St Austell u3a July 2024 Newsletter
St Austell Arts Centre
Simon Messenger has resigned as Manager of St Austell Arts Centre and Sheila Vanloo also has no further involvement. The u3a Committee are continuing to negotiate with the Arts Centre Trustees to secure our future use of the building and facilities.
Committee
We always welcome enquiries from members who may be interested in joining the committee.
Speaker
There was no Speaker in July due to the General Election.
Our next Speaker will be 1st August when we welcome Carol Avery whose talk is “My Life in the RAF”.
Carol’s talk won’t cover the current role of the RAF but she has plenty of anecdotes from her time in service. The scope will be a potted history of her various postings including flying in the Queen’s seat with the Royal Flight each month, deploying to the Gulf war with an important cargo to deliver under fire, hosting VIPs and a trip around the USA as part of her tour with the Red Arrows.
The Speaker programme for the rest of the year is available of the website: https://staustellu3a.org/speakers
Groups
Social Group
On Wednesday 10th July members went to Buckfastleigh for a ride on the South Devon Steam Railway and to visit Buckfast Abbey.
Book Group 3
A new Book Group has started and will be meeting in Par. If you are interested in joining or would like more information please contact:
Happy Snappers
The winner of last month’s Happy Snappers photographic competition was “Circle of Light”.
French Group
The French Group Celebrated Bastille Day in Danielle’s garden. Everyone contributed French themed food and had quite a feast. Danielle organised a French quiz and the singing of French songs, she had put a lot of thought and work into the preparation.
Travellers’ Tales
The Travellers’ Tales group is not meeting in August but is back on September 6th with a great programme of talks, starting with “Cycling in Vietnam and Cambodia”. All welcome. Contact:
Wine Group
On Friday 12th July, members from the Wine Group visited Ellis Wharton Wines at Indian Queens for a “wine tour around the Mediterranean” tasting wines from Italy, Spain and Greece all accompanied with plenty of tasty nibbles. A great time was had by all!
Short Walks
The next short walk scheduled is to Minions on Friday 26th July. The walk is approximately 3 miles long and circular, taking around 2 hours. Contact:
Long Walks
On Wednesday 10th July the “Half Day Wanderers” completed an 8k circular walk on beautiful moorland. A detour to take in the far reaching views from St Bellarmins Tor, passing by a well preserved row of standing stones.
Please do tell me of interesting events your Group may have participated in, I am sure all members would enjoy hearing about them in this newsletter.
u3a Tour 2025 to Italy
The Tour for 2025 is going to be to PUGLIA & the South – Undiscovered Italy with NEWMARKET HOLIDAYS.
on 28th October 2025. An 8 day escorted Tour- Newmarket Holidays online for a detailed daily breakdown of the Tour. https://www.newmarketholidays.co.uk/holidays/europe/puglia-and-the-south-undiscovered-italy
To date 21 members have booked and there are only 25 places available!
Newmarket have just lowered their prices: The prices are for Half Board at the Hotel.
Twin rooms are £1237 pp.
Single rooms are £1542 (but like this year this price is for the first 4 rooms; so if there are more single travellers, the price may increase which will affect all single room costs).
To these costs there would be the cost of a coach to Gatwick and a night’s stay at Premier Inn which could be around £240 per single traveller and about £350 per couple.
If you are interested please email me with your FULL NAMES as on your passport, as that is all Newmarket Holidays require in the next 2 weeks. Then I can collect cheques for the deposit of £250pp when I am advised by Newmarket.
On the Tour like most travel companies there are free days with optional extra excursions which are
Day 2- Monopoli and Polignanoa a Mare – cost £98 pp.
Day 7 – Castellano Grotto and Locorstado – cost £182 pp.
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Best Wishes
Chris Crane
