Our previous trips and visits
The Llangollen Canal Trip - September 6th 2017.
Forty eight of us left the Arena at 8.30 a.m. and were treated to the scenic route to Wales by our driver, Mick, which enabled us to visit Bridgemere Garden World en route.
This was impressive in itself with a lovely café serving homemade delights plus several well known shops to browse around, including Lakeland and Edinburgh Woollen Mill, the Farm Shop on site stocked everything and the size of the sausage rolls had to be seen to be believed, there must’ve been half a pig tucked in each one!
Before we got there Marlene handed out the quiz based on initials. She gave us the first answer, 16 O in a P (16 ounces in a pound) to start us off and then left us to figure out the other 32 ourselves. I thought I’d done well to get 13, but some brain boxes got the whole lot, who knows that 22 = B on a ST means 22 Balls on a Snooker Table? Not me! By the time we got the answers our brains were melting and we were screaming for caffeine, or something stronger!
On arriving in Trevor we had chance to wander up and down the canal side before boarding our narrow boat, there was a café and very small museum attached for anyone who was interested.
The firm operating the tours was called ‘Jones the Boats’ very appropriate for Wales. The boat was called Eirlys, which means Snowdrop in Welsh and was 6ft 10ins wide, hence the term ‘narrow boat’, and 72ft long. The crew had prepared a Welsh Tea for us, scone, jam and cream, plus a slice of Bara Brith, (Welsh fruit cake), we have enough ‘fruit cakes’ of our own on board thank you very much, but it was delicious.
Seating could be better, but she is a narrow boat after all, so having more than one cheek on a seat was a luxury and negotiating the delivery of tea and coffee was an art in itself.
The first part of the Llangollen canal ride took us on a tour of the canal which ran along the hillside high above the Dee Valley, with crew pointing out the main features, including a large, red brick Georgian house of which there are very few examples in Wales.
We returned to our starting point and then turned right, or starboard, to be treated to the highlight of the day, crossing the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, not once, but twice! No escape whichever side you were on! The aqueduct stands 126 feet 8 inches above the Dee Valley floor and has 19 arches that span 1007 feet in total.
The Llangollen canal was designed and built by Thomas Telford and William Jessop, and was an
outstanding feat in civil engineering for its time, cutting through rugged terrain and crossing two
valleys, with the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct alone taking more than 10 years to complete, the final stone being laid in 1805. The term ‘gliding through the air’ is not a misnomer, on the side not provided with a tow path the boat is prevented from the sheer drop to the valley floor by a mere 12 inches of iron trough, but the view is fantastic, look down if you dare! It is fed by the nearby Horseshoe Falls and holds an incredible 1.5 million litres of water.
After surviving our trip over the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct we boarded our coach for the run home,
this time by a quicker route, the journey was broken up by having a raffle to raise money for the Projector Fund. 60s (and before) music was on the sound system with most of us singing along and before we knew it we were back home.
Our thanks go to Denise for another great day out.
Jenny Wright
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OUR VISIT TO WHITBY 26TH JUNE 2017.
A very pleasant sunny day calling en route at The Whole Hogg Farm shop for bacon and sausage cobs.
We had a quiz on the coach won by Liz and friends with a score of 18 ¼ out of 20 questions.
The coach dropped some people of at Whitby and others went onto Sandsend where local shops were explored then they caught the bus back to Whitby and others walked the 2 miles along the beach some in the sea and for once it was warm.
Denise had arranged for an optional late lunch at The Fishermans 2nd Wife, with choices of Haddock, Sea Bass, Plaice, Salmon, Mussels to name but a few of dishes on the menu and how big was the fish!!! and what a view.
We left Whitby at 4 15 p.m. we had a raffle on the way back raising £50.70p for group funds arriving back home at 7 p.m. a very successful day thanks to Denise.
Marlene.
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Forest Town & District U3A 1ST Outing to Liverpool – 15th.May 2017
----- 7 a.m. Denise and Marlene arrived at Forest Town Arena on a grey drizzly Monday morning, we saw the coach and expected it to turn into the car park but had reservations as to if he would make the turns he tried but Denise went and told him to park near the bus stop.
