Newsletter - May 2024

Greetings from the President:

Don’t you just love some of the colours of autumn? I’m always a bit sorry to see the last leaves go because there’s no stalling winter anymore once that starts to happen… However, onwards and upwards and we have another excellent series lined up for you. ‘Media’ has been put together by Pam Craig and Pam Butler. Of course media plays a bigger-than-we-may-want-to-admit role in our lives, so I’m looking forward to hearing from some of its ‘practitioners’.  

With Godley being a big group, there’s always a lot happening with many opportunities to participate. Most things are itemised on the website which is currently going through an update/revamp and the end result is not too far away. The present website is still current.

It’s great to see so many members coming along regularly and aren’t we lucky to have such a strong support team to make it happen, week after week. Thank you to all. 

27 May	Mike Yardley	Thirty years in the media, its transformation and battle for survival
10 June	Blair Ensor	Investigative journalism in troubled times
17 June	Vicki Wilkinson-Baker	Country Calendar, a Kiwi Icon
24 June	Conan Young	The current state of journalism, its challenges and opportunities
1 July	Chris Lynch	Why trust in the media has plummeted

Organ recital

John Dodgshun’s recent organ recital at St Andrew’s Church was a total treat! Not only did we hear some of the church and organ’s history, but John presented a varied, interesting and quite moving programme which was very much appreciated by all.

St Andrew’s Church was opened in 1857. Its wood came from Banks Peninsula and was purchased as a £10 job lot. The building was moved to its current site in 1987 and even though its capacity has been extended over the years, it still presents as authentic Carpenter Gothic Style. The organ was opened in 1902 – it has three divisions i.e. two keyboards and foot pedals and 1448 pipes.  

The programme included Verdi’s powerful Grand March from Aida, the beautiful Prayer and Cradle Song by Alexandre Guilmant, an interesting arrangement of Londonderry Air, Festive Trumpet Tune by David German, Chauvet’s Andantino (Les Cloches du Soir) and finished with Widor’s well known and powerful Toccata which incidentally John uses as his mobile ringtone!

Thank you John – I loved it, when’s the next one? 

Places of Interest Trips

We have a Places of Interest trip to Scott Automation coming up Friday May 31 at 10.30am.

Scott Automation aims to help industrial companies automate and use robotics to make their production more efficient.  They are an international organisation and the Christchurch branch is located in Maces Road where the tour will take place. The visit is expected to take 1 - 1 1/2 hours. If you would like to attend, email Richard Pickering (pickeringx2@yahoo.com) giving numbers wishing to attend and a contact phone number. If you would like to see everything at Scott’s you would have to wear steel-capped footwear. I doubt many people would have them and fortunately this isn't essential for a good tour!

For more information about Scott’s please see - https://scottautomation.com/en/about-us

A bit further out (June), Richard has another Places of Interest trip in mind and would like to know how much interest there would be for a visit to Pratt and Whitney, aircraft engineers. It could be very interesting seeing how much goes into aircraft maintenance. There is a proviso for attendance though – Pratt and Whitney would need all attendees’ names and scanned copies of their passports for their clearance system. The passports wouldn’t have to be current; they are needed to verify citizenship. For those who don’t hold passports, they would require a valid photo ID plus a birth certificate to verify. This could be starting to sound a bit onerous but not really when all you have to do is take a photo of the information page of your passport and email it to Richard. If you are interested, please email Richard Pickering now at pickeringx2@yahoo.com

Walking Group

A small group braved the cold to gather in Halswell for the between-series walk. The photo below is taken from the Lynch Gate entrance to the cemetery which is next to St Mary's Church.  Some notable Halswell people are buried there including the Craythorne, Cracroft-Wilson and Beadle families. Hot drinks and delicious scones were enjoyed at The Old Vicarage afterwards.

Using Photos of Members 

From time to time we take photos of members at various activities and publish them in the newsletter. We would like to have the option of using those photos on the new website as well, but if you don’t wish to be in a published photo, please try to make sure you’re not in it when the photo is actually taken. If you could let us know your wishes now, we will do our best to follow them.