My Last Saturday Round-Up Of the Brilliant Authors #authors & Poets #poets at the Narberth Book Fair #BookFair

Posted on July 28, 2017 by Judith Barrow

Titleband for Narberth Book Fair

Gathering the last of those authors and poets who joined in with the interviews to help to show what a treat is in store at our book fair. Do please drop in to our website: Narberth Book Fair, cleverly put together by the brilliant Thorne Moore.

There are forty authors, obviously, there are many genres for both adults and children. There will be talks an writing and books, creative writing workshops for adults: workshops & talks and fun workshops for children, activities for the children; Children’s Page and a fun book trail through Narberth, the gorgeous little market town in Pembrokeshire. Location.

All free!!

And, of course, there will be the chance to chat with all the authors and to pick their brains on all aspects of writing. Even to buy their books and have them personally signed.

There is still time to enter the poetry competition: competition Submit a poem, in any form, of 20 lines or less, on the subject of : –

BOOKS AND READING.

Having outgrown our previous venue we have been lucky to hire the Queens Hall: https://www.thequeenshall.org.uk/ who have been very generous in their support of the event.

Although, five years ago, I started organising the book fairs on my own I was soon joined by Alex Martin: http://amzn.to/2hZCgt2 and Thorne Moore: http://bit.ly/2rc5qyA. Unfortunately Alex has moved on to pastures new (although is still a great supporter and, hopefully, will be with us at the fair), so Thorne and I have been joined by Elizabeth Sleight. Elizabeth is involved in the charity we are supporting through our raffle; The Harriet Davis Seaside Holiday Trust For Disabled Children: http://bit.ly/2sNyeKQ .

The line up so far:

I must say I’ve enjoyed interviewing all the poets and authors and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them. There will still be plenty of news about the book fair over the next few weeks. In the meantime, do think about entering the competition and don’t forget to put your name down for any of the workshops; numbers are limited.

The Question asks; “Are You a ProActive and Optimistic Senior” Hmmm… #MondayBlogs

Posted on July 16, 2017 by Judith Barrow

oapschat

Well, I thought about this… a lot! Yes, I think, mostly, I’m optimistic. And sometimes, I’m even proactive. It was the ‘senior ‘ that I needed to think long and hard about. What constitutes a’senior’ You see, for years I’ve always thought some people were quite senior; at least to me. Until I realised I’d caught up with them. I was fifty-nine for quite some time. Then I moved up to sixty-two. I’ve been sixty-two for a bit as well.

So I thought I would investigate this group. And, oh, had I underestimated my peers. The members of www.OAPSchat.co.uk are, as founder of the site Janice Rosser says: “… looking at the website from far and wide.” Ever courteous she welcomes visitors to the site from countries as far away and diverse as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, USA, Canada, India, Venezuela, Irish Republic, Spain, France, China, Japan, Greece, Mexico, The Bahamas, Indonesia and Switzerland and cheerfully says, ” a BIG hello from the UK to you all and thank you for visiting. I hope you are enjoying the huge and varied content that is here.”

I bet they are, as well. This is a place where the over 55s can share news from all over the UK: local and holiday news (there’s a lovely piece written by Juliet Greenwood: on visiting: Portmeirion in North Wales ), and I was recently chuffed to see a piece of my own from last year again on, Ciovo, Croatia . There are topical issues ( Top 5 UK Airports To Fly From), financial and health advice. On a personal level members can promote their talents, chat and share their interests and hobbies, giving encouragement to others to join in with their hobbies. I was particularly interested in Chris Lovell’s piece about launching her small boat, the Blue Nun, from Neyland in Pembrokeshire as that’s local news for me, as well as learning about a hobby. And then there’s Tracy Burton talking about how it’s Never Too Old To Backpack! ; quite a consoling thought as I struggle along the narrow rugged Pembrokeshire coastal path sometimes!

Portmeirion1small Croatia JB

Portmerion Ciovo

As you can see I’ve picked out the items that are of particular interest to me but there are similar and constantly changing items from all over the UK and abroad that will be of interest to many. The OAPSchat net is spread far and wide.

