BLOG 5 –9th APRIL 2020

Dear friends, I have had such lovely comments about my poem last week that I feel truly humble I really enjoyed doing it, and so glad that you did. What can I do next - I ask myself. Any ideas? I have spent my time over the last week writing the poem, talking to our

members, (if you haven’t had your call yet - it will come). I am up to ??? on our membership list, in alphabetical order, not your number. Between that and the trying to get a shopping slot, which I have managed, walking the dogs, following Joe Wickes exercises for seniors, doing virtual aquafit, thinking about housework and gardening, playing the odd game of bridge on line, singing with the group on Zoom, Committee meeting on Zoom, family on Zoom, calling non U3A friends, checking on anyone unwell (few thank goodness). I am exhausted. How did I ever find the time to go out????

Unfortunately, there is inevitably some sad news each month and this month three of our members have passed away. Shirley Williams, Peter Lyons and Gerald Bernard. For our newer members Gerald was a member of the steering Committee who got Radlett U3A off the ground and has been our Life President since the beginning. Our sincere condolences to all the families.

To all of you, whatever you are celebrating in the following week we wish you well and as happy a time as you can make it in these uncertain days. Be well and stay safe. Adrienne

It is with great sadness that I have to mention the loss of a few further local businesses around the town. The bra manufacturer has gone bust; the specialist in submersibles has gone under; the manufacturer of food blenders has gone into liquidation and a dog kennel has had to call in the retrievers. The suppliers of paper for origami enthusiasts has folded; the Heinz factory has been canned as they couldn't ketchup with orders; the tarmac laying company has reached the end of the road and the bread company has run out of dough. The clock manufacturer has had to wind down; the Chinese has been taken away; the shoe shop has had to put his foot down and given his staff the boot and finally the launderette has been taken to the cleaners! Trevor

The fattest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his

size from too much pi.

Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the

craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't

have your kayak and heat it too.

The Diary of a Coronavirus patient and the struggles of ‘him indoors’ – Part 1 As some of you know I (Anthea Brick) have Coronavirus and am therefore self-isolating. This now means that ‘him indoors’ is now in charge of the kitchen for the first time EVER. I thought I should share with you how this is progressing. Day 1. As I was a girl guide (or Boy Scout) my motto is be prepared, so out of the freezer came a home-made Shepherd’s pie made in advance in case I was ever unwell. No problem with that once I had given instructions on how to turn on the oven at the right temperature. Day 2. Repeat of day one meal as there was enough left over. Day 3. This is where it gets interesting. Salmon with a teri-yaki sauce and a jacket potato. I am now having to sit in another room and shout out instructions but hey ho the boy did well. Day 4. By now I’m thinking he has got the hang of the cooking business so we progressed to roast chicken and roast potatoes, which surprisingly turned out well. I’m thinking I could get used to being served food every night and ‘him indoors’ has now found his new voca-tion. It seems you are never too old to learn. How wrong could I be! Day 5. The menu last night was egg & chips. Easy you would say - wrong. Frozen chips. I told ‘him indoors’ to put the chips on a baking tray. When I noticed the empty extra-large bag of chips on the work-surface I realised that we have not had a lesson on portions (note to myself: extra lessons needed). However. he put some chips back in the bag and into the freezer. Now on to the eggs. My instructions were to break each egg into a cup in case of shells being attached. When you are in another room and you hear an “oops!” then alarm bells start to ring. I asked what was the problem and was told a little of the egg had not gone into the cup and was on the work surface. I asked how much was a little and was then told “the whole egg”. Egg no.1 was now thrown away. On to egg no.2 - again an “oops “. Now what? It appears that his thumb has got caught inside the egg whilst trying to crack it. I am well aware that eggs are in short supply at the moment so suggested instead of eggs & chips how about just chips. ‘Him indoors’ decides he wants the a-la-carte menu and would like baked beans with his chips. Big mistake as we have the individual pots of baked beans which you just take the lid off and put in microwave. Another “oops” and by now my already grey hair is becoming white. He forgot to take the lid off and remembers just in time before the whole thing explodes. ROLL ON TONIGHT!!! (to be continued ……….)

Walking can add minutes to your life.

This enables you at to spend an

additional 5 months in a nursing

home at £8,000 per month.

My grandpa started walking five miles a day when he

was 60. Now he's 97 years old

and we have no idea where the hell he is.

Being a widower, I am helped by my very efficient daughter who lives a few hundred yards away in the

village -Shenley, and is a great help with lots of domestic issues.

I needed to change my duvet-cover a short time after going into self- isolation. After struggling for a

while, I asked for her help. Bish, bash, bosh -and the job was done in a couple of minutes. After

thanking her, she told me that I must be the only person in the world that had not/didn’t know how to

do this job. Please assure me that this is not so. When I changed the bed linen this week-end she was not about. I slept very well with the duvet-cover acting as the top-sheet and the duvet perched on

top… Simples! Raymond

We always say we live in a sport free area as we never follow football, tennis, cricket

or any other popular sport. Nevertheless, under pressure from our children to keep

fit I watched a video of The Green Goddess doing chair exer-

cises for the elderly. The exercises reminded me of a similar

class I went to held at the village hall in Shenley and run by

Radlett U3A. After going there two or three times I ended up

at the doctor who diagnosed I had pulled the hamstrings in

my legs. Because of this experience I decided to give the

Green Goddess routine a miss.

