www.radlettu3a.org.uk

BLOG 9 – 7.5.20

Hi all, We were too late with last week’s blog to welcome Boris and Carrie’s baby - so welcome to our world little child - hopefully it can only improve from now on. I hope that those of you who joined in tom our Zoom talk with Stuart Nagler enjoyed it. It can still be watched next week if you missed it and it was very interesting and informative. Stu-art had done a great deal of research and I would like to thank

him for taking the time to perform. We are hoping to get together some more talks so please do watch the blog for info. There are now 14 groups using Zoom to continue with their meetings, which is brilliant. If any other group leaders feel that they continue there is always help from our webmaster. We have good response that people are liking our blog and that’s great but we still would like more contributions from you. 800 people could keep it going for ages.

Now for some nonsense - which you might like to pass on to your families for a good laugh. One of my granddaughters set the family an interesting task on Saturday. The remit was…………..

Create your Michelin style masterpiece of

“Beans on toast” in whatever creative style you can.

Everyone took it very seriously, even down to the wording at the end. I practised on Friday - my masterpiece collapsed in a heap so I withdrew gracefully, - I just had it for lunch!!!

Saturday morning came and my household became a hive of activity - Daughter

Su and Grandson Sam had their planning meeting. Ready to go. 2 hours later

deadline and they were just ready, me having been, as Sam said, the kitchen porter and

washer up. Please see next page for results. We had a great laugh and fun for all

concerned. Try it with your family and let us see the outcome, or find another challenge for

us all to try. Even the Daily Telegraph were impressed – follow the link to see:

http://m.email3.telegraph.co.uk/nl/jsp/m.jsp?c=%40ZLuubH5EH%2F6LFw4WtkKu42QVLiwC9s%2Bq77tOm%2Bj3ILg%3D&WT.mc_id=e_DM1243723&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_Yna_New&utmsource=

email&utm_medium=Edi_Yna_New20200505&utm_campaign=DM1243723 Adrienne

This was the text I received

from my granddaughter. Create your Michelin

masterpiece of ‘beans on toast’

in any creative way you can. Post photo on here at 1pm and

if possible a few progress

photos so we can see how you

achieved your masterpiece! I’m about to get cracking in the

kitchen so see you all here at 1. ! ! Ps. It’s just for fun and a laugh

so don’t get your knickers in a

twist if it all goes wrong!!!!

A trio of toasted whole meal bread

fingers on a bed of rich, vintage

cheddar. Topped with Heinz baked

beans. Accompanied by a whole

grain mustard cheese sauce and a

Heinz tomato salsa. With a garnish

of fresh coriander and black pepper. Precise cooking and high-level

execution. The flavour

combinations are tried and tested

and perfectly matched, which

these chefs clearly understand.

Fried bean arancini infused with

a sourdough crumb, curried

bean fritter, a double baked

bean toasted tuile, served on a

bean reduction purée Superb presentation. There are some

great ideas on this plate of food with

boundary-pushing contrasts in texture

and cooking techniques on display.

What we are seeing here is two chefs

at the very top of their game. If I had to

find a criticism though it would be that

it all looks just a little bit brown.

The title of this creation is: “Wow, a

Michelin Star quality masterpiece”!

A real chef at work here. Great precision and execution, with an exemplary, well seasoned fried egg. A bold choice of plate has paid off, adding an air of intrigue. I introduce you all to Vermeer’s

*’Girl with the Bean Earring’*

Simply hilarious and 10/10 for

originality, but can’t say it screams ‘eat me’.

My play on classical architecture " “The Leaning Tower of Beanza” True genius on display here. It

takes a special kind of mind to

even think of this, let alone pull it

off. It shouldn’t have been possible

to execute it, but somehow she

has. A quite remarkable creation

that will live long in the memory.

Our masterpiece is

called ‘Embroché’ -

French for skewered!!!!! Letting the ingredients speak for

themselves like this was an ambitious

and refreshing move from two chefs

clearly very comfortable in their own

skin. But where’s the rest of it?

Bean alone for too long. Total isolation! This was perhaps the best

interpretation of the theme - the

exact kind of thing that you might

see in a three Michelin starred

restaurant, where you spend a

fortune but get a McDonald’s on the

way home. Is the hair on the bean

there for flavour or texture though?

Toasted cholla medallions with a

five bean assortment. Served

with classic piccalilli and

wholesome caramelised red

onion chutney, a balsamic glaze

and edible rosemary flowers. Not only does this look appealing on

the eye, but you look at it and want

to just dive right in. Tasty little bite-

size morsels done in a really clever

fashion. I also love how these chefs

are cooking so seasonally with the

addition of the edible flowers. An

excellent plate of food.

My oldest grandson, who

was due to compete in the

task burnt his hand badly so

withdrew and spent his time

sending the critques. With

his hand in a bowl of water. Mine went so badly wrong

that I ate it and enjoyed. I

am not artistic so did all the

washing up.

