I’m delighted to announce that the next U3A Study Day will be run by Jamel Akib. Jamel already runs professional classes for painters at the Cross Barn, and, according to the Peter Barker Fine Art Gallery

"Jamel Akib is a fine painter of humans, animals, seascapes and landscapes . He paints with bold, big brushstrokes of oil paint. His work sings with energy and painterly individuality…"

We have managed to book Jamel for the day on Saturday, 13th June. He is offering a Painters’ Workshop, from about 10am until 2.30pm, including reference photos, a brush, and acrylic paper to achieve three paintings to be done in the session. 

These will be - 

1. A simple portrait, 
2. A kingfisher, 
3. A landscape. 

Obviously this event is going to be only for a few members, as Jamel has requested a maximum of 16 participants. This involves a very exclusive workshop, all the necessary materials, and an optional meal-deal sandwich lunch delivered to the Cross Barn. Fortunately, the U3A Study Days account is prepared to subsidise this event, so each member will be charged only £40 for the day. (Plus the optional £5 lunch). 

To register your interest, please contact studydays@odihamu3a.org.uk. Members will be listed in strict order of the date their interest is received, and confirmation will be emailed to you. Once the event is confirmed, then you will be sent bank details for payment and options for lunch. For such a popular study day, we cannot offer refunds, but can maintain a waiting list once the event is fully subscribed. 

We look forward to a very special event run by a very professional artist.

Did you know that AI has already changed your life?

• What is it and how will it affect us all?
• Is AI safe to use?
• Will my information be safe?
• Am I too old to use it?

Would you like to know more about AI and the way it will affect us all, whether we like it or not?

Our next study day will explore:

• What is AI, and who is using it?
• How will it affect your life, your health, the services we receive?
• How will it affect your children, grand-children’s lives?
• What are the benefits of AI as it is being used today?
• What are the risks, and how to avoid them?

We will look at some simple examples of where AI is being used today, and show you how you can use it in your everyday life.

There are no pre-requisites.

Our Health and Wellbeing Day was on, on Tuesday April 15th.

We had speakers on Eyes (from the Macular Society), and Ears (from Windsor ENT) and Other Essentials - from MIND, covering the Five Cores of Wellbeing.

Our facilitator was Dr Richard Franklin, the National U3A Health and Wellbeing Advisor.

This study day was in two parts. The first part was for beginners, and the second, for improvers.  

• Morning session : ‘How to begin to Solve Cryptic Crosswords’: 11 am until 1 pm

• Afternoon session : 'Improvers': 2.30pm until 4.30pm. 

Location : The Cross Barn, Odiham

All you had to bring was a pen, paper and a packed lunch if you were going to be here for the whole day. Tea and coffee were provided.

We were delighted to welcome Tiffany Stern to the Cross Barn on 13th February. Tiffany is Professor of Shakespeare and Early Drama at the Shakespeare Institute,University of Birmingham.

The morning focussed on Shakespeare’s First Folio, published in 1623 and is the closest thing we have to the plays as he wrote them. We learnt how it was made and even shown some of the error and blunders!

A lot of you will remember that u3a member John Markham appeared on the Antiques Roadshow a few years ago with a tiny notebook dating from around 1630. It was a cause of great excitement among academics that this rare book had come to light and since then, significant research and investigation has been undertaken by Tiffany Stern. In the afternoon session, Tiffany showed us the results of her findings so far. The notebook contains Shakespeare quotations taken directly from The First Folio and in some cases put into the own words of the writer. There was much lively discussion on who the writer might be and the reason for the notebook - the mystery is yet to be solved!

Tiffany was an excellent and humorous speaker and we all agreed that we had learnt a lot without even realising it.

Thanks to John Markham for suggesting that the topic and Tiffany would make a fascinating study day - you were right John!