In this edition:
Upcoming Events
March Coffee Morning – Tuesday, 5th March, 10am-12noon
Always on the First Tuesday of each month, so please mark your calendars!
Our Coffee Mornings are held in the Bar at the MINERVA THEATRE building, opposite the Chichester Festival Theatre. You can chat with our groups team and learn about current and new offerings, meet old friends and make new ones!
Quiz Night – 14th March, 2024
New Venue & New Options for Eating
The next u3a Quiz will take place at The Chichester Inn, Westgate, Chichester on THURSDAY 14th March.
The start time for the quiz is 7.30pm. There is no charge for the quiz and a meal is optional. The Chichester Inn kitchen opens at 5.00pm and we expect diners to eat prior to the start of the quiz. The menu can be found here: the chichester inn menu.
You do not have to order food in advance, but it would be helpful if you could register for the quiz using this link, and tell us, using the “Comments” box, whether you intend to eat; we will then be able to advise the pub of the likely numbers.
Tables are for 4 people and if you want to be seated with friends, please let us know their names in the “Comments” box of the booking form.
Parking is available free of charge after 6pm in West Street and in the Orchard Street carpark, opposite The Chichester Inn. The pub also has a small private carpark, accessible from Avenue de Chartres.
Please email Margaret if you have any questions: social@chichesteru3a.org.uk
Monthly Meeting at the Assembly Rooms on North Street – 14th March at 2pm
Tea and coffee will be served from 1.15 pm until 1.45 pm and the talk will start at 2pm.
Our speaker will be James Vaux. His talk is titled “Tinker, Tailor, Canvas, Chair: How Modernism Became a Cold War Agent.”
A return for James who gave us the amazing talk on Scandinavian furniture. This talk tells of the strange and unbelievable co-operation between the CIA and the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) for propaganda purposes.
Groups Notices
“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.”
– Albert Einstein
Flower Arranging
The Flower Arranging Group held their first session at Donnington Parish Hall on Tuesday, 20th February, and came away with some beautiful vase arrangements using roses, foraged greenery and a stunning, rusty coloured dogwood, donated by one of the members (after doing some pruning earlier in the week). We meet again on Tuesday, 19th March when we will be making Easter basket arrangements using a variety of Spring blooms. There are still a few spaces available ….. we would love for you to join us!
Music Group – OPEN TO NEW MEMBERS
You are invited to join our friendly Music Group. We meet on the 3rd Wednesday morning of each month at 10:30am to listen and talk and enjoy a session about a wide eclectic range of musical topics. Our previous sessions have been on jazz, symphonic, songs and stories, klezmer, composers, brass…. Sessions are member led, Informal and friendly and offer a good way to hear, enjoy and learn about all sorts of music.
If you think you would like to join us or to learn more, please use this link and we’ll be in touch.
Relaxed Chamber Music Group
You are invited to join our relaxed Chamber Music Group for woodwind and strings. We are presently a small, friendly group of players who enjoy playing music together. This is an evolving group and we would be pleased to welcome more woodwind or strings players to join us.
We meet fortnightly on Wednesday mornings from 10:00-11:45 in each others’ homes in and around Chichester.
If you think you would like to join us or to learn more, please let us know via this link .
Recorder Group
I’ve been delighted to receive responses to my previous notice that the Recorder Group has two or three places available for new members (meaning anyone who hasn’t played with this group before). If there are more members who have played the recorder in the past and would like to take it up again in a serious way, this is your invitation to come along on Tuesday 12th March from 2pm-4pm (our regular weekly meeting time) to have a go. We will have our visiting recorder professional with us to help and advise and we will play easy music in 4 parts (SATB). Nothing at all scary – this is a friendly, supportive group that will make you welcome. We meet where I live in Chichester – on two bus routes (51 & 700), with car parks a few minutes walk away.
Ideally, you will have experience of two or more recorders (preferably C and F instruments), know the fingerings and be able to play some basic scales from music and also simple tunes. You will also need your own instruments and a music stand. We already have descant and treble players, so players who offer tenor or bass (or are willing to learn) are particularly welcome.
If you join us, reasonably regular weekly attendance is expected because we look to make progress in playing, and some practice at home will probably be useful. If you know about grades, we play from grades 3 to 5, but mostly at 4 (grade 8 is tops).
Our visiting recorder professional comes along once a month to add ambition to our enthusiasm and to enhance proficiency, and this works very well. She’s looking forward to helping you as a returning player.
This isn’t an offer to raw beginners, although we’re thinking of doing something later on for members who would like to learn the recorder and can already read music.
Let me know if you’d like to come along in March by using this LINK to contact Jean Campbell, the group organiser.
Tai Chi Group
We now have vacancies for the above Group.
Tai Chi is a mind-body exercise rooted in multiple Oriental traditions, including martial arts, traditional Chinese medicine, and philosophy. It integrates slow, intentional movements with breathing and cognitive skills. It aims to strengthen, relax, and integrate the physical body and mind, and improve health and personal development. It is a great low-impact activity, focussing on improving your balance and core strength. It is accessible to everyone no matter age or ability.
Wednesdays 3.00-4.00pm at Westgate Leisure Centre. The fee £9.90 payable each week on arrival at the reception desk.
Wear loose-fitting clothes, flat shoes and layers to keep warm when it is cool or cold.
Parking for 2 hours is free at the Leisure Centre.
To register your interest please click this link..