Members also give an insight to their lifestyles, share memoirs and occasions. I loved the story written by Georgia Hill, In Remembrance – and a Mystery

Most importantly for me, when I first came across OAPSchat were the books I saw to buy there. And there is often a wealth of talent to be found. For instance, in the present issue, Jane Lovering is being interviewed with her book: Can’t Buy Me Love Margaret James discusses her new book; Girl in Red Velvet and Sheryl Brown, one of my favourite authors,is talking about her latest book, Learning to Love

Then there is the scope for authors to promote their own work! When I first explored the site; after I’d looked at all the different topics, read articles, noted places I’d liked to visit (one day) I saw Advertise with OAPSchat … yes I do know I’m a bit slow sometimes!! I realised that all the books on the left hand side bar of the site were advertisements/promotions of books placed by the authors. Would Janice take mine? Of course! Rates are so reasonable. More importantly the readers are there; ready and waiting; people who have so many interests must have so many preferences for genres. Some one might like mine. And they did! I had great sales.

So, for me, OAPSchat has given me so much: new friends, new interests, new ideas, new readers. Do I mind being a ‘senior’? Well no… as long as I’m also mostly “optimistic”. And sometimes, even “proactive”. I can cope with being sixty-two… for a few more years!

For more information on OAPSchat check out About Us

Of course I couldn’t finish without giving Janice a little space (well, she is the founder) The floor is yours, Janice.

Thanks Judith.

OAPSchat was born in April 2013 as a Facebook page. It was in November 2013 that I decided I had enough material and confidence to launch the website.

Since that day, I have been writing articles on all kinds of topics, ranging from hobbies, holidays, food and drink, memories, families, finance and much much more. I now have over one hundred and thirty seven wonderful contributors to date and articles on all different subjects are posted on a daily basis. Over 1400 articles can be read now! Members can comment via disqus, FB and Twitter.

Raffles are held monthly, sometimes more often. A newsletter goes out once a month with my plans for the coming weeks. I am an Independent Happy List Winner 2014 for founding the website.

janice cheers

Janice celebrating at the ceremomies

Loneliness is a big scourge on our society worldwide and the website helps combat this awful isolation by coming together and sharing our thoughts and ideas. OAPSchat is well and truly born now and I hope it will continue to thrive. With your support, I’m confident it will!

OAPSchat FaceBook Link: http://bit.ly/2vnZYGh

omline hit oapschat oapschatposter

The Aftermath of the Floods – a Look at One Community

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Judith Barrow

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about a bookshop badly affected by the recent floods: http://bit.ly/1nrGltk And so many of your kindly shared the blog; some of you even donated your own books to the bookshop. And I’ll keep you informed about the situation of http://www.bookcase.co.uk/.

The floods affected many areas, many lives, many business. But then I began to wonder about communities as a whole; the way that communities have met over the years; the buildings they gathered in,the relationships formed through common interests. At first I cast around, looking at churches, village halls, sports clubs. It was the latter that I settled on, mainly because there is a sports club at the centre of our village, and at the hub of a lot of the villages around us. But here in Pembrokeshire, as I’ve said before, we were lucky; few places were affected, none badly.

So I turned to the North of England again and asked a friend who has family that belongs to Sowerby Cricket Club I was able to obtain some photographs. I’ll let them mostly speak for themselves.

Happier times: Winning the Crossley Shield and the future teams of the club

After the floods:

cricket club 6 cricket club1

The destruction was devastating. But the way the club members came together to repair something dear to their hearts, is a remarkable story that must be going on in villages and towns all over Britain after the dreadful weather we had in December and earlier this month.

cricket club 4

As my friend said it looked more like a scene from Silent Witness!

Embedded image permalink clearing the mud

Each barrow-load, each rake-full taking rubbish away helps.

I discovered that, not only did this community physically pull together to restore the club. They also formed an action group to raise funds to cover the massive cost of restoration.

I think this is a tale of great optimism – and I couldn’t resist sharing.

Links:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sowerby-Bridge-Cricket-Club/406073226111295?fref=ts https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sowerby-Bridge-Cricket-Club/406073226111295?fref=ts

https://twitter.com/sowerbybridgecc https://twitter.com/sowerbybridgecc

https://localgiving.com/fundraising/sammellorsbccfloods https://localgiving.com/fundraising/sammellorsbccfloods