Welcome to the 12th issue of the CUSA Newsletter. May we apologise for the delay, I hope it proves to be worth the wait! Since the last Newsletter there have been a few changes, the main one being that our Chairman Tom Bowman has resigned owing to ill health.

As you may know it was Tom’s idea to form CUSA, and without his drive and inspiration our organisation would not exist. His enthusiasm will be a great miss and we all wish him well for the future.

Tom was an expert in persuading members to write short articles in the Newsletter about themselves, and their time at the University (usually after force feeding them with drinks). Perhaps we can use the same method to get him to contribute something soon!

I was asked by the Committee if I would be willing to take over the role of Chairman and combine this with my present duties as Treasurer. I was most happy to accept, and hope that I will be as successful as Tom in the role.

It is now five years since CUSA was formed, so the Committee decided to seek the member's views on our organisation, and whether they wished it to continue. I am delighted to advise you that 97% of the replies were in favour of CUSA continuing, and further details are shown in the article ‘Future of CUSA — Results of Member’s Questionnaire’ on this page.

CUSA has now been brought up to date with the formation of our web site (cusawww.tripod.com). This has been devised by Michael Ho and John Chan and will include a copy of the Newsletter, together with other articles and items of chat.

Contributions from the members to both the Newsletter and web site are most welcome. Please forward these in the first instance to David Hardy or to the web mailbox at cusawww@lycos.co.uk, indicating whether your contribution is for the Newsletter, the web site, or both.

Finally, I am pleased to tell you that the 2002 Annual Dinner has been arranged for Saturday 25th May (full details are in the flyer enclosed with the printed Newsletter). If CUSA is to remain a successful organisation then we need as much support as possible for the social activities that are organised on your behalf.

I look forward to seeing you all in May.

Alan Appleton

Future of CUSA; Results of Members’ Questionnaire

An excellent response was received from the Members' Questionnaire. 97% of the replies were in favour of CUSA continuing, and a similar percentage wished us to continue with the newsletter, Annual Dinner, and Quiz Night. Only 50% of replies were in support of the Christmas Dinner and, as the last one had to be cancelled due to lack of support, it was decided not to organise one last Christmas.


Alan and Marjorie Appleton Meet the Apes!

It was Alan and Marjorie's thirtieth Wedding Anniversary last September. (Alan expected to be presented with a medal for putting up with Marjorie for all this time but this suggestion was met by a rude response!)

To celebrate they decided on a special holiday to the Far East. After eight wonderful days in Singapore they travelled to Borneo for a two week stay.

The island of Borneo is home to Orang Utans, the friendly looking apes which are supposed to be mans’ closest cousins. Many older apes are shot by poachers, and the young babies are rescued and taken to the Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary where they are brought up, and taught to climb and fend for themselves, before being released back into a nature reserve when they are approx. five years old.

The most popular tour on the island is a visit to the Sanctuary to see the Apes in the wild. We were staying in Kota Kinabalu, so to visit the Sanctuary it was necessary to take an early morning flight across to the other side of the island.

This meant getting up at 4.30am to catch an early flight. Upon arrival at Sandekan we travelled to Sepilok, where we arrived at approximately 9.00am.

We watched a video of the work of the Sanctuary, then it was time for the highlight of the trip, a jungle walk to a viewing platform where we could watch the wild Orang Utans being fed on milk and bananas at 10.00am. Before the trip all the members of the party were warned not to wear red, as this was the colour of the apes’ feeding bucket, and they may think you had food and would pester you. At the same time we were warned not to wear yellow, or they would think you were a banana!

Most people dutifully wore clothing in a shade of blue. However this meticulous pre-planning went to the wall when the Ranger appeared with a blue feeding bucket!

The apes must have a built in clock as several of the young ones appeared at 9.45am and the rest swung in from the trees shortly after. The young apes in particular were cute, as once they had fed, they amused everyone with a display of gymnastics that would have won medals in the Olympics.

