Laura was born in Partick born early in the 20^th century the family then moved to the newly build council housing in Knightswood.

Laura was very good with figures and when she left school she started to train as an accountant. She also studied the French language both of which stood her in a good stead during her carrier in the NAAFI.

Laura travelled widely and her adventures started with her training in Perthshire. She loved being out in the Perthshire countryside away from the big city of Glasgow.

One dark night she started on a real mystery tour with her newly trained NAAFI colleagues. They had to travel in total darkness in the blacked out train to an unknown destination. It was a real anticlimax to arrive the following morning to the very familiar site of Gourock harbour.

The ship, part of a convoy was already waiting for them and the journey to Algiers began. The amenities on board were very basic but there was a great sense of anticipation. The long journey to North Africa was eventful and the arrival at the port of Algiers had to be delayed because the German air-force had set fire to the oil tankers. The ship had to wait several days before they could anchor in the harbour.

Laura settled into her new carrier quickly; her former accountancy skills became useful in stocktaking of food rations and managing and handling of the cash from the tills. A further asset was her ability to speak French, especially with the young local staff whose only language was French. Communication between existing staff was very difficult but through Laura’s ability to connect with people she found simple solutions to what formerly had seemed major issues with the staff.

She stayed in Algiers for several months before her travels with the NAAFI took her to Naples. This journey was also very eventful as the boat she travelled nearly got sunk by a bomb. But she arrived safely at a beautiful Naples harbour.

Once in Tuscany her NAAFI carrier totally changed direction. The army took over one of the royal palaces and made it into a recreational facility for war traumatised soldiers in need of respite. The NAAFI provided catering and entertainment for this resource. This part of the job Laura enjoyed tremendously despite of the fact that it was very hard work.

Her adventures abroad came to an abrupt end when she got word from home; a letter from her family asked her to come back as soon as possible to nurse and look after her sick mother which she dutifully did.

These days Laura lives in sheltered housing in Whiteinch and is still very active and alert. You might have seen her in Teapots cafe without realising who she is and what an amazing past she has had.

Letter re Dace consultation April 2011

As you’ll know from our previous posts, Glasgow University has proposed to close Department of Continuing Education as part of a wider programme of cuts. If DACE closes, Whiteinch Centre would lose our adult education classes provided on an outreach basis and the city would lose a vital resource which currently offers classes to 5,000 people per year. You can read our response to the cuts by clicking the link above, and please make your own contribution to the testimonies being collected by accessing the link below. The consultation closes on 4th April. Make your voice heard or this fantastic resource could be lost forever!

Find the SaveDACE petition or leave your testimonial HERE.

The cuts proposed to Glasgow University’s budgets will affect services in the Whiteinch Centre. The Department of Adult and Continuing Education (DACE) is among the departments facing the axe.
We have received support from DACE over the past 2-3 years in the form of community classes offered to local people through the Centre. We have run Creative Writing, Local History classes and Counselling and are currently offering a Scriptwriting course, all from DACE.
We consider DACE courses to be a key part of our service provision, allowing local people to access high quality teaching at no cost to themselves in a familiar environment, instead of having to go to the University for classes, which many of our service users find intimidating.

It is for these reasons that The Whiteinch Centre supports the protest to be held on Friday the 18th March at 12pm-2pm.  See the Facebook page for more information here .

A brand new course on Community Work will be starting at the Centre on the 21st February.  The course is being delivered by Anniesland College and will include modules on Working in Communities, Administration, Bookkeeping and Basic IT.  The course is ESF-funded and so is open to anyone aged from 16 to 64 who is not in full-time employment.  Contact Ruth at the Centre for more information or to register.

New classes on Creative Writing at the Centre!  Programme kicks off on Thursday the 10th February (11.30am-1pm) with a Meet the Author event from Glasgow Life.  Come and meet Scottish author Karen Campbell and get some tips.  To book space on this interactive workshop, contact Ruth at the Centre.

Following on from this workshop, the Centre will be running a short series of writing workshops with the aim of producing pieces for Aye Write!  Glasgow’s Book Festival takes place in March, and the Centre will be presenting the new pieces of writing at the community event on Monday 7th March at The Mitchell Library.  Times for the workshops will be confirmed later.

Also starting in February, Glasgow University will be running an Introduction to Script-writing course taught by Donny O’Rourke.  The course will run for 8 weeks and will cost in the region of £100 (TBC) but will be completely FREE if you sign up for an Individual Learning Account!  Please contact Ruth for more information.

Thanks to the efforts of our IT Projects class last term, the Centre has produced its first newsletter.  We aim to bring it out on a quarterly basis, letting people know what’s coming up in the Centre and in the local community.

This issue has information about the Touching The Sky play on Saturday 22nd January, as well as news about classes at the Centre and news from the Regeneration Manager.

Download a PDF copy below:

If you would like to be added to the email mailing list, please let Ruth at the Centre know, by phoning the centre or emailing her at rbain@whiteinchcentre.org.uk.

Garry McLaughlin will be following up his Introduction to Comic Art classes during the summer with a short course entitled ‘How To Make Comics’ at the Centre, starting on Tuesday the 25th November.

This affordable course is designed for adults with any level of experience and will run for ten weeks, covering all aspects of comic book production from writing, to design and publication.

If you are interested in taking part, please contact him by email to comicworkshops@yahoo.co.uk

We’d like to wish everyone a very happy 2011!

We’re in the process of planning some new activities and classes at the Centre for the next few months including a new Basic IT class for absolute beginners, an IT drop-in session open to all and a new Confidence Building course.

Also in the offing for the New Year is a new course from Glasgow University.  Build on your Creative Writing skills by joining our planned script writing class.

Dates and times will be confirmed for all the above classes as soon as possible.

Please contact Ruth at the Centre to put your name down for any of the above.

Alternatively, if you have any suggestions for 2011 at The Whiteinch Centre, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we’ll see what we can do.

Following the success of the Words about Whiteinch project, we are hosting a drama project based on some of the stories.

Birds of Paradise Theatre Company is running acting workshops in the Centre every Tuesday (10am or 5pm). We are looking for actors of ages 16 and over to participate. No experience necessary! Performances will be in January 2011.

• Starting from 13th October 2010, every Wednesday evening for ten weeks, 7-9pm.
• The course costs £80 (£8 per session), and will cover a variety of topics, including the history of comics and the art of scriptwriting, moving onto the development of characters and plots into sketches and finished pages. We’ll cover colouring, lettering and publication as well.

The ten weeks will allow us to focus on practical aspects of comic creation such as panelling, perspective and anatomy of expression. We will do this in a way that means you don’t have to be an experienced artist to take part. In fact, if you’re more interested in writing comics, this course will still be of value, and you’ll learn how to build a comic before potentially pairing up with an artist to ‘co-create’. Everyone who participates will get the chance to complete their own comic – be it a three panel strip or a full one, two or three pages.

All participants are encouraged to bring along a new sketchbook and notebook in which to work; all other materials will be supplied.

To register for the course, or for further information, please contact Garry by email to comicworkshops@yahoo.co.uk