For your information, there is volunteer run driver service available to assist people needing transport, predominantly for medical appointments, in and around the Lincolnshire and Hull areas.
The driver will pick you up from home, drive you to your appointment and wait for up to two hours for you, and then take you back home.
The driver is a volunteer, so doesn’t get paid for his/her time, but you will be asked for a fee of 45p per mile to cover fuel and vehicle running expenses. The office is based in Louth but drivers are based around the county, including three in Market Rasen. Clients can sometimes be collected at short notice but it is generally better to phone and book your journey as soon as you receive details of your appointment.
Journeys can be arranged for any day and time but the office is only open from 9.00 am until 4.00 pm Monday to Friday. Telephone 01507 609535

The benefits of technology for third agers includes beating loneliness, taking control, participation and independence.

We are instigating a program of improving members skills (including starting from scratch) with 1:1 sessions in the coming year and will tackle basic smartphone functions, how to Zoom (other video calling platforms are available) and so on.

If you would like help with any of these or other tech-related functions, please let us know and we will arrange help once current restrictions are over.

If you are a member that already have these skills, will you be a Zoom buddy or assist with growing another’s tech skills?

Please contact  by clicking on the link if you want help or can offer it, or phone 07803 694889 secretary@westwoldsu3a.org

2020 has been a most difficult and life changing year. I hope you have all survived with your spirits and sanity intact and you are all healthy and well.

This has been a devastating time for our theatres. Many shows postponed several times, as lockdown, stops and starts.

Our U3A Theatre Group had 2 shows, at the Louth Riverhead Theatre that were booked and paid for last January.

1. The Government Inspector now moved to 6th of 0ctober 2021.
2. Oliver has now been cancelled.

The Louth Theatre is a small company run entirely by volunteers. They have offered to refund all the tickets for the cancelled show. People were also given the option to donate their ticket money.

I am happy to say that many chose to donate their tickets, to help the struggling company.

Frances Brindle, who runs all the bookings has asked me pass on thanks to the group. She said the very generous contributions are very much appreciated. I hope the Theatre manages to survive this challenging time.

We still have the show now booked for October. This as usual was a block booking and this will probably need to have the seating changed, if social distancing is still required.

Many thanks for all your patience and understanding.

Thanks again to all those who donated.

I do hope the Theatre survives and that we are soon able to enjoy more shows.

Cathy Whelan

The January newsletter is here…

You can access the newsletter from this post or from the email the majority of our members will receive on 20th January 2021.

If you haven’t told us your email address or if it has changed… to avoid missing out send your updated email details to membership@westwoldsu3a.org.

If you would like to make comment on this newsletter or submit an article for the next issue then please send details to newsletter@westwoldsu3a.org by Friday 5th February 2021.

We would really like to hear from you during this lockdown period.

Hello, all, from Chrissie Larkin

Sharon Rupp has asked me to share some information about educational links. We are all aware of the importance of trying to keep our brains active at this difficult time. I have collated a few details about all sorts of different topics.

I am sorry but they all require access to the Internet and I do realize we do not all have that.

The Open University offers free online courses, easily available. You sign up and click on the link to the course you have chosen. You study at your pace in your own time; literally, there is no rush at all. There are 100s of courses covering just about any topic. They are described in hours of work necessary to fulfil the course and the general level of the course. The one I’ve just finished was on, ‘The Olympics – bridging the gap between past and present’. I really enjoyed it and learned a great deal. I have to say I was surprised at how good I felt after having achieved something! You need only read the text if that is all you wish to do. It is as advanced as you wish to make it. There are numerous links following each section if you want to research further, if not, you just continue on to the next section. It keeps a log of where you have got up to and so the next time you log in you go straight to where you finished.

I also found a link on the OU website to talks, also free. I have signed up to listen to a group discussing, ‘Do Prisons Work?’

I am sure there are numerous other free courses available through the OU. Personally, I find it easier to get on with if I set myself a specific time of the day to study so that I am less likely to find excuses!

Mirthy, as Sharon has said, is also worth looking further into. I have found them very responsive to queries and they are looking to expand and extend their programme. I don’t feel we can ever learn too much! Very soon, replays will be available so, if you miss the broadcast, you will be able to access the course whenever you like, as long as you have signed up for it. There will be a very small charge for this replay. Just log onto their website and have a look through all the topics on offer. There are talks every Thursday which are free to all and also the monthly ones through our West Wolds group. You will receive an email link to access the talk.

The Astronomical Institute of Edinburgh also broadcasts free lectures as I’m sure many other organizations and institutes do. Again, just go on the website and sign up and you will receive an email a couple of hours before kick-off which will include a link.

