New courses include lapidary, where participants learn about gems and minerals and their polishing to make jewellery; first-aid and health for seniors, enabling participants to confidently render assistance in emergencies; and iron age and Roman Britain, a study of the Celts and their culture, lives and artefacts, including the Roman occupation of Britain.

Nearly all 2017 courses have also resumed.

There are physical activities including aquarobics, table tennis, tai chi and yoga, literary classes including read and share groups, and writing your own story, music groups including singing for pleasure, music appreciation and recorder groups, and a range of art, craft, language and special interest classes.

There is something for everybody and if you’re over 50, an annual membership fee of just $30 enables you to join as many classes as you can manage.

CRYPTIC crosswords, the secret world of acrostics, anagrams, Spoonerisms, abbreviations and double meanings, can be such a mysterious realm.

Each week, Lesley Carroll leads two cryptic crossword solving classes where members learn to decipher, decode and demystify the various secret languages of cryptic crosswords, in a relaxed and informal environment.

Classes start with some of the less challenging cryptic puzzles found in magazines and booklets and eventually conquer the more difficult Sydney Morning Herald cryptic puzzles.

The satisfaction of solving your first cryptic crossword really is something special, however, you then look forward to the next one. Indeed, sometimes solving just one difficult clue can call for celebration.

The identity of the people who set the puzzles is indicated by their initials. The Friday Herald cryptic is set by DA. DA is that wacky wordsmith David Astle and his puzzles are particularly challenging.

Some cryptic puzzlers reckon the DA really means Don’t Attempt without help from U3A tutor Lesley Carroll! Lesley is one of a handful of Bathurstians who regularly climb the DA Everest.

BATHURST U3A launched 2018 with the first of a series of eight lectures under the Monday Morning Show banner.

These talks are free and open to the general public as well as U3A members.

The first lecture was delivered on February 5 by Dr Travis Holland, course director of the Bachelor of Communications and Master of Communications degree courses at Charles Sturt University Bathurst.

The Politics and Promise of the NBN was a very topical lecture given the dilemmas faced by local people choosing NBN plans at the moment.

Dr Holland began by outlining a potted history of communications, beginning with cave paintings and moving on to smoke signals and message sticks, mail services, telephones and newspapers, the introduction of the telegraph service, radio and television, computers and broadband.

Dr Holland unwrapped the political statements and assurances dating back to 2007, explaining download and upload speeds, data, and the great difference achieved by fibre cabling as opposed to copper cabling.

Dr Holland spoke of the factors and events leading to Australia sitting a good way down the totem pole in broadband speed.

A lively and somewhat lengthy question time concluded Dr Holland’s talk, and the audience learnt a lot about the NBN.

Other lectures scheduled for the Monday Morning Show series include Australian Native Bees: Our Unseen Treasures with Megan Halcroft; At Home With Lyon, Curtin and Chifley with Samuel Malloy; Migrant and Refugee Settlement in the Central West with Monique Van Toor; Life Upon The Wicked Stage with Petah Burns; Planning Ahead – Retirement and More with Carleen McConnell; A Window into Hearing Now and In The Future with Matthew O’Neill; and Producing the Book Building Bathurst presented by Graham Lupp.

These are scheduled every Monday morning until March 26, 2018.

CHRISTINE Stopford’s popular yoga class meets on Wednesday mornings for two hours of physical movement to discipline the body and mind.

Participants report improved muscle strength and balance, as well as greater flexibility and endurance.

Some say yoga has assisted them with weight loss, and nearly all the class have reported an improvement in mood and ability to focus.

The weight-bearing poses, in particular, increase core strength and greatly reduce the risk of osteoporosis. Yoga is good for you!

FOR more information about Bathurst U3A, visit bathurstu3a.com or contact the Bathurst U3A president Lindsay Cox on 0429 916 618.

Course programs and enrolment forms are also available at the Bathurst Regional Library or Bathurst Neighbourhood Centre.