MariaDB why do I get error "Unknown table x in field list" when it does exist (yes, another one!)
I think this might be the answer and might help others with this problem.
I had a test trigger on the table member
 CREATE  TRIGGER `test` BEFORE UPDATE ON `member` FOR EACH ROW 
    BEGIN
     DECLARE addr VARCHAR(100);
     DECLARE        joint INT;
        SET @joint := is_joint_member(member.member_id);
        SET @addr = 'jgkjgkjg' ;
     CALL dummy2;   
    END $$

where
is_joint_member()

is a working UDF that I've used for ages and
dummy2()

is an empty, but working stored procedure just to see if I could call a proc inside a trigger. However the trigger might not be working correctly as if I alter it and comment out
SET @joint := is_joint_member(member.member_id);

then my UPDATE works OK, as it does if I drop the trigger all together.
In other words the error
Error Code: 1109 Unknown table 'member' in field list

is misleading as it does not mean that the table doesn't exist, it means that something has gone wrong with a trigger attached to the update event on that table.
Something to watch out for in future!