On a gloriously warm and sunny winter´s day which felt more like summer, Sunday 1st December, we held our first ever Christmas fayre and car boot sale on the rastro site, Jalon. The fayre had previously been run for the last 10 years by ARC and the car boot replaced the one that was rained off on 27th October. We took a chance combining the two and it paid off!

We were delighted to welcome 82 members to our Christmas General Assembly in Murla on Thursday 5th December. Fortunately, the weather was kind to us after a very wet November meeting and even heavy rain the day before! Perhaps a tad chilly until we worked out how to increase the heating!

We were recently contacted by one of our u3a members, Sheila Skinner, who knew of a large children’s trampoline that was being donated to raise funds for Make a Smile children’s charity. Sadly it could not be used by the children’s home in Benissa that we support due to their Health and Safety regulations.

We have all been shocked and devastated by the tragic flooding disaster in Valencia and our thoughts are with all those affected and those bravely assisting. As an organisation we wanted to help so we went shopping on your behalf and filled our cars with as much essentials we could manage and that we had been asked to get: sustainable foods, water, milk, toiletries, baby items, cleaning products etc.

Walking in the Jalon valley and surrounding area can be more difficult than you might imagine. For casual walkers used to the Ordnance Survey maps available in the UK, the few local maps can be a great disappointment.

A talk at the October General Assembly by Susie Pearson and Leona on the man trailing dog search and rescue group, Jalon.

Members who attended the October General Assembly enjoyed a very interesting and informative talk by Susie Pearson, a u3a Vall del Pop member and volunteer with the man trailing dog search and rescue team based in Jalon.