Newsletter from your Chairman April 2020
I hope you are all managing this very different period of your lives. Coronavirus has certainly changed our way of life during this lockdown period. Last week we heard that this lockdown will continue for three more weeks. I hope you are finding things to do to keep your mind and body very active!
My garden is my solace and rather than get into the details of COVID-19 I felt I wanted to be upbeat in this newsletter. Spring is always a wonderful time as nature prepares itself for yet another year. I have embellished this newsletter with photos from my garden to emphasise this point.
I look out the front of the house and see my car gathering dust. We have been lucky in being able to get online deliveries of food and other essential items so there has been no need to venture away from home. This Spring has been wonderful for all the bulbs that have given us beautiful colours to brighten up our gardens. We have been fortunate to have a wonderful display from tulips this year.
So how about you? What have you been up to? If you have had some wonderful ideas of how to spend what seem like endless days, we would love to hear from you. We have kept our wine group 1 going through the use of ‘Zoom’ – after a trial first week it is now a weekly event to keep in touch – of course with a glass of wine in hand! We keep in touch with our grandchildren through ‘Facetime’ throughout the week. This means remote ‘Storytime’ and I deliver an online science lesson to them once a week. Thank goodness for modern technology. It may be that your U3A group leader is keeping you going through similar ways.
Apart from this newsletter (which I intend to keep going throughout the lockdown period) remember we are part of a national organisation and they are now producing a monthly newsletter. Go to www.u3a.org.uk and click on Newsletter where you can subscribe and get the monthly U3A newsletter by email. Together with the magazine “Third Age Matters” they will keep you up to date.
Scam Alert: Whenever there is a crisis of any description there are always criminals who see this as an opportunity to scam money from you. Please do not respond to any email offering you a COVID-19 test kit, a refund of tax, money back offer on your car tax if you are not using it etc.etc. Remember if an offer sounds too good to be true then it most definitely is a scam. STAY SAFE online and delete any emails from people or organisations you don’t recognise.
It is amazing how events and people can inspire us and Captain Tom, who wanted to walk 100 lengths of his garden to raise £1,000 has become a truly inspirational character. As I am writing this, he has reached the £26 million pound mark and what a lovely character he is. Just shows what can be done if you make the effort. I just wonder what the final tally will be when he reaches his 100th birthday next week.
So Stay Safe and remember to keep that safe distance away from others. If you have some ideas as to how to while away the hours each day, we would love to hear from you. Use the email address below to make contact.
Best wishes
Mike Collins
Chairman
Email [email protected]