They eventually disappeared leaving an older ape on the feeding platform. He turned his back on us and proceeded to munch slowly on his banana. This went on for some time, and the party of 50 or so visitors watched avidly as if something wildly exciting was going to happen next.

It was at this moment that fatigue from the early morning start crept in, and Alan thought “what the hell are we doing here”. We had been up since 4.30am and now, six hours later, all we were doing was watching the back of an ape eating a banana.

For a moment he began to doubt his sanity! However any negative thoughts were quickly dispelled after a refreshing cup of tea in the restaurant, and we left the Sanctuary having thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

CUSA Walking Group
(originally known as the Computer Unit Ramblers or CURs)

It was nine years ago last month (March) when a group of Computer Unit staff set out from Lordenshaw car park (near Rothbury), up past a sign warning us to; beware of adders; and into the Simonside Hills.

For some members on the walk it was their first venture into any hills and at least two participants hired walking boots for the occasion. The fact that they both took advantage of the option to purchase the hired boots was a measure of the success of that first walk.

The walk became the inaugural walk of a group which has met regularly since then, and continues to meet, usually once every two weeks, to go out into the countryside for long chats to one another. According to Steve Foulk, a stalwart founder member of the group, there were 13 participants on the first walk, each of whom managed 13,000 paces (give or take a mile) and it took place on the 13th of March, 1993.

Since that first walk, we have tramped along many miles of paths in Northumberland visiting the Cheviot Hills from the Ingram, Coquet and Langley valleys, Hadrian’s Wall, Thrunton Woods, Cuthbert’s cave and the carriageways above Rothbury to name but a few. We have also covered the coast including Craster, Dunstanburgh Castle, Lower Newton, Seaton Sluice etc. We have even ventured south into County Durham and North Yorkshire taking in High Force, England’s largest waterfall, Tunstall Valley, Causy Arch, Roseberry Topping and Killhope and the Carriers’ Way.

We have also had a number of short walking breaks in the Lakes, the Yorkshire Dales (Hawes) and Perthshire (Crieff). Typically, we walk for about four hours with a break for lunch and usually finish our discussions in a local hostelry at the end of the walk.

We are a happy, friendly bunch and invite you to join us on one of our walks. You never know you may be invited back for more walks.

If you are interested, why not contact Margery Crowe, Marjorie Appleton, or myself or e-mail the CUSA mailbox (cusawww@lycos.co.uk) for further information.

Ralph Fleeting

2001 Annual Dinner

This was held on 23rd of June at the Palace Garden Chinese Restaurant, Newcastle. The Annual Dinner is our most popular social event of the year, and was well supported. The Chinese Banquet was organised by John Chan, and once again the food was excellent. There was almost too much to eat, but ‘doggy bags’ were available for those who fancied a midnight snack!

A free raffle was held, with prizes donated by John Chan and Marjorie Appleton. First prize of a lovely Chinese ornament was won by Lorna Reed, whilst Alan Appleton won a litre bottle of wine (the cries of ‘fix’ were ignored!).

(Photographs from this event can be found at http://cusawww.tripod.com

Quiz Night / Social Evening

This was held on 10th of November at our usual venue: the Bridge Hotel, Newcastle.

The Quiz Night is always popular amongst the members, and is excellent value for money. The cost of £6.50 per head covered an excellent hot buffet, cash prizes for the first three teams, and a free tombola, with prizes consisting of a bottle of Tia Maria (donated by Iain and Jenny Tolmie), bottles of wine, and boxes of chocolates.

The questions were once again set by our resident ‘expert’ David Hardy, who always manages to pitch them at the right level to keep all teams involved. The quiz was keenly fought, with the eventual winners being Tom Bowman’s team (Tom and Polly Bowman, and Clayton and Helen Scott) who received a cash prize of £15.

There was time both during and after the Quiz to socialise with friends and former colleagues, and a very enjoyable evening was had by all.

