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Clarion online

Edinburgh U3A Newsletter Number 55/5

Spring 2008

In this issue: COMMITTEE NEWS 1 Letter from the Chair

2 Your new Committee

U3A in Scotland AGM

3 Reflections on the June Conference

4 Link to photographs

FEATURES 7 Living adventurously Wwoofing with Margaret Halliday

8 Thinking adventurously In the company of the Thinkers group

9 Cuban Connection Evelyn McPake discovers a U3A in Trinidad

Trip of a lifetime Pauline Cairncross has an adventure in Australia

GROUP NEWS 11 French Network

Intermediate Spanish

Good Companions NEW

Buddhist philosophy NEW

12 Turkish language NEW

Crossword

VISITS 13 Visitors from Kiruna, Sweden

14 Dutch group visit to Texel, Holland

ENDNOTES

15 An autumn poem by Elspeth Crawford

Crossword solution

Editorial team

Meryl Kempster Letter from the Chair

Number 55/5

Autumn 2010

F or those of you who were unable to come to the AGM on June 16 may I introduce myself as your new Chair. It is an honour and a

privilege to be asked to take on this post and I am very conscious that there are deep shoes to fill. You have my assurance that I will do my best to live up to the trust you have placed in me, always acting in the best interests of every member of Edinburgh U3A.

My sincere thanks go to Jean Napier for the dedication and commitment she has shown to the U3A during her time both as committee member and, latterly, as our Chair. Jean’s contribution is truly appreciated.

AGM: Election of Committee Members Helen Steuart, co-Vice Chair was re-elected to the Committee. Christine Hawkridge was elected and will replace Helen as one of our group coordinators. Isabel Fogarty and Elisabeth Hutchings were co-opted onto the committee: Isabel will take minutes at meetings; Elisabeth will help with publications and communication. May I offer thanks on your behalf both to new and existing committee members and say how much we appreciate their work and the time they give to the U3A.

Your Committee were delighted with the attendance and success of the recent All-Scotland U3A Conference. We came in just under budget thanks to our Treasurer Dianne Fraser and the Steering Group. A very special thank you to Barbara Clarke, co-Vice Chair. It was Barbara’s vision and superb organisational skills that brought the Conference to fruition, together with a team of U3A members who worked extremely hard over many months sorting out the detail that made the day run so smoothly. The generous offer of hospitality by our members enabled U3A members to come to Edinburgh from all over Scotland and to enjoy a ‘home stay’. And thank you to the home bakers whose delicious contributions on the day were enjoyed by everyone. You will be able to read more about what was a very special day in the following pages of The Clarion, and look at photos on the website.

The main theme of this edition of the Clarion is ‘Living adventurously in retirement’. I am sure you will find many interesting ideas and suggestions

Clar ion on l ine No 55/5 Autumn 2010

U3A in Scotland AGM Edinburgh,12 June 2010

Your Edinburgh U3A Committee 2010–11 Meryl Kempster Chair & Secretary • Dianne Fraser Treasurer • Margaret Farish Membership •

Pauline Cairncross, Rachel Frith, Jeff Middlecote, Christine Hawkridge Group Coordinators •

Helen Steuart Co-Vice Chair • Frances Clark Hospitality • Jenny Cowper New Members •

Pat Cattanach Welfare Liason • Stewart Emm Technical Support • Barbara Clarke Publications &

Co-Vice Chair • Elisabeth Hutchings Publications • Isabel Fogarty Minutes Secretary

in these pages. I believe that Edinburgh U3A members do look ahead adventurously, signing up for the wide variety of groups and activities on offer. As for looking forward, well, our membership is growing all the time and with this growth comes the need for more groups and group leaders. We are indebted to all our present group leaders for the time and effort they give to the U3A, and if you are able to offer to take or host a group, please get in touch. Be adventurous – you don’t need to be an expert in a subject, a keen interest is often enough and the members of your group can enjoy learning together.

I hope you enjoy reading this edition of The Clarion and that you have enjoyment and fun with us in the year ahead. Please look at our website: www.edinburghu3a.org.uk to keep up to date with what is hap-pening. Can I also ask that those of you who have provided your email address to look in your inbox regularly as it is much easier for us to contact you this way, and it saves on postage.

Meryl Kempster

Chair

T hose of you who attended the AGM, held as part of the Conference in Edinburgh, will have

noted that not much was discussed.

The main subject was the Scottish Capitation Fee. The choice presented to the meeting was to main-tain this fee at 15p per member, raise it to 20p or stop it altogether. At some point in the future the National Committee will give a lump sum to each of the Regional U3As in UK to manage their affairs. Until it is known what we will receive and when, it was agreed to keep the capitation fee at 15p. This will be discussed at the AGM in 2011.

Changes to the U3A in Scotland Committee: The new post holders are as follows. Chair: Graham Clark, Inverness and Black Isle U3A; Secretary: Edward Link, Perth U3A; Treasurer: Dianne Fraser, Edinburgh U3A. The retiring Secretary, Morag Tamisari, will stay on for six months to help Edward settle in.

