No. Already president of a club that doeas anything and evrything with a needle and thread, belong to a garden club where I also follow the mosaic class, plus weekly dances, monthly patch machine classes and involved with cooking in English for the catering section of a secondary school in La Roche thru the local Franco-Brit club. Hoping to start Spanish classes in October.
Then there's the house and garden and my own sewing and sowing..........
Well, to be fair, the cooking involves a planning meeting with the school kids and teachers, the exchanges of recipes and then a day of cooking. Not exactly arduous but this year a British ex teacher has been appointed liaison between us and the school and she thinks we need more meetings...... She spends winter in the UK and isn't there for the planning meeting and can't cook. Her French isn't that good either. Need I say more?
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I suppose it depends on the group. They seemed friendly to me. I've just joined so I'm hoping I'm right. I suppose if you want to learn new things ,teachers are good people to teach you.
@B3: I joined U3A a year ago. It was tempting to get involved with too much, so I held back a bit, joined the creative writing group and later, the cookery group. I am still tempted with the Mah Jongg, French conversation, the German group and many others (though I shall give the Latin group a miss - too many memories of loathed lessons at school and Caesar's Gallic Wars!). But it seems best to make haste slowly. I am in awe of all of Obelixx's many activities which I couldn't possibly emulate. But overall I would say the experience has been a positive one.
If you have several interests that are better pursued in a group than on your own you'll find yourself with busy weekly schedules but no time to get bored and not pressured either. My weekly patch sessions are on Monday pms with one full day every other month and a committee meeting the month in between.
Mosaic class is also Monday so I leg it from Olonne to La Roche and get home for supper by 9pm. Weekly dance and monthly machine patch are on Thursdays and did I mention that monthy patch machine class generates homework? That leaves me 5 days a week for everything else - family, pets, garden, house, personal sewing, decorating, neighbours, visitors and OH and I share cleaning and shopping.
If you're retired I reckon that you should be taking advantage of all sorts of opportunities to enjoy yourslef and learn things and also give something back to the community to the extent you should be wondering how you ever found time to go to work.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Hear hear, Obelixx! And you'll not regret joining U3A, @B3 - you can pick and choose your classes, learning from other members as well as teachers (our art group is self-programming, with the experienced members helping the beginners), and enjoying the company of like-minded people. Our local U3A is fab. There isn't a group anywhere near us in Ireland... maybe when we've been there a while we might get something going...
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
I think the U3A is very good and I participate in many groups.There are so many outings and other offshoots that there is no reason to be bored in retirement. I would recommend it but I wish they would change their name from "The University of the Third Age" as some people think it's elitist. It's just a bunch of lovely retired people enjoying themselves with dedicated facilitators making it happen.
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Is U3A any good? From my limited experience it seemed to be run by bossy retired teachers intent on collecting subs and having meticulous registers.
Had a quick look. They're both online and part of the attraction of U3A is meeting people.
Mosaic class is also Monday so I leg it from Olonne to La Roche and get home for supper by 9pm. Weekly dance and monthly machine patch are on Thursdays and did I mention that monthy patch machine class generates homework? That leaves me 5 days a week for everything else - family, pets, garden, house, personal sewing, decorating, neighbours, visitors and OH and I share cleaning and shopping.
If you're retired I reckon that you should be taking advantage of all sorts of opportunities to enjoy yourslef and learn things and also give something back to the community to the extent you should be wondering how you ever found time to go to work.