I ticked of all the names as our members boarded the coach, three members were not there by 7.30 the leaving time, two of them arrived at 7.35 thinking the leaving time was 8 a.m. we waited until 7.45 then decided the last lady was not coming. (click on the picture to see a larger image).
Gary the coach driver took the scenic route through Derbyshire as he had noticed all the hold ups on the motorway route, fantastic views over the Cat and Fiddle despite a drizzly morning, someone provided a Beatles CD and we had Beatles music and a Sweetie Quiz on the way.
We arrived at 11 a.m.at the Albert Dock, some people decided to do their own thing all day, others explored the docks and the riverside seeing the Ferry Crossing the Mersey and the Three Graces, Royal Liver, Cunard and Port of Liverpool buildings, we also saw a statue of Billy Fury and statues of the Fab 4.
Denise had arranged for lunch for those members who wanted to go at the Adelphi in the famous lounge where the fateful passengers of the Titanic had waited, some walked to the Adelphi and Denise arranged transport from the dock and back for those who could not walk the distance.
Back at the Albert Dock at 2 p.m. most of us boarded the coach for the Beatles Tour, tour guide Paul joined us, we had a very interesting tour with the guide pointing out all the interesting places where the Beatles had lived and the history of how the group had formed he also gave us some of the history of Liverpool about the slave trade.
We stopped for photos at Penny Lane, John Lennon’s home, the house where Paul McCartney had lived and Strawberry Fields, we had a brief glimpse of Mathew Street and the Cavern Club as we travelled through the busy Liverpool centre, we listened to music from the Beatles and Lonnie Donegan as he was one of the inspirations for the Beatles.
We arrived back at Albert Dock at 3 45p.m. time for a coffee before we set off home at 4 30p.m. Can you believe after the weather forecast that we had no rain from 11 a.m. till 3.30p.m. how lucky was that, we all had a very enjoyable day.
A small raffle on the way back raised £53 for the social fund. Thanks to Shirley and Jane for helping me and a very big thing you to Denise for organizing the day out I am sure I speak on behalf of all the passengers. Photos on the Web Site to reflect on the day.
Marlene.
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WHERE DO I START?
In August I offered to do a Christmas Dinner for the Forest Town and District U3A, a new U3A group formed in September 2015. I realized no one was offering to do any social things and as I have organized a Christmas Dinner for Instep for 5 years I thought here is an opportunity for me to help another group.
I put the idea of a Christmas dinner to the committee and they agreed, I then contacted South Forest and agreed a date 13th December at 1 p.m. I was limited on choice of days due to late booking.
I suggested we have a bottle raffle with the proceeds going to Bluebell Wood Hospice, at a previous U3A monthly meeting we had a speaker from The Hospice and as our ‘Rave On’ group had raised money for the Hospice previously I thought it would be a good idea.
In August I sent out letters for the dinner and 62 people paid, unfortunately 3 did not come to the dinner, but South Forest only charged us for 59, the seating plan took a while for me to sort out as I did not know many of the people, I hope I managed to sit friends together.
We had an excellent meal, I also did a Cryptic Carol Quiz and there were two joint winners, we then had the bottle raffle and raised £113.00, the ‘Rave On’ group then played for us and we enjoyed the music and of course the dancing.
Thanks to staff at South Forest, a big THANK YOU to Jill Kirk for offering to sell raffle tickets for me and also to Jill and Lynne for helping distribute raffle prizes and to ‘Rave On’ for entertaining us afterwards. Thanks also for the generous donations of bottles for the raffle.
I suggested that it may be a good idea if we went to the Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice ----- and present the cheque for the money Rave On and the raffle had raised, Keith contacted them and a date was fixed, Pauline and Malcolm offered to come to take a photo and on Tuesday 17th January we did the visit._
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(Click on or touch the picture to see a larger version)
NOW WHERE DO I START? I was totally amazed at the Bluebell Hospice, the facilities, the staff and the work they do, I had no idea of the scale that is involved in the care of the patients and all the fund raising involved as the Government only provides 10% towards the funds, so many local companies provide services for free i.e. IKEA provides fully fitted kitchens, lounges and bedrooms for families staying in the hospice with their children. The staff were amazing, everyone had welcoming smiles. On the walls were pictures of happy children enjoying activities, obviously many of them are no longer with us.
