city of derby retired teachers issue no 82 … newsletter colour 2015 11.pdf · city of derby...

CITY OF DERBY RETIRED TEACHERS

NEWSLETTERISSUE NO 82

November2015

CONTACTS

Chairman: Mrs. E R Lancaster (01332) 676567Vice Chairman: Mr. R. Horth (01332 551624Secretary: Mrs. B R Ward (01332) 550383

Treasurer: Mr. F. P. Wilson (01332) 771658TSN Representative: Mrs. J McGarry (01773) 607206

- NATIONAL UNION OF TEACHERS -

2. In Our Thoughts- Biddy Robinsonand Ann Salt

4. CoDRTs SummerRamble- Val Holmes

5. CoDRTs SummerOuting to CastleHoward - BettyBond, Beryl andGerry Kelly

8. RE-MAP - Thelargest charity youhave never heard of- Pat Wilson

10. Down Came TheBucket - Rick Horth

11. I Don’t Believe It- Rick Horth

The Newsletter is edited anddesigned by Bill Grange

For future issues send material tohim at :19 Elm Grove, Allestree, DerbyDE22 2HB01332 [email protected]

Visit our website:www.codretts.co.uk

Compiled by Bert Mason

Main Items in This Issue

…Where a version of this news-letter in colour can be viewed.

Newsletter November 2015

In Our Thoughts

For Your Diary

Nov. 20th - Mon. 23rd: ExtendedVisit to Southampton.

6th, Jan.: Twelfth Night Lunch atLittleover Lodge - Speaker Rich-ard Papworth, a former store de-tective.Booking form in this issue.

2nd Feb. At 10am: A.G.M. at TheEvergreen Hall, Allestree: Speak-er is Colin Boocock ‘Kosovo andMacedonia by Train.’

16th March: Spring Outing toYork.

Please Note: Please contact Biddyor Ann to report illness orbereavement, not the Editor.

The following members have beenunwell since the last Newsletter,Alma Sheard, Anne Edwards andPauline Povey. We have sent get wellcards to them all. Sadly, EileenClark‘s husband and Jill Horth’smother have passed away. We sentsympathy cards to them and theirfamilies.

We hope all our members keep wellover the next months and are enjoy-ing the lovely Autumn colours, be-fore we all wake up to frostymornings and extra jumpers!!

Biddy Robinson and Ann Salt

Contact Biddy on 01773-823954or Ann on 01332-513412

2

SUBS REMINDER!

Please note that subscriptions for2016 are due on 1st January.

The amount for associate mem-bers is now £7.

Please send cheques made out to‘City of Derby Retired Teachers’ tothe Treasurer:

Mr. F. Wilson, 15 Willson Road,Litteover, Derby DE23 1BY


Puns Intended

Venison for dinner again? Oh deer!

A cartoonist was found dead in hishome. Details are sketchy.

I used to be a banker, but then Ilost interest.

Haunted French pancakes give methe crepes.

England has no kidney bank, but itdoes have a Liverpool.

I tried to catch some fog, but Imist.

How does Moses make his tea? He-brews it.

They told me I had type-A blood,but it was a Type-O.

I changed my iPod's name toTitanic. It's syncing now.

Jokes about German sausages arethe wurst.

I know a guy who's addicted tobrake fluid, but he says he can stopany time.

I stayed up all night to see wherethe sun went, and then it dawned onme.

This girl said she recognised mefrom the vegetarian club, but I'dnever met herbivore.

When chemists die, apparently theybarium.

I'm reading a book about anti-grav-ity. I just can't put it down.

I did a theatrical performanceabout puns. It was a play on words.

I didn't like my beard at first.Then it grew on me.

I've booked an operation for abrain transplant, but there’s a pos-sibility that I could change mymind.

