General Knowledge Quiz
We have a new quiz from Julie Clarke (number 65) which has been loaded to the website as well as the answers to the October quiz. Our quiz page lists all the quizzes that have been set previously.
Group News
Members’ Morning
Our next members’ morning will be on December 6th at Sandbach Town Hall from 10am – 12noon Our very own band will provide the entertainment for this popular annual event. “Christmas starts here!”
Sandbach u3a Quiz Night
Our thanks go to Kevin Dean, Julie and Ian Clarke and Jim Thompson for providing our first u3a quiz since 2019. A full report and results can be found on our website – https://sandbachu3a.org.uk/first-u3a-quiz-since-2019/
Introducing our new Trustees:
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My name is Kate Ashcroft. I was born in Elworth and lived there until I left at the age of 21 and went to live in the Outer Hebrides. I have since lived in Scotland, England and Wales, finally settling in Middlewich. We moved to Sandbach last December, just in time for another lockdown! I am married to Brian and we have 2 daughters. Grace is living in Paris with her partner and Rachael is living in Vietnam with her husband. Most of my professional life has been spent working in the Civil Service until I retired in February 2019. |
I joined U3A in September and I am a member of the Zumba and French conversation groups. When the request was made for committee members I decided to join the committee and help where I can. I am now helping with Member Events.
Outside of U3A I enjoy walking, travelling, gardening and sailing. We are also in the process of bringing our bungalow up to date.
U3A Creative Writing Group
Is a short story brewing inside you? Or maybe a poem waiting to be revealed?
Have you ever thought that you might like to write?
We are encouraging new members to come along and join our Creative Writing Group. We are a friendly and welcoming bunch who enjoy putting pen to paper and generally having a go!
We share our work and enjoy hearing each others’ pieces in a friendly and relaxed setting.
We meet on the second Monday of the month at Sandbach library from 10 a.m. to 12 a.m. (we have accessibility via a lift).
You might be amazed at what you can do!
Our next meeting is on Monday December 13th.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us through the groups coordinator for further information.
Kathryn Sim/Simon Wisbey ; group leaders.
Local News
Your Choral Society needs you!
Sandbach Choral Society, under various names, has been part of the fabric of Sandbach cultural life for many years. We have staged 4 concerts every year in Sandbach and surrounding towns and villages, drawing appreciative audiences, loving what we do and making a good sound.
Then Covid struck.
Like many organisations, we closed down. Unlike many organisations we were not able to open when restrictions began to ease. Singing was seen to be a risky activity, although there were of course inconsistencies. In singing circles, the joke “Why did the choir cross the road? To go to the football match where they could be in a crowd and sing as much as they liked” became popular. We met through zoom and attempted singing in this forum – better than not meeting at all but not really satisfactory.
That is now behind us and for the last 6 weeks or so we have been able to meet to rehearse, with our own risk assessment in place and following the guidelines imposed by our rehearsal room, masks for going in and out and moving about the room but not, thank goodness, for singing. We are at last able to put on a concert, which will be of carols and Christmas music at the Town Hall on Wed 15th December.
Things have changed though. For some members singing still seems a risky business and they don’t wish to return, at least not yet. Some members have decided their singing days are over. We still make a good sound, remarkably good considering the long, singing-starved gap, but we would welcome new members, particularly (inevitably) tenors and basses.
We meet every Tuesday night at 7.30 in the schoolroom of Wheelock Methodist Church.
You can get further information from our secretary Linda Norris (email ldnorris9999@outlook.com phone 01270 766472) or simply turn up on any Tuesday evening.
Do come along and join us, you would be most welcome.
National News
Third Age Trust write:
We have an exciting opportunity to put our collective voices together again – this time to influence the way every day objects are designed.
As part of our work to challenge negative stereotypes around age and promote positive ageing, u3a has joined forces with This Age Thing and The Design Age Institute at the Royal College of Art to help identify those everyday items in our homes that we find most irritating. Poor design is making our lives more difficult and we want to do something about it.
Your feedback was so valuable in reviewing the design of Walking Frames earlier in the year – thank you. We will keep you up to date with how that piece of work is progressing. Again, this is an opportunity for us together, to put older adult voices at the heart of design and make everyday objects more usable, more useful and more desirable for all us.
Please take part in the survey at https://bit.ly/3Hysnzw and as always, thank you for your time, commitment and enthusiasm all of which helps to make the u3a such a special movement. We will keep you up to date with how your feedback has helped influence change in future newsletters.
23m people used 123456 as a password
Whether it’s your Facebook, Amazon, or WhatsApp account, the explosion in popularity of online apps and services means more and more of us have to remember an increasingly long list of passwords.
Unfortunately, some of us cope with this challenge by resorting to practices that leave our data, devices and money at risk – by using the same password across multiple accounts, or by creating simple passwords that could easily be guessed by hackers.
Bad password practice is more prevalent than you might think – the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre carried out analysis of passwords leaked in data breaches and found that more than 23 million users worldwide used 123456 as a password! You can read more about it here: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/news/most-hacked-passwords-revealed-as-uk-cyber-survey-exposes-gaps-in-online-security
Here are some top tips that will make your life easier and your online accounts more secure:
1: Creating memorable passwords
A good way to create strong, memorable passwords is by using 3 random words. But remember, don’t use words that can be guessed (like your pet’s name). You can include numbers and symbols if you need to. For example, “RedPantsTree4!”
2: Saving passwords in your browser
Saving your password in your browser means letting your web browser (such as Chrome, Safari or Edge) remember your password for you.This can help:
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- make sure you do not lose or forget your passwords
- protect you against some cyber crime, such as fake websites
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It is safer than using weak passwords, or using the same password in more than one place.
Here are some useful links on how you can start saving passwords in your browser: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Safari.
And finally
Did you hear about that cheese factory that exploded in France? There was nothing left but de Brie!
What did the mayo say when somebody opened the refrigerator? “Hey, close the door! I’m dressing!”
I wanted to take pictures of the fog this morning but I mist my chance. I guess I could dew it tomorrow!
What do you call a girl with one leg that’s shorter than the other? Ilene.
Towels can’t tell jokes. They have a dry sense of humor.
What did the buffalo say to his son? Bison.
Why should you never trust a train? They have loco motives.
A cabbage and celery walk into a bar and the cabbage gets served first because he was a head.
What did the duck say when she purchased new lipstick? Put it on my bill!
The past, the present, and the future walk into a bar. It was tense!