Basingstoke & Deane Over 55 s Forum

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1 Basingstoke & Deane Over 55 s Forum NEWSLETTER MAY 2014 How quickly the time flies by it seems no time at all since I wrote the last newsletter and here we go again. Since the last issue I have been on holiday in Italy and had a fantastic time: beautiful weather, delicious food and very good wine!! The highlight of the visit was the Vintage Grand Prix in Monte Carlo where we watched the old cars, dating back to 1930s, racing. It was very noisy as they raced past us, sounding like proper racing cars, not like the modern ones of today!! The event is held every two years and is well worth the visit. As this year is the centenary of WW1, I have included details of some of the events that are taking place in Basingstoke, to remember and commemorate the war. MEMBERSHIP The number of members is steadily growing and we now have 618 members. That is the highest number of members we have had at the beginning of a new year and the second lowest who haven t renewed. The Forum is becoming well known in the community as a force to be reckoned with!! APRIL OPEN FORUM MEETING Despite some problems with the sound system (finally resolved by the purchase of new batteries for the microphones), we enjoyed presentations on Stagecoach buses, Hardy's Garden Plants and the real Pirates of the Caribbean at the Open Forum meeting on 16th April. The following is a summary of the main points and a full copy of the Minutes can be seen at the Forum web site at or from the Forum secretary, Gerald. The first speaker was Andrew Dyer, Managing Director of Stagecoach Buses South, who outlined the general operation of the services and then took questions from the floor. It was some 30 years since privatisation and removal of restrictions on providing bus services. The bus companies can run services where they wish and it is up to the county councils to decide how bets top meet social needs. BDBC are one of the few district authorities that provides financial support for some services. Passenger numbers have been reducing nationally and it is therefore necessary to cut the services to match customer demand and ensure a viable operation. A survey was carried out last year which has led to the changes taking place now. There may be further changes as HCC has recently voted to reduce the budget supporting the bus services, to save 1million. The chairman noted that one of the proposals was to remove the current support which allows free travel from 9am rather than the national time of 9.30am. There was a wide variety of questions from the audience and these can be viewed in the full copy of the Minutes. Rosy Hardy from Hardy's Plants at Laverstoke gave a very interesting presentation about plants and the garden centre. She went on to describe their entries in the Chelsea Flower show, starting in 1994, and that they had won 18 medals to date. The first gold medal was specially engraved and they had to buy it at a cost of 500. Rosy described a number of plants and how they should be treated. She brought a number of plants to the meeting which were on sale outside the Hall.

2 For the final presentation, we were pleased to welcome back Iain Kennedy who provided an informative and entertaining presentation on the real pirates of the Caribbean. He said that the Caribbean was very beautiful and a favourite area for him and his wife. There are some 150 main islands and some 3,400 islets, so there are plenty of places to discover and hide. Iain described, how, prior to 1492, no Europeans had visited the Caribbean and the islands were inhabited by the native indians. However, the indigenous population were wiped out by invaders and disease imported by Europeans. Christopher Columbus et out to find the East Indies and did find the Bahamas on his second trip. In 1500, the conquistadores hit the jackpot with silver from Mexico and then gold from Peru and Ecuador. The problem was how to get the treasure back to Europe. Dom Pedro Fernandos worked out a system of convoys. However, there were many opportunities to intercept the treasure en route. At this stage, Iain described the differences between pirates, privateers and buccaneers. Pirates were just thieves whereas privateers were gentleman thieves, such as Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake. They sailed with letters if authority from Queen Elizabeth I. Buccaneers (from the French Boucan) were the flotsam and jetsam of society, many having been displaced by civil wars. The golden age for the pirates and privateers was from around 1650 to 1730 when the West Indies were commercially important and the pirates took advantage of the rich source of commodities. Sir Henry Morgan was the opposite of Drake and delighted in pillage and torture. Another notorious pirate was "Callico" Jack Rackham who was an equal opportunities employer with two lady pirates. He was finally blasted by grapeshot and the two lady pirates gave in. They avoided hanging by getting pregnant, although one died in childbirth. The last man is Black Bart (Bartholomew Roberts) who holds the record for most gains. He became the target for the Royal Navy who chased him across the West Indies and his ship was blown to pieces. The age of pirates came to a close in 1720 to 1730, as they could no longer hide, and was replaced by the age of the admirals. However, there are still pirates today in areas such as the Horn of Africa and the South China Seas. CORE FITNESS We will be starting a further six sessions of fitness on Thursday 5 th June. The fee is 15, payable at the start of the session. See Gerald if you are interested. Those of us who attend the classes do feel the benefit of the exercises it is basically bending, stretching and using muscles you probably haven t used in a long while! Why not give it a try and have fun? EVENTS The free trip to Gloucester was enjoyed by all although the first of the two trips enjoyed the better weather I believe as was the case with Aylesbury and the cruise on the canal! Wednesday 18 th June - Sandringham (The Queens Residence). Members Wednesday 2nd July - Sandringham (The Queen Residence). Members Tuesday 22nd July - Houses of Parliament. Members 13 Saturday 26 th July Stourhead House and Gardens and Shaftesbury. Members Tuesday 29 th July Houses of Parliament. Members 13 Friday 12 th September Mystery Trip. Members Monday 15th September - Houses of Parliament. Members 13 Saturday 25 th October Swindon and Shopping Outlet. No price to date. Sunday 2 nd November RAF Cosford. No price to date. Monday 24th November Birmingham Christmas Market. No price to date. For Non Members, please add 2 to members price.

