Southsea’s Programme January – June 2015

January 5th – Flooding. What can the environmental agency and householder do to protect against flooding like we experienced last winter? Is it avoidable? Have you taken any steps to defend your property against rising water? Look at particular places such as The Somerset Levels and the Thames Valley? Venue – Denise

January 19th – Japan, our theme country. Research food, culture, belief, industry, economy, history, Geography, leisure. Bring Japanese food and drink if you can. Venue – Shirley

February 2nd – Languages. Let’s discuss the various languages we learned in school, the languages we can speak, and the ones we would love to learn. Did you learn Latin, has it proved useful. Share tips for learning new languages. What is the history of our own language-English? Venue – Trish

February 16th – Dementia. Family doctors in England are to be paid £55 for each patient they diagnose with this condition. Let’s talk about the reasoning behind this. Bring research and personal anecdotes to inform a discussion of this important topic. Venue – Pip

March 2nd – Poetry. Discover your inner poet with help from our resident muse! Venue – Lynne

March 16th – An Inspirational Person. What woman inspires you? Did you have any childhood role models? Venue – Jane

March 30th – Agony Aunt. Let’s play agony aunt and solve some problems either real or imaginary from papers, magazines or your own imagination. Venue – Polly

April 13th – Rivers, do you know your Arno from your Elbe? Rivers play a very important part in the water cycle carrying water and nutrients to areas all around the earth and acting as drainage channels for surface water. Rivers drain nearly 75% of the earth’s land surface. Venue – Uta

April 27th – Collaborative brain storming to plan our next programmeVenue – Lynne

May 11th – Trees. What do we know about them? They are undeniably important for our environment in providing clean air, cooling us down, preventing soil erosion and are also used in a large variety of products. Venue – Margaret

May 18thThe Shipping Forecast. Have you ever wondered about Dogger and Bailey? Who was FitzRoy? Just what is German Bight? Is that how you spell North Utsire? Where are these places and how did they get their names? Choose one to research. Venue – Shirley

June 1st – Fracking. Share your opinions on fracking and any research you can do and lets have a heated discussion! Venue – Sue

June 15th – Magna Carta. 2015 marks the 800th anniversary. What significance does it hold and what was it? What would you put in a modern day magna carta? Venue – Pam