Website: www.kentondistrictu3a.org Email: ku3anews@outlook.com Membership tel :020 3645 7348

Kenton & District

Newsletter August/September 2020

Lockdown Latest We have been advised that the Harrow District Masonic Centre will be reopening for limited masonic activity from the beginning of September. After that they will consider how to accommodate other users, including us, while taking into account the need for sanitising and the limited seating capacity dictated by social distancing. The Kenton & District U3A Committee will continue to keep a care-ful watch on developments as the government regulations and guidelines change and we are monitoring national U3A advice too. We are thinking about how our own activities might, over time, begin to resume in person. Some of our small groups might begin to consider whether they might meet outdoors while the weather allows it. We will be updating you as things change.

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Annual General Meeting

As announced in July, due to the unprecedented circumstances and in line with Third Age Trust guidance, the

KU3A Committee has taken the decision not to have an AGM this year and to allow all current members of the

Committee to continue in post for a further year.

Monthly meetings At our July meeting Dr Philip Minor spoke to us on ‘The Eradication of Poliomyelitis’. This made us aware of the extent that poliomyelitis had spread worldwide and the enormity of the operation trying to eradicate it. This in-formative talk made us realise how thankful we should be to virologists who dedicate their lives to developing vac-cines which destroy these deadly viruses. This is so relevant to the unprecedented situation that we are currently experiencing.

August Monthly Meeting Our speaker at 10am on Wednesday 26th August is Rob Kayne who will be talking about the ‘Old London Bridge’ – the medieval one with houses, shops and a chapel built on it.

September Monthly Meeting On Wednesday 23rd September at 10am, Jim Davies will be telling us about ‘The History of British Airways’ from the start of commercial flying up to the present day.

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Kenton & District U3A Newsletter August/September 2020 Page 2

Website: www.kentondistrictu3a.org Email: ku3anews@outlook.com Membership tel :020 3645 7348

Interest Group News Interest group coordinators: Louise Bennett and Peter Rummer, email KU3Agroups@outlook.com

**NEW** Zoom Natter Group This is your opportunity to drop into an informal online social chat session. Friday mornings between 10am and noon, starting on 4th September. This is knit and natter, but mostly without the knitting! Open to all KU3A members, it will be rather chaotic if everyone speaks at once. So, depending on the numbers, we may organise you randomly into smaller groups in ‘breakout rooms’ for some of the time. Contact Peter Rummer for further information.

Speaking in Public This small supportive group of six members is now meeting monthly to deliver their talks on Zoom. The next ses-sion is on 18th September at 10am, when the topic will be ‘Does the world need grandparents?’. Prospective new members should contact Peter Rummer to be included in the list of invitees.

Cookery Like other Groups we have been using Zoom to hold virtual coffee mornings on the days we would normally meet. At the last coffee morning we were also pleased to welcome a new member to the group, who has just joined

Diary update to December 2020 See attached diary

This has the dates, times and contact details for interest groups meeting via Zoom, now extended through to the end of December 2020 and a summary of what the position is on other interest groups. A limited version is also available on our website: www.kentondistrictu3a.org

Future Talks If you know someone who might be persuaded to give us a talk using Zoom, please let Adele Setton know. adele.setton1405@gmail.com

Classical Music Appreciation Herbie Goldberg has been considering ‘British Music’ from medieval times towards the present day, including well-known and lesser-known composers. We have encountered the likes of Elgar, Sullivan, Vaughan Williams and Holst. Also, Sir Hubert Parry, familiar to most solely through ‘Jerusalem’ and his contemporary Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, a fine teacher whose stellar array of pupils (including Holst, Vaughan Williams, John Ireland and Arthur Bliss) has overshadowed his reputation as a composer. The August session was devoted to five composers who were victims of World War I; George Butterworth, Cecil Coles, Frederick Septimus Kelley and Ernest Farrar. Each of them left a small number of works of fine quality. Herbie talks about the life of each composer and plays recorded examples to illustrate their work. The next Zoom meeting at 2pm on Thursday 10th September will feature William Walton. This will be followed by Gerald Finzi on 8th October and Malcolm Arnold in November. Herbie won’t be covering the more avant-garde dissonant music and will conclude his British Music journey in December with a session devoted to a miscellany of those who have not been included earlier. If you want to look further than the usual classical favourites that are endlessly repeated on Radio 3 and Classic FM, then please let Joan Schlackman know that you would like to join the group. Finally, Herbie is looking for suggested topics or themes for sessions in the new year.