3 Don t forget the 2014 Variety Show on 4 th October at Aldworth College its well worth going to see. See Gerald for tickets. WW1 CENTENARY The poppy seeds have been distributed to all our members and should, by now, have been sown. It would be good if you could take a photograph, when they are flowering, so that we can display them at the Forum. Saturday 7 th June at the Carnival Hall an afternoon of poems, stories and talks about WW1. The Carnival Chorus will be singing a selection of wartime songs, which you can all sing-along with and there will be tea and cakes. Entry is free for members and there will be a small charge of 2 for other guests. Please notify Gerald if you wish to attend, so that we have numbers for catering and for the hall. Aldworth College is hosting a week of different WW1 sessions, open to everyone in the community, to encourage the debate about WW1 which the BBC, the Media and the politicians have already started to talk about. Monday 7 th July Basingstoke in WW1. Tuesday 8 th July The experience of war: examining unusual and unique stories from WW1. Wednesday 9 th July QMC s A Level Drama students perform War Poetry Thursday 10 th July The weaponry and equipment of a WW1 soldier. Friday 11 th July Creating Classroom Consciousness: why should we remember? The cost will be 1 per session and can be paid on the door and there will be free drinks and nibbles available. The sessions will be held at Aldworth College, ~Western Way and if you want more information you can visit the Centenary page on the college website, A Century of War and Peace On Sunday 6 th July, a special concert to commemorate the outbreak of World War 1 will take place at 7pm in the Anvil, Basingstoke which will be performed by over 400 voices from Basingstoke and Deane's finest choirs, accompanied by the Heritage Light Orchestra. The concert will feature a wide range of war-and-peace themed music from the last 100 years, from wellknown wartime songs to more-recent music of peace and reconciliation, culminating in a performance of a sequence of movements from The Armed Man by Karl Jenkins. The narrator for the evening will be well known theatre and TV director, Guy Slater. The concert will be supporting the work of the Winchester-based Rifles charity, Care for Casualties, which looks after their wounded and their families, as well as the families of the bereaved, particularly from the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns. This often involves recuperation breaks for the wounded and/or their carers recent examples include a Rifleman suffering from brain damage who benefited from a break from his permanent care home by spending a long weekend in a specialist care centre in Blackpool, or the young wife whose husband has lost both his legs and whose life has been dramatically changed as she now spends much of her time caring for him as well as their young children. Tickets are available from the Anvil Box Office ( ) 15, over 65s 13, under 16s 8 CARNIVAL CHORUS Sadly for the choir, we had to say goodbye to Jamie, our conductor. He was fortunate enough to land a permanent job at the Alton Museums. We knew we would lose him at some point but we shall miss him. He was beginning to gain more confidence with us, and for a young man, I thought he was very brave in having a large group of oldies to control!! Fortunately, we have Keith to take over to whom we are very grateful he s doing a grand job.

