The 11 O'Clock Club

We had a talk from Monty Parkin on Wed 1st February on “Yesterday's Newspapers”. Monty has been speaking on local history for over 20 years and showed us many illustrations in old local magazines and papers of early amusing advertisements with very extravagant claims. These included medical cures, hair oils, how to narrow your waist etc. He was very amusing and we all enjoyed his talk very much.

The Christmas lunch in early December was a great success. Everyone enjoyed the food and the "Lunch ladies" really did us proud!! Jonathan C and Tim K gave us a lovely musical accompaniment. It started the Christmas festivities with a bang.

Steve was given an OBE last year for his service and work on research on stammering. He is a fellow in dept. of psychology at UCH London and for the last 15 years has been researching the causes of stammering and it effects the lives of people who stammer. Incidentally stammering is a UK word only. To describe the disruption to the flow of speech. The rest of the world uses the word stuttering.

The problem is usually noticed between the ages of 2-5 years. More boys are effected than girls usually about 4 to 1 ration, it often runs in families. Left handed people are more likely to stammer than right handed. Here is a list of some of the famous people who stutter: Moses! Demosthenes the Greek orator. Sir Isaac Newton, Lewis Carroll, Charles Darwin, King George 6th, Marilyn Monroe, Bruce Willis, Rowan Atkinson, Gareth Gates, Ed Balls who is president of the stammering association, Tiger Woods, Prince Albert of Monaco, Albert Arkwright (Ronnie Barker).

Children who stammer may be more intelligent than other children. We really don’t know why children start to stammer.

When talking to a to a person who stammers we should be patient and give the person time to finish. Important to maintain eye contact and show you are still interested. Slow down your own speech. Don’t be afraid to talk to them about it.

Children who stammer are more likely to be bullied, as they tend to have fewer friends. They perform less well academically. Teachers regard these children as less able-this damages a child’s self esteem.

This was a most useful talk and gave us all a lot to think about.

Jon's background is a librarian. He is interested in History and Military History. He started his talk by saying that history is all around us. He has researched the home front in WW 2 and has written 10 books about this subject. He collects military and home front memorabilia from a steel helmet to a ration book.

He showed us pictures of bomb damage all over London but especially of the London Docks which were in most cases severely damaged. Blackheath, by comparison got off fairly lightly. The Paragon was damaged by a direct hit in 1941 and it was interesting to note how Deptford and New Cross suffered much more damage than Blackheath. He highlighted the important of Civil Defence during 1939-1945 The warden's post was to alleviate the effect of bombs being dropped. and the importance of The London Auxiliary Service ie Ambulances during that time. Also The brave work that the Bomb Disposal unit did was highlighted.

Apparently Blackheath was part of the 25th Wandsworth Battalion- Many Boroughs came up with the idea of buying a Spitfire.

Jon told us of the increasing importance of women as the war progressed -in ambulances, as drivers, and even manning anti aircraft guns. Jon was able to stay to lunch with our members and I am sure he was able to answer many questions that our members had. He really was a most interesting and amusing speaker.

Richard King gave us a most interesting and informative on his work with Concordis and resolving disputes with North and South Sudan. It was most useful to realize the complex situations which have to be resolved by dialogue-only wish we could resolve more disputes this way. We raised an additional around £67 towards the work of his charity in the Sudan

Many ceremonies and customs were mentioned from The Clown annual service at Holy Trinity at Dalston., The Chinese New Year, The Trial of The Pyx for testing coins that had recently been minted, The Celebration of The Spring and Autumn Equinox by the Druids, The celebration at the church of St Clements Danes in Drury lane of "Oranges & Lemons " sung by the church choir!

On good Friday at St. Bars church in the city celebrates with Trays of hot cross buns.

These are just some examples of the many different customs celebrated each year.

Psalm is based at St. Pancras church, Euston road.

Taking ageing and faith seriously now we are experiencing a new phenomenon in our history. There are more people over 60 in the population than under 16.

This brings opportunities and challenges. How to navigate our new longevity is a question that everyone has to face up to.

Psalm takes ageing and faith seriously because there is growing evidence that faith is a helpful tool as we negotiate our 3rd and 4th ages. Studies show us that prayer and attending church (yes) are strongly linked with a positive experience of growing old.

By providing opportunities for us to draw on the resources of our faith - and to discover new ones- we equip ourselves to respond to this new map of life.

Psalm has expertise on a range of issues relevant to those in or approaching their 3rd or 4th age.

They cover areas helpful to those who are supporting frail and older people.

Psalm can design seminars and short courses that can help congregations and church leaders to respond creatively and sensitively to the aging of our population.

Some examples are:

• Preparing for retirement
• Spirituality and later life
• Fostering creative relationships across the generations
• Supporting those with dementia & their carers
• Reminiscence
• Pastoral care of frail older people in their homes
• Living alone in later life
• Embracing our dying
• Assertiveness in later years.

Psalm runs workshops in central London. They could also design a seminar for your group.

Details of current programme of seminars and courses can be found on their website.

It really was a very interesting and informative talk.

This is a volunteer organization providing local audio news and information service for blind and partially sighted people. There are more than 500 Talking Newspapers groups in the UK. Most are run entirely by volunteers and funded by voluntary donations.

They are produced weekly, fortnightly, or monthly.The service is free to the listener. Anyone wishing to become a volunteer were advised that assistance is usually required in the following area. Reading, sound recording, Tape erasing and copying, general administration, Publicity, fundraising, committee work.

We were shown a demonstration using a "Boom Box" which is a digital machine playing news and general items using digital memory sticks. With 4 simple controls this has been designed specifically for the partial sighted (by Warwick university) this has been recently introduced and is proving a great success. These boxes have been delivered to all their listeners free of charge. Lewisham Talking Newspapers have 1500 regular users. At the moment the Post Office delivers items for the partial sighted Free of Charge -but they hope this will continue if the postal service is privatised. A very interesting talk which really illustrated how these volunteers make a big difference in the lives of the partially sighted.