It really puts life into perspective when you see the work by the staff and volunteers at the hospice.
I can assure you any donations certainly go to a good cause.
Marlene.
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A Visit to Veolia - Crown Farm Industrial Estate.
On Monday, 7th November, 14 members of FT&D U3A went along for a tour of the Veolia plant.
On arrival we were met by Lesley who had originally given us the talk at St. Alban’s and were shown into a large room where refreshments were available.
To start with Lesley ran through some housekeeping points we had to observe while on site, we were told we had to wear hard hats and fluorescent jackets, then we had to answer five questions, multiple choice, (back to school folks and no cheating!) to indicate we’d understood before finally signing the form, which was returned to Lesley.
Lesley then talked to us about the work done by Veolia, going into a bit more depth than she had done at the monthly meeting, she stressed that the company is not a ‘recycling plant’ but a Materials Recovery Facility, (MRF for short) which acts as a stepping stone between the householder and the companies who buy recycled materials to make into
new products. A large mural on the wall explained the main steps needed to sort recyclable waste into a product acceptable to the various manufacturers.
New words were learned, what’s a trommel? You’ll find out later.
This was followed by a hands on exercise to find out how much we’d remembered from her original talk.
As most of us had been present at the monthly talk Lesley dispensed with the quiz and instead divided us into two groups, each group were given a bag of rubbish (clean, I hasten to add) and several bins and bags to sort it into, this created much discussion among group members and once we were satisfied our efforts were inspected by Lesley. Luckily neither
group let the side down, although we weren’t a hundred percent right either. On average 12 mistakes are made in this exercise, both groups acquitted themselves with only 2 or 3 and they were all more obscure items.
After this we were shown a short video on the main workings of the plant and then it was time to don our PPE for the tour, plus headphones and a small receiving unit so that Lesley could talk us through what we were seeing. It was explained that these would help us to
follow what she was saying as it is noisy in the building. We were also warned it would be dusty mainly due to the amount of paper handled, but that this would not cause us any harm.
We again split into two groups for the tour and posed for the camera before proceeding.
We followed Lesley to a large metal staircase, about three storeys high, running up the outside of the building. This is definitely not for those who suffer from fear of heights, or vertigo as you can see down through the stairs! Once at the top we were shown through a door and followed Lesley along a metal walkway and then up another flight of steps where
we had a bird’s eye view of the machinery and other various goings on below us.
First pointed out to us was the tipping hall with a huge 360% grab that scoops up enormous quantities of mixed rubbish and dumped them in a tub which then empties onto a conveyor belt to be taken to the pre-sort shed, here any obvious none recyclable material is removed by hand, it then continues on to the trommels, (there’s that word again) which look like giant washing machine drums and act in a similar way, allowing any fine bits and pieces to fall through.
From there it goes through a ‘fines screen’ where more small stuff is removed before passing under a magnet which removes ferrous metal, Aluminium cans are removed after this in an eddy current separator, which works on Faraday’s principles and ‘floats’ the aluminium in the air where it can be picked out, again by hand. Plastics are then sorted
until finally all that’s left is paper. All the separated items are baled and then taken to the loading bay ready to be picked up and taken away to be made into new things.
From our position on the walkway we could see the rubbish moving along conveyors between various machines and watched the finished bales being stacked ready for collection. Veolia work an 18 hour day, starting at 6 a.m. and not closing down until
midnight to enable them to deal with all the material brought in before it all starts again the next day.
Many thanks to Lesley for a very interesting morning and also to Marlene for organising the visit; I’ll never look at my recycling bin in quite the same way again and if you get the opportunity to visit the facility I can highly recommend it.
Jenny Wright
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