William Walton

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Kenton & District U3A Newsletter August/September 2020 Page 3

Website: www.kentondistrictu3a.org Email: ku3anews@outlook.com Membership tel :020 3645 7348

Creative Writing Creative Writing Group continues to hold its twice monthly meetings via Zoom. They have been chaired by Marian Rummer with expert technical assistance from Kevin O'Doherty and Robert Bernard. Texts are shared on screen and read by the writer and followed by a short discus-sion from the group. This format works very well and the sessions are most enjoya-ble, lively and constructive. Recent interest areas chosen by agreement of partici-pants have included; Life in Lockdown, A Memorable Meal, A Dramatic Monologue, Romance, Sci-fi and Fantasy Humour. Imagination and good writing are always in evidence whether presented as prose or poetry. However, we always have the a la carte menu from which you may choose your own topic. The average attendance for the two-hour session is 10 but if anyone is interested in joining us do drop into the meeting. Contact Esther Lipton for details. The next meetings is Wednesday Sep 2nd at 10am. We look forward to welcoming some new faces. Please don't feel that you are inexperienced since we are all agreed that, as a group, we have benefited from our super ses-sions!

Play Reading In August the group read ‘Comic Potential’ by Alan Ayckbourn. This hilarious and heart-breaking play is set in the foreseeable future when everything has changed except human nature – a future where TV daytime soaps are per-formed by android actors, emotionally programmed by the control room. At our next Zoom get-together, on Monday 21st September at 2pm, the play will be ‘The Actress’. A comedy by Peter Quilter, which dramatises the events backstage as a colourful, complicated actress makes her emotional farewell per-formance. Please contact Vivienne Gould if you’d like to take part and are not al-ready on her mailing list.

Current Affairs Discussion Throughout lockdown around 30 members have regularly met at 10am each Monday morning via Zoom, to discuss the weeks burning issues. If you have not yet tried it why not give it a go. Your opinions are unlikely to change anything, BUT you will feel a lot better for airing them and you will probably find that they are shared by many of your fellow participators. If interested, please contact Kevin O’Doherty who will issue an invitation. We are also in urgent need of people to chair the sessions. This simply involves selecting a number of topics you wish to discuss.

French Conversation We continue to meet successfully via Zoom. At our August meeting we read and translated two passages dealing with the COVID pandemic. One was about tourism and the effect on Spain of the quarantining of visitors arriving in the UK from there; the other was about the next step the UK is taking in controlling the spread of the virus. Both these passages were adapted by Joan from reports in Le Monde and it was interesting to learn the French point of view. Half-way through the class we had a short break and were then split into two groups. One group consisted of native French speakers or those who had lived or studied in France for a time, who chatted amongst themselves. Joan led the other group and asked questions based on the tourism passage to encourage con-versation about holidays. The passages Joan provides are usually a mix of serious and more light-hearted articles and come mostly from French newspaper or pieces on-line from French TV. They always contain up-to-the minute news. If you would like to join the group – or at least give it a try to see how you get on – please contact Judith Littman. Our next zoom meeting will be on 3rd September at 2pm.

The Cobbe portrait (1610), The Chandos portrait (early 1600s) and the Droeshout portrait (1622): three of the most prominent of the re-puted portraits of William

Shakespeare.

Kenton & District U3A Newsletter August/September 2020 Page 4

Website: www.kentondistrictu3a.org Email: ku3anews@outlook.com Membership tel :020 3645 7348

Healthy Living The group met successfully on Zoom in July when the topic was good eye health and in August to study the ear and hearing. Sonia gave a short presentation on the structure and function of the eye and its common diseases in July followed by the ear and common hearing issues in August. Each presentation was followed by a discussion with contri-butions from the members on their own experiences of eye and ear problems and management. We also had a general discussion on health issues relating to the latest situation with Lockdown and COVID-19. The group is increasing in attendance with continuing success due to the active contri-butions from the members. This works very well with Zoom, for which much thanks must go to Louise and Diana for hosting to make discussion run so smoothly with ‘mute’ and ‘unmute’ function. The topic of the next meeting at 10am on Tuesday Septem-ber 15th will be hips, knees and legs. All KU3A members are welcome to join. Please contact Kevin if you wish to be invited to the Zoom session.

