​The Benalla Bushwalking Club and U3A walkers were saddened by the death of Terry Sydes.
 
Terry has been important in the promotion of bushwalking, skiing, canoeing and bike riding.  For many years he was on the Board of Bushwalking Victoria, which required a drive to Melbourne, often returning home late at night.   He was an educator, giving instruction in navigation and map reading and led camps and walks to encourage all ages.
 
His connection with U3A was through Margaret Walshe.  During the 1990’s Margaret asked if he would be willing to lead mid-week walks for members, to promote fitness.  He agreed, and led popular walks for many years, until this activity was carried on by Margaret, Heather Sloan, Vaughan Cowan, and others.
 
A real asset to Benalla, he will be sadly missed.
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Vaughan Cowan

U3A members Meg and Terry Dillon have both offered new programs later in the year, timed to fit in with their return from their much loved lives as 'grey gypsies'. 
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Opera – Come over to the dark side!

Murder and mayhem; lost love and death!  Yes, Opera takes the dark themes and weaves beautiful music around the fanciful stories.  Join us to listen to four popular operas. You will recognise some of the music and get to see and hear some of the great performances on recent DVDs.   
 
This program will be held on 2nd and 4th Wednesday evenings 21 Warana Court, starting at 7pm.
 
Dates: October  12 and 26; November  9 and 23.
Presenter:  Meg Dillon   Maximum participants 10.
Enrolment:  Contact Meg on 5762 6558 prior to July 25 and after September 1st  to enrol. 

'Google Apps'  

'Google Apps' is an extremely versatile application, incorporating many free features including Chrome (web browser), email, contacts, docs (word processor), sheets (spreadsheet), calendar, photos, sites (create and maintain your own website).   This course is applicable to Windows, iOS and Android users.
 
Participants will be required to have their own tablet, phone or laptop, should be competent in basic use of their device and have a gMail account.  Notes on creating a gMail account will be sent to participants on enrolment.  
 
* There have been two changes in days & dates to reduce a clash with Let's Talk Books. 
Days: Weekly - 1st Wed*, 2nd Tues; 3rd Wed; 4th Tues.
Dates:  September 21 & 27; October 5*, 11, 19 & 25; November 2*, 8, 16, 22, (29)
Time/Venue:  2.30 to 3.30 pm in W4  (NB - Tech Savvy Drop In sessions will be held from 1.30 and 2.15 pm on these days)
 
Presenter:  Terry Dillon   Enrolment:  Contact Terry’s mobile 0419 343129; email terry@greygypsies.com.au,  or add your name to the list on the W4 notice board.  

​Classes are often down at this time of the year - so it's fun to see what people are getting up to on their travels. 

​Claire Rudolph and Margaret Jenkins shared blogs of their recent trips at Tech Savvy Drop In today.  The BlogSpot blog of Claire Rudolph's return trip across the Nullabor towing gliders for delivery, http://nullabororbust.blogspot.com.au, is a great read.  Claire showed us a very funny video on it of her singing with her codriver, to the music of 'on the road again', words she and her friend had composed to sing along the way.  Hopefully we'll be able to access it to add to this web post.   

Margaret Jenkins' blog of her trip with her grandchildren to Canberra provides a very happy record of a transgenerational holiday.  It  also has a blog post featuring photos of  Benalla's Wall to Wall art.   Margaret has previously worked on a Weebly blog, however this time used Wordpress very effectively in single column format.