Category: Friends Group

Such a simple subject, but it turned out there was lots to talks about.

We had a poll about favourite colours. The results were: 1. Blue 2. Red & Green. This was a bit odd, as we had asked everyone to wear clothes in their favourite colour – and there was clearly a love of pink. One member explained that, downstairs, the inside of her house was predominantly a tasteful green. Others chipped-in with comments on how they also liked green. We may have to review our voting system!

The homework was popular. Gyda is so pleased people are taking time to work on her crafts and produce some excellent results using basic bits and pieces.

It’s great to have this venue available again. We anticipate our members will be popping down in the coming weeks. Their website is due for an update, but you can find some information here.

Gyda’s craft was creating a flower and a bee from paper. Very simple, very quick, very popular.

Pearl’s tunes were:  “I can sing a rainbow”, “Yellow rose of Texas” and “Hi ho silver lining”. I believe Pearl’s home must be full of fun, she has hundreds of jokes and a ready selection of top tunes. We hope she will not be spending too much time at her local gym, now that has reopened – the group need her input.

Lynne’s quiz was about The Colour Green. Did you know the reason for wearing green on St. Patrick’s day is that legend has it leprechauns can’t see you if you’re wearing the colour. And if they do see you, they will pinch you!

Janet, who is not old, does like to wear purple.

It was difficult to fit in all the pictures in the Show and Tell session, but Janet managed it

David showed us a couple of his recent excellent paintings. I suspect he is running out of wall space to display them (we have two hanging in our house, while the group is not meeting in person).

Watch out for the sunshine… it is coming.

I always end with a reminder about how our charity can benefit from your purchases on Amazon. This week Reflections received its first payment from Amazon – a small amount – but thank you to those of you who have registered us on their system, it all helps us run our groups.

You may now nominate Reflections as your charity when you buy items on Amazon. Click here for more information. It does not cost you (or the retailer) anything and Reflections will receive 0.5% of what you spend.

Some people may be flying off to Portugal, but we were happy talking about the seaside in the UK. That is apart from our member who comes from Portugal, and used to live near a really lovely beach.

I was rather sad that ‘The sea‘ and ‘Donkeys‘ weren’t more popular.

In the the “Other” category… C – enjoys playing cricket and picnics and making sand sculptures. She used to take her horse to the seaside. J – likes paddling, collecting shells and the sea food stall. She used to go cockling and took them back to the caravan for her Mum to cook.

Gyda invited us to draw a list of seaside items. The speed of the session resulted in enthusiastic doodling rather than artistic masterpieces – here is Pearl’s effort. I love it!

Gyda’s Letter craft – wrapping the paper letter in coloured paper or wool.

Next was “Yes” or “No” quiz time…

Lynne’s quiz was tricky, as usual. No answers here – these are the easy questions.

Pearl’s tunes were: “Oh I do like to be beside the seaside” and “Walking back to happiness“. 

While the group was on we had sunshine and showers – a good day to stay in on Zoom.

Our conversations ranged from growing seeds to Shove Ha’penny boards – not forgetting our couple who had just featured on’Songs of Praise’. A range as eclectic as ever.

Keep safe and keep healthy.

You may now nominate Reflections as your charity when you buy items on Amazon. Click here for more information. It does not cost you (or the retailer) anything and Reflections will receive 0.5% of what you spend.

The full title of the session was “Things you did as a child that you wouldn’t do as an adult”.

As usual, we had a pole. This time we found there were a lot of thing our group members would not be doing now:

In the ‘Other’ category we had: J climbed a long rope after a gym lesson when the teacher had left. She wasn’t supposed to, and found it was very dirty towards the top, the dirt attached to her clothes and she wasn’t popular when she got home. – C was a good climber, but doesn’t climb trees anymore. – M was a tomboy, climbing anything especially if she was dared. When 8 months pregnant (in her twenties) she climbed a tree to cut some branches down. And, when playing blind mans buff she hit the bridge and fell 6 to 8 feet onto a field, luckily she didn’t fall in the nearby rocky river.

Last week’s card making had proved very popular a homework. Here are a few examples:

Not to be outdone, Gyda showed us how to make a simple picture frame out of a single pice of paper. Simple!

Another successful 5 minute craft.

Lynne’s quiz was tricky, but Team Dot & Jen managed to get 10/10.

A few of us admitted to having been Cub/Scouts/Brownies/Guides/Adventure Scouts. Only David had the photographic evidence:

The group told us a few stories, which gave the impression, when young, they had a problem with authority. Rebels!

We all look forward to the further easing of restrictions and Boris telling us we can hug again.

You may now nominate Reflections as your charity when you buy items on Amazon. Click here for more information. It does not cost you (or the retailer) anything and Reflections will receive 0.5% of what you spend.

Some things run smoothly, some don’t…

There was quite a bit of coming and going today. It seems more hospital appointments are happening. There are also more care home visits. Good news.

Janet asked people to think about the possibility of the group returning to Shrewsbury House in a few months time. We would need to do risk assessment and fit-in with the Community Centre’s guidelines. We will see how the government’s advice develops and members views.

Nikki, from BLG Mind, popped-in for a while. Good news: she has been promoted. I think this means she has even more work to do!

The front and inside of the card – a nice wedding craft.

Pearl’s tunes were “Chapel of love” and “Get me to the church on time”.

I’m sure you know all the answers. Our group thought this was a bit more difficult than Pearl’s quiz last week – no one got full marks.

Avoid the wind and rain – the sun will be back soon.

You may now nominate Reflections as your charity when you buy items on Amazon. Click here for more information. It does not cost you (or the retailer) anything and Reflections will receive 0.5% of what you spend.