Adrienne

VE DAY by ANGELA WYBROW

It really was the most brilliant day: It was 1945; it was the 8th of May; It is a date, forever remembered,

As the day when Germany finally surrendered.

The war across Europe had come to an end: A war in which many had lost family or friend;

It was a day of much celebration In towns and cities across many a nation.

Very soon after they had heard the great news,

Communities came together and really let loose; Folk, they rejoiced: there was a great atmosphere,

With many a pub running right out of beer.

Raucous revellers filled Trafalgar Square, Where hugs and kisses, with strangers, were shared. As, on the Palace balcony, King George appeared,

The massed crowds below him chanted and cheered.

Soldiers and sailors were dancing the Conga: The line, which they formed, growing longer and longer; People danced in the streets and danced in the parks -

They danced and they danced until way after dark.

From out of folks' windows, lights dared to glow, And many a gallon of cheap champagne flowed.

A kaleidoscope of colour lit up the night - As did blazing bonfires, which were burning so bright.

People held parties right there in the street,

With sweet and savoury dishes laid out to eat; There was Homity pie, and Corned Beef Hash,

Bread with Beef Dripping, and Faggots with mash.

There were Glory buns, Welsh cakes, and bread, spread with jam, Apple Brown Betty, Plum Charlotte, and even Prune flan;

There were scones, carrot cookies, and eggless Fruit Cake, Rock buns, Jam Tarts - all hastily baked.

The war had raged on for almost six years,

And, during that time, it had caused terror and tears; It was a day of thanksgiving; a day of relief,

But, for some, just another day of deep rooted grief.

The people of Europe were finally free, And many a face was shining with glee;

At the Western Front, the fighting had ceased, And, all throughout Europe, there was now, much welcomed, peace.

WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF VE DAY IN MAY 1945 (or are you too young?)

I am never sure if memories of early child-hood are actually real or

are they revived by photographs and people talking about happenings

.This is me on the donkey with my little crown in Skardu Road, Crickle-wood, where I lived until I was 5,

In view of our pandemic

and all the talk of PPE -

how would you like to wear

these (my wartime gas

mask) I think that we need to keep the Vera Lynn

mantra in our minds whilst in this state of lockdown. ‘Keep smiling through, like you always do and I know we’ll

meet some sunny day’. Adrienne

PLEASE TELL US WHAT YOU WERE DOING ON VE DAY

ZOOM BOMBING’ from Oliver our Webmaster A number of you will have seen an email from Herts

ZOOM BOMBING

A number of you will have seen an email from Herts Police about Zoom bombing, which is the action of uninvited people joining a Zoom meeting with the aim to disrupt the meeting “bombing”. It is not new and usually occurs in schools and business where disaffected pupils or employees either ‘bomb’ their institutions meetings, or get someone else to. They obviously knew the meeting ID and password or someone provided them a copy of the details, so please do not share or make public the U3A meeting IDs or passwords.

If a teleconference meeting was held without a password, anyone could type in a random Zoom meeting ID to see if a meeting was in progress and then ‘bomb’ that meeting. A few weeks ago Zoom enforced the use of passwords. So, it’s now much less likely that any Radlett & District U3A Zoom meeting will be bombed. The following are basic etiquette rules when using Zoom:

• Turn up early! But not more than 5 minutes otherwise you might join the meeting before yours and disrupt it!

• Use the mute button when you join a call and please do not say “Hi” (however unnatural that feels) as someone may be talking. Also use the mute button when others are talking to avoid disruption from telephone calls or barking dogs which can interrupt the flow of the speaker.

• Put your hand up if you want to speak. Use the Zoom facility under Participants. If you’re running the meeting, ask to be a co-host and you can then see which hands are raised.

• Check what's behind you. Don’t be the person with the TV on pause and a half-empty bottle of red wine that can be seen by all participants!

RECIPE CORNER

Super easy microwave sweet and sour chicken

9 tbsp tomato ketchup

3 tbsp malt vinegar

4 tbsp dark muscovado sugar

2 garlic cloves, crushed

4 skinless and boneless chicken breasts, cut into chunks

1 small onion, roughly chopped

2 red peppers, seeded and cut into chunks

227g can pineapple pieces in juice, drained

100g sugar snap peas, roughly sliced

handful salted, roasted cashew nuts, optional

Method

1. In a large microwaveable dish, mix the ketchup, vinegar, sugar and garlic thoroughly with the chicken, onion and peppers. Microwave, uncovered, on high for 8-10 mins until the chicken is starting to cook and the sauce is sizzling. 2. Stir in the pineapple pieces and sugar snap peas and return to the microwave for another 3-5 mins until the chicken is completely cooked. Leave to stand for a few minutes, then stir in the cashews, if using, and serve with rice or noodles. Marion C

This following recipe is a challenge - even to pronounce it!