Now that Dianne Fraser is on the U3A in Scotland Committee, she becomes the Edinburgh Represen-tative and I retire from this position.

It has been an honour and a great pleasure to rep-resent Edinburgh at the Scottish meetings. I have had the opportunity to get to know U3A members from all around Scotland and to meet visiting members of the National Committee.

I wish Dianne all the best in this new appointment.

Iain Langdon Retiring Edinburgh Representative

www.edinburghu3a.org.uk


Reflections on the Conference...

On 12 June 2010 Edinburgh hosted a Conference for all the U3As in Scotland, incorporating the 2010 AGM for U3A in Scotland. More than 200 people came, from 27 U3As!

The Third Age Trust gave us generous financial support, and Ian Searle, Chair of TAT, kindly joined us from Cornwall.

Our theme was ‘Time to Learn’. We had a wonderful day full of talks, work-shops, networking, craft and photography displays, and ending with a most enjoyable Conference dinner.

Our Stewards welcoming participants The Hall at St Thomas of Aquin’s

Barbara Clarke, Convenor: Our intention was to appear to be gliding along like swans on the day of the Conference, with no sign of any frantic paddling.

To achieve this effect (and at the risk of convincing the rest of the organising team that I was impossibly obsessive) we put a huge effort into detailed planning and organising – trying to predict every possible eventuality, and cater for all possible needs. So, for instance, when we discovered that our main speaker was booked to be down south the day before the conference, and a volcano was causing air travel chaos, we asked Angus Miller (our geology workshop leader) to prepare a reserve lecture on ‘Volcanoes: Past, Present and Future’, just in case, and appropriately ironic.

Did anything go wrong? Well yes, and mostly it was food-related! The non-vegetarians gobbled up the vegetarian sandwiches at lunch. Outright violence was averted by the catering staff quickly producing more veggie options; but next time there will be stockades in place. And there was a bit of unworthy stockpiling at coffee and tea time when the home-baking proved irresistible. So moans of dismay from the back of the queue.

Among the many satisfying aspects of organising this event, two things pleased me most: the quality of the workshops, and the generosity of our members who offered accommodation to people coming from a distance. These two factors, for me, underpinned the success of the conference by demonstrating that Edinburgh U3A is committed to the whole of Scotland sharing the benefits of U3A membership, and we recognise that seriously enjoying learning is what we are all about.

BEC


Reflections on the Conference cont.

We are producing an archive – print and electronic – to preserve a record of the organisation and content of the event in case we are ever foolhardy enough to attempt something similar!

Does anyone have expertise in archiving? We are looking for advice on what to save and how to save it, particularly electronic data. Contact any member of the Committee.

Prof David Purdie, keynote speaker, with Jeff Middlecote

Philosophy Workshop members discussing the meaning of citizenship

Craft exhibition from nine U3As organised by Moira Peter

To see the collection of conference photographs click on the link below. Choose the Slideshow option to view them full size on your screen. http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/beclarke99/AllScotlandU3AConference2010#

Helen Steuart, Host and Personal Memoirs workshop leader:

After the conference dinner we intended walking past Heriot’s School towards Waverley but a taxi appeared at the end of the road and the four of us piled in – two from Oban, one from Gatehouse of Fleet and myself the local girl. Senior citizens all, but you wouldn’t have thought so, to hear our chatting and laughing. Back home, we opened a bottle of wine and talked over the best bits of each of our days. Both Oban and Stewartry are newly established U3As and their officers are keen to pick up ideas for group activities and talk over their worries about keeping the books straight. They have gone away determined to start a writing group and to find somebody to teach recorder-playing. For my part, I want to get to know more Edinburgh members socially and to keep hold of the enjoyment that Saturday’s activities engendered in us all.

HS

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/beclarke99/AllScotlandU3AConference2010#



Jenny Mayor, Steering Group, Conference Day organisation:

I was lurking around in the foyer of the school for most of the day. It was a good idea to have Cathy and Ann as welcomers, which immediately set people at their ease as they arrived. Everyone seemed eager and full of anticipation, and as they picked up their packs and badges, they told us how much they appreciated the trouble we'd taken with the organisation of the day. Best of all, I enjoyed listening to people as they left at the end, when they declared how much they'd enjoyed themselves, meeting others from all over Scotland, and how much they'd learnt during the day.

JM

Rachel Frith, Host and one of the Hospitality organising team:

Since it was not my vision, I feel free to say that the decision to offer free accommodation was an important factor in ensuring that the Conference would be a happy and inclusive event. Helping to arrange hospitality was a team effort relying on the generosity of you the members. We had regular help from the Registration Group and the Parking Stewards. You will recall our passionate appeals for accommodation for our distant visitors at the Meetings in the Spring. We were aware that many of our members had recently down-sized and were not in a position to help, but enough could. On 4 June all the hosts met for a tea party and it was good to be able to put faces to the names on our list. I was lucky enough to have three visitors, Marina, Mary and Rose, who came from Kintyre and thoroughly enjoyed the Conference and their time in Edinburgh.

