Message from our Chair

Welcome to our month of Bank Holidays

May 1st is of course May Day, which used to be Labour Day and have parades.

May 6th is of course when Charles gets crowned at his coronation as King Charles III.  There is a big council event happening on Titchfield Park from 10am to 4pm, with stalls of local activities, charities, food stalls and children’s activities in the afternoon.

There will also be a ‘Big Screen’ showing the coronation for those so inclined to want to come together and share in the event. The day promises to be a good day out and worthy of a visit.

May 8th is an additional Bank Holiday to celebrate the coronation event.

May 29th is of course called Spring Bank Holiday, and hopefully we will be sharing good sunny weather until the Autumn.

What a pity, we no longer have a Whitsuntide holiday, used to love my scout whit camps, always 6 weeks after Easter, first camp of the year.

As always, please book in at the desk on arrival and, as importantly for Health and Safety, ensure you sign yourselves out if leaving early.

Please try and wear your name badges and turn off or silence your mobiles during the meeting.

I am pleased to say that our Annual General Meeting went well, with all the proposals being passed, thanks to all who took part

I have now been our chairman for one year, only one more to go!! I have enjoyed it and yes, it is fairly hard work, having to sort out a lot of items and numerous emails,

Writing reports, agendas, attending meetings etc. what did we do before the internet?   I think life was a lot slower and possibly more enjoyable, especially for us ‘oldies’, not sure the younger generations would agree however.

The job of ‘chair’ is however, made so much easier having such a fantastic committee and social sub committee who do a magnificent job, so, many, many thanks to all, along with our editor and of course our new sub editor.

If you feel that you can be part of the committee, please enquire as to what it entails, as next year, we have several committee members coming to the end of their six year term and we cannot exist without certain officers in place.

Please don’t forget to volunteer for the tea and coffee rota, if we all volunteered, we would only have to do so every four years.

Look forward as always to meeting you all at May’s meeting.

Melvyn Francis, Chair

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Real Ale Group

With numbers reduced by holidays and with our illustrious leader recuperating, the planned Real Ale Group trip to Sneinton was shelved in April and members explored the real ale establishments in Hucknall with the reduced numbers assisting in getting us all seated in the smaller venues.  A most enjoyable evening.

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Litter Picking Group

Once again the group have been busy during April and have thus far collected a total of 34 bags of rubbish. Sadly there is always litter to be picked but it is encouraging when members of the public see us in our u3a tabards and stop to thank us for our efforts or motorists toot their horns and give us a thumbs up.

There is always room for more members to join the group and help ‘do our bit for the environment’ in which case please contact me via email at litter@hucknallu3a.org.uk

Val Gant

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Pub Quiz and Lunch

The April Pub Quiz took place on the 3rd April when 17 of us met at The Nabb Inn.  All are welcome – we prefer a maximum of four to a team where possible as we can always add a person to another team if you would like to attend but haven’t got a team of your own. Sometimes the quiz is easy and occasionally it is very hard, but the idea is to have a bit of fun and to socialise whilst enjoying a lunch.

PLEASE NOTE:  The next Pub Lunch Quiz would have fallen on a Bank Holiday Monday so I have changed this to Monday, 15th May instead.

And here are the answers to the April quiz:

  1. When was William Shakespeare born?   23rd April 1564.
  2. On what date did the Battle of Culloden take place? 16th April 1746.
  3. Who was Henry VIll’s first wife?  Catherine of Aragon.
  4. Which famous battle between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy took place on 21st October 1805?  Battle of Trafalgar.
  5. Who became the British Prime Minister after Winston Churchill in 1955? Sir Robert Anthony Eden, The 1st Earl of Avon.
  6. When did the Cold War end? 1989.
  7. What is sushi traditionally wrapped in?  Edible seaweed.
  8. May Queen, Wisley Crab, Foxwhelps and Lane’s Prince Albert are all species of what? Apples.
  9. What is allspice alternatively known as? Pimento.
  10. What colour is Absynthe? Green.
  11. What flavour is Cointreau? Orange
  12. By what name is Lancelot Brown more usually known? Capability Brown.
  13. Name the world famous gardens situated ten miles outside of London, close to the River Thames.Kew Gardens.
  14. Which popular gardener created Barnsdale Gardens and was the author of many books such as The Ornamental Kitchen Garden‘Gardeners World’ Practical Gardening Course and Paradise GardensGeoff Hamilton.
  15. Which garden is considered to be among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
  16. What colour is a Welsh poppy?  Yellow.
  17. What colour is a Himalayan poppy? Blue.
  18. Name the three primary colours. Red, yellow and blue.
  19. In needlework, what does UFO refer to? An unfinished object.
  20. Name the famous ballet Russian dancer who changed the face of modern ballet.  Rudolf Nureyev.
  21. What is the painting ‘La Gioconda’ more usually known as? The Mona Lisa.
  22. What does the term ‘piano’ mean? To be played softly.
  23. Name the Spanish artist, sculptor and draughtsman famous for co-founding the Cubist movement.Pablo Picasso.
  24. How many valves does a trumpet have? Three.
  25. If you were painting with tempera, what would you be using to bind together colour pigments? Egg yolk.

And here is the May quiz which is the one we had at this month’s Lunch Group, some of which members were flummoxed by!  So, some easy questions and some harder ones:

NOTTINGHAM QUIZ

1. Which material would you associate with Nottingham?                                        

2. Which annual event is held in Nottingham?   

                                                         
3. Which famous writer is from Nottinghamshire?                                                      

4. Which colour would you traditionally associate with Nottingham? 

5. Which 2003 England football international comes from Nottingham?               

6. Which famous bank has its headquarters in Nottingham?                                    

7.Who once said that “Nottingham is a county just there to fill the spaces up”?  

8.Which British game show was filmed at the Carlton Studios in Nottingham?      

9. Name of the major new Art Gallery opened on November 14th 2009         ,

10.During which war was Nottingham Castle razed to prevent its use?                  

11.The Ducal Palace that was built to replace Nottingham Castle was set on fire by residents of Nottingham in protest against the Duke of Newcastle’s opposition to what?      

12.What is the Motto of Nottingham?                  

13.Nottingham had the first Children’s Library. When did it open?                         

14.Which bell hangs below the dome of Nottingham’s Council House clock, weighs 10.5 tonnes?

15.Nottingham is twinned with which German town?                                                

16.William Booth was born in Nottingham in 1829. What did he found?              

17.The National Ice Centre in Nottingham is home to which Ice Hockey Team?

18.Nottingham had the first two miles of wooden rail tracks in 1604. What were they connecting

19.Where did George Green, the mathematician and physicist famously live?       

20.What has been housed in Bromley House on Angel Row since 1822?         

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Reading Group

The May Reading Group will meet on Wednesday, 3rd May when the April choice (The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller) will be discussed. 

The choice for May is The War of the Worlds – H. G. Wells.

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