A few days later I watched a video showing Jo Wicks demonstrating simple, 40 sec-

ond routines for the elderly. Seems as though I qualified to

be in this class and I proceeded to try the gentle marching

exercise. Here I am again with excruciating pain in my calf

muscle - I’m taking muscle relaxers, pain killers and rubbing

in Voltarol gel to no affect. I am up every night rubbing my

leg, using ice packs and walking up and down the hall as the

pain gets worse when I lay down. I am

absolutely exhausted as I don’t get much sleep. The pain in

my leg springs into

action as soon as I nod off and I ONLY watched the video! Seems as though my

instincts were right that ‘sport and exercise are not for me’. Next time the family

suggest I keep fit I will turn on the selected hearing and return to playing candy

crush and bridge.

Keep well and keep fit in whatever way suits you. Linda

SOMETHING FOR THE BRAIN!

The Diary of a Coronavirus patient and the struggles of ‘him indoors’ – Part 2

Well here we are again, another day and another meal. To-night a traditional Friday night dinner cooked without instructions. As we had the same meal ‘him indoors’ was able to get out his notes and sort this out without any help. Who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks! Couldn’t fault him. If this car-ries on it looks like I may become redundant (hopefully). I’m now looking to you all for cooking suggestions for him for next week, which is going to be a very busy week as ‘him indoors’ is going to have ironing lessons (that should be interesting). If you see me out and about, which I hopefully will be next week, and you see me with big burnt marks on my clothes then you know we have had lesson 1. Anthea

PS ‘Him indoors’ is so impressed with his work that he is now thinking of going into the outside catering business!! Watch this space!

U3A Pilates

A few months ago, who would have predicted that the Friday morning Pila-

tes group would swop the Phillimore hall for their living rooms and continue the class via the wonderful Zoom. The Zoom software originally developed

for commercial video meetings and is now being adopted by all of us for so-cial communication during the lockdown. Once we have the software on our

device, all we have to do is click on an email link sent to us by our teacher, Paula and as if by magic, she appears on our screen in her St Albans studio.

We can be anywhere, indeed one member is in lockdown in Norfolk and makes us all envious by telling us that she can see the sea from the room

where she does her Pilates.

The toughest technical challenge is placing your laptop or iPad, so that you can see the

Paula on your screen and on her screen, she can see you lying on your mat to check you

are doing the exercise correctly. Tilting the camera in the right direction, when you

don’t know where the camera is on your laptop is not easy, but we’re getting there.

The photo shows my laptop view of Paula and sharp-eyed readers will spot various

class members across the top of the screen.

So, we can hear her clearly without background noise, during the class Paula mutes us, your bones can crack and creak and you can groan as much as you

like and no-one else can hear. But at the beginning and end of the class we see and chat to our fellow classmates and are even being introduced to the

family pets. So, in these times of isolation, seeing and chatting to our friends is great even if it is only for a few minutes.

For members of the class who have not joined us online, give it a try. It will

keep the muscles toned until we can return to Phillimore and we’d love to see you.

Like everything though there are drawbacks. At the end of the first session, one of our members was heard to wail, “I know how I’m spending my after-

noon - getting rid of all the dust under the furniture that I’ve been looking at for the last hour”. Christine

Just be careful because people are going crazy from being in lock down! Actually, I've just been talking about this with the microwave and toaster while drinking coffee and all of us agreed that things are getting bad. I didn't mention anything to the washing machine as she puts a different spin on everything. Certainly not to the fridge as he is acting cold and distant. In the end the iron calmed me down as she said everything will be fine, no situation is too pressing. The vacuum was very unsympathetic... told me to just suck it up, but the fan was more optimistic and hoped it would all soon blow over! The toilet looked a bit flushed when I asked its opinion and didn’t say anything but the door knob told me to get a grip. The front door said I was unhinged and so the curtains told me to... yes, you guessed it... pull myself together. Veronica

Well hello Everyone – I have been trying to come up with a subject that

might entertain as I have now been “isolating” for six weeks.

So, what does my day consist of probably much like

yours. Up, breakfast, then high-light of the day - yes

you’ve guessed it Dog Walk taken at a safe distance

now in this lovely weather - enjoyable. Have a field

close by that is not under water so we make for that

and then several roads back. I never noticed how

great some of the houses and gardens are here in

Bushey before especially now spring is springing. By

the time I return, Molly the dog is exhausted but only

for about an hour.

Luckily, I’m in an annex in my daughter (also “isolating”) and son in-laws

house so do see them from a distance, but joy! oh joy! with this lovely

weather I can converse across the garden, what a treat!

Gary and I get together online to play bridge when he is not down at his

allotment growing vegetables to feed the whole of Radlett it seems.

Have read the complete Shardake series of books, a great read and onto

series 10 of Suits, also enjoyable.

Look forward to your other well written anecdotes, we have to just get

through this together and of course - STAY HOME Sandra

On Guard - making sure the squirrels are social distancing!

‘And People Stayed at Home’ by Kathleen O’Meara (1869)

This morning I saw a neighbor talking to her cat. It was obvi-ous she thought her cat understood her. I came into the house, told my dog . . . we laughed a lot.

Homeschooling is going well. 2 stu-dents suspended for fighting and 1 teacher fired for drinking on the job!

“Ode to Ade”

Our Radlett U3A has a Chairman called Ade, She never sits still and of nothing she’s afraid. She leads with her smiles and her face always glows And she joins groups and outings, of which we have loads. We have monthly Exec meetings, where plans are made, Hilarious jokes and cakes are displayed. So, no thanks to ‘the virus’, all is now closed So, Ade phones all members, on every road, All 800 members, young, old and greyed, We give thanks to the Chair, through this “Ode to Ade” Stephen G

Adrienne could brighten your day with her smile.

She’s not afraid to feel it all. She lives, she laughs,

and she cries too. Adrienne is a dreamer who is

destined to achieve her goals. Despite everything

she’s been through, she still has a generous heart

and a kind soul. Adrienne is a fire that can’t be

tamed - beautiful to watch, BUT DANGEROUS TO

MESS WITH.!!! Anon