RF

Jimmy Scott and Colin Williamson, Stewards:

The warm welcome as we arrived set the scene for the day. The speakers of the plenary session, Ian Searle of U3A ‘Exploring the Future’ and Professor David Purdie, ‘The Scottish Enlightenment: 250 years on’, were in good form, entertaining the audience with talks liberally sprinkled with gems of wit. We appreciated the home baking at coffee and tea time. The breaks provided time to chat to friends and meet U3A folk from other parts of Scotland. The ‘Time to Learn’ workshops we attended were stimulating and fun. We applaud the generosity of the leaders for giving their time and expertise to enthuse us with new ideas. The concluding dinner, in a relaxed atmosphere, was a happy end to a special day. Our thanks go to all the organisers for their dedication and care in producing a conference of a high standard.

Drinks before the Conference dinner

JS, CW



Lorna Fletcher, Host and participant: The weekend was an extravaganza of splendid chat, first at the Conference, then with our two house guests from Dumfries U3A as we mulled over all six of the workshops we had attended between us – not an adverse comment amongst them. We had the perfect house guests – appreciative and considerate. They have left, inspired by Edinburgh U3A, to plan a mini-conference of the U3As in their local area. All in all, a weekend to remember … such a friendly atmosphere in which we made friends and had our interest stimulated.

Margot Montgomery, Workshop leader –French Network As someone who is only interested in speaking foreign languages, not reading them, I have derived a huge amount of pleasure from our Network. Along with Dorothy Buglass and Mary McKemmie, I was looking forward to sharing my enthusiasm with others.

My contribution involved competitions and Scrabble. My instant Scrabble competition was won by a member from Orkney who was the first to spot that SUREICE was an anagram of ECURIES, a valid word in both English and French Scrabble. Interestingly a ‘home’ for racing cars in English and horses in French!

There have been many appreciative letters from participants all around Scotland. Here are extracts from a letter written by Barbara Hyde, on behalf of Orkney delegates, to Jean Napier

who was her host in Edinburgh:

‘On behalf of all three Orkney delegates I would like to express our huge thanks to Edinburgh for a truly splendid event.

Because the pre-Conference paperwork and administration was so good, we anticipated a well-run and interesting day and were not disappointed. The venue was excellent and the programme diverse and well considered. Between us we selected six different workshops to maximise our time ‘South’ and will feed back as much as possible to our members here in Orkney.

What made the weekend particularly special for us was thefine-tuning and thoughtful touches: flowers on the tables, home-bakes, a word of welcome to every delegate, maintaining a ready smile until the end of a long and busy day, were only some of the many ways delegates were made to feel at home by Edinburgh members.

Of great importance to far-flung delegates was the right royal welcome we were given by our hosts. In the case of Orkney these were Jean Napier and May Cook whom we cannot thank enough for making our time in Edinburgh so memorable.

I hope the Conference will provide a solid ground for future U3A ventures. Thank you Edinburgh for a job almost impossible to surpass.’

Barbara Hyde, Orkney U3A

Scotland


Living Adventurously One of the themes for this issue is adventures – physical, mental, spiritual – that we have experienced since retiring.

FEATURE

Wwoofing with Margaret Halliday

M y retirement began at fifty. I’d been teaching abroad for ten years and just wanted to travel,

which I did for a time. Then I got fed up with only being a tourist and started doing other things. It was while I was cycling round Ireland in June 2000 that I first heard about wwoofing from an English woman who was staying at the same backpacker’s hostel as me.

The wwoof organisation began in England in the seventies. Initially it stood for ‘weekend workers on organic farms’, then became ‘willing workers’ and now ‘worldwide opportunities’. The lady I met had wwoofed in New Zealand, where I longed to go.

Two years later I realised my dream. It was part of a round-the-world trip, begun on 1 September 2001. An interesting time to embark!

On 1 February 2002 I landed in Auckland. It was love at first sight.

My first wwoof experience began the next day. It was going very well until the fourth day when my German host died. Not a good start. He was electrocuted dragging his boat under some pylons. Luckily I’d opted to stay home and rest. So just five days in New Zealand and I was being interrogated by the Police.

Undaunted I moved onto my next place where my new host hoped I wouldn’t jinx her too. Luckily this didn’t happen; I loved that place the most and returned there many times.

Kiwi wwoofs expect four–five hour’s work a day in return for accommodation and food. The work, food and accommodation are all very variable, as are the hosts and places.

The most unusual accommodation I had was sharing a dilapidated caravan with a seventy-year old man, plus his cats. The caravan was inside a large shed filled with old car wrecks. The toilet was hidden in a corner behind some wrecks and the shower was a cold water hose outside, in view of the neighbour’s kiwi fruit orchard. There was also an Austrian woman wwoofing there. She was in a tent on a car roof

accessed by some steps. After two days I left because I was bored – the man wanted us there mainly for conversation, not work.

