Our Monthly Meeting for November was once again a showcase for the creative talents of our members. There was a gallery of watercolour paintings, an oil painting, and a plentiful portfolio of 16 short stories and poems. Not to be outdone, there was a selection of home-baked culinary masterpieces being sold as part of our annual Macmillan Coffee morning.
We started with an illustrated bedtime story for a child describing a journey to the moon. That was followed by the story of the real monster of Loch Ness – you didn’t know there really was a monster living next to the loch? Then came a surprising take on the Business Lunch which was followed a s strange case from the files of 221B Baker Street. It was then time for five poems about the moon and its relationship to humanity. We then changed ‘gear’ in a shop’s dressing room where there was a nasty surprise lurking behind a two-way mirror. We then had a teddy bear rescuing a child from wicked fairies living at the bottom of a pond on midsummer night – where would be be without teddies? That section came to an end with a story about a hustle at a petrol pump in the USA.
The next section started with a prize for a competition being time travel – you had to choose if it was forward in time or back, given there would be no return. That was followed by competition in the manger on the first Christmas day in Bethlehem, and what a lamb needs to do to keep its comfortable warm bed of straw. We then had The Wish – a poem about the complications of growing old and forgetting things, We then relocated to Dial Square – a real place in London associated with the formation of the Arsenal Football Club. It was then back to Christmas for a piece describing the hiatus some experience following Christmas, and that was followed by the complications for a cast member drinking in a pub during a run of a Christmas pantomime, when the rear half of a pantomime horse goes missing does not make it back to the theatre. We were then winding down in Venice with some sad news for one family member, and that was followed by a factual account seeing turtles laying their eggs on a beach in Malaysia.
All this time, to the side of the room, there was a gallery of water colours and an oil painting for the members of the u3a to enjoy during the coffee break. The coffee break was extended as it featured the sale of home baked cakes and biscuits which resulted in a significant donation the Macmillan Cancer Support.
Our next Monthly Meeting will be our Winter Social Event taking place on Wednesday 18 December 2024 at 12:30pm which will feature our Play Reading Group, and our Singing for Pleasure Group. We are delighted to report that all the tickets for the event have now been sold, but for those that cannot attend there will be a full report on our website.