the present time, but we hope she will return to us. When we are back to some sort of normality again I will advertise the vacancy.

We all enjoy the afternoons; after discussing the book we have all read (or not), we talk about other books we have read during the month. We then enjoy a cup of tea and a slice of home-made cake while catching up on what else we have done during the month. Things are a little different now and for the meetings since re-starting we have been able to space out in my garden.

However now we are limited to 6, it is a little more difficult. Two ladies in the group have decided they will take the book each month but not come to the meetings, they will send in their reviews. If any of the other members cannot come for any reason then one or the other of them can stand in. Hopefully this state of affairs won’t last for very long.

Pauline Brice

This is an article published in the Autumn 2020 edition of the Hayling Island U3A newsletter .

Group report

This is going to be a very short report as Covid has put a stop to Walking Netball because of the close contact and ball handling. We have managed to meet once for coffee at the Pebble Beach cafe in August and we have arranged to meet for lunch in September. Now Boris has brought in new restrictions of only meeting up in groups of 6, Northney tea rooms have accommodated us by reserving 3 tables together in the pavilion, so we can be together but apart! It will be lovely to catch up with everyone, it is the social interaction that is missing for so many of us. Let us hope and pray that we will be able to restart our activities soon.

Anne Hollis

This is an article published in the Autumn 2020 edition of the Hayling Island U3A newsletter .