First jobs – 20th October 2020

The group asked for a session about First Jobs, so that is what we chatted about today.

But, before we started on the discussions, Janet shared an optical illusion. You might like to consider this picture for a while. There was some discussion about a mysterious mushroom in the picture, or was it a dubious haircut? You can choose.

We had another guest speaker this week:

Iuliana spoke about the work that the members of the Commissioning Group is doing in the Borough. She intends to keep in touch with Reflections, and increase the information sharing and networking of groups across Greenwich

We then moved onto the group discussions. Our group said they had all started working between the ages of 14 and 18. With some probing, we found that several had been working when younger – unpaid, for their parents or as a paper-round. Once they started paid work, not all of them stuck in one job for long.

The group had a variety of jobs. Hairdressing was popular with the ladies. We found we had quite a few teachers in the group. One of those was Gyda, who had another craft for us.

Gyda’s craft was making a simple Tree on paper. You can then write in the things you are grateful for. You choose what period the tree covers – it could be one each day. After a while you may look back and might be pleasantly surprised how much you had to be grateful for. Gyda explains more here:

Your photographer took a rather urgent phone call at this point, so may have missed some of the highlights (such as round one of Pearl’s jokes). It appeared everyone managed without me for a short while.

David’s reminiscence struck a chord with all of us.

Pearl’s jokes have become a focal point of the sessions. She seems to have an endless supply of rib tickling quips.

Pearl insisted we sing some up-beat songs, including YMCA. We were pleased to see lots of singing and dancing.

Roxana announced she was changing jobs. This would be her last appearance with us. Roxana has been working with Reflections, both on behalf of the Alzheimer’s Society and more recently with BLG Mind. We thank here for her work and support – and for joining in the fun (even while abroad!)

We had more singing later with Tony’s version of “3 little birds”.

The clocks are going back as winter draws on. Halloween is on its way… next time

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