2010 Monthly Meeting Programme

January Meeting

Colin Van Geffen

Despite the cold and remaining ice a good attendance to hear the speaker give a good account of his involvement with the Red Arrows and their annual flypast in Bournemouth. The Red Arrows are renowned throughout the world as ambassadors for both the Royal Air Force and the United Kingdom. Since the Team was officially formed in 1965, the Red Arrows have completed over 4,000 displays in 53 countries.

February Meeting

Sue Bowser

Ponies and the people of the New Forest

All the seats were taken to hear Sue Bowser tell us about her experience as a New Forest Commoner a right she inherited when she bought her current home. She told us about her encounter with the gypsy who threatened to have a pony killed unless she bought it and after succeeding in getting £55 for the horse departed in a brand new Landrover. They later became good friends.

March Meeting
Louis Atkinson

Fashion and the House of Dior

What a surprise the speaker was, so entirely different from what was expected. He started off by telling jokes that we wondered if he was the person booked to talk about the House of Dior but he soon introduced fashion and his many years learning the trade. His starting pay of £1 a week (that is all I got in 1950) his time with the Jewish Tailor and successful business deals with Harrods and the £1m investment in an Italian factory.

April Meeting
Nicky Carter

The donkey Sanctuary

About 80 attended the AGM which was soon finished and after a late start Nicky gave a good account of the Donkey sanctuary and how it all began. Dr Elisabeth Svendsen MBE, who founded The Donkey Sanctuary, was born in Yorkshire and, although her love of donkeys started at a very early age, it was not until she was married, with a family, and helping her husband to run the Salston Hotel at Ottery St Mary in Devon that she was able to own her first donkey since then more and more donkeys have been taken into care, and to date over 12,500 have passed through the Donkey Sanctuary's gates in the UK and Ireland.

May Meeting
The Greater Bustard Group

Georgina Babey stepped in to give a talk on Alice in Wonderland. Lyndhurst's famous resident. Alice Pleasance Liddell was destined to become the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Carroll’s real name was Charles Dodgson. His first recorded meeting with Alice took place on 25th April 1856, after which he became friendly with the Liddell children, entering their world with his telling of the nonsense tales that were to become the basis for the fictional Alice

June Meeting

Derek Drew

Professional Toastmaster

Lower turnout than usual due perhaps to the holiday period. Derek Drew told us of his many years as a toastmaster.Toastmasters are appointed for many occasions including Weddings, Masonic Ladies Festivals, Civic Receptions, Dinners, Corporate Events, Burns Night Suppers, Product Launches and Topping Out Ceremonies.

Many members have officiated at palaces and stately homes as well as some of the world’s best hotels. However members are equally at home working in smaller function rooms and marquees.

July Meeting
John Coombes

A to Z of the New Forest

Quite a good number in attendance to see the large high quality projected pictures taken by John Coombes of the many places of interests in the forest. His expertise with a camera was evident especially the photos of horses jumping at the New Forest Show and the extreme motorcycle events.

August Meeting
Cream Tea
The singing group entertained us with some nice songs which you can see a short video of on the News Web page with photos of the art and craft exhibition. Dave put on a quiz for us. The cream tea was excellent and all seemed to enjoy the afternoon.

September Meeting
Adrienne Debrou

The Honeypot Charity

Adrienne shocked many of us with how children are left to cope looking after a parent and siblings at an age when they should be enjoying childhood. She told us that since 1996 Honeypot has been working to enhance the lives of vulnerable children and young carers aged 5-12 years by providing respite breaks and on-going outreach support. They give young carers a break from demanding and stressful responsibilities at home and provide a safe, nurturing environment where children at risk can develop their full potential.

October Meeting
Bob Smith

Steam Engines

A well attended meeting listened to Bob Smith telling us about his trip to John of Groats by a SEC lorry with a small container to sleep in on the lorry bed. He said as he promised to stay at B&B's as well and intended to go by the most scenic route his wife Barbara agreed to join him. His slide show gave a good idea of the journey and with preplanning to visit places that interested him the trip was one not to be forgotten.

November Meeting
Stan Roberts

Magic Lantern Show

Over ninety attended including three visitors to see what sort of entertainment the Victorians would enjoy and going by the murmurs of surprise and appreciation they were not disappointed. The amusing animation and beautiful images many hand painted were exceptional. To country people and even townspeople of that era it would have been a delight.

December Meeting
‘Praizin’ Hands Puppet Group

The hall was well filled with members to see Praizin Hands a group of people who attached to the church bring their show to schools to teach the folly of smoking and carrying knives. It takes a rather large number of puppeteers and stage hands to put on the show and it would certainly impress young children.
A video is on U3A news of the event.

2009 Monthly Meeting Programme

January Meeting

Peter Frost New Forest Verderer

We met at the Masonic Hall in Eling to hear Peter explain about the role of the the Verderers who derive their offices, powers and responsibilities from an Act of Parliament in 1877.The Court comprises the Official Verderer (Chairman), five elected Verderers representing the Commoners and four appointed Verderers: one each appointed by the Forestry Commission, DEFRA, the National Park Authority and Natural England. The post of Official Verderer is a statutory appointment made by Her Majesty the Queen.They work in conjunction with the Forestry Commission (which manages the Forest on behalf of the Crown), Natural England, and with owners of other areas of common land within the Forest, such as the National Trust.