From 2005 to October 2009 I wwoofed in Scotland. My first was on the Isle of Eigg on a croft where my caravan had spectacular views of the mountains of Rhum out of one window and the Sgurr from the other. Magical.

Generally I avoid farms (the work is too hard) but one spring I went to a small one in Dumfriess-shire. A task I loved was bottle feeding four Jacobs sheep lambs. I made up the bottles and took them to the field and called the lambs who all came running! Another memorable experience there was getting butted by the boss billy goat, Faro, several feet through the air.

The most palatial accommodation I’ve had was in the big house on the Cambo estate in Fife while I was there for the snowdrop festival.

But my favourite Scottish wwoof was the Beshara school, near Hawick which runs courses in esoteric education. They have a lovely walled garden which I became manager of for a while. I also did a nine-day course and later a six-month course which included a trip to Turkey to see the whirling dervishes in Konya, amongst other things.

If any of you feel inspired to go wwoofing just check out their web site at: www.wwoof.org.uk There are many more stories from the five months I wwoofed in New Zealand.

I am hosting a new U3A travel group (see Groups Booklet) and am willing to answer questions about my wwoofing experiences there.

What we cover in the group and how we organise ourselves depends on the interests of members. Please get in touch if you are interested in talking about travel and arranging holidays for two or more people.

Margaret Halliday

www.wwoof.org.uk


Thinking adventurously by members of the Thinkers group:

Pauline Cairncross, Joanna Morris, Jane Hawley, Jonathan Kish, Elisabeth Hutchings and the leader, Michael Hutchings

FEATURE

L ife is an adventure. As children we knew this and then we grew up. I hesitate to use the

term ’second childhood’, but on a positive note we have fewer responsibilities and a more carefree lifestyle than in our working years. So here we are again, life is an adventure. I feel like a sponge, soaking up knowledge. I have been studying philosophers in the ‘Thinkers’ group for almost two years now and although I feel I struggle sometimes, I like the challenge of having to exercise my brain, and that of finding additional reading material (not obligatory) to widen my understanding. I like the feeling of personal achievement when I’ve been successfully involved in discussion. I look forward to next year in ‘Thinkers’. It’s exciting not knowing where this will lead me. It’s an adventure! PC

I studied philosophy as an undergraduate almost 50 years ago but never revisited it since, so it

has been a pleasure but also disconcerting to be reading Plato, Descartes, and Hume after such a gap. A pleasure because Michael’s scholarly reading materials mean we don’t have to grapple with the philosophers on our own; disconcerting because the level of scholarship is beyond what I remembered from my university days, and often beyond what I can comfortably take in. Reading his notes aloud in the group, I discovered, is very helpful in clarifying concepts that had been incomprehensible. And the group discussion is fascinating in that each of us brings our own background and views to bear, not necessarily in a scholarly way. There are no tests to study for, no grades to anticipate, no fear that the group will disparage our comments. Probably closer to the classical Greek experience than any contemporary University course! JM

I felt that it was time for a new adventure in my life, so the thought of attending a group who

were looking into the great Philosophers was truly 'walking on water' for me. I got one 'O' Level at school (a long time ago) and I was not at all sure that I could contribute anything or even understand whatever was being discussed but, as with anything new, if we have a good leader and

congenial company to travel with, everything seems to fall into place, and as soon as I realised that there was nothing to fear, I relaxed and settled down to glean new knowledge in this sometimes extremely challenging but also inspiring field. JH

W hen we were wrestling with Nietzsche’s ideas last year, I was struck how he could

not suppress a powerful urge deep inside him to express concepts which would, and still do, go against the conventional grain. To me that was bravery, being prepared to take the risks, heedless of consequences. In the early 60s, by contrast, I wanted to go to France to perfect my French; but I stayed where I was, treading the path I stumbled into, all the while eying the far horizons and sighing after unknowable delights. I wonder what Nietzsche would have made of that? JK

O ur study of philosophy – strenuous mental exercise, which must be good for third-agers

– has been an exploration of ideas that people have always debated but will never agree about. So we have adventured into other people’s minds: we have tried to find our way through the theories of the great thinkers – strange and surprising territory – and in our discussions amongst ourselves, we have become aware of how other people’s mental terrains differ from our own. We may think that we know, for example, what ‘God’ or ‘soul’ or ‘mind’ means, only to discover that someone else’s meanings do not coincide at all with our own. So perhaps the adventure is three-fold: into the minds of the great philosophers, into the minds of our fellow-explorers, and into our own individual ideas. EH

F ifty years after I last studied the History of Philosophy, leading the Group has been quite

as much an adventure for me as belonging to it has been for the members. This year I am grateful to them for uncomplainingly following me into more difficult areas; but next year, when we shall turn to Moral Philosophy, life should be much easier and the adventure will be a much wider cast of thinkers than was presented to me at St Andrews. MH


Cuban Connection Evelyn McPake

R ecently, on a visit to Cuba, where old women importune you in the street for soap and

school children beg for pens, I made my way through the streets of the city of Trinidad towards its ‘Romantic’ Museum. As we approached, I heard our Cuban guide explain to our group that the bright-eyed elderly ladies seated judiciously in the shade of the entrance were the Local History Group of the city’s Universad de la Tercera Edad.

