Plettenberg Bay University of the Third Age  (U3A)

Newsletter no. 48:  August 2008

“Hallo, Eeyore,”said Christopher Robin, as he opened the door and came out.  “How are you?”

“It’s snowing still,” said Eeyore gloomily.

“So it is.”

“And freezing.”

“Is it?”

“Yes,” said Eeyore.  “However,” he said, brightening up a little, “we haven’t had an earthquake lately.”

Quite.

Which, as the icy winds blow up the coast from Cape Town and everyone complains about the reality of winter finally hitting us, is nice to know.  Something to reflect upon as one turns up the heaters and hopes fervently that Eskom will somehow overlook power outages this month.

But our August programme offers some really heart-and-body-warming indoor presentations.   Even our travel talks (there are two this month) are strictly from the comfort of an armchair.  And we have two Film Club presentations (read more below), a great art DVD, the commencement of another brilliant BBC series (if you enjoyed Cranford, this is one you simply must not miss) and also a most interesting medical lecture.  Not to mention more of the same in our regular monthly events that are the backbone of our U3A.

August:  Monday meetings at Formosa Garden Village

Lark Rise to Candleford is a new BBC series that commences on Monday 4^th at (please note!) 9:45 am.  On Monday 18^th the second of this six-part series is being shown, also starting at 9:45 am.  This stunning film was adapted from a book written by nineteenth century author Flora Thompson.  It is described as “a charming love letter to a vanished corner of rural England.”

Set in the Oxfordshire countryside during the 1880s, it is the rich, funny and emotive story of the relationship of two contrasting communities: Lark Rise, which is a little hamlet gently holding on to the past, and Candleford, a small market town bustling into the future.  The story follows a young woman, Laura Timmins (played by Olivia Hallinan), when she leaves her home village of Lark Rise to work under the independent and effervescent post-mistress of Candleford (this role taken by Julia Sawalha, who was in Cranford).  Dawn French (who plays the title role in The Vicar of Dibley) also stars.  There are six parts to this riveting and most enjoyable series that you’re not likely to see on local TV screens in the near future.

On Monday 11^th August at 10 am Alain Leger is presenting the American DVD incorporating lectures 21 and 22 in Brief History of the World.  The first lecture looks at “Transformation in Western Europe,” covering 300 turbulent years, from 1450, that include the Renaissance, the Reformation and the scientific revolution.  The second lecture deals with “The Rise of Russia.”  This was when, seeing herself as heir to the Byzantine Empire and defender of Orthodox Christianity, Russia took over most of Central Asia.  Power was centralized under Tsar Peter the Great and Muslims and Jews ruthlessly pushed into ethnic minorities.

On the morning of 25^th August at 10 am, we are showing a film that was especially produced to mark the 60^th Anniversary, 1944-2004, of the D-Day landings.  It is entitled Assault on Fortress Europe.  This is another outstanding war film that I purchased recently at the Imperial War Museum in London.  Quote from the sleeve: “Early in the morning of 6^th June 1944, a vast and bizarre armada ploughed steadily through the rough waters of the English Channel, heading for the Normandy coast.  Amongst the 5,000 vessels were many of the best British and American warships of stupendous collective firepower.”

The invasion itself was called Overlord and the naval invasion plan Neptune.  And of course the footage features the historically famous landings on the Normandy beaches, code-named Omaha and Utah (American) and Sword, Juno and Gold (British and Canadian). But this was only the beginning.  There was also the desperate struggle to win Caen and Cherbourg and the Mortaine Front.  Two months after the D-Day landings Eisenhower and Montgomery were persuaded to let General de Gaulle lead his Free French into the liberation of Paris.  This is where the film ends – and even now, sixty years later, the welcome by the Parisians is moving indeed.  One of the millions taking part in the landings, Admiral Ramsay, was famous for his dislike of even the slightest exaggeration.  As Operation Overlord got under way he told his officers: “Gentlemen, I am sorry about all the superlatives; today they happen to be true.” 

August Film Club at Formosa Garden Village: TWO sessions, on Monday 11^th and Monday 25^th  - both at 6:15 pm

We are embarking on a new venture – with an old twist!  We’re talking Golden Oldies and the films produced at a time when so many talents made the Silver Screen a magical world of entertainment.  We will show some of these films on the second Monday of every second month.  As with the latest Film Club offerings, the viewings are scheduled for 6:15 pm at Formosa Garden Village.

Cabaret, named by international film critic Barry Norman as one of the hundred best films of the twentieth century, kicks off our new venture.  Based on Christopher Isherwood’s novel, Goodbye to Berlin, it is set in Berlin in the 1930s, when the brooding Nazi presence hung over Germany.  Cabaret’s songs (with one exception) are set in the Kit-Kat Club, masterfully hosted by its falsetto Emcee, Joel Grey (who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor).  Lisa Minelli (she got the Oscar for Best Actress) gives the peak performance of her career as Sally Bowles.  Michael York plays the “Christopher Isherwood” character, a young Englishman fascinated by the divine decadence of Sally’s flamboyance.  Cabaret is a musical that is much, much more than just a musical.  I’ve seen it several times.  I can’t wait to see it yet again.

