Welcome back to Belsize Park!
From Gilli
This week’s Monday talk is by another of our very own coordinators, the psychoanalyst Mickey Yudkin. She will be talking about ‘Narcissism and self-love’.
The Full Timetable is on this website.
From Amalia
We’ve made a start on the Common Room in 1.29 and it is beginning to look really welcoming.
The Town Hall summary timetable has a few extra changes since last week. The changes are shown in red. Please read it carefully. The changes have been incorporated into both time tables and the new version of the ‘Handbook’ which has descriptions of the courses and dates of the fortnightly classes.
I have managed to speak to most of the coordinators affected by the changes and they have agreed to give them a try. Most classes have been kept to the same time slot and any re-locations are, as far as possible, to other suitable-sized rooms. I hope you will be happy with your new room if your class is involved.
I apologise if there are any errors or omissions – there may be quite a few! Please let me know if you spot any mistakes.
On a further topic, we haven’t forgotten that, as far as is possible, our aim is to offer many of our classes as hybrid presentations. We have made a start – watch this space!
In the new Common Room you may help yourselves to the drinks in Joanna’s cool cabinet – she has donated them. We will be buying something to enable you to make your own hot drinks very soon.
You may bring your own food – but remember, this is your Common Room, and it is up to you to keep it tidy and to clear up after yourselves. We will be providing rubbish bags and maybe a container for left over liquids. Please be patient – it has been rather a rush job!
Any suggestions, offers of help etc. are very welcome indeed.
From Wally Howard
Dear All,
I look forward to seeing you again from Monday 31 January in Room 1.22. The films being shown at 2pm are as follows:
Monday 31st January – The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936) 82 minutes. This fantasy-comedy drama, based on a 1898 short story by HG Wells who himself worked on the film adaptation, centres on George Fotheringay who receives near limitless powers from a group of supernatural beings. The film then follows the events which arise from this celestial intervention in human life! Frank Nugent writing in the New York Times described this film as a “delightfully humorous fantasy with an undertone of sober Wellsian philosophy”.
Wednesday 2 February The Emigrants (1971) 180 minutes Jan Troell’s epic masterpiece is made up of dozens of moments when hope and reality clash as a group of friends and family from Sweden decide to emigrate to the USA in the mid 19th century. Roger Ebert described it as ‘a rare and special film with perfect casting in Max von Sydow and Liv Ullman who with the rest of the excellent cast bring a purity and grit and a depth of purpose to their roles”. A truly wonderful film
Thursday 3 February IDA (2013) 82 minutes Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian awarded this film 5* and described it as being “An eerily beautiful road movie”. Set in 1962, Anna is about to take her final vows in the remote convent where she was left as a baby in 1945. Before making this irrevocable decision, the Mother Superior suggests that Anna contacts her only surviving relative. The relative, Aunt Wanda, reveals that Anna was originally named Ida Lebenstein and proposes that they go on a road trip to discover what became of Ida’s parents during the war. In his review, Peter Bradshaw wrote “Ida is a compelling film which achieves a great deal in a short time”. In 2015 Ida won both an Oscar and BAFTA for Best Foreign Language Film.
From Irene Fine
Bridge: Improve Your Game (Thursdays at 14.00).
I won’t be able to get to the Town Hall for some time. I hope members of the class will continue to come and play on their own. Nat Diamond will be able to take the class on Feb 10 and 24.
From Stanley Volk
Singing for pleasure
Please note we will be back live in room 2.21 on Wednesday 2nd Feb. at 15.10. A very warm welcome for our regulars and newcomers. Come and join the fun!
Many thanks. Stanley
To make you smile, maybe!
An American was inside Westminster Abbey taking photographs when he noticed a golden telephone mounted on the wall with a sign that read ‘£10,000 per call’. The American was intrigued and asked a priest who was strolling by what the telephone was used for. The priest replied that it was a direct line to heaven and that for £10,000 you could talk to God.
The American thanked the priest and went along his way.
Next stop was in Salisbury and there, at the cathedral, he saw a similar golden telephone with the same sign under it.
He wondered if this was the same kind of telephone he’d seen in London and he asked a nearby nun what its purpose was.
She told him that it was a direct line to heaven and that for £10,000 he could talk to God.
‘O.K., thank you,’ said the American. He then travelled to Canterbury, Lincoln, Stoke, Durham
and Liverpool. In each cathedral, he saw a similar golden telephone with the ‘£10,000 per call’ sign under it. Then he decided to travel to Yorkshire and find out whether they had the same phone.
He arrived in York, and again, as he entered York Minster, there was the golden telephone, but this time the sign under it read ’50 pence per call.’ The American was surprised so he asked the priest about the sign. ‘I’ve travelled all over England and I’ve seen this golden telephone in many cathedrals, but in the rest of England, the price was £10,000 per call. Why is it only 50pence here?’
The priest smiled and answered, ‘You’re in Yorkshire now, son …. it’s a local call.’
Best Wishes from the Team