Leader: Kim Chang

Click here for the Febuary 2009 Newsletter.

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Take part in a guided tour of inner-city suburbs – Glebe, Pyrmont, Chinatown. Each walk is led by a local resident who can give insights into the history and local character of the area. The walks make use of the City of Sydney ‘Historical walking tours’ pamphlets, provided on the walk, and will finish at a local café where you are welcome to stay on for a drink and chat. Walks will be at a gentle pace, for about one and a half hours with opportunities to rest.  The final tour of the term will be a history of the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, including a visit to the original building, now the Art House Hotel.

Maximum 12 walkers

Venues and dates:

Fortnightly, on Tuesdays, 10.30AM to 12.00

• 24 February – meet outside University Hall, corner Glebe Point Rd and Broadway Leader Neil Macindoe
• 10 March – meet outside the Harris Centre, corner Bulwara Rd and Quarry St -
  Leader Donald Denoon
• 24 March – Chinatown meeting place to be advised -
  Leader TBA
• 7 April – meet at Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, 280 Pitt St, Sydney – Leader Roger Morris.

Further information on transport to each venue will be provided on enrolment.

This is an opportunity to share your interest in novels with other readers.  The reading list will be decided upon by the group with the condition that the titles are readily available through the City of Sydney Library, or in a low-cost edition such as the newly available ‘orange cover” Penguins (currently $9.95 each).

Monthly meetings are proposed but this will be discussed and final decision made by the group.

The first novel to be discussed will be A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh (1932)

Starting Friday, 27 February

10:30 AM to 12:30 PM

Leader: Angela Wawn

Maximum number 12

Venue: Reg Murphy Activity Centre

This course aims to teach basic knitting skills to beginners and those whose knitting skills are rusty.  It will focus on knitting for Wrap with Love, but all the skills can be used for any pattern and any purpose.

Wrap with Love is an Australia-wide movement of volunteer knitters working together to create beautiful handmade blankets. These are distributed in Australia and over 30 countries. and provide life-saving warmth to victims of natural disasters, war and poverty.

Aspects to be covered:

• An Introduction to Wrap with Love
• Casting on and off
• Knit and purl stitches
• Patterns using knit and purl stitches
• A visit to a Wrap with Love warehouse
• Sewing up a wrap

Participants are asked to bring a pair of 30 cm size 4 needles and a ball of 8-ply wool (not acrylic). These can be provided by the course leader if necessary – needles $6, wool $4.

Seven Weeks starting Wednesday, 25 February to 8 April     2 to 4 PM

Leader: Mary Mortimer

Maximum number 10

Venue: Reg Murphy Activity Centre

As a beginners course, it will introduce the basic strokes of Chinese writing.

Aspects to be covered:

• History of Chinese Language
• Development of Chinese Writing
• Understanding the use of equipment
• Techniques of brushwork
• Structure of Chinese characters
• Building a vocabulary

Participants are expected to practice daily at home.  Homework is set for each week.

Materials list will be provided upon enrolment (approximate cost $30, plus $5 for course notes).

Six weeks starting Thursday 26 February

to 2 April       10 to 11:30 AM

Leader: Mary Tang

Maximum number 12

Venue: Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts

To study and discuss all aspects of poetry writing, with an opportunity to share

Aspectst o be covered

• Poetry writing skills
• Works of published poets
• Readings
• Workshop

Participants should be prepared to research and present a topic or a poet’s work in a roster.

Six Weeks starting Wednesday 25 February to 1 April,  10 to 11:30 AM

Leader: Mary Tang

Maximum number 12 and critique each other’s work.

Venue: Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts

Viking Runes are stones with inscriptions that convey meaning.  They have historically been used by the early Germanic, Nordic and Celtic peoples. Employed mainly for divination, they can be utilized on a metaphysical level to access your inner intuition. Stones and recent accessible translations will be shared in a fun and insightful class held by a runic practitioner, who has written two books about runes.

• Aspects to be covered:
• A brief History
• How to make your own Runes
• Use of Runes

During each class participants will have the opportunity to draw one or more runes from the bag, thus observing how the process of divination works.  There are 25 runes in the Viking Rune set.

Seven Weeks starting Tuesday 24 February to 7 April, 10 to 11:30 A

Leader: Sunny Seagull

Venue: Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts

This course is fully booked.

The publication of The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin 150 years ago in November became a sensation and revolutionised the way we think about Man’s place in the World. In the Bicentenary Year of Darwin’s birth we know much more about the physical and biological world, but many of the same issues that raged then still cause controversy.

Aspects to be covered:

• Biological evolution
• Evidence for evolution
• Genetic revolution and what this means for theories of evolution
• Influences on Man’s place in the world
• Influences on philosophy and art

Participants will be encouraged to develop a specialist topic to be presented at a joint discussion session.

It is planned to have a supplementary program in the Spring term to coincide with the150th anniversary of the publishing of The Origin of Species

Four weekly classes, Monday 2 March to Monday 23 March    9.30 – 11.30 AM

Leader: Tony Larkum, (Emeritus Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Sydney)

Venue: Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts

19 Greenknowe Avenue, Potts Point

There is disabled access from Greenknowe Ave.
Classes are held in the Baby Health Centre, which is to the left after entering the building.

Train: 5-7 minute walk from Kings Cross Train Station (Eastern Suburbs Line) along Darlinghurst Road/Macleay Street to Greenknowe Avenue.

Bus: 311 buses from either Railway Square or Circular Quay, stopping in Macleay Street.

Parking: There is limited street parking. The Centre is close to a parking station in Ward Avenue.

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