I watched a lecture from them on Friday evening and I would say it came into the category of, ‘fairly advanced’! However, it was a really interesting talk about the alignment of the stars and so now I am searching the Institute website for the earlier ones in this series and then I plan to watch the lecture again, hoping I understand a bit more!

I would also like to mention the television. Just by searching Freeview I have found a huge number of educational programmes on all sorts of topics. They give you something, other than the current situation, to think about. I love, ‘Abandoned Engineering’, ‘Mega Structures’, and programmes on railways, animals and classic cars. Also programmes where a reporter investigates the cultures of foreign lands. We can be transported there without moving!

I know this sounds a bit odd, but I have even tried the Schools programmes especially shown during lockdown. Very short, snappy pieces on maths, physics, history, etc. It’s surprising how much we forget!

Discovery Award – for those of you who are doing, or want to start, this award, it is possible to do it all at the moment without breaking guidelines regarding social distancing. I have now finished my Gold through isolation time. I found the organization very open to different ideas that incorporated the lockdown. I have found the volunteering section most rewarding. It is solely because of the Discovery Award that I now teach Advanced Driving, have volunteered at an Animal Rescue, (and brought home two more dogs), have joined a Befriending Group in Caistor and am now the gardener for the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway. I am also due to start volunteering under a scheme called, School Readers, to go into a local Primary School and listen to the children read. Clearly, I cannot undertake these at the moment but they have changed my life. I can help other people, in my own time, in my own way by pacing myself. It is so great that I have found I can still contribute. It’s made the world of difference. Have a think about undertaking Discovery.

Please try to keep up with your U3A groups. We need to keep afloat! I am sure all groups are struggling but many are continuing. The Digital Photography group is managing as best it can and even just sending in appropriate monthly photos makes you feel as though you are, in some way, still connected!

I would encourage you to keep battling on until we are through this. It seems as though the end is coming but it will still take a long time.

Look after yourself. Ring people to chat, especially those who live alone. Stay safe and please don’t be tempted to come out of isolation once you have had the vaccine.

Chrissie Larkin.

Mirthy are the company who we are using to deliver online talks. Every Thursday they offer free talks which anyone can sign up for on their website mirthy.co.uk – scroll down to find the selected Free Talks and register.

Last Thursday ‘Poisons for Medicine’ was broadcast which was full of startling and amusing facts about the weird and dangerous so-called medicines from the 19th century. To banish fat and stay slim, one could buy ‘sanitised tape worms’ to ingest and to cure toothache in children ‘Cocaine Toothache Drops’ were available.   Morphine, Arsenic, Strychnine, Cannabis and alcohol were all main ingredients in a range of treatments for (among other ailments) rheumatism, morning sickness, ‘women’s troubles’ and as a cough remedy. In a twist of irony, the cure for drug addiction was … Heroin!

Apart from these free talks, we are also arranging a monthly talk exclusively for West Wolds U3A members, the next being on Thursday February 11th at 10.30am entitled ‘Mad as a Hatter’ which I hope you have received the registration link for by now.

If not please let me know speakerfinder@westwoldsu3a.org

On December 16th we arranged a Christmas Sing Song sessions for a couple of hours, where everyone who came along put on their Christmas Hats and Jumpers, and joined us with  Wine and Mince pies singing a selection of Christmas Songs, a great time was had by all, I forgot to upload this at the time. We were suitable socially distanced of course.

We are still meeting every Wednesday afternoon during the lockdown if anyone wants to join us on Zoom. Contact me if you need any details.

Here are the answers to the Christmas quiz in our December Newsletter

1).  Ebeneezer.

2).  1920’s.

3).  Tinsel.

4).  A white Christmas.

5).  Six.

6).  Canada.

7).  The people of Norway.

8).  Thomas Edison.

9).  They put candles in the front window.

10).  Kentucky fried chicken.

11).  The Nut Cracker Suite.

12).  Blue.

13).  The Beatles.

14).  HOHOHO.

15).  A Yule Log.

16).  Home Alone 2.

17).  Swans a swimming.

18).  Birth.

19).  James Stewart.

20).  Michael Caine.

21).  Austria.

22).  Germany.

23). The “Statue of Liberty” – Christmas day 1886.

24).  Donner.

Submitted by Paul Ettridge

To read the latest National Office Newsletter click here…

After the success of the December online speaker, Sharon Rupp (Speaker Finder) has compiled a list of potential online speakers for 11th February 2021.

The speakers do charge for each talk but the cost will be covered by our existing funds. To select the subject you would most like to hear please choose one by clicking here…

The Committee wish all our members

A Very Merry Christmas

and

A Happy, Healthy New Year

Let’s hope we can meet up soon