September 2024
BOOK GROUP
This month we are reading ’The Blackout Book Club’ by Amy Lynn Green. This is an engaging story that illustrates the power of books to unite and encourage us in trying times.
CURRENT AFFAIRS GROUP
This group meets monthly -3rd Wednesday at 10.00am -at the Halswell Library/Service Centre Te Hapua. We are a group of about 25 -30 regular and enthusiastic attendees, and we discuss/learn about a wide range of current affairs/current issues. In the last two months we have discussed “The Future of Transportation” and “Gene Engineering + Modification”. Most meetings comprise a combination of discussion and viewing/commenting on related video clips.
Our October topic will be “Electing a President in the USA” and in November we will venture into the city -walk around and discuss “What Should be Done to revive Cathedral Square”. An end of year lunch (probably at the Church Pub) will follow that meeting.
CYCLING GROUP
We have 2 organised rides each month, on the 3rd Monday and the last Friday. We ride mainly on dedicated cycleways. Each ride has 2 start points to accommodate distance and speed preferences of the members. It seems to be working well. Most members have e-bikes.
New members are always welcome.
On Monday 16 September we cycled from Halswell to Rolleston via Lincoln on dedicated cycleways. It was a lovely ride with an alternative starting point at Lincoln.
There were 9 of us and it was the first time we had ridden the ‘Lincoln to Rolleston’ part.
We had a very enjoyable coffee stop at the Majestic Café at Rolleston Fields.
On Friday 27 September we met near the QEII roundabout and cycled on the Northern Corridor cycleway to Kaiapoi, meeting the second group at the Old Waimakariri Bridge car park. From Kaiapoi we rode along the Pegasus Bay Trail to Beach Rd then out to Kairaki Beach where there were lots of people whitebaiting. Then back to and along Beach Rd into Beach Grove subdivision through to Kaiapoi Domain and along the stop banks to our coffee stop at Paris for the Weekend café. We then opted to ride along the stop banks back to the Old Waimak Bridge car park. There were 12 of us cycling on a glorious sunny but cool morning. The total ride was 45km with the shorter option 26km.
FAMILY HISTORY
During our September meeting we learned how our earliest ancestor arrived in New Zealand. During our October meeting we will hear the origins of an ancestral surname in our family tree.
We meet on the 3rd Tuesday of the month at 1.30pm.If you are interested in tracing your family history you are welcome to join us
http://www.u3aswchch.org.nz/genealogy/
HISTORY
We are on the final unit 7 of our History of Ancient Egypt course. The group will decide what we will take next and the dates for 2025.
MOVIE GROUP
We meet every fourth Tuesday morning to enjoy a variety of films, generally at The Academy Gold theatre in the Colombo Mall.
Notification for the following Tuesday is sent the Friday beforehand and plenty of time to decide whether to attend or not by Monday morning. Late bookings can be catered for – usually! Everyone pays for their seat on arrival at the Academy.
There are often a few doubts about a movie, but no one has been disappointed yet and something different may be a challenge perhaps.
Come and join us and we enjoy a coffee and chat afterwards, sometimes about the movie and sometimes not.
SCRABBLE GROUP
A group of strangers got together to play Scrabble when Nicky started the U3A Scrabble Interest Group several years ago. Some, like me, had not played Scrabble since the days of playing with their children. That group (now 10) are no longer strangers, but a group of supportive friends, willing to share and help each other out.
Our Scrabble group meets twice a month, on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday afternoons. Group membership has been restricted to 10 because we meet in each other’s homes. We laugh, we challenge each other on the meaning of weird words, we solve the problems of the world over a cuppa, we criticise the inability of the modern youth to use correct grammar but try to stay away from controversial subjects like the presidential election in the USA.
You too, could have all of this. As a group of friends, we would be happy to help another group of strangers find what we have found in the way of fun and companionship.
On the U3A website, u3aswchch.org.nz, go to the “About Us” tab, Then select “Contact Us” – fill in the form indicating you are interested in playing Scrabble with a new group. Our click HERE to open the Scrabble form
A committee member will pass the message on to Judith Densie, as the current Convenor of Scrabble. Alternatively approach Judith at a U3A meeting