Newsletter March 2024
MONTHLY GENERAL MEETING – MARCH 2024
Our next monthly General Meeting for all u3a members is on Wednesday 20th March, at 2pm. As usual, this will be held in St. Andrew’s Church Hall, Merton Road, Slough SL1 1QW. The small car park at the rear of the church is available for those who have difficulties with mobility. Otherwise, we ask you to please park in one of the pay-and -display car parks nearby, or in Upton Court Park (free) about 10 minutes’ walk away.
Our guest speaker is Father Chris Ferris
The title of the talk is: REFLECTION ON SOUTH KOREA
Father Chris is the Rector of Langley Marish and his wife is from South Korea. Last year they spent some time in South Korea visiting family and having a holiday. Father Chris will share photos of his time there and he will tell us more about this fascinating country.
OUTINGS
The “Eyes on the spies tour” is scheduled for Friday 12 April 2024. It’s a walking tour starting from Green Park underground station at 11am. The cost of the tour is £18. The trip is limited to 20 people and is fully booked with a waiting list should anybody drop out.
A coach trip to Blenheim Palace on Friday 24th May. Cost for coach and entrance to the House, Garden and Grounds will be £40 each (non-members £48) There will be 55 seats on the coach and we have not started taking bookings yet. The coach will leave Upton Court Park at 9am, please be there at 8.45am and return from Blenheim palace at 4pm. There will be an optional guided walk around the estate of 5 miles led by Joyce K. More outings being planned.
IMPORTANT u3a COMMITTEE NEWS
Our outings are very popular and it is noted that non-u3a members frequently join us on our outings as guests. Some outings have also been run jointly with The Ramblers. The Ramblers and u3a members are fully insured for any mishaps when they go on any of the trips but non-members are not covered by insurance, which is a concern.
As these outings are essentially for u3a members we wish to encourage everyone who comes on the trips/visits to join up as a member of Slough u3a so that they are fully insured. It only costs £15 a year to be a member. The u3a Committee have spent some time discussing this and it has been decided to charge non-members (not including members of The Ramblers) an extra 20% for their first trip but they will need to join the u3a if they wish to come on any subsequent trips.
Activities at Horsemoor Green Community Centre
Focus on the activity club: We meet at MENCAP (Horsemoor Green Community Centre), Common Rd, Langley, SL3 8SX from 10.30 to 12.30 on alternate Mondays. Car parking available. Activities include Bridge, Scrabble and Table Tennis. You will be emailed a schedule of dates for this group. The first session is free. Thereafter there is a charge of £25 every 6 months although this amount may change depending on costs like hall hire, equipment, refreshments etc. It’s a chance to maintain physical and mental fitness in a friendly, social and non-competitive environment.
If you’d like to play bridge, you might also be interested in Bridge for Fun Home Sessions (very sorry I missed this out from last month’s list of groups) – Convenor Anna Assaf – anna.assaf@btopenworld.com As well as the activity club, some bridge members offer sessions in their home. These are free to attend. Towards the end of the month the convenors, Anna Assaf (please message rather than phone on 07803 133905) or Sue Murphy (07979 755587), will send emails to all members of the bridge group asking if they would like to host a session and for convenient dates and times. This information is then collated and a schedule of the dates, times and addresses of those members offering to host a bridge game is then sent to all members. If you would like to join in any of these please communicate through the Bridge for fun WhatsApp chat group. You will automatically be included in this when you register for bridge. So come along and join in. You are promised a warm welcome!
u3a OTHER COMMITTEE NEWS: Please note that Mary Stevens has been co-opted onto the u3a Committee. The committee now has 9 members.
A message from the editor: My role is to gather information from the committee, activity group leaders and u3a members, to edit and publish it. If you would like something included in a future issue, please let me know. In particular, if you have an interest group idea and wonder how many other members might be interested, this would be a good place to find out. My email address is joyceamirahmadi@hotmail.com