Dear fellow u3a members,
Wow, wasn’t that an AGM to remember – and not because it was my first as Chair! For anyone who missed it, we started off with the usual trickle of members when the doors opened. This increased to a steady stream which then quietened down after about 10 minutes, so it looked like the hall would be around half to three-quarters full by 2.00pm. Then all of a sudden we were engulfed by repeated waves of current and prospective members surging through the doors! On going to retrieve more chairs from the store – disaster, there was literally only one spare chair left. We rang the council upstairs to report that more chairs were needed and the store was empty, but they didn’t believe us so came down themselves to point out the spares ..... they couldn’t find any either! Eventually a man with keys was obtained who found some additional chairs that had been locked away (we know not where). Some five minutes after we were meant to start, we managed to get everyone seated with just one chair left over. As I belatedly opened the proceedings with a check that everyone had finally been seated, as in all the best comedies, one more member suddenly arrived ..... At least our quorum requirements were easily met and I understand around 20 people signed up as new members during the entry surges. One of these was my own sister-in-law who, within seconds of joining, was commandeered to assist in the kitchen! As for the AGM itself, the standout moment for me was the reaction when I proposed that we make Jean St Clair our Honorary President in recognition of everything she has done and achieved for Aylsham & District u3a over the years. I found the tremendous spontaneous applause that erupted quite moving and I know it was very humbling for Jean.

Neil Storey’s talk after the AGM was something a bit different and certainly a contrast to the AGM! None of us knew what to expect as he deposited his voluminous carpet bag on the desk and proceeded to take out a seemingly never ending supply of strange boxes and lethal looking implements. Quite whether we wanted to know some of the gory details and uses of some of them is another matter. The description of the early 19th century surgeon Liston’s high speed amputation of a patient’s leg, resulting in some ‘minor’ collateral damage in the form of the accidental amputation of two of an assistant’s fingers, one of the patient’s genitals, and the slashing of another surgeons coat tails standing behind him, made us all grateful that techniques have improved somewhat. (I have since looked up the case and discovered that the patient and the assistant both died of hospital gangrene, while the surgeon with the slashed coat died of shock, making it the only known surgery with a 300 per cent mortality rate!) As for the removal of bladder stones, if you missed the talk don’t ask – just be content in the knowledge that Samuel Pepys was so thrilled to survive the operation, he had an anniversary ‘Stone party’ every year thereafter for all and sundry, the only entrance criteria being you had to bring your own bladder stone – presumably for comparison purposes.
While I expect next month’s talk on ‘Urgent Diplomatic Measures’ in a policeman’s lot to be equally entertaining but rather less gory, if it starts with all the handcuffs being brought out, maybe we should worry!

David Kinsey