As she started to explain what this represented, I declared my membership of the organisation and she promptly introduced me to them. I told them where I came from, about my crossword group and of my interest in languages, whereupon they spontaneously applauded my halting Spanish (Edinburgh U3A, Intermediate Spanish, Mondays, 10 am). While much in Cuba is free (for Cubans) and food is rationed, the minimum old age pension of 200 Cuban pesos per month is a mere £8.00 in our money, and it is their enthusiasm for learning in the face of many difficulties and frustrations that merits applause, not the leisurely mornings, wrestling with the subjunctive or the distinctions between ‘por’ and ‘para’, so I attempted to indicate my admiration by applauding them in turn.

More Adventures

Later, I asked our guide what all the men, conspicuous by their absence, might be doing. ‘Sitting around street corners playing dominoes, talking sport and declaring that learning things is only for women’, was the answer! (Question: does any U3A have a dominoes group? If so, is it all men?) In a poor country where there are expensive monuments to countless heroes, but we only saw one to a heroine (Marta Abreu), it seemed a fair reflection of the ‘macho’ nature of a place which appeared, in a way, to have been left behind by the world of to-day. It was heartening, however, to see that our organisation has taken hold so enthusiastically and contributes to the well-being of older Cuban women.

EMP

Trinidad, Cuba

Once in a lifetime Pauline Cairncross tells the story of her ‘once in a lifetime’ adventure on the north-east coast of

Australia, during a stay there with her son in 2004.

W e had decided to visit Cape Tribulation, a Heritage site where the Rainforest meets the Great Barrier Reef, on the way to friends in the Daintree area. We crossed over on the ferry, beyond

which the road sloped down to cross two shallow creeks; both were almost dry, but as we arrived at the Cape car park, it started to rain. We ran through to the beach to take some photographs, and as we returned to the car the rain became a downpour, which continued as we crossed Mason’s Creek. A few minutes later, the road dipped down to Myall Creek, and as we went into the dip we both leaned forward and gazed through the windscreen in disbelief: the water, which had been below road level when we drove up, was now about three feet above it, and flowing swiftly. Ronnie braked – but it was too late.

►


Australian adventure cont. The car went into the water – and whoooosssshh, it poured over the windscreen, then cleared. At the time I thought I felt quite calm; but with hindsight I know that I was numb with fear, realising that the situation was outwith our control. The car bobbed up and down a few times, and then swung round slowly to the left and floated down river. ‘Mother, we’re in trouble’, said Ronnie. ‘Yes’, I replied. The car continued to turn in a circle and then settled, floating backwards down the river, engine down and boot up. The engine had cut out; we wound down the windows, and waited anxiously to see what would happen – the water was already up to our ankles. The car eventually snagged against a tree which had fallen across the middle of the river.

Ronnie asked me to climb out of the window and swim to a small island in the middle of the river. ‘I can’t swim’, I said. Time seemed to stand still, while he absorbed this piece of information. ‘You can’t swim?’

I climbed out of the car window, and stood in the fast-flowing water. Ronnie climbed out behind me and, using my weight to stabilise himself, he managed to lift me, a few inches at a time, across the river, until we reached the island. There, I felt frozen to the spot: when the car went into the water, I knew instinctively that I was not going to die, but I had no idea how terrified I would be, before the situation was resolved. Ronnie said we would have to try to cross over on to the river bank, and I just cried that I did not want to leave the car - by this time, I was probably beginning to go into shock. The rain continued, and slowly the water rose until we were ankle-deep. After about half an hour – Ronnie still looking for a way out – we noticed that the rain had lessened, and the water had subsided a bit.

Ronnie attempted to wade across to the river bank but, at the second step, realised that the water there was too deep and too fast. He came back, crossed a shallow channel to another island downstream, and tested another tree, which had fallen on to the river bank from there. The log felt solid when he tried it, so he threw another slim branch across as a handrail. When he came back and told me that we were going to walk across it on to the river bank, I just cried and said I did not want to leave the car. ‘We’ll just go across, and if you don’t like it, we’ll come back.’ ‘Alright’, I sobbed. We crossed to the other island, and he set off slowly across the log, testing it as he went; when turning round half-way to tell me it was safe to follow, he found me so close I almost knocked him off.