3


CODRTsSummer Ramble 2015By Val HolmesOn 7th July I arrived at the meeting place,Ticknall Village Hall Car Park, at 10 a.m.to find it was almost full and about forty

senior citizens were standing around,equipped with walking boots and ruck-sacks. Well, I thought optimistically, adefinite improvement on last year’s fivestalwart walkers…but, of course, theywere not retired teachers at all, but mem-bers of the Hinckley and Bosworth walk-ing group. Fortunately, they were taking adifferent walk from ours, otherwise itwould have been more like a mass tres-pass!

When they moved on there remainedseven retired teachers and a dog, ready totackle a pleasant walk around the CalkeAbbey Estate. We welcomed a new walk-er, Pat, who was fortunately identified inthe melee! The weather had threatenedrain and the odd shower, but as the walk

progressed the sun came out and jacketswere removed.

The walk went through the meadows andwoods of the Estate and we took advan-tage of the outdoor tables at the NationalTrust restaurant to enjoy our snacks and

drinks. We then took the path down tothe ponds and through the fields andwoods back to Ticknall.We moved on to “The Staff of Life” andenjoyed a good lunch and chat over ourmeal. Thank you to those who turnedout and although an improvement on lastyear’s group of five (plus a dog), it wouldhave been good to see more of those whoenjoy a pleasant, easy walk.

4

Meadow CranesbillPhotographed on the walk by bill Grange


CODRTs Summer Outingto Castle HowardBy Betty BondOur summer outing this year was to theCastle Howard Estate in North York-shire, best known by many for being thebackdrop to Brideshead Revisited. TheHowards have lived there continuouslysince it was built by Charles Howard, 3rd

Earl of Carlisle, at the beginning of the18th Century. However, it was incompletewhen he died and the 4th Earl added themissing West Wing. Its Palladian stylecontrasts with Vanbrugh’s flamboyantBaroque hence its disjointed appearanceto the critical eye.

The grand interior is magnificent, thearchitecture stunning - The Grand Stair-case, The Long Gallery, The CrimsonDining Room, The Antique Passage andto crown it all The Grand Hall abovewhich the splendid Dome rises 70 feetinto the air. It was hard to imagine that in1940 the house was nearly destroyed byfire. It was nearly 20 years before restora-tion even began to bring it back to itspresent glory, though extensive areas ofdamage do remain.

The House’s connection with Chatsworthwas interesting as the 6th Earl marriedGeorgiana Cavendish, daughter of Geor-giana 5th Duchess of Cavendish.

Outside the gardens and woodland arebeautiful with statues, temples, follies,fountains and a lake. The Mausoleum isone of the finest freestanding one inNorthern Europe, designed by NicholasHawksmoor. Unfortunately it started to

pour with rain so we had to retreat to thetearooms!

In spite of the weather everyone had alovely time. We arrived home a little laterthan usual due to a lady driver backinginto the coach on the motorway, butthat’s another story!

Our Day at CastleHowardBy Jerry and Beryl KellyOn reaching Castle Howard Jerry and Idecided to go on a guided tour of theTemple of the Four Winds. Why were wethe only two people on it we wondered?It soon became apparent why…the heav-ens opened! Thank goodness for our um-brellas as we walked through the woods,passing colourful azaleas to the Temple. Itis a beautiful building; a cube with a domeand porticoes with lead statues of Romanempresses at each corner. Our guide hada key and we were able to go inside. Theviews from the interior were spectacular.We could imagine the Lords and Ladies ofthe time sitting taking refreshments, read-ing and just relaxing looking out at thestunning views.

5

Photo by Mike Kipling

Newsletter November 20156Castle Howard

Newsletter November 2015 7

Photos by Bill Grange


“RE-MAP is the largestcharity that you havenever heard of”By Pat Wilson

So said our speaker, Maurice Elliot on our2nd June coffee morning. RE-MAP (Re-habilitation Mobility Advisory Panel) lo-cally serves Derbyshire and EastStaffordshire. It is a charity whose aim isto improve the quality of life for peoplewith disabilities.

Maurice joined RE-MAP two weeks afterhe retired. He spent 14 years at Rolls-Royce Nuclear Division and 27 years run-ning his own mechanical engineeringcompany.

