Along with two coll eagues, Maggie Wu Jing, a visiting scholar from Anhui Normal University, China, will be giving a flute recital at 7pm on 30 April in building Orange 6.1.08 on CDU’s Casuarina Campus. Admission is free.

Tactile Arts is holding its Saltwater Craft Fair from 9am to 2pm on 8 May at the Darwin Waterfront. Everything for sale – ceramics, jewellery, prints, mosaics, paintings, beauty products and more – is handmade by local artis ts and artisans. For more information contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Even though the Open Gardens Scheme sponsored by the ABC has come to an end, there are st ill, occasionally, gardens that are open to the public. This month, on 29 May , the Top End Native Plants Society has an open garden at 150 Woodcote Crescent, Girraween. For more information go to topendnativeplants.org. au.

A spectacular evening of ope ra is in store at 6.30pm on 21 M ay when the Darwin Symp hony Orchestra is joined by four of Australia’s opera superstars – Cheryl Baker, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Henry Choo and Victoria Lambourn – for a concert of fa vourite arias. At the Darwin Waterfront – take your own chair or rug and a picnic (no glass or alcohol permitted); gold coin donation.

Because of maintenance work being undertaken on the air-conditioning installation at Casuarina Library, there will be no U3A meetings (talks or mah-jong) from 26 April to 12 May 2016 (inclusive).

In presenting our organisation’s financial situation at the Annual General Meeting last month, Treasurer in Office, Audrey Grace noted that the accounts for the last year showed a deficit of $4,950. In the discussion that followed it was suggested that some savings could be made in future by discontinuing the practice of placing obituary notices in the NT News when a member dies as each insertion costs $180.50, and instead recording the passing in the Newsletter.

This suggestion met with overwhelming support at the AGM; however, it was decided to consult members on a larger scale. If you would like to make your position known please call Judith on 8932 7545, leave a message at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or indicate your preference on the form which will be available at our meetings on 7 and 12 April.

This month, Jack Oliver will be taking us back to ancient Sumer for what promises to be an interesting talk. The meeting will be held at Lorna’s house at 3pm on 8 April (please note: not the first Friday of the month). For further information call Lorna on 8948 0411.

Sumer, a region of Southern Mesopotamia, is generally considered to be the cradle of civilisation; you can find out more about the Sumerians here.

With the end of summer time, the clocks go back an hour on 3 April in NSW, SA, TAS, VIC and the ACT.

If you’re calling further afield, you may like to know that summer time started on 13 March in the majority of Canadian Provinces and US States, while European countries put their clocks forward by an hour on 27 March.

If you sometimes find the text on a web page too small to read easily, you can increase the size of the print very simply: just press and hold the CTRL key while moving the wheel between the two buttons on your mouse in an upward (away from you) direction. As you scroll with the wheel, the size of the print will instantly increase. To decrease the size, hold down the CTRL key and move the mouse wheel in a downward direction. This option will also work in many other programs such as Microsoft Word.

Recent mention of another shopping franchise coming to Darwin made me wonder whether any members remember the following.

During the 1970s, Woolworths had their store on the same corner in the city that has been given a new lease on life recently, but it had a large car park in front. I parked there one day and went in to find the store almost empty. I commented on this to one of the assistants and she told me that all the people were round in Cavenagh Street, shopping at a new store there. I trotted round and about where Warehouse 73 is now was the new attraction; I'm not sure but I think it was a branch of Tom the Cheap from WA. Apparently they had to close the doors twice on their first day of trading to restock the shelves. You marked the shelf price on whatever you put in your basket: definitely no frills.

Later, a branch of Jack the Slasher, a warehouse-type store, opened somewhere in Winnellie. Whenever we came to the big smoke from Katherine, we always packed the esky in the car to stock up on the way home with all these new brands you never saw anywhere else. Those were the days when shopping was fun!

Fran Wickes

The National Trust’s 2016 Heritage Festival takes place from 18 to 24 April. Among the events on offer are a Ghost Walk in Goyder Road Cemetery, The Barbara James Memorial Lecture to be delivered this year by Graeme Sawyer who will be speaking on the theme Rediscovering a National Heritage, a Mystery Heritage Bus Tour and a sail across the harbour to Talc Head for a picnic.

For further information and to book go to nationaltrustnt.com.au or call 8981 2848.

There’s still time to take the grandchildren in the April school holidays to this exhibition which features iconic Australian buildings as well as other structures from around the world constructed entirely of LEGO. The great diversity of models on show – shape, construction and architectural skill – makes for a truly magical display. And if you feel inspired by the exhibits, there are 20,000 pieces of LEGO available so you can create your own Tower of Tomorrow.

The exhibition runs until 10 April at the Museum and Art Gallery of the NT.