**NEW** Two talks on the US Presiden-tial Election We have arranged for John Matlin to give us two one hour Zoom talks on the 2020 American Presidential election, one pre-election on Friday 23rd October at 11am and one post-election on Wednesday 18th November at 2pm. Many of you will have enjoyed John’s talks on American pres-idents in the past and may also recall his talks in 2016 about the Clinton/Trump election (when he predicted Hillary would win!). Our experience is that he is a well informed and inter-esting speaker and provides insightful and gossipy responses to points made by the audience. There will be plenty of op-portunity for questions and comments.

English Literature In our chronological sur-vey of the greatest hits of English Literature, we’ve now reached the Victorian age and the era of the great English novel. We have just started Emily Bronte’s master-piece, ‘Wuthering Heights’, the novel that some say is the best of the lot. Since we’ve only read the first couple of chapters, newcomers joining now will have missed very little and would be most welcome to join us. After a summer break, we restart at 10am on Tuesday, 8th September. Also, since we’re oper-ating by Zoom, we can study a landmark novel and enjoy stimulating discussion in convivial com-pany, without having to leave the comforts of home. No need to look anxiously out of the window at Autumn and Winter’s rain or sleet or frost or fog. Just dial in on Zoom and, hey presto, you’re in the world of Kathy and Heathcliff. (With apologies to Kate Bush). If anyone would like any further de-tails, please get in touch with David Harris.

Rambling Wood Farm Walk - Sunday July 26th We had a good turnout for this walk 18 of us in total with 2 members on our ramble for the first time. We wore face-masks and kept one metre plus apart diving into 3 groups of six. Wood Farm walk is part of Stanmore Country Park and is accessible via various entrances. We chose the one adja-cent to the Dennis Lane car park for convenience as most of us arrived by car given the current conditions. In normal times it is a short walk from Stanmore Underground via Kerry Avenue. The walk is well signposted and leads to the London viewpoint, looking over the City of London, which is well worth the trip alone.

Rambling (cont.)

Next Walk—Celandine Walk along the River Pinn

– approximately 3 miles Sunday August 23rd, 2020

Given the prevailing circumstance I am keeping the walks local and fairly short. We are revisiting this a short pleasant walk through parkland, riverside and gardens. It will take around 2 hours. This walk starts by the Pinner Memorial Park café, through the park and then along the River Pinn to Eastcote House Garden containing 16th Century buildings, such as the Stables, Dovecot and Walled Garden . Meet at Pinner Memorial Park café at 10:15am for a 10:30 start. Please register with Kevin O’Doherty to come on the walk. We shall be following current Covid 19 guidelines walking in groups of six one metre apart wearing facemasks as before. on the July walk. September 27th walk location to be decided. Please register with Kevin to get on the mailing list.

Kenton & District U3A Newsletter August/September 2020 Page 5

Website: www.kentondistrictu3a.org Email: ku3anews@outlook.com Membership tel :020 3645 7348

Book Club

The virtual book club on 25th June was a well-attended meeting when the works of the Canadian author, Margaret Atwood were discussed. Opinions differed, which made for a lively afternoon. Some praised her style and appreciated the author’s hall-mark themes of retribution, strong women and underlying currents of dystopia, whilst others found her themes unsettling, repellent and weird. The next virtual meeting is on Thursday 27th August, when we will be examining the books of Sebastian Faulks. He is probably best known for his much-praised book Birdsong set in WWI. His wide and varied body of work includes a James Bond continuation novel Devil May Care, a homage novel Jeeves and the Wedding Bells and his latest book Paris Echo – an examination of war and empire. They should set the scene for a very interesting discussion. The following meeting on 22nd October promises to be equally informative and interesting when we will be look-ing at the books of Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple described as ‘A powerful cultural touchstone of mod-ern American literature.’ If you like a varied diet of reading and lively discussions, do join us, even for a taster, just contact Zsuzsanna Mess-ing to ensure you get a Zoom invitation. The Book Club meets bi-monthly on the fourth Thursday, 2 - 4pm.