Soon after he joined RE-MAP he was putin charge of publicity and eventually be-came Chairman, a role he kept for 11 years.

Maurice has completed at least 200 jobsof his own and he said that his mostsatisfying projects have involved children.Even when children outgrow the aids,they are passed onto different childrenwith maybe some adjustments. Seeing thesmile on a child’s face when using theseaids is reward enough.

The service is free to the recipient so thegroup is reliant on charitable donations

How the system works:-

1. Receive an enquiry2. Offered to panel where someone

will accept it

3. Visit made to client with the re-ferrer to discuss and devise a so-lution

4. Design produced5. Tried, modified if necessary, and

refined until the client is satisfied

Maurice joined the group in 1997 and hasbeen personally responsible for many ofthe devices.

All of the group are retired people andusually have a background of engineering.There are 100 volunteers nationwide andthe salary bill is less than £70,000 a year.

Referrals are from Occupational Thera-pists and Physiotherapists and usuallythere is an existing aid that can be adapt-ed, often quite simply to the client’s needs.

The members work from home and pooltheir expertise. The majority are costed atbetween £50-£60, sometimes less; forexample, a metal knitting needle, bent in acertain way, became a dishcloth wringer.A clip from a skirt or trouser hanger anda length of string was used to pull up a zipfastener. Two wooden clothes pegs fas-tened together in a certain way helped tohang out washing, using only one hand.

A more complicated device made for ablind lady enabled her to take her daugh-ter out in a pushchair. In the event of aproblem, all she had to do to apply thebrakes was to lower the rod which sheheld in her hand and the brakes wereautomatically applied. Another was anelbow crutch fixed to an edge trimmer foruse in the garden.

8

Newsletter November 2015 9

Maurice ElliotBy Frank Wilson

The Cover Picture…

…is of a Long-tailed Tit, which I photo-graphed in a garden on Woodlands Road,Allestree, a few years ago.

The well-named tiny long-tailed tit isreasonably common in Britain, found inscrub, farmland hedges, woodland, parksand gardens and can be seen at all sea-sons of the year.

It eats insects and spiders, especially cat-erpillars. Vegetable matter is often takenin the autumn.

Its nest is constructed from lichens andmoss bound together by spider silk andlined with feathers. It takes the form of aflexible sac with a small round entranceon top, suspended either low down in abush or high up in the forks of treebranches.

During the breeding season in spring andearly summer Long-tailed Tits are onlyfound in pairs. However, outside thebreeding season they travel around inflocks of up to 30 birds, often visitinggardens, especially where there are feed-ers, making their presence known by highpitched rather tuneless whistling, to mymind resembling a squeaky gate!

They usually don’t stay for long in anyone locality, flying off together all at thesame time to find another source of food.

Bill Grange

The list was endless and impressive. AsRE-MAP is a charity they are not subjectto the Sale of Goods Act because eachdevice is given away, therefore they arereliant on donations.

We were very impressed by the innova-tions, often so simple yet effective andMaurice was obviously very enthusiasticabout his work.

A collection was taken at the end of Mau-rice’s presentation.

Soon after our coffee morning, the localpress reported that Maurice had beenawarded the MBE in the Queen’s Birth-day Honours list.


Down came theBucket !By Rick Horth

The ringing words of Gerard Hoffnung'scomic sketch - reminding us that usuallywhat goes up comes down and what mat-ters is the relative force and speed of theoperation.

Our September Coffee Morning speaker,Jolyon Mclaine told, in entertaining fash-ion, how he had learned and subsequentlytrained others in the controlled ascent,flight and descent in helicopters.

His first career was in insurance but sens-ing that this was not how he should spendthe next forty years and, knowing that afriend had joined the R.A.F., he decidedto do the same. After training he flewoperationally on Puma helicopters, mainlyin support of the British and NATO Ar-mies, in Great Britain, Northern Ireland,

Europe, Cyprus and Belize. After thistour of duty he was awarded the Air ForceCross.