We continued across the log on to the river bank. I was still whimpering and sobbing: I felt that I could go up the river bank, as long as I could see the river, but I was terrified that if I could not see the river we would become lost in the rainforest. We set off up the bank, and before long we came to some log steps at the river’s edge, leading to a concrete path through some knee-high grass. I remember thinking that this meant civilisation; but I was still hell-bent on sticking to the river edge until we reached the road. Ronnie said gently, ‘We’ll just go up the path to the top of the rise, and if you’re not happy, we’ll come back.’

At the top of the shallow rise the grass widened out, and in front of us we saw the road in the distance. We followed it back to the ford where we’d been washed away. A few cars were waiting on either side of the water, waiting to cross; a tour guide was there, and offered to take us back up to a lodge nearby.

The duty manager there was sympathetic. He asked how we had got back from the car, and when we said we had walked up through the rainforest, there was a strange look on his face. ‘Are there crocs there?’ I asked. ‘Yes’, he replied – and I felt fortunate to be alive.

The staff were very kind, and took away our clothes to launder, while we sat in huge bath towels. We had a drink from the minibar, and began to unwind. As Ronnie paced slowly up and down the room (he’s been a pacer for as long as I can remember) he said, ‘Are you aware, Mother … that this is the most traumatic time we’ve spent together since the night I was born?’ He began to laugh as he said it, and soon we were both laughing so much that we were literally rolling around. The healing had begun. n


GROUP NEWS French Network – Réseau Français The réseau français or French Network is an association of Edinburgh U3A members who have an interest in French language and culture. We currently have over 40 members. Events are arranged by the members and any member is welcome to initiate an activity. We have regular monthly coffee mornings to keep in touch and make arrangements.

Friday coffee mornings at the Filmhouse café, Lothian Rd, 10.30 am 4th Friday in the month (except December) Dates for autumn: Sept 24, Oct 22, Nov26, and Jan 28, 2011 Coffee mornings at the Café Rouge, Frederick St, 10.30 am 2nd Thursday and 4th Monday each month Dates for autumn: Thursdays: Sept 9, Oct 14, Nov 11, Dec 9, Jan 13, 2011 Mondays: Sept 27, Oct 25, Nov 22, Jan 24, 2011 Contact Rachel Frith to confirm: 668 3937 [email protected] Following visits from members in Lyon, arrangements are in hand for a party to go to France from Edinburgh in early September this year. We hope to welcome a French group in return in Spring 2011.

Dorothy Buglass and Mary McKemmie (see your Groups Booklet for contact details)

Intermediate level Spanish Conversation We are a small friendly group of intermediate Spanish speakers who meet fortnightly, on Tuesdays at 10 am, to discuss topics of general interest. A subject for conversation may be chosen in advance, although we do not feel obliged to stick to this. We are fortunate in having a native Spanish speaker as a member of the group, and she is always happy to help with any queries we may have in relation to grammar or anything else. Our approach is flexible and informal, and we would welcome new members.

Judith Walker

(See your Groups Booklet for contact details)

Good Companions NEW GROUP Have you ever wanted to go on holiday but had no-one to go with? Do you like going to concerts, plays, but you would enjoy them more if you had a companion? Maybe you would like to go to an exhibition in London or Glasgow but your long-time companion is no longer there to go with you?

If you answer yes to any of these questions, then the new group ‘Good Companions’ may be worth a try. To begin with, the group will work in the same way as the Réseau français. Please send me an email with your ideas and I will send your ideas/requests to others in the group. I look forward to hearing from you. At a later stage we may be able to meet up for lunch in order to discuss your ideas. But first I need to see the response.

Alison Howard (Alison’s details are on p.10 of Groups Booklet)

Buddhist Philosophy NEW GROUP I first encountered Buddhism in 1971 when I met and later married a Cambodian structural engineer. But then I found the philosophy too pessimistic and misogynist for my liking. Still, I was intrigued and gradually became more familiar with the teachings and practice of Buddhism in Britain. In the nineties I spent a year in Cambodia and since then have travelled widely in S E Asia. The more I learned, the more my interest in the various forms of Buddhism increased. After retirement I moved to Edinburgh where I had brief but telling encounters with two great men: the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh, both inspiring leaders and living exponents of differing branches of the religion/philosophy.

I now wish to explore my ideas and doubts with other U3A thinkers. For this group no previous knowledge is required – just an open mind.

Christine Hawkridge (see Groups Booklet for contact details)

mailto:[email protected]


GROUP NEWS CONT. Turkish Language NEW GROUP For those who love to learn languages – and that seems to be a large percentage of U3A members – here is a new challenge.

Turkish is probably quite unlike any other language you have learnt, but it has some appealing qualities – no grammatical genders (think French and German!), an easy phonetic spelling system (think English!) and, mercifully, is written in Roman script. Apart from the challenge, and the kudos of knowing a language that hardly anyone else understands, there are the added bonuses of being able to chat to Turkish people when you go there on holiday, and reading Ottoman poetry in the original. (Just joking. Even Turkish people find that difficult.)