4 The residents of Emma and Susan Courts thoroughly enjoyed singing the patriotic songs with us for St Georges Day. They were ready for us with their flags and joined in with great gusto. We all enjoyed the tea they had laid on for us afterwards. We are busy rehearsing for the WW1 event at the Carnival Hall and there will be song sheets so you will be able to join in with us. OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST Second Chance Cinema Club Discovery Centre I mentioned in the last newsletter about the Second Chance Cinema Club at the Discovery Centre. There will now be two screenings, every other Thursday. If you miss the first one or can t get a seat at the first showing you will be able to go at You don t have to book and it is free of charge with coffee, cake and ice cream available from the café. So, if you missed a film you really wanted to see at the cinema, you can catch it at the Discovery Centre. 12 th June Twelve Years a Slave 26 th June Blue Jasmine 10 th July The Butler 24 th July Dallas Buyers Club 7 th August Long Walk to Freedom 21 August The Railway Man 4 th September American Hustle On the 18 th June at 2.00pm there will be a film talk by Heidi Renton, Education Officer of the British Board of Classification. She will be explaining the differences between a 12A and 15 scene and how age ratings are decided. She will discuss the legal and ethical considerations of Censorship and illustrate her talk with clips and a Q&A session. The cost will be 4 a ticket. On 3 rd July at 7.00pm there will be a talk by Andy Robertshaw about the making of War Horse. He worked with Steven Speilberg on the historical accuracy of the film. The cost will be 5. If you are interested you can book by ringing or go to the Discovery Centre to book. PING PONG Would you like to have a go at playing table tennis? You can go along, every Saturday morning at 10.00am to 12 midday to the Aldworth Sports hall and have a go. All equipment is supplied and all ages and abilities are welcome. For more details you can contact Terry White on BREAST SCREENING Gerald wrote to Jeremy Hunt, the health minister and NHS England, about screening for the over 70 s. He did get replies which more or less said that it was not cost effective and there was not sufficient evidence to continue the automatic recall for screening for the over 70 s although they can make an appointment to get it done. Gerald also wrote to our counter-parts in Germany and they have the same ruling. LORRIES PARKING ON KINGSCLERE ROAD We finally had a meeting at the police station to discuss this issue. It was agreed that an officer would be sent to the site to talk to the owners and also to speak to the management of Stagecoach at the bus station to get the reactions of the bus drivers on that route. The problem for the police is that with all the cost-cutting, they do not have enough officers in order that this problem can be policed. We will await the feed-back from the police but will continue to pursue this issue. GERALD'S BRASS BAND CONCERT. Gerald wishes to say a big "Thank You" to the following organisations and people who helped to make this concert a great success: The "Four Lanes Trust" grant of 300. The 2 Julie's from Tesco and Asda, Rose from Linde (who is also a member of the Forum) for donating all the raffle prizes, Clive Merritt for printing of entrance tickets (free of Charge), Truemans coach driver 'Martin' who

5 drove our 2nd FREE trip to Gloucester, for donating his collection to this concert, Staff at Queen Mary's College for their help and assistance before and on the day and, finally, the Forum Executive committee and spouses for their help on the day. Gerald's final figure for the Prostate Cancer Equipment fund at Hampshire Hospital Foundation Trust was 910 MEMBERS CORNER The following is an appropriate poem with the WW1 centenary this year. In Flanders Fields In Flanders Fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place: and in the sky The larks still bravely singing fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders Field. Take up our quarrel with the foe. To you from failing hands we throw The torch: Be yours to hold it high If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders Fields. John McCrae Ypres Belgium 3 rd May 1915 OPEN FORUM MEETINGS Wednesday 11 th June, August 13 th, October 15 th and December 10 th (incl AGM). Marian Wilson Marian Wilson Editor May 2014 Newsletter