February Meeting
Roger Downton

In the wake of the Cockleshell heroes

Roger and Sandra Downton from Poole in Dorset who, in July 2004, inspired by the heroism and daring exploits of the Cockleshell Heroes, retraced, with very little knowledge or experience of canoeing, the course of the daring mission. Paddling in the wake of those commandos, our intrepid married couple set off up the perilous River Gironde. In a canoe, lovingly called ‘Sardine', follow their frightening struggle with the ferocious currents, the uncertainty of where they would stop over night, and the peregrination that took them past the famous, picturesque wine regions of France, eventually culminating in their triumphant arrival at the scene of the attack in the splendid harbour of Bordeaux

March Meeting
Chris McColl

Chris McColl gave an affectionate talk of the television series which had us all laughing throughout the late 60s, 70s and 80s. A lad who grew up in the place where the BBC did all the outside filming, he became a "Dad's Army" groupie, watching the filming, talking to the stars and producers and soaking up the atmosphere.Still fresh and worth a watch, Captain Mainwaring and the cast have been voted "best ever comedy show" in many of those television polls.

Decided by a majority vote to change our venue to the Masonic Hall. John told us afterwards that there would have been continued disruption at the Beaumont due to remedial work

April Meeting
A.G.M.
Air Ambulance Services

Good that the weather was warm and sunny as we were unable to enter until 2pm but never the less we soon made up the time. We listened to the Air Ambulance Services make a case for raising money to fund a very expensive but a life saving scheme.

May Meeting
Carol Locke

Carol Lock a well respected reporter from Radio Solent gave us an amusing account of the time she enjoyed working for the station until the whole department became a victim of swingeing cut backs.
Membership numbers were increased with nine new people joining us.

June Meeting

Mel Rees

An amusing author
Over 80 members came to listen to Mel Lees seemingly deprecating his own abilities, his nerd interest in railway engines, even his failure to get diabetes type 1. An amusing hour.

July Meeting
Jake Simpkins

The hall was filled to hear the story of So'ton Blitz to D-day. Southampton was raided 57 times, and three raids were classified as major attacks. The first bombs fell on 20 June 1940 after which a pattern emerged of strategic daylight raids on aircraft factories, shipyards, docks and railway lines, with occasional small scale attacks on populated areas and sometimes machine gun strafing of streets. There is a strong folk memory of certain incidents and attacks. These include the leaflet drop,' A Last Appeal to Reason, by Adolf Hitler': the sight of Flight Lieutenant J. B. Nicholson baling out of his burning Hurricane over Millbrook, only to be shot by an over excited Home Guardsman: the attack on the International Cold Storage Depot setting alight 2300 tons of butter, which ominously burnt for 9 days: and the harrowing destruction of the Civic Centre School of Art. In late September heavy raids destroyed the Vickers Supermarine Spitfire factory at Woolston, but amazingly Spitfire manufacture continued through the dispersal of production into a variety of buildings including garages, laundries and bus stations.

August Meeting
Cream Tea
A nice meeting at the Masonic Hall with tables all laid out for us. The gifted artists and some not so gifted (me) displayed really good exhibits in the way of paintings in various mediums and a fine display of the craft work . David provided a challenge in deciphering the meaning of all the Acronyms he could find. Kept everybody quiet for some time. Marie and helpers produced a tasty cream tea. Pictures taken of the art to be posted on U3A All Groups


September Meeting
Roy Godfrey

Beekeeping

His informative but light hearted talk with a slide show was well received. Roy Godfrey started beekeeping thirty years ago, after a visit to a self-sufficiency show where he saw his first live bees and was hooked. He now manages over fifty hives in Hampshire and West Sussex, producing a variety of pure local honey, which is mostly sold at Farmers Markets at Fareham, Chichester, Arundel, Midhurst and Petworth.

October Meeting
David Sullivan

Life time as a shepherd and a story teller

David spoke to us very amusingly about his experience as a shepherd with up to 3,000 sheep but no farm – his was “rent-a-flock”. There were no farmers in his background – his father owned a grocery shop – but from a very early age David determined to farm, starting off with two dozen chicks which he reared in a chest of drawers in his bedroom. He found their cheeping put him to sleep

November Meeting
Gwen Appleton

Travel courier experiences
The hall was well filled with members and four guests to hear Gwen Appleton tell us all about her rich experiences as a travel courier for an unnamed company. After going on several holidays with the same company Gwen was offered a job as a courier and being effectively single decided to leave her safe civil service. Despite a rocky start she stayed with them for many years, Her scariest time was in the West Indies where one of her holidaymakers was brutally shot down in front of her.


December Meeting
Party Time Productions
Puss in Boots

About 90 attended the December Party Time Productions pantomime Puss in Boots with the usual fairy godmother with a wand transforming the cat into a talking one. Three young troupers injected enthusiasm to an appreciative audience. The singing was to good standard. Very enjoyable.
Jack presented £86 to the Totton Garage Youth club money collected at the very successful Coffee morning arranged by Jack.
John presented Sheila with a bouquet of flowers for her valuable contribution of handmade cards for U3A funds. A good raffle with many prizes gave us £71 clear for U3A funds.