(Photographs from this event can be found at https://cusawww.tripod.com/images/Quiznight-20020303/index.htm

Fiona Visits Maria

Well, as some of you will remember, Maria Moxon went to live in Boston, Massachusetts, USA last year.

I went to visit her and her family in July 2001 during what they called a quite cool spell;
it was only up to 24° instead of 34°!

They have a lovely house in Lexington, a very nice suburb of Boston, complete with every American’s essential accessory: a pool with a BBQ by its side!

Maria has put a lot of time into learning about the local area and I can recommend her as a guide. It is a very historical area and we went to see all the local features like Battle Green and the Meeting House for the Minute Men who fought against the British. We went in on the local train; the T; and managed to see the sights (the Independence Trail) and a few extras too, all on foot I would add, as that is the best way to see Boston and, as most of you know, I’m no walker!

Yes, that’s the outside of Cheers below and top is a photograph of Maria at her favourite hobby; drinking Starbucks coffee inside Quincy Market. I think that the Museum of Fine Art was one place I would recommend to everyone and a look in the Library is a must; best loos too. Boston Common is a lovely open space with lots of ducks and squirrels. I have to admit to spending a huge amount of time in the shops; well you have to, don’t you!

They seem to be settling in over there and James is attending a school nearby.

Paul has been roped in to being the soccer coach for the school team (Maria is the secretary) and James wears his Newcastle strip with pride. They were surprised and delighted to find out how many people knew all about Newcastle United.

I keep in touch with Maria on e-mail and they have a web site (moxonsonline.com) if anyone wants to contact them.

Fiona Reynolds

French Connection Update (Part One)

We have been persuaded, by the powers that be, that after four years living here in South West France that there are a few demented souls out there who actually want to know what life here is like and what we have been up to. We are not sure that it is going to be all that interesting to most of you but here goes anyway, remember you asked for it. As confirmed Francophiles we bored many of you to death with all things French before we moved here and now we can confidently say, WE WERE RIGHT!.

We live in a very beautiful area with many well known chateaux and bastide villages close by, some within a ten mile radius, including Monpazier, which seems to be featured in almost all photographic books on France. The local population is wonderfully relaxed and friendly. We were made very welcome from day one, our neighbour opposite coming with her teenage son to just say, welcome to Lot et Garonne, and our other neighbour, who was born in our house and whose ancestors built our house, well, he and his wife have become like second parents to us. They still continue to bring us large quantities of seasonal homegrown fruit and vegetables, cuttings, plants and shrubs for the garden. On one occasion last year, Remy, who is now 76 years old we think, brought us a shrub which was so large it had to be brought and taken across the garden on his tractor, where he then insisted on digging the hole and planting it himself! When we bought our house we also bought a small field alongside, from Remy, to set up a small camp site, (not found the time to do anything about that yet), which during our first couple of months here, Remy and his wife, Rene, spent three hard days work turning, raking and planting grass seed for us. All we had to do was go buy the seed.

Although there are a considerable number of British owned properties around here, some only holiday homes but others, like ours, permanently occupied, the local French population seem to take it all in their stride and we are very proud and happy to be accepted and welcomed into the community.

Now to what we've been up to since we arrived. Well, we certainly didn't retire here, we simply changed jobs and we definitely work longer days with hardly any weekends off, but it is for us and we are thoroughly enjoying it. When we bought the house there was already one small gite, (holiday cottage for the uninitiated), which was very spartan and dull but also had a booking from a French couple for April and the summer of that year. Thus one of our first jobs was to spruce that up. After that things became hectic and chaotic because Sylvia’s mother was waiting impatiently in England to come and live with us. Mike, the well known English DIY expert had a hard time coping with being very much the novice French equivalent.