Always a popular discussion topic, and today we had a very good chat:

D – was in digs and then sofa surfing. 

J – bought their own house, in Charlton, which was unusual at that time. They had a cooker but no stair carpet. Then had their first baby.

M – left home to come to England in 1962. She lived in Forest Gate until she got married in 1974 moving to Plumsted, then Abbey Wood.

R – at age 15 had to leave the homes he had been living in with no money and no clothes to a hostel in east London. Then in 1951 he went into the army. 

O & L – L still in the same house. O left home at 12 to look after children. The parents thought she was 15/16. She stayed for 3 years just looking after the children. There was a housekeeper and a cook. She still keeps in touch with them. 

P – lived in a flat at the top of a house, then to Maidstone with first husband, who went off with someone, so she went back home to Bromley in the flat upstairs. Then she met P 

M – came from Yorkshire in wartime to London and have lived where they are now and across the road from where her parents lived. 

G & M – lived next door to each other before they were married. Then they moved to Surrey then Barnfield Gardens for 42 years and now they live in Maidstone. They married in 1969

G – moved down to London from Liverpool to teacher training college. Lived in halls of residence and digs. 

Gyda showed us a simple way to build your own home – at a very low cost.

And we had Gyda’s Zentangle homes.

Pearl’s tunes were The Bay city rollers – “Bye Bye Baby” (RiP Les McKeown), Tom Jones “Green green grass of home” and John Denver “Take me home country road”. 

Pearl was also today’s quiz master. Here are some sample questions: ‘What do you respond when someone says “See you later alligator?”‘; ‘What is a baby goat called?’; and How many tentacles do octopuses have?’

Back to our favourite fitness fan…

and straight into…

Keep fit, well and chilled.

We are interested to see the Oscar winning film ‘The Father’: “Led by stellar performances and artfully helmed by writer-director Florian Zeller, The Father presents a devastatingly empathetic portrayal of dementia.“

You may now nominate Reflections as your charity when you buy items on Amazon. Click here for more information. It does not cost you (or the retailer) anything and Reflections will receive 0.5% of what you spend.

Everyone had examples of today’s theme.

Knock-down ginger was worryingly popular (more people admitted to doing this, after the poll). Some played card games. We had a picture of a boy playing Gudu – which is a mix of cricket and baseball. People remembered playing on bomb sites and having gas lights.

Some of the games resulted in injuries and trips to the hospital: a mum told us about her daughter (sitting next to her) “she was very naughty and was always getting hurt”. ‘A’ remembers breaking his wrist playing with clackers. Another member had 7 teeth out in hospital – went outside and bumped into a lamppost.

Gyda showed us a simple way to make interesting images from just a few pieces of paper, otherwise known as Tangrams.

Lynne was on quiz-master duty.

Pearl showed us her clackers.

It’s good to have Gerry back every week with his choice of poems.

Chi Ball with Gyda was a gentle few minutes of stretches.

Keep fit and healthy.

You may now nominate Reflections as your charity when you buy items on Amazon. Click here for more information. It does not cost you (or the retailer) anything and Reflections will receive 0.5% of what you spend.

Another popular topic. We chatted about lots of familiar programmes – and agreed that watching ‘Line of Duty’ is very stressful.

‘A’ is a clearly a discerning fellow – Patrick McGoohan played a fiercely independent man in both series: “I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own.”

Gyda’s craft was a 3D TV!

Lynne’s quiz had us scratching our heads as usual.

Pearl’s tunes were: “Wonderful World” and The Seekers, “Georgie Girl”. 

Chi Ball with Gyda – popular as ever.

Keep well,

You may now nominate Reflections as your charity when you buy items on Amazon. Click here for more information. It does not cost you (or the retailer) anything and Reflections will receive 0.5% of what you spend.

Group members have regularly told us about their favourite pop stars. Today we added a new band to the list: Iron Maiden! – something of a departure from our usual jolly pop people.

Trees were in blossom again…

Gyda showed us a quick and very effective tree craft.

Lynne produced another top quality quiz.

Pearl’s tunes this week were: “Good Company” by Alma Cohan, Manfred Mann “Do Wa Diddy Diddy” and “Living Doll” by Sir Cliff Richard.

Chi Ball with Gyda fired-up everyone. Then she calmed us down…

Gyda’s shoes were very popular…

Keep safe and healthy.

You may now nominate Reflections as your charity when you buy items on Amazon. Click here for more information. It does not cost you (or the retailer) anything and Reflections will receive 0.5% of what you spend.

As ever, the group came up with some interesting thoughts.

We discussed the results in more detail and there were a few regrets that came out.

It looks like some of our members will be busy doing new things soon.

Gyda’s craft focused on Easter rabbits.

Lynne produced an Easter quiz.

Pearl’s tunes for this week were “I did it my way”, “Any dream will do” and “Rivers of Babylon”.

Chi Ball with Gyda was out exercise for today.

You may now nominate Reflections as your charity when you buy items on Amazon. Click here for more information. It does not cost you (or the retailer) anything and Reflections will receive 0.5% of what you spend.

Teachers – everyone had a story…

The group told us their experiences with teachers…

There were more stories of nasty violent teachers, but let’s move on…

Peal’s tunes this week included: “Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah” and “Wonderful World”.

Gyda had a chick themed craft.

Lynne had a quiz.

Gyda had more Chi Ball then…

We were delighted David had been painting again:

Another jolly Tuesday afternoon.

You may now nominate Reflections as your charity when you buy items on Amazon. Click here for more information. It does not cost you (or the retailer) anything and Reflections will receive 0.5% of what you spend.