Romsey & District U3A Bulletin No3

ROMSEY and District

Low-down in the Lockdown Bulletin No.3 - 3 June 2020 HELLO AGAIN

Here is the third ‘Low-down in the Lockdown’ from your Romsey and District U3A. Remember to Stay Safe, Stay Active and Take Care of yourselves.

Bulletin 4 is due out on 17 June - plenty of time for you to tell us what you’ve been doing in Lockdown.

MEMBERSHIP SURVEY The aim of the Romsey and District U3A is to help you to learn, laugh and live. You, as a member, are at the heart of what we do. If we do not continue to provide you with what you want and are interested in, our membership is likely to fall.

It is now four years since we asked you what interested you and what you want to do in this U3A. Whilst we appreciate that the future of communal meetings is uncertain at the moment, the Trustees (Committee) feel that this is a good time to be planning for the future. For that reason we are launching a Membership Survey to give you the opportunity to tell us if there are things that you’d like to see done to make Romsey and District U3A activities more interesting and rewarding for you.

Please click on this link https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/M97S29Y to complete the survey, which will take 10 to 20 minutes, depending on how much you want to enter. Please try to complete it by 20 June.

If you receive ‘Low-down in the Lockdown’ as a printed copy, please complete the attached form.

CHARITIES

Bulletin 2 coincided with our May meeting, where our AGM was to be followed by a talk by Tools for Self Reliance, and this is why I provided a brief explanation of the work of the charity. Quite a number of you volunteer for local charities in various ways, and we wondered how your charity has been managing during these difficult times. We know the local charity shops have been closed during the lockdown and have suffered dramatically reduced income. In the future they will need our support more than ever; we could try their online shops – rather than Amazon! Have you or your charity been fundraising in other ways?

The 2.6 challenge, which arose out of the cancelled London Marathon seemed popular.

Janet Moody Locally, some members may have previously taken part in the annual Rotary Club of Romsey Test’s event ‘Walk the Test Way’. This year's walk is rather different and ‘Walk the Test another Way’, has launched to provide you with an opportunity to raise funds for the charity of your choice. You, your family and friends wherever they live in the UK or further afield can raise funds for your favourite charity by walking at or from home to comply with the current social distancing guidelines. You can choose where and when you start, from 1 mile (2,000 steps) to 25 miles (50,000 steps) but you should complete your pledge as soon as possible and by 31 July at the latest. Look for the details at: https://www.walkthetestway.org.uk/

VOLUNTEERING Have you been volunteering for new groups, such as the Romsey Scrub Hub, which has been making ‘scrubs’ and masks for hospitals and care homes? Perhaps you have been collecting or delivering prescriptions, making phone calls to those ‘shielding’, or helping with food distribution to those housebound? We would like to hear from you — email: janmoodyjm@gmail.com

Helping the NHS Seeing an advert for machinists in her local neighbourhood website to produce disposable scrubs for the NHS, Barbara Driscoll did not hesitate and volunteered. She has now produced over fifty to date.

The group she is working with have made five hundred!

On Sunday 10 May, John Reeves cycled 30 miles - down to Cadnam, around the New Forest, through Wellow and Romsey and back to North Baddesley. On entering the village at about 5.45pm he came across this tree that had blown across the A27.

He says, ”A band of local volunteers was cutting away at the tree, removing branches from the road plus directing traffic (not very heavy of course) and keeping the area safe. I wondered whether this kind of community spirit and action would have happened before the lockdown; I think not! They would have left the problem to the highway authorities or local council or police.”

Do you have any examples of community spirit that we can highlight in future bulletins or on the website?

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VE DAY Reflections and Commemorations

TRAVELLING

My father’s diary entry for 8 May 1945 is empty.

The last entry is on 29 April and reads: ‘Spent all day filling in forms and seeing Dr. Went to Church at Slough‘. He had been liberated, after nearly 5 years as a POW, on 23 April.

Although I know he was back in England by VE Day, and no doubt did join some celebration activities somewhere, I don’t know what he did or who he was with. When I asked my wife, who is a co-leader of our Genealogy group, where her parents were on VE day 1945 she replied, ‘I don’t know, I never thought to ask them that’.

This year’s plans for a commemoration of the 75th anniversary were somewhat scuppered by Covid -19 restrictions but nonetheless, in our house, we did ‘mark the day’.

Dave Lovell ———————

What about you? Some members will no doubt remember the event in 1945, others not. Some members will remember past commemorations, the 50th anniversary perhaps. Others will, however modestly, have done something on Friday 8 May 2020.

The Bulletin team would love to hear your stories associated with VE Day. Please send them to news.copy@romseyu3a.org.uk and we’ll print some anonymous extracts in a later edition.

LOCKDOWN POEMS Are you a budding poet? Could you write a poem about your experiences of lockdown or the general situation? We are looking for short poems (up to 24 lines), one or two of which will be published in each of the future bulletins. All poems will be collated for display sometime in the future, to remind us of our experiences at this time.

Clare Wikeley from our Poetry group is waiting to receive them at: cewikeley@hotmail.com as a word attachment please if possible. Or post them to her at: 23 Baroona Close, Romsey, SO51 7AE and please remember to include your name.

I have been in many places, but I've never been in Cahoots. Apparently, you can't go alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone. I've also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes you there.

I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport; you have to be driven there. I have made several trips, thanks to my children, friends, family and work. I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump, and I'm not too much on physical activity anymore. I have also been in Doubt. That is a sad place to go, and I try not to visit there too often.

I've been in Flexible, but only when it was very important to stand firm. Sometimes I'm in Capable, and I go there more often as I'm getting older. One of my favourite places to be is in Suspense! It really gets the adrenaline flowing and pumps up the old heart! At my age, I need all the stimuli I can get! I may have been in Continent, but I don't remember what country that was in. It's an age thing. They tell me it is very wet and damp there.

So, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly!

Credit: One Traveller Facebook page

ROMSEY REVEALED Answers How many did YOU find around Romsey?

1.Junction of Palmerston Street & The Hundred, originally The Sceptre 2.No 6 Abbey Water 3.The English School, junction of Winchester Road & Alma Road; originally the British School.

4.Building in Love Lane, to rear of 1 Latimer Street 5.Doorway, St Barbe Chambers, The Hundred (was Sharland’s shop) 6.No 3 Station Rd, was Ellerey’s stonemason’s yard 7.The Tudor House, Love Lane 8.Canopy over Crosfield Hall entrance 9.Lortemore Place, wall to the rear of house in Portersbridge St 10.Waterloo Monument, South Garth, Romsey Abbey 11.Keystone to Bradbeers’ window, Corn Market; originally The Dolphin 12.The Old Manor House, Palmerston St See our website for an illustrated answer sheet: https://u3asites.org.uk/romsey/welcome

Bulletin 2 AND the May Newsletter should have arrived by email OR through your letterbox in May. We are in the process of updating our delivery list. If you can manage with an email copy, that is a really big help BUT a printed copy is there if you need one. Please tell us if we got it wrong!

Contact Gill Hodge 01794 511529 treasurer@romseyu3a.org.uk This Bulletin will also be on our website: romseyu3a.org.uk ‘Low-down in the Lockdown’ team: Gill Hodge, Glenda Taylor, Janet Moody, Margaret Marchbank, Dave Lovell. Do you want to join us? We’re just an email away: news.copy@romseyu3a.org.uk What would you like to see in YOUR bulletins?

Please send us your ideas!

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