Age Cymru

LONELINESS can be a problem at any age, especially in rural and isolated areas, which is why Age Cymru Sir Gâr, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire have come together to provide befriending activities across the three counties. The project, funded by Big Lottery, has now been running for four years and has involved over 3000 clients who have attended various groups, picking up new skills and making friends along the way. Trustees and colleagues from the three counties’ organisations met at the recent project evaluation conference where the advantages of working collaboratively across the regions was discussed and celebrated. The Age Cymru family is always looking for new people to get involved, if you’re interested you can find out more on the website at www.agecymru.org/ceredigion.

U3A

THERE were many startling revelations in the scholarly talk given by Dr Susan Davies to the U3A monthly meeting on 21 January. Her talk was titled ’Reading yesterday’s handwriting’ and the speaker illustrated how the difficulty of this process has been greatly increased by the wide-spread introduction of reliance on computerised methods of writing. When children were taught to write with pen and ink, recent research has shown that pathways were established between the brain and the hand, which are lost when all writing is done on a laptop. The practical results of this were shown in the current commemora-tion of the First World War, where letters sent home from the trenches in France could not now be read by the grandchildren of the senders, because their handwriting is no longer recognisable by the present generation. Similar difficulty is encountered by present day palaeographers working on the mountains of hand-written manuscripts which remain to be deciphered.However, all has not been lost by the widespread introduction of computerisation. Dr Davies acknowledged the help she receives when viewing ancient manuscripts with the aid of the iPad and similar tablets. These give the user the ability to greatly enlarge the text on a document so that disputed readings can be checked and verified. The safe identification and dating of old documents has been made much easier by the use of such methods. This fascinating lecture concluded with the showing of slides of documents from various periods, written in differing styles of hand-writing, which all vividly demonstrated the difficulties inherent in reading yesterday’s handwriting. The next meeting of U3A will be held on 18 February and will be given by Gerald Morgan on ‘Foreigners in Wales in Victorian Times’ . This will be held at the Morlan at 2.30pm, to which everyone is very welcome to attend.

Stroke Club

THE FIRST outing for the club in the new year was to the Emlyn Café at Tanygroes. The coach picked most of the members on route on a very cold but sunny day and on arrival at the destination found the total number of the group that ventured out was 43.They were greeted by very friend-ly and helpful staff and sat down to enjoy the anticipated meal.Everyone enjoyed the good home cooking – the apple pie and custard was the star of the meal. While tea and coffee were being served, the 600 club numbers were drawn and cheques filled and signed.This took rather a long time as two months of draws had to be done, but as a few members present won, there were smiles all round. The usual raffle was then started with best wishes going to Mair Roberts who always organised it.However, in her absence, Jean Davies took over and did a very good job.All that remained was to gather up all the prizes and stroke maga-zines, board the coach and come back to Aberystwyth in the pale sunshine before the cold came.

Cymdeithas yr Aelwyd

NOS WENER, 22 Ionawr, croesawyd Glyn Saunders Jones, Llanfihangel Genau’r-glyn, gan ein cadeirydd Hefin Jones.Daeth Glyn i Aberystwyth am flwyddyn i sefydlu’r Ganolfan As-tudiaethau Addysg yn y brifysgol, a bu yno am 21 mlynedd. Yna yn 2004 sefydlodd gwmni Atebol sy’n creu deunydd addys-giadol safonol i blant.Ar y dechrau, prif gynnyrch y cwmni oedd llyfrau a gemau ond erbyn hyn mae’r cwmni’n gwthio’r Gymraeg ymlaen i’r byd digidol trwy ddatblygu apps a gwefannau ac yn creu gwaith i bobl ifanc yn lleol. Yn ogystal â chynhyrchu deunydd gwreiddiol, mae’r cwmni blaengar yma yn addasu ffefrynnau hen a newydd fel ‘Pump Prysur’ Enid Blyton a llyfrau newydd David Walliams.