Made by our member Becky. (Middle Eastern recipe) and delicious. Keep a whole day to try making them and don’t lose your temper with the pastry or whoever is in the kitchen. When we get back to our meetings the committee will sample them and the winner will get a prize. You may pull your hair our while making them as filo pastry is hard to work with.

Sigara böregi Little cheese rolls Makes 16 little rolls (in theory!)

200 g feta cheese 1 egg, lightly beaten 3-4 Tbsps finely chopped mint, flat parsley, or dill 8 thin sheets filo pastry

Take out the frozen filo to defrost while you make the filling. You may have to defrost the whole packet, but could quickly refreeze the leftovers.) Preheat oven to 190C, or 180C fan bake. Spread a large oven sheet with baking paper. Filling: Mash the feta well with a fork and mix it thoroughly with the beaten egg and herbs. Could also do it with finely grated cheese and spinach Assembly: Using 2 sheets of filo together, cut them into rectangles, each about 30 cm by 10 cm. (You are meant to get 16 of these rectangles.) Pile these on top of each other as you cut them so that they don't dry out. (It helps to have ready a damp tea towel to cover them as you go.) Lay out one pair of thin rectangles. Brush the top sheet with melted butter or oil. Take a heaped tea-spoon of the filling and place it at one end of the strip in a thin sausage shape, about 2 cm from the three edges (see diagram). Roll up the sheets with the filling inside, like rolling a cigarette. When you've rolled about a third of the way along the strip, turn in the sides to trap the filling. (Brushing on a bit of extra butter or oil is useful to help them stick.) Continue to roll with the sides turned in. Repeat with the remaining rectangles of fillo.

Lay the rolls close to each other on the baking paper, with the ends of rolled fillo un-derneath, and brush the tops and sides with melted butter or oil. Baking: Place oven sheet with rolls at the middle of the preheated oven or slightly above. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the rolls are crisp and golden. Serve hot. (If

necessary, they can be reheated later - mine were.)

A LIFE IN THE DAY OF ………………… KAY B

Wake up at 7.47. My fitness tracker tells me I have slept for 6 hours 43 minutes and that it has logged 112 steps: not sure exactly where I have been! Spend some time trying to work out what day it is. Finally get up. It’s either Wednesday or Thursday…will check calendar later. Wash and make a mental note to wash hair...same mental note I made yesterday....and possibly the day before. Put on dressing gown and go downstairs. Cat is sitting on the doorstep outside the backdoor...odd since I’m certain that I let her in last night. Put kettle on. Feed the cat. Make tea. Check phone...ten new emails...four of them are jokes. Check WhatsApp: lots of new humorous videos. Pass them on to friends. Check family WhatsApp: several new photos and videos. Breakfast...toast and Marmite...run out of. Marmite...toast and cheese. Husband appears...find myself socially distancing as I place his tea on the table. Sit down and send several emails and see it’s nearly ten o’clock: Time for the garden group Zoom meeting. Log on. Nice to see familiar faces. Many people are in their gardens and take us on a tour of their cascading wisteria and herbaceous borders. Wander outside in my dressing gown, but no one seems to notice, as I share my magnolia with them. Finally log off an hour and a half later and get dressed...in almost the same clothes as yesterday. Lunch...check the fridge for ideas: Three boxes of tomatoes, some left over rice and cheese. No eggs. Husband wants coleslaw...but failed to mention that we had run out. Find an ancient tin of sardines and settle for a sandwich. Decide to search for all vegetables old and new and make some soup. The Road WhatsApp group pings again. There is a joint Tesco order being organised. Do we want to join? Does anyone want some flour? Has anyone got spare pasta or eggs...does anyone have space in their green bins? Don’t forget to clap for the NHS at 8.0 pm....must be Thursday. Husband is in the garden shortening the leg of our wobbly bird table, (don’t ask), so decide to go for a long walk, inevitability ending up at the farm shop. Don some gloves and venture in to buy some eggs....and come out with eggs, bread, a cake, milk, three Indian ready meals and a large veggie lasagne. Walk back. Fitness tracker informs me that my pace is too slow and that I have only logged 4, 357 steps. Arrive home to find husband is still trying to level the now considerable shorter, bird table. Time for my Russian language Zoom meeting. Hilarious as one of the participants is muted but doesn’t realise it for some time and another is invisible. Eventually solve the problems and proceed with some learning and much chatting. Stay on the PC to answer some emails and catch up with the online news. Quickly check for the umpteenth time, what the mild symptoms of Covid-19 are...so far so good. Think about what to have for supper alongside the soup. Create a salad from a recipe I have saved, minus the peppers, avocado, sweet corn, coriander, and several of the dressing spices. Refrigerate it. Watch the ‘news’ which is mostly about families who have lost their loved ones and contradictory news briefs from various ‘experts’. At least the weather forecast is good.