Advanced French
Vanessa has started up a very successful beginners’ class in French, and is now offering to teach at the other end of the spectrum.
The idea is to hold a monthly class which will focus on a particular aspect of the language. The pluperfect tense, the subjunctive, or a more advanced vocabulary and expression in a particular theme, are just some of the possibilities. The programme could also develop into studying some French literature. It will largely depend on the preferences of the group as it develops.
The main emphasis of this group will be self-learning through set homework tasks, with the monthly class there to provide instruction and feedback. It is not aimed at general conversation, there are other groups already providing this.
The classes are scheduled for Wednesday afternoons, time tbd. The first is on Wednesday 3rd April. Vanessa will be at the monthly coffee morning meeting on Tuesday April 2nd if you would like to find out more from her. Alternatively you can register your interest or make an enquiry via this link.
Groups’ News:
Science Group
It proved to be a deeply shocking experience for one of the newest members of the practical science group as 100,000 volts passed through her body.
Volunteers had lined up in front of the Van de Graaff generator to be reenergized with a powerful static current. This was only one of a thrilling range of experiments at our recent Physics session in Chichester college. We visualized radioactivity with a cloud chamber using a radioactive element whilst some members built some electric motors which whirred around at great speed with a 3 volt battery. A variety of experiments were also set up to demonstrate the relationship between electricity with magnetism. This included a long strip of kitchen foil which was surrounded by a magnet connected to a simple audio output which then turned the kitchen foil into a speaker . Who would have thought a simple piece of kitchen foil could produce such beautiful music? Pure magic!
A great deal of fun was also had trying to pour a carbon dioxide mist out of a bubbling beaker of dry ice and detergent onto a lighted candle. For the more serious minded we were also shown how to download data from
passing satellites using nothing more than a fishing rod and a data decoder attached to a laptop.
All these events were captured by a videographer which will be uploaded onto the U3A website next month .
National u3a & Regional Events
NATIONAL u3a BRIDGE FESTIVAL 8-12 APRIL, 2024
National u3a invites you to Register for our 2024 Spring Charity Bridge Festival
Our 2023 Charity Bridge Festival raised over £2,000, which was shared equally between Age UK and Alzheimer’s Research. This year’s charities will be Parkinson’s UK and Cruse (Bereavement support).
As before, we aim to provide ‘something for everyone’, and players will be able to play in person at their local venue on their regular day, or at home, or online. This year’s online platforms are Bridge Base Online (BBO), Bridge Club Live (BCL) and RealBridge.
Details of the 2024 Festival can be found on the national u3a Bridge Group website: https://www.bridgewebs.com/u3abridgegroup/ together with a comprehensive FAQs page. You can also sign up there for the waiting list for the next (very popular) online Beginners Bridge course, and possibly a Returners Bridge Course, for those who are rusty.
Events both at the u3a HQ and locally outside the u3a – the Tuesday Talks at the West Sussex Record Office, the talks organised by Chichester University at the Oxfam Shop in Chi, and a one-off series of talks on Richard Cobden, the Victorian politician and economist, who was born in Dunford, nr Midhurst.
National u3a
The u3a organises a wide range of learning activities beyond the zoom talks listed below: for example, their online interest groups and subject advice, Festival 2024 (18th-20th July, at York). To get more information on all these and others, have a look at their website.
Following are details of Third Age Trust zoom talks for the next fortnight or so: please remember you can always find the latest, and fullest, information on these talks here.
Tuesday, 5th March at 10:00 – Captain John Hutchison shares his 15 years’ experience of being a Concorde Captain
Thursday, March 7th at 15:30 – Artificial Intelligence News
Monday, 11th March at 10:00 – Exploring World Faiths – Women in Faith
Wednesday, March 13th at 10:00 – Laughter Yoga
Wednesday, March 13th at 10:00 (as above, it seems) – Influencing and Social Change
Tuesday, 19th March at 10:00 – Usjng AI to fight climate change
Wednesday, March 20th at 10:00 – John Snow hunting the source of cholera (in London)
Friday, March 21st at 10:00 – Mindfulness and Meditation (one of a series)
Many others are listed, with topics such as Anna Karenina, Electing the US President, Cookery Demonstrations, and a Yoga Group Leaders Workshop
Local
Tuesday Talks at the WSRO
Talks have been arranged for January to May 2024, all at 19:00, all costing £8 to attend in person. More information here. The next two talks are:
26th March – Life in Elizabethan Chichester
30th April – What did the Victorians do for Chichester
(The talk scheduled for February 27th was postponed).
Oxfam Talks 2024
These literary talks are wide-ranging (from John Donne to Lady Chatterley), take place at the Oxfam shop, 36, East Street, Chichester, and are arranged by Chichester University. They all run 17:30 -18:00 on a Wednesday evening, usually the first Wednesday in the month. They cost £5 (tickets can be bought in the shop). The next two talks listed are:
Wednesday, 6th March: Writers of Exile: Kafka, Murdoch, Nabokov
Wednesday, 3rd April – Poetry Reading
Talks on Richard Cobden
All the talks will be given at the Council Offices in the Old Library in Knockhundred Row, Midhurst at 19:00. Details of the remaining talks are as follows:-
Thursday, March 7th – Richard Cobden and Dunford House
Tuesday, March 19th – Richard Cobden – International Man and Treaty Negotiator
Thursday, March 28th – Cobdenism after Cobden
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