The Preston Story The final part of (KU3A member) Chris Coates’ fascinating four-part series on Preston's history is now online at: https://wembleymatters.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-preston-story-part-4.html.

National U3A Events & Newsletter If you haven’t done so already, we encourage you to sign up to receive the monthly national newsletter from the Third Age Trust. It is filled with information, stories and advice from across the U3A movement on how to keep safe and occupied during this difficult time, sharing information from across the country about what other U3As are doing during the Covid-19 pandemic. The link to subscribe is here: https://www.u3a.org.uk/newsletter. The national website also has lots of ideas to keep us learning and entertained. See www.u3a.org.uk. National U3A is getting back into education activities events. They are now offering a brand-new series of Zoom events. The next one is a talk on ‘The David Livingstone Birthplace Project’ that will focus on his birthplace near Glasgow of this famous Victorian explorer, abolitionist, doctor and missionary. It will be held on Zoom and it can be booked at: https://www.u3a.org.uk/events/educational-events.

Staying Connected Many of our groups have been able to adapt and stay connected and supportive of each other. With special thanks to Kevin O’Doherty for his valuable contribution setting up meetings, coaching the uninitiated and man-aging the technical hitches, a huge number of members are now using Zoom video chat technology to partici-pate in virtual meetings. That includes some who have never used computers or smartphones till now. Kenton U3A has a Digital Support Team – see below – to help people who have a computer, tablet or smartphone but need help to participate in Zoom meetings. If you are willing to help to technically co-host Zoom meetings (so dealing with muting and raise hand), expand-

ing the numbers who do already, please get in touch with Kevin: ku3azoom@outlook.com. If you are willing to become an interest group co-ordinator for a new Zoom interest group – say one which might bring members together to review a specific play, concert or museum/art gallery exhibition which are available on line – do let Louise or Peter know : KU3Agroups@outlook.com.

Kenton & District U3A Newsletter August/September 2020 Page 6

Website: www.kentondistrictu3a.org Email: ku3anews@outlook.com Membership tel :020 3645 7348

ZOOM

Many of you may be familiar with Zoom already and know how to use it. You can use ZOOM to see and chat to anyone on the internet who has a smartphone, tablet or computer with a camera once they have accepted your invitation. Meetings can involve 2 to 100 people. Kenton U3A has purchased a subscription to Zoom so there is no time limit on the length of meetings. They just require Kevin O’Doherty to issue meeting invitations by email for each meeting, with a link to click on, to attendees from the new KU3A Zoom email account and a host for each meeting to manage the technical side. No Zoom account is necessary to join a Zoom meeting. Once the meeting starts participants just click on the email link to join the meeting. You will go into a waiting room and the Host will admit you to the meeting. Once in, you need to make sure your audio and video are on so other participants can see and hear you. Even if you do not have any internet connection, you can join a Zoom meeting by telephone. You will need to contact Kevin to learn meeting times, the meeting ID number, passcode and the local-rate phone number(s) to call on the day. Further information at: www.zoom.us Need support to get started? Contact one of our Digital Support Team: Peter Rummer 020 8907 3512, 07715 369241, peterrummer@aol.com John Maund 020 8907 1949, 07775 991794, john@jamcompserv.com Kevin O’Doherty 020 8907 5876, 07958 482843, kevin_odoherty@hotmail.com

Our mailing address is Kenton & District U3A

35 Shooters Avenue

Harrow, HA3 9BQ

United Kingdom

Current Committee

members :

Chair – John Bishop,

Vice-Chair – Louise Bennett

and Peter Rummer,

Treasurer – Anita Maund,

Secretary – Vivien Spiteri

Committee members

Howard Goldstein Judith Littman Diana O’Reardon Adele Setton Kevin O’Doherty Ann John