Regular Sessions – Starting Friday 23rd May at 13:45

With the increased popularity of the game of Bridge combined with the convenience of playing from home, u3a has expanded its Bridge activities to IGO members.

Bridge is about logic and playing detective. It involves teamwork to either make your contract or disrupt your opponents while navigating a path to success. It can be competitive as well as social, enabling you to make new friends.

Players of all abilities are welcome to join our regular sessions of Social Bridge or Club Duplicate Bridge on a Friday afternoon, which are played on the BridgeClubLive platform.

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This group will complement the existing group run by Helen Potts. It is open to anyone, whatever their previous experience, who wants to explore mindfulness practice and a mindful awareness of poetry, and how these two complement and enhance each other. Mindfulness and poetry, like dreams, speak directly to the heart. We will be exploring our moment-by-moment experience of a wide range of poems, old and new, and how they work on us physically and emotionally. It is not a formal 'lit crit' group.

Each session will begin and end with a short mindfulness practice based on the theme for that session. The theme for the first session is 'Poems we love', and group members can feel free to bring poems to share if they wish.

Annie is a retired Breathworks mindfulness teacher who used to lead courses for people with long-term illnesses. Her life is enhanced and supported by her own mindfulness practice and her reading of poetry – and it's good to share. Please contact Annie Jones for further information – all enquiries welcome. The group meets on the last Thursday of the Month at 6 pm.

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New group - Proust Reading Group

Dedicated to a close reading of Marcel Proust: In Search of Lost Time

• Every Friday from 11.30 am to 1 pm

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New Group - Virtual Visits

New Group – First Thursday of the month – 7 pm.

Each month, we visit a new place of interest – ranging from unusual museums, exhibitions and art galleries to peaceful gardens and cultural landmarks. Our first visit will be to the Bethlem Hospital Museum of the Mind.

Our meetings include a virtual tour or presentation, followed by a thought-provoking discussion question. Members will break into small groups to share reflections and ideas, then reconvene to share highlights from their conversations with the whole group.

Whether you're passionate about art, nature, history, or simply love learning something new and meeting like-minded people, this group offers a warm, welcoming space to stay curious and connected. (Alison – Group Leader)

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Most of Bethlem Hospital, William Henry Toms {{PD-Art}}

Successful Group - Recorder Group

IGO recorder music April 2025

What does a recorder group do on Good Friday?  Well, some of our group went to a church service or met other family members.  Some, however,  joined the IGO recorder group for our leader’s choice of suitable music.  We started with two Bach chorales – appropriate and a joy to play.  We were fairly conventional and played Sullivan’s setting of “Fair Daffodils”.  There are still some around, after all.  Then we played our leader’s setting for recorders of the Good Friday music from Parsifal.  If you know a recorder group that has played Wagner, please do let us know.  Finally, to raise our spirits we played a Playford dance and a Galliard.

If you’ve played the recorder in the past, you’re welcome to join us.  Sometimes our music is more conventional.

Peter Stephenson

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Pieter de Ring, Still Life of Musical Instruments {{PD-Art}}

Successful Group - Photography

Photography Group leaders Alan and Catherine

The group is for all. Photographs can be captured using your mobile phone or camera. There is no restriction on the subject matter and content, save that it is legal, does not offend and is not upsetting. Images shared should be interesting and appeal to those viewing. 

We plan to hold zoom meetings in Feb – Apr – June – Sept – Nov, subject to interest. We continue to successfully share our images and ideas through our private WhatsApp Group, which is always open and available to our members – 24/7.

For those who find subject guidance useful, a 6-month rolling subject list is available through the WhatsApp Group. However, you are free to decide for yourself what you want to photograph – being as creative and different as you wish. There are no time limits or deadlines.

The main purposes of this group are to share and enjoy. Sharing ideas, interesting images, experiences, learning, and communicating with each other about our activities and interests. With membership from across the UK and beyond our images, from your own local areas, are welcomed and proving popular.

Membership can be of interest to those who are less able to get out and about, have hearing loss or other restrictions to access and inclusion. Social media and technologies now make it so much easier to join in. There is no restriction on photographic locations, whether it be through the kitchen window, or out in the back garden, and perhaps even beyond – out and about in this big, wide world.

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Successful Group - Discover Joy and Fun in Poetry

Did you know that you can find joy and fun in poetry?

If you would like to discover joy and fun in poetry, do join one of our two monthly groups.  Members are encouraged to share light, amusing and uplifting poems which we read aloud and chat about in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.  If you would like to come along to listen only, you are welcome.  Group 1 meets on the first Wednesday of each month from 9.30 am to 10.30 am, and Group 2 meets on the third Wednesday of each month from 9.30 am to 10.30 am.  

Diana Bramson

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1. Which 1973 folk horror film featured a Maypole dance and song underscoring the film’s exploration of pagan rituals 

2. Which regal personage opened the Manchester Ship Canal in May 1894 

3. George Formby b1904 d1961 his birthday is 26 May. Which of his famous songs was banned by the BBC, but due to a royal intervener, the BBC relented and broadcast it? 

4. In what year did Roger Bannister run the first mile under 4 minutes – in May – 

5. Which ship carrying the pilgrim fathers left Plymouth and arrived at Cape Cod Massachusetts in 1620 

New Members Meeting

Wednesday 11 June at 3pm

Group Leaders Meeting

Wednesday 9 July at 3pm