Speak by video link to our family, who have self-isolated, and check everyone is well. Discover that the unmarked quiche I have defrosted from the freezer is actually a cheesecake: there is nothing to go with the salad. Decide to cook the lasagne I have just bought. Rush outside to applaud the NHS alongside our neighbours. Return to eat supper, and as a healthy dessert, finish off a punnet of strawberries with some ancient ice cream I have unearthed. Remove a thick layer of ice from the top and it tastes fine. Watch ‘Question Time’: depressing, and then... finally… wash my hair. Go outside to look for the predicted meteor shower...which does not materialise. Spend more time on the internet checking emails and reading Friday’s newspapers. Go to bed, as it is 1.15 am. Tomorrow will most likely bring more of the same.

‘Pamela Pamela……remember the days’

In my teenage years I belonged to a youth club in Broughton Park, North Manchester called The Waterpark Club which was a social and tennis club. Frequently at the weekends they held dances where local northern groups would play. On one such occasion there was a group playing with a musician called Graham Gouldman, who most of you would know was a songwriter. During the interval whilst they were sitting in the lounge having a drink, being a cheeky eighteen year old, I went in to talk to them and asked why there were so many songs with lots of girls names, Diana, Carol, Barbara, to name but a few but none with the name Pamela. Graham said he’d think about it. A few months later Wayne Fontana recorded a lovely song, written by Graham, and I have been famous ever since!!!!!! Pamela K

Pamela, Pamela

Remember the days Of inkwells and apples

And books and school plays Where little Brer Rabbit kissed Pooh in the wood

And Fluff was the cat that sat on the rug Oh, Pamela

I remember so well

Togetherness in the lockdown.

One of our members Diana Rimmer had a birthday last week. There was a knock on her front door in Willow Way, Radlett about 4 pm and the whole street were standing outside with balloons and cakes for her singing Happy Birthday. She said that she was completely surprised and totally overwhelmed and the kindness brought tears to her eyes. So nice when this happens – let’s all continue to be nice and caring to each other.

REVIEWS OF NETFLIX by Stephen G

MONEY HEIST

Netflix – 5 Seasons

Language: Spanish with English subtitles

A criminal mastermind who goes by “The Professor” has a plan to pull off the biggest heist in recorded history – to print billions of Euros in the Royal Mint of Spain. To help him carry out the ambitious plan, he recruits eight people with certain abilities and who have nothing to lose.

Considered a masterpiece, clever, intriguing. Now in 5th Season – Dare you to binge watch the first 4!!!

FAUDA

Netflix – 3 Seasons

Language: Hebrew, Arabic with English subtitles.

“Fauda” is Arabic for Chaos. After retiring from the Israel Defence Force, Doron is working on a vineyard. He gets roped back into active duty, though, upon learning than an enemy who Doron thought his unit had killed is still alive and plans on attending his brother’s wedding. Doron re-joins the IDF team with the chaotic chain of events and leads IDF into a manhunt to locate and kill the squad’s target.

To say its non-stop excitement is an understatement. I urge you to watch it from the beginning.

WATCH OUT FOR THE FOLLOWING ON SKY ART TV

Thursday Night 7th May – Midnight - Beach Boys “Good Vibrations Tour”

Saturday 9th May – 9 am – Mathew Bourne’s “The Car Man”

Internationally acclaimed award-winning dance thriller, loosely based on Bizet’s opera Carmen tells dramatic story of a small town in 1960’s America.

Sunday 10th May – 8 pm – Nureyev

Two hours, thought provoking documentary exploring the extraordinary life of Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev. A must for ballet lovers.

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

5th May 1891 Music Hall (Carnegie Hall) opens in New York, Tchaikovsky is guest conductor 6th May 1840 World's first adhesive postage stamp, the "Penny Black", is first used in Great Britain 7th May 1663 Theatre Royal in Drury Lane London opens 8th May 1945 V-E Day: World War II ends in Europe after Germany signs an uncon-ditional surrender

10th May 1940 Winston Churchill succeeds Neville Chamberlain as British Prime Minister and in 1994 Nelson Mandela sworn in as South Africa's 1st black president. Marion C

ANSWERS FOR ‘NAME THE FLOWER’

1 FORGET-ME-NOT 2 FUSCHIA 3 POPPY 4 ALCHEMILLA

5 SWEET PEA 6 PEONY 7 MAGNOLIA 8 VERBENA

9 ALLIUM 10 SUNFLOWER 11 HYACINTH 12 CHRYSANTHEMUM

13 VIOLET 14 PANSY 15 GEUM 16 DAHLIA

17 ROSE 18 GERBERA 19 NIGELLA 20 RUDBEKIA