Excellent lunch held at RNUC on Wednesday 22 January with over 60 attendees with guest speaker Hon Lt Men Gurung giving a fascinating talk reflecting on his life. Born in the Gorkha district of Nepal which is a big recruiting ground for the Gurkha regiment which he joined in 1986, Men served them proudly for 20 years, then on leaving his regiment subsequently settled in Aberdeen and formed the North East of Scotland Gurkha Association (NESGA) Following his presentation, through Lord Provost Barney Crocket, an Honorary Gurkha, Men presented the Lord Dean with a commemorative plaque to the Burgesses from the NESGA which was gratefully received.
Reminder below of forthcoming lunches held at RNUC. If you wish to attend please email Clerk Garry Stevens at clerk@aberdeenburgesses.com Cost is £14 and payment can be made via cheque sent to – Garry Stevens, Clerk to the Burgesses, 6 Craigarbel Crescent, Inverbervie, Montrose, DD10 0SJ or via online banking to sort code 826011, Account no 50325609 Ref Surname/Lunch.
Wednesday 5th February
Gregory King, guest speaker, lived and worked in Moscow for 3-1/2 years and then for four years travelled extensively for business in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. He continues to take a keen interest in current affairs in Russia and the cultural heritage of the country as well as the states of the Former Soviet Union. Gregory will share some of the perceptions he has formed after his extended exposure to the life and work in the country and how these might differ from some of the ideas we see in the media.
Wednesday 4th March
Neil Powers is guest speaker and will give a talk on his role with North East Rider Volunteers Scotland SCIO (NERVS)
He will be talking about the history of Blood Bikes and their inclusion in the day to day running of NHS healthcare facilities across the whole of the United Kingdom.
He will explore:
The vast array of the consignments that they carry
The slight differences in the way that they and groups south of the border operate
The never-ending challenges that every Blood Bike group face in order to provide the totally free of charge services they offer
The constant need to recruit volunteers from all walks of life
His reasons for getting such a group up and running in Grampian
Wednesday 1st April
Ian Burnett is guest speaker and he is the Bereavement Services Officer for Aberdeen City Council and have been connected with Cemeteries, Crematorium and the Public Mortuary for some 38 years. The talk will consist of a rundown of the cemeteries that the Council are responsible for and some interesting facts and history.
Wednesday 6th May
Councillor Phillip Bell is guest speaker, his talk will focus on the conversation around climate change is getting rather warm. The Paris Accord and subsequent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report of 8 October 2018 entitled ‘1.5degC global warming’ discusses a maximum carbon budget that our planet can tolerate. The report goes on to say that the reduction in green-house gases should be ‘staged’ such that by 2030 the emission of CO2 and general green-house gases has reduced by 45% on 1990 levels and that net-zero is achieved by 2050. The cost for the UK alone, producing a mere 1% of the worlds CO2 is estimated at between £1 – £2 trillion. The future is looking increasingly like it will be electric and hydrogen, the most abundant element in the Universe with an energy density of 1/3 of that of petrol or diesel, is an energy vector that is gaining much attention to help make this happen.
Wednesday 3rd June
Guest speakers are Ian Grosz/Steve Smith. Trading Faces was an independent, collaborative Social Documentary project between writer and researcher Ian Grosz, and photographer Steve Smith, which set out to document the lives of Traders at Aberdeen Market during 2018 / 2019. Initial funding to undertake the project was through an Aberdeen City Creative Funding Grant to carry out the research phase. The work was subsequently brought to exhibition through a commission by Look Again Aberdeen. Ian’s role during the project was to conduct audio-based interviews with traders to record their stories and experiences. These recordings were edited down for an audio installation, which worked alongside large-format film portraits taken by Steve Smith. The audio told individual life stories, as well as giving the public a sense of the challenges faced by traders with the market building under threat of redevelopment at a dynamic time of change in the city’s evolution, and documenting the dramatic changes to retail shopping habits seen over the last decade. Overarching contextual narrative text for the exhibition was also provided.