From Joan Steel

This month our speaker was Nano Mulligan who explained how to become a Dementia Friend and join the UK’s biggest ever initiative to change the way people think, act, and talk about dementia.  Nano is a volunteer trainer and gives talks lasting 45 to 60 minutes, followed by an interactive session and questionnaire in which we all took  part.

The initiative for this project was started in 2013 and has now two million supporters, including the former Prime Minister and several Cabinet Ministers. The target is to gain four million supporters by 2020.  Everything is entirely voluntary and together people are creating dementia-friendly communities where everyone in their daily lives can have an understanding of somebody who is supporting a person with dementia, and can be aware how the dementia person may need assistance, eg counting change in a shop or crossing the road etc.

All the symptoms of dementia seem to be negative, eg lack of ability, loss of memory, disorientation frustration etc.  The programme tries to reduce the stigma of living with dementia, increasing the awareness of the community can improve living there.

There are two types of dementia which is important to know when supporting a person; vascular dementia is the most familiar.  It is progressive and the downward curve is gradual.  In the second type the progression is different, and it can plateau, then there can be instant loss of ability to do something eg to walk, there is short term memory loss and motor skills go, behaviour becomes irrational, communicating becomes a problem, but feelings and emotions are expressed better than words.  Vision can be affected such that a dark coloured floor may look like a pool of water, or lines look like snakes.

Nano ended her talk by reminding us of five key messages:
1) Dementia is not a natural part of ageing
2) It is caused by diseases of the brain
3) It is not just about losing your memory – it can affect thinking communicating and doing everyday tasks
4) It is possible to live well with dementia
5) There is more to a person than the dementia, and they are living with dementia not suffering from dementia.

Nano was warmly thanked for making us aware of this very caring and helpful initiative in which we can all take part.

Our next meeting is on May 5th at 8pm It is a Valuation Evening.  Please bring an item that you would like to have valued by Barrie Twyman of Amersham Auction Rooms.

Our Evening Ramble will be on Wed May 17th.

From Joan Steel

Cheese is Milk’s Leap Toward Immortality

Jill welcomed us to the meeting and thanked everyone for their good wishes and support during her recent health problems. We thank Heather Mayer for bravely taking over as leader at this time.

Following the announcements, Jill introduced our speaker, Mr John Pearson who said that more people than ever are making cheese, even more than France. Marks and Spencer have a team of food technologists who make visits to suppliers looking at manufacturing of cheeses. M&S have 4 % of the market share of cheese Tesco have 28% similar to Lidl and Aldi. Their main competitors are Asda and Waitrose. John told many amusing stories of incidents that occurred in marketing and advertising, including the new packaging of a brand of cat food that supplied a straw with each packet!

There are many different types of cheeses, all made of concentrated milk. The milk is soured so that the whey can be separated from the curds and the processes that follow create the various textures and flavours. In Italy, 10 % of the whey is fed to the pigs during the production of parma ham. In this country consumption of cheese is quite low compared to Greece that is highest in Europe.

Following the very interesting and humorous talk, John provided samples of cheeses for us to taste and compare. Norma proposed the Vote of Thanks for a most enjoyable evening.

Our next meeting is on April 7th, when Nano Mulligan’s talk is entitled “Dementia Friends”.  All welcome.

From Joan Steel

At our February meeting we enjoyed a talk from Tony Eaton entitled “Failed to Return – Amy Johnson and Leslie Howard.”

Amy Johnson was born in Hull in 1903, and in 1930, became a world famous female pilot for being the first to fly solo from Britain to Australia, as well as completing the journey in the record time of six days. Amy proved that women pilots are as equally competent as men. During the 1920’s Amy had flown her Gypsy Moth plane across all the countries of the British Empire, quite undeterred. Among the items Amy took on board was an atlas, a primus stove, and some pickled herrings. When flying to Karachi, Amy beat the record time by 48 hours. In1931 Amy and her co-pilot became the first to fly from London to Moscow in one day. The flight took 21 hours and was a distance of 1,760 miles. In 1932 Amy married Jim Mollison who she had known for only 8 hours. They flew east to west across the Atlantic and crash-landed in a field. They both needed a stay in hospital. In 1927 Amy was given an American tickertape reception as an international celebrity. Amy joined the ATA at the beginning of the war and was based at Hatfield. On her final flight she took off from Blackpool in very bad weather that became increasingly worse, but she pressed on trying to find Hatfield but went too far south and strayed over the mouth of the Thames where she bailed out. A parachute was seen to appear beneath the clouds, and landed in the freezing water. Safety was just minutes away but she drowned. Questions were asked and rumours abounded even as to whether she had been shot down, but no explanation has been found.

Leslie was one of the biggest box office draws and movie idols of the 1930s. He was seen as the archetypal English man with perfect English speech and behaviour, but he was not actually British. Lesley Howard Steiner was born on 3rd April 1893 at Forest Hill in London. He became an actor, producer, director and writer of many articles and stories for the New York Times. He won many awards as a Hollywood actor, playing roles in many films among his most famous were “Gone with the Wind” and “The Scarlet Pimpernel” with Merle Oberon. Leslie was a backer and mentor of Dirk Bogard, and worked with Norma Shearer, Vivienne Lee and Ingrid Bergman. He was Britain’s most romantic star. Leslie returned from a glittering Hollywood career at the start of the war. His activities then included propaganda films which infuriated the Nazi leadership. It was rumoured he was involved with British or Allied Intelligence. Leslie’s final film was “Story of a Spitfire” with David Niven.  In May 1943, Leslie boarded BOAC flight 707 to Portugal from Bristol. Strangely, a priest was told not to take that flight. All was normal at first, then it was reported that it was being followed. Suddenly it was attacked and the fuel tanks exploded over the Bay of Biscay. It was an unarmed civilian flight that caused worldwide condemnation. German agents said it had been shot down in error. There was speculation that VIP passengers were being targeted and that Winston Churchill was on board, also that Leslie was a propagandist. He died on June 1st 1943, aged 50 years. An embargo on releasing the file lasts until 2028.

Tony was thanked for his most interesting stories.

On March 3rd John Pearson’s talk is “Cheese is Milk’s Leap Toward Immortality”. Includes tasting. All welcome.