I decided to start this group for two reasons: first, because of the U3A principle that if you have a skill you should share it, and secondly, because I enjoy a chance to speak Turkish. So far our group could be described as a small, mixed-ability class, but we hope to increase in numbers. We do a bit of grammar, plenty of discussion and quite a lot of tea and coffee-drinking. Why not come along to the group and see if it appeals? We meet fortnightly on Mondays at 2.30 pm. Contact me if interested –details in the Groups Booklet. Buyurun, sizi bekleriz.

Kathleen Allanach

Crosswords Group

Across 1 The poetry group will know who wrote ‘Candy is

dandy but liquor is quicker’ (4)

4 The Virgin Mary’s neck according to the Song of Solomon (5,5)

9 A mirage (7,8)

10 Strangest (9)

12 For Film group: Star of ‘Now Voyager’ (5) 15 These could be the rich and famous or a pair of

earrings (3,3)

16 Main Street in Dublin (1’7) 17 Once you have paid your U3A sub. it is unlikely it

will be this (8) 18 The Geology group would say ‘Not extinct’ (6)

20 For Art group: 1866 painting by Manet (5) 23 Learners of Italian ‘conosceranno’: le camicie rosse

di Garibaldi (3,6) 24 He planned the first submarine (8,2,5)

25 The Music group will recognise singing Lisa (10)

26 Island cat (4)

Down

2 A glass capsule for the Chemists (7) 3 Cookery groups worldwide will know this

ingredient (3,3,5) 4 Lack of suitability (10) 5 The lamp of learning has been this through U3A

membership (5) 6 Green for the Gardeners (5)

7 Played by the Games group (5)

8 Book readers will recognise Wexford’s creator (7)

11 Two equal feet for the Poets (7) 13 Science Group: Please consult the Atomic Table for

No.99 (11)

14 Between the lines (2,4,4) 17 Another for the Book readers: The Amateur

Cracksman (7) 19 Travellers know where one can see the Holy See

(7) 21 For the Gardeners but not for the butter eaters

(5)

22 They all lead to Rome (5) 23 Mathematicians know two of these make a

diameter (5) Solution on page 15


Kiruna with a population of 23,000 is the biggest municipality in Sweden. Located in Lapland province, Northern Sweden, at about latitude 68˚N, it is 145 km inside the Arctic Circle. It is particularly famous for iron ore mining, for the Esrange Space Centre and, since 1990, for the Ice Hotel that is constructed each year near Kiruna.

The community has a thriving school of adult education (Malmfältens folkshögskola) – for people who have missed out on schooling or need retraining programmes. And it also provides a free facility for senior citizens who can study English, computing and health topics.

Towards the end of 2009, Karin Westergren, Vice Principal of the school, contacted the Edinburgh U3A website asking for advice about a group visit to Edinburgh by the English group that she teaches. They plan a trip each year and study the place they will be visiting in their English class. Three years ago they visited Dublin where they met up with the local U3A.

Frances Clark, one of our Committee members, liaised with Karin to create a full and varied programme from 11–16 May. The highlights included visiting Edinburgh Castle, the Scottish Parliament, the Palace of Holyrood House, the Scottish Seabird Centre and an all-day tour of The Trossachs and Loch Lomond.

On the penultimate evening, a reception and supper was held for the group of 30 in Dianne Fraser’s home. The visitors had brought with them reindeer meat – some dry-cured to be sliced off the bone, the other braised with mushrooms that they cooked for us – and a local cheese which you allow to melt in your coffee. In return our guests were treated to salmon, haggis, ‘neeps and tatties’ together with a wee dram.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. We were impressed by how well the Swedish group communicated in English, and how strong and healthy they appeared to be! Plans were hatched during the evening and we have an invitation to make a U3A group visit to Kiruna in the near future. They could assist with finding accommodation, but not in the Ice Hotel!

Anyone interested in making this trip to the Land of the Midnight Sun should contact Frances Clark.

Her phone number and email are on the U3A Membership Card

Visitors from Kiruna, Sweden

▲The cooks

▼Karin Westergren


The Dutch Group go on a visit to Texel, Holland After reading up on Texel (in Dutch!) we left on 28 April in time to take part in the Queen’s birthday celebrations and ‘Meierblissen’ (bonfire feast), both on 30 April. Here are some impressions of the challenges we encountered:

L ast year our Dutch for Beginners group made a big decision. In the hope of improving our

language skills, perhaps it was possible to visit a part of Holland where English is spoken little, so encouraging us to practise our rudimentary language. Engelina suggested the island of Texel in the north where an old family friend and his wife owned a small hotel in the village of Den Burg. Texel, home of the famous Texel sheep, is the biggest and most populated of the Frisian islands in the Wadden Sea and also the westernmost of this archipelago which extends to Denmark. Perfect!