We have some great old films (among them Casablanca, Brief Encounter, The King and I) to take us through to the end of this year.  We await your response to decide if we’ll continue cinema nostalgia in 2009.

The Bucket List is our bang-up-to-date new movie for this month.  We are screening it on Monday 25^th August.  This five-star-rated film stars those two expert actors, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.  Nicholson plays a corporate billionaire and Freeman a working class mechanic.  They find their lives thrown together when they end up, each with cancer, sharing a hospital room.  They’re at a crossroad in their lives but discover they share a common desire - which is to spend the time they have left doing everything they ever wanted.  So before they, as the expression has it, “kick the bucket,” they decide to support each other in realizing their dreams.  And along they way they come to terms with their own true characters.

August:  U3A Wednesday meetings at Formosa Garden Village

On Wednesday 6 August at 10 am we will be given a power-point presentation by enterprising and adventurous Sandra Slater-Jones, when she guides us on, not one, but two intrepid journeys.   The first is her participation in the famous Cape to Rio yacht race.  And, as if this was not enough, Sandra immediately followed up her Atlantic crossing to South America, and realized an ambition to journey down the Amazon Basin.

On Wednesday 13 August Amelia will be presenting parts three and four of The Private Life of Plants, another of Sir David Attenborough’s unique, award-winning natural history series.  Parts one and two surprised and delighted everyone who saw them – I can confidently state that three and four are every bit as riveting.  Attenborough’s “extraordinary vision, infectious enthusiasm, sense of humour, enormous charm and distinctive voice continue to dazzle us” wrote a literary critic.  For me, the man is awesome!

(Please note that “Life of Plants” starts at 09:45 am)

Our second armchair travelogue is on Wednesday 20 August at 10 am.  This time the power-point journey is to North America - in fact to Alaska.  Our travel guide will be Plett resident Hugh Stacey who, with his wife, Joy, and two friends, journeyed to the Rockies before cruising from Vancouver to Alaska.  A highlight was going to Denali National Park – “denali” being the Athabascan Indian name for Mount McKinley, which he tells me is the highest mountain in northern America.

Another of U3A’s extremely popular Art Presentations, under the able hand of Jetty Oppenheimer, will be on Wednesday 27 August at 10 am.  The artist whose works we will see is one of America’s pioneers of international modernism:  Georgia O’Keefe.  O’Keefe differs from most of the other American pioneers of modernism in that her training was entirely native, without any specific influence from European modernism.  Whether New York skyscrapers, Western barns, adobe churches or enormously enlarged details of flowers (such as Black Iris, 1926), her imagery involves a precision of linear presentation that points to abstraction.

Special Thursday morning medical lecture at Formosa Garden Village at 10 am

On Thursday 14 August Dr Peter Harpur will address us on Cataracts, a topic of enormous relevance, particularly to slightly older folk.  This is an optical condition in which the lens of the eye becomes cloudy and obscures sight.  This condition may be addressed by a cataract replacement operation, which is not generally regarded with quite as much foreboding as yesteryear.  But one’s sight is precious indeed, and the necessity for such treatment is still of great concern to the individual.  Dr Harpur (who is being introduced by Professor Hansen, tel: 044.533.1236) will, I am sure, shed light (no pun intended!) on this prevalent medical condition.

Regular Monthly Meetings

Tuesdays:  Italian conversation.  Booking essential.  Please telephone Brenda (044.533.5489) for dates and times.  German conversation.  The group meets at the Plett Country Club at 2 pm.  Please telephone Al Scheffer (044.533.2614) to confirm dates and inform him if you would like to make up a beginners’ group.

Wednesdays:  beginners’ and refreshers’ bridge at the Angling Club at 2 pm.

Thursdays:  I’m quite sure our intrepid Plett Panters’ Hiking Group are so enviably fit that they do not feel the cold as they venture forth, even at this time of the year.  On Thursday 7 August they meet at 8:30 am at Shell Ultra and will proceed from there to Indalo Conservancy.  No petrol, says organizer Ian Sayer (044.533.6026) is required for this excursion. 

But on Thursday 21 August at 8:30 am the group meets again at Shell Ultra, from where they will drive to the Tsitsikamma Nature Reserve, near Storms River.  There is a payment of R30.00 to the drivers of vehicles to cover petrol costs.  Those who have Wild Cards should bring them and Ian suggests taking the ingredients for a “bring and braai,” to be held after the hike.

Thursday meetings at 10 am: The Story of Human Language continues.  Please telephone Peter (044.533.5318), at whose home the group meets, to confirm dates and your attendance.

Fridays:  The French conversation group meets at the home of Rea Gardy (044.533.2387).  Please telephone her for dates and times, etc.

Once again (thanks to chairperson Amelia White and the U3A committee) we’ve come up with a packed programme of events.  Definitely something for everyone.

So, as ever, enjoy!

Angela Embleton