Running until 12 June at 24HR Art, Vimy Lane, Parap Shopping Village, is Mrs Darwin’s Garden, an exhibition of works by Carole Wilson who, by connecting the themes of European exploration on the one hand and home making on the other, explores the ways that women adapt when they are displaced into new environments.

As mentioned in Board Backchat, our fund-raising sausage sizzle takes place on 15 May. If you are able to give a hand we’d be very grateful and you’ll probably enjoy the occasion – everyone who came along two years ago had a good time and it was also a chance to meet other members outside the usual meetings. If you would like to help out but aren’t able to sign on at a meeting, just give Judith (8927 1636) or Gayle (8985 5406) a call.

Last month, Jenny Bloomfield mentioned the work done by the charity Room to Read which teams up with local communities in developing countries to provide schools and set up libraries. If you would like to learn more about the organisation which, since 2000, has established more than 1000 schools and more than 9000 libraries and distributed some seven and a half million books, go to www.roomtoread.org.

U3A members are invited to the launch of Adrift, a chapbook of poetry by members of the NT Writers’ centre, inspired by the 1952 raft journey from Darwin to Timor made by artist Ian Fairweather. The event is hosted by journalist Nicholas Rothwell and takes place at 5.30pm on 29 April at the Ski Club. Free Admission.

From 10 May until 20 June, the NT Library in Parliament House is hosting ‘Selling an American Dream: Australia's Greek Cafe, a national touring exhibition chronicling a significant Australian story: how one key institution – the Greek cafe – set the agenda and broadly affected and influenced popular Australian culture. The exhibition includes more than 100 - mainly black and white - historical and contemporary photographic images featuring Greek cafes, their predecessors, (the oyster saloon, soda/sundae ‘parlor’ and milk bar) and those who ran, worked in, and frequented these establishments.

If you would like to introduce any young grandchildren to music, you may like to take them along to the Toddlers’ Proms which The Darwin Symphony Orchestra and the Darwin Youth Orchestra are presenting at 10am and 11am on 2 May in the Charles Darwin University Theatre. Each show lasts for 50 minutes and gives toddlers the chance to experience musical instruments up close as they walk through the orchestra while listening to a musical story.

For further information go to www.dso.org.au.

The Do Not Call Register was introduced in 2007, giving members of the public the opportunity to have their land-line telephone number noted with a view to not being disturbed by commercial cold callers trying to sell their products. If you registered your number three years ago, it’s time to renew your registration - and you can now include your mobile phone number; these numbers are being made public this month.

To register or to re-sign, call 1300 792 958 or go to www.donotcall.gov.au

Wordstorm 2010 – the festival of Australasian writing – takes place from 13 to 16 May and features some 75 writers from Asia and the Pacific region as well as Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian authors. Events include film screenings, musical performances, and an Indonesian poetry breakfast along with daily readings, workshops and panels in the Botanic Gardens.

For more information, including complete program details, go to www.ntwriters.com.au or call 8941 2651.

Running until 14 May at Outstation, 2/3 Parap Place, is Gadaman Yolngu: Clever People, new works from Elcho Island Arts which is located at Galiwin’ku, the main community on Elcho Island. The area is particularly well known for its woven pandanus fibre artworks and the exhibition features not only woven fibre items but also pandanus sculptures, a new direction for the artists. Admission to the gallery is free; open Mon-Tues 10am to 1pm, Wed-Fri 10am to 5pm and Sat 9am to 2pm.

The next speaker in the National Trust’s Larrakeyah Branch 2010 Speakers’ Program will be Judy Opitz whose talk is entitled The Cooinda Dream: her experiences of setting up and running a bush store in western Arnhem Land in the 1960s. The talk is at 5.30pm on 21 May at Burnett House, Larrakeyah; admission, which includes snacks, is $2 for members and $5 for non-members.

Before that, the National Trust’s annual heritage festival Ten Days At The Top runs from 7 to 16 May. There’s a full program of events, including the chance to visit the four heritage houses in Burnett Place from 10am to 1pm on 8 May when teas will be available in the garden of Burnett House. For further information go to www.nationaltrustnt.org.au.

COTA (NT) is offering free computer lessons for seniors at its new Computer Kiosk at Spillett House in Smith Street. Classes are available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, mornings or afternoons. For further information call 8941 1004.

The widely-held belief that elderly people need less sleep than youngsters was challenged at this year’s meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science by a Californian researcher, Professor Sean Drummond, an expert in sleep and memory.