We flew from Edinburgh Airport in late April and after two train journeys, a ferry crossing and a local bus ride we arrived at Hotel Den Burg in time for an evening meal. Den Burg with its medieval street pattern is the biggest village in Texel and with approximately half of the island’s 14,000 inhabitants gives the impression of a small town. For the next four days we visited some of the other six villages, enjoying the beach resort of De Koog, the walk to the lighthouse at De Cocksdorp and the Maritime Museum and windmill at Oudeschild. Some of us took a particularly exhilarating walk from Den Burg through sheep meadows bordered by turf walls made of grass sods which are unique to Texel.

Wherever we went our patient tutor would ask the locals to avoid English when speaking to us. A most enjoyable trip, which helped us to appreciate the culture of this diverse island and get to grips a little more with the Dutch language. Bruce Lowe

W hen I joined the U3A in 2007, little did I think I was going to start learning a foreign

language, let alone travel abroad with my group and experience the challenge of communicating with this language. I have to thank Engelina, our leader, for providing such expert tuition and encouragement and the whole group for their support and companionship. Apart from the language, the challenge for me was the journey by air. I had flown only twice before, plus we had the threat of disruption from volcanic ash. Fortunately, our flight went ahead as arranged and I survived! Travelling north by train I gazed out on the wonderful colours of the bulb fields on either side: reds, oranges, yellows, blues and purples. It was simply breathtaking.

Each day we grew in confidence, finding ourselves able to order tea or coffee in our hotel, and venture out to the shops to buy various items – all in Dutch. One of us had a conversation with a little Dutch girl in the supermarket. And I was amazed to discover a C&A store. I plucked up courage, went in, tried on an item and bought it – entirely in Dutch! The celebrations for Koninginnedag (Queen’s Day) were fun: flags everywhere, orange balloons tied to balconies, and some people even had orange hair! The weather was our last challenge: about 20˚C on the first day and near enough freezing on our last. I was glad I had brought my sun hat and sun cream as well as my warm scarf and gloves. Jenny Cowper

T he Free for All Fair held in Den Burg on their Queen’s birthday was a great opportunity to

observe provincial Dutch society en masse at play. These are some of my impressions: the Dutch are at ease with themselves; equality and respect for one another, for the environment and property seem to be the code. I saw no sign of young-peoplism, ageism or disability discrimination. Society seems to ►


Dutch trip cont. to be self-controlled, there was no excessive noise or drunkenness, and no police officers in evidence. While there is conformity, it is not boring because individuality is allowed to express itself. The Dutch, at the Fair at least, were patriotic, proud of themselves and their country. They are open-minded about human nature and relaxed about sex – as demonstrated by the birthday card I was given! The great leveller in society is the bicycle: all very similar, Mary Poppins style, and ridden by young and old alike. It is the ‘cool’ thing to do. Cyclists and pedestrians have priority on the roads and, refreshingly, the Dutch appear not to share our obsession with the motor car.

Although the trip to Texel did not enhance my language skills much, I do believe I could live happily in Holland because I like the way they live with one another. Roger Darke

W hen the idea of our Dutch group going to Texel was first mooted, I was very

apprehensive, but I needn’t have worried. It was such a well-organised trip that I enjoyed it all. It was lovely to see the island, and the Queen’s Day celebration was fascinating. After managing to buy tea with milk, and to get a guide book (all in Dutch), I decided to go to the Lutheran Church on Sunday. The hymns were familiar but I have to confess I could not understand the sermon. I came back being a little more confident in the language but also feeling I would like to know more about the Netherlands and the Dutch people. Margaret Hilton

T he challenge for the group co-ordinator was to find the right balance between setting up a

holiday and a study trip. And although we very much missed Pat Cattanach, who had to cancel her flight because of hospitalisation, we did have an enjoyable and interesting time. Here are our warmest wishes for Pat’s recovery and that she may rejoin our group before too long. Engelina Davids

Edinburgh Botanic Gardens It is autumn

Here this season

seeps into bone.

Expecting red

orange, grey, bronze

I am caught unaware

by translucent leaves

so yellow

against a height of sky

all light glows green.

I cannot bear to move.

Standing silent,

hear each shimmering leaf

ready its soft fall

dreaming a winter.

Elspeth Crawford

Crossword Solution Across: 1 Nash 4 Ivory Tower 9 Optical illusion 10 Quaintest 12 Bette 15 Jet set 16 O’Connell 17 Relit 18 Active 20 Fifer 23 Red Shirts 24 Leonardo da Vinci 25 Stansfield 26 Manx Down: 2 Ampoule 3 Hoi Sin Sauce 4 Inaptitude 5 Relit 6 Thumb 7 Whist 8 Rendell 11 Spondee 13 Einsteinium 14 No Man’s Land 17 Raffles 19 Vatican 21 Flora 22 Roads 23 Radii

Editorial Team Mary Walker, Rosemary Miller, Elisabeth Hutchings, Sue Mallick, Barbara Clarke

Clarion online is published by The Edinburgh University of the Third Age Scottish Charity Number SC020301

edin number 55/5 spring 2008 autumn 2010€¦ · autumn 2010 f or those of you who were unable to...

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