A weekend in sunny April saw eight members of the Jazz Group setting off for northern climes, to enjoy a residential jazz weekend at a Scarborough hotel.  And enjoy we did!!

We were able to meet up Friday evening (Kim and her gang arrived later as she had to control her Line Dancing class in the morning), and kept the same table for all our meals together, and in the Ballroom for all the sessions (another good use for our U3A sign).  We soon twigged that the hotel’s Happy Hour from 12.00 to 18.00 was the best time to stock up with bottles for the evening ahead, and saving money throughout the weekend.  A great evening’s music by the Richard Leach Seven Stars of Jazz got the weekend off to a fine start and was a foretaste of even better sets still to come.  Interestingly, both Joy and Kim were in some psychic way identified by several of the male dancing men as being great partners, and for the remainder of the weekend’s sessions, both girls hardly sat down.  What a great thing it is to be young (and fit!).  I personally never mastered the mysteries of dancing anything, let alone jiving, so am well impressed at these events by the sight of our fellow fans bopping the night away, even if the hair has greyed and the waistline filled out slightly.

Other fine sessions on Saturday and Sunday lunchtimes by different bands, were complemented by evening ones with other bands, so over the whole event we were entertained by five different UK bands from as far apart as Newcastle and Devon.  Foot tapping, arm waving, stomping and applauding as loudly as we could were the order of the day.  And during the spare time, we enjoyed the open top bus, the cliff funiculars, the fine walks, ice creams, the miniature railway, the harbour sights and more.

Great music, good company, fine weather and a whole lot of enjoyment was had by one and all.  Whereas  some of the group had not previously enjoyed this sort of event, others of us had, but I think it can safely be said that this will not be the last time we get together to share our interests and to enjoy each other’s company!  Now then, that weekend we saw advertised in Paignton early next year …..

Brian Ward

A small group of 24 members headed off early to Rocester in Staffordshire for a tour of the JCB Factory. On arrival we were ushered into a large dining area where we served with a delicious lunch of meat balls and couscous followed by a crème brule. As we were to learn later, JCB is very big on branding and so the cups and cutlery had the JCB logo on them – they counted them out and counted them back in again so no souvenirs here.

After an informative video about the company and its history we were taken around the visitor centre by  very well informed and enthusiastic guides. And then into the factory itself where we witnessed robotic machines making hydraulic rams and welding with workers moving the slowly growing digger around the factory.

We had a final coffee before heading back to Market Rasen having had an informative day out.