Materials are different here, plumbing principals are different and the electrical ring main is actually illegal. Add this to a real language problem and lack of vocabulary and you might understand why buying a wheelbarrow became the entertaining act of running up and down our local builders merchants with hands outstretched in front of you, much to the staffs amusement. Maybe that's why they seem to like us! and yes, he did buy his “brouette”. So, during 1998, Mike constructed within the largest bedroom, downstairs, an en-suite bathroom whilst a construction firm added a conservatory intended to serve as a sitting room for mother. Whilst this was happening we were also having a swimming pool installed during May and of course coping with the multitude of indecipherable paperwork which naturally is necessary when moving to another country.

We also managed to buy our French car and in June each of us drove a car all the way back to Newcastle to sell our English one. Well, we had been promised a good deal but that never happened. It was the week before going back with the cars that we welcomed Carol and Tony Rigby for the first of several visits over the following few months. Carol is a lecturer at coach lane campus and had seen our ad in the staff newsletter. A great couple who we left for their second week to look after the swimming pool and to supervise our builders finishing the conservatory. It was on their next visit at Christmas that they found and bought a house 5km from us which is set to become their permanent home in the not too distant future. August saw Mike still working to complete the tiling in the en-suite, whilst Sylvia flew back for three days to collect Mother. Four days after arriving home with Mother and we had completely ripped apart and rebuilt a second bedroom for Mike’s Mother and Father to sleep in, on holiday with us.

The same day that they were collected from Bordeaux, a two hour drive from us, some other friends of ours arrived for a holiday, but they slept in our caravan. It was an incredibly good fortnight, much fun had by all seven of us, with six sharing one bathroom. Towards the end of that August fortnight our son Paul joined us all for theoretically four days just to see what mum and dad had bought, and then Sue Holmes rang from her French holiday home to say how about them coming to see us tomorrow. They intended finding a hotel but as we had no-one in the gite we convinced them to stay there. The four arrived in the afternoon, 180 miles between the two houses, and the twelve of us had a fantastic evening, three course BBQ dinner and litres of wine, armagnac and eventually any other spirits Paul could rescue from the drinks cupboard. He now admits it was very silly to attempt to drink his 85 year old grandad under the table. He failed dismally, suffering very badly from the effects, along with a few others of us. Grandad, of course was fighting fit. Sue and family departed about midday, I think I said goodbye, but it really was an incredible night always to be remembered. Thanks Sue, must do it again sometime.

The major work the following year was to turn what had been a tiny cottage, totally dilapidated, used by the previous owner to keep his hens in, into our second gite. This was a total D.I.Y. rebuild job, involving installation of electricity, water and sewage systems. We started about Easter and hired a mini JCB to dig out a new road from the front to the back of our house to give vehicle access to what was to become our incredibly popular Hen House gite. An amazing number of people have told us they booked because they loved telling their friends they were going to spend their holidays in a henhouse.

Paul happened to be paying us a second visit at that time and although Mike did get to play with the JCB for a while we both have to admit that it was Paul who took to it like a duck to water. As it happened our first visitors to the Hen House were another couple who saw our ad in the staff newsletter, Sandra Dixon, another lecturer and her partner, Chris, who were incredibly understanding about the fact that Hen House was not completed when they arrived, allowed us to continue whilst they were out and even set up a surprise Hen House official opening party, with wine, nibbles and a ribbon across the door for us to cut. One of our very valid excuses for not being finished was that on the night of May 13th we were hit by a tornado. It took a quarter of our house roof off, took out the electricity so we were in pitch darkness except for incandescent green light outside and we were completely flooded at one end of our house, all within ten minutes.

It took a week to do the main recovery, during which time we suffered another major storm which overflowed the wells and almost flooded the house again. Drying out and swimming pool repairs, we lost the pump and took nine wheelbarrowfuls of leaves out, took a bit longer!!

Some of you will know our daughter Julie and might like to know that she had a second little boy, Nicholas John, last November, and both are doing well. We are coming to the North East for the christening at the end of April but as the visit is necessarily a short one we doubt that we will be able to see many of you.

For now...

A Bientôt,

Sylvia and Mike Johnson

(Editor's note: French Connection Update (Part Two) will appear in the next issue of the CUSA Newsletter.)