In 1978 he re-trained to Sea King helicop-ters and flew Search and Rescue missionsfrom RAF Boulmer in Northumberland,taking part in 78 ‘rescues’. In 1982 hetrained as an instructor, firstly teaching abinitio RAF and overseas students andlater, flying the Sea King, as the Com-manding Officer of the RAF Sea King

Search and Rescue TrainingSchool in Cornwall, convertingexperienced aircrew for Searchand Rescue duties.

Jolyon was the winner of theDouglas Bader Trophy for thebest overall flying display at IAT1985

After leaving the RAF he contin-ued to fly with the Royal Flightof Oman and latterly for theDerby & Notts. Constabulary

10

Jolyon McLaine - Pat Wilson

Jolyon McLaine in his R.A.F. days


I Don't Believe It !By Rick Horth

A trip to the theatre aims to lift us abovereality for a little while and transport us toan imagined world portrayed before us onthe stage.

So it was, on 21st October, that a nearlyfull coach of retired teachers and friendsleft Derby bus station to travel south insearch of excitement and entertainment,on this occasion at the BirminghamHippodrome's matinee performance ofthe musical 'Annie'.

After a pleasant journey of about an hourwe approached the nation's second city,passing Fort Dunlop and Spaghetti Junc-tion, to arrive at the city centre where

there was a wide choice of eating places,not least in China town and the nearby'Bullring', to fortify us for the afternoon'sperformance.

The Hippodrome has a modern front butthe interior is traditional although appro-priately modernised.

The show is set in 1930's New York,during the Great Depression, where An-nie is forced to live a life of misery andtorment at Miss Hannigan's orphanage.Determined to find her real parents, herluck changes when she is chosen to spendChristmas at the home of the famousbillionaire Oliver Warbucks. Miss Hanni-gan plans to spoil Annie's search.

The production has imaginative scenechanges, dynamic choreography anddancing and includes the songs : HardKnock Life, Easy Street, I Don't NeedAnything But You and Tomorrow. Thesinging was powerful and strongly ampli-fied.

Craig Revel Horwood (one of the judgesfrom 'Strictly Come Dancing' ) played therole of Miss Hannigan, in which he sangand danced and was able to hide his pleas-ant and mild mannered nature to portraythe mean orphanage proprietress.

So what was there not to believe ?

Well, you can maybe believe that althoughwe were in Birmingham that it was reallyNew York. You maybe could also believethat Annie's optimism rubbed off onPresident Roosevelt when they met caus-ing him to formulate and adopt the policyof the New Deal for the USA. You may

11


believe also that Craig Revel Horwoodwas a woman but there was one thingwhich seemed beyond belief. When Oliv-er Warbucks promised a new regime atthe orphanage after Miss Hannigan's de-mise he promised the orphans they wouldhave to do no more menial hard labour,which brought a heart-felt cheer. Hethen promised that they would have a

teacher. Their faces fell and there wasno cheer.

That surely could never happen -could it ?

© 2015 City of Derby Retired Teachers’ Group Telephone (01332) 550383Printed by Go-digital Print, Osmaston Rd., Derby

A member of Parliament toDisraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the gallowsor of some unspeakable disease."That depends, Sir," said Disraeli, "whether Iembrace your policies or your mistress."

"He had delusions of adequacy ." - Walter Kerr

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of thevices I admire." - Winston Churchill

"I have never killed a man, but I have readmany obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow

"He has never been known to use a word thatmight send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about ErnestHemingway)

"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book;I'll waste no time reading it." - Moses Hadas

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a niceletter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked byhis friends." - Oscar Wilde

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night ofmy new play; bring a friend, if you have one." - George Bernard Shaw to WinstonChurchill

"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attendsecond ... if there is one." - Winston Churchill, in response

"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost likehaving you here." - Stephen Bishop

"He is a self-made man and worships his crea-tor."

- John Bright

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hopeit's nothing trivial." - Irvin S. Cobb

city of derby retired teachers issue no 82 … newsletter colour 2015 11.pdf · city of derby...

Documents