A warm welcome to our new members who joined us over the Summer, we hope you enjoy the range of events and activities led by members, for members.
Members’ Mornings
Next week sees the start of our 22/23 Members’ Morning programme full details of which can be found on our website – https://sandbachu3a.org.uk/members-mornings/
Our meeting on 5 September 2022 at Sandbach Town Hall opens at 10.00 with time for a chat and refreshments before our speaker at 10.30. The topic this month is:
Heat in Homes by Mark Thompson
Heat in homes – how to improve thermal comfort while reducing costs and carbon, including a look into the future and how homes could be heated without fossil fuels
A new trip!
Alice has organised a new trip to:
The historic Piece Hall in Halifax:
Thursday 20th October 2022
Leaving from the Military Arms, Sandbach 8.30
Cost – £20 (Including Guided tour, coach and driver gratuity)
For more details and on line booking – https://u3a.simplemembership.co.uk/Sandbach/Events/the-piece-hall or contact Alice on 01270 765856.
Covid-19: more vaccinations on their way
It’s been quite some time since I sat down to produce a Covid update for members. There are no Covid regulations for England, and that has been the case for several months. There is still guidance from the government and NHS about how to avoid catching or passing on Covid, but it is only guidance. It’s entirely up to you what decisions you make – whether to travel, whether to go to indoor meetings, and what parties to attend.
But Covid hasn’t gone away, and as most groups restart after a summer break it’s important to keep that in mind. Trustees keep our Covid Risk Assessment under regular review, and at our meeting in July we decided to stick with our current Covid Risk Assessment. Essentially this has three main requirements:
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- Group Leaders consider whether they can make any modifications to their activities that will reduce any risk of transmission, without undermining the nature of the activity
- Group Leaders consider how they might enable risk-averse members to participate, possibly in a modified way
- Individual members review their personal circumstances and decide whether they can take part without putting themselves or members of their household at risk.
The NHS was already under tremendous pressure even before Covid, and of course the pressure is substantially worse now. The NHS has done a magnificent job in dealing with Covid, and especially with managing the vaccination programme that has made such a big difference to our lives. The next vaccination programme is due to begin in a few weeks time. People over 50 and those in at risk groups will be offered a booster vaccine, which should give protection against the Omicron variant as well as the earlier variants of Covid. The booster jab will both reduce the chance of being infected and reduce the likelihood of serious illness if you are infected.
I can’t recommend too strongly that you should help to protect yourself and protect others by taking up the offer of a booster vaccination as soon as it is offered.
Finally I’ll remind you of the word ‘respair’, a renewal of hope after a period of despair, that I used in an update last Christmas. Even though Covid hasn’t gone away, it definitely seems like it’s time to replace the dark days that have characterised some of the past two years with a more optimistic outlook. Over the summer we have held three membership renewal sessions at the Rugby Club and a sign up day at the Wesley Centre. There has been a good turnout for each of these, and it is obvious how much members have enjoyed just sitting down for a cup of tea and a chat with other members. Hope is back! It’s a good place to be as we go into autumn.
You can get the latest information from Cheshire East Council at https://healthwatchcheshireeast.org.uk/coronavirus/
Best wishes
Stuart Naylor, Chair, Sandbach and District u3a
National u3a News
U3a Future Lives Group
| Our Homes for Our Future
The Future Lives group want to find out what you need in your homes as you get older. Have you thought about how your home could support your independence in the years ahead and whether you would need to adapt it in some way? Perhaps you would need to move – and, if so, what you would want from a new home? Please help us by filling in our questionnaire by clicking the button below. We will use these results to put older people’s voices at the heart of planning and developing housing for the future. |
And finally – something different
These insults are described as coming from “an era before the English language got boiled down to 4-letter words”.
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- “He had delusions of adequacy ” Walter Kerr
- “He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”- Winston Churchill
- “I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure. – Clarence Darrow
- “He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.”-William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)
- “Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?”- Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)
- “Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I’ll waste no time reading it.” – Moses Hadas
- “I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.” – Mark Twain
- “He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.” – Oscar Wilde
- “I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend, if you have one.” -George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
- “Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second… if there is one.” – Winston Churchill, in response
- “I feel so miserable without you; it’s almost like having you here” – Stephen Bishop
- “He is a self-made man and worships his creator.” – John Bright