Category: Friends Group

A less frantic group this week. Tony played some popular tunes, with a sprinkling of livelier ones for the dancers.

He is always happy to play requests – if he knows them.

As ever, we had a session of quizzes, word-searches and jigsaw puzzles.

The new member of the group have made the dance floor their own. A few notes on the guitar and they are up and away.

The Reflections Friendship Group is next at Shrewsbury House on Tuesday, 28th September at 1pm.

If you missed the recent Forever Young Festival, you missed a treat. Reflections’ friend Jamie was there in full panto costume. Another group favourite, Emma, had her choir entertaining the audience. The Carers Centre had invited a wide variety of local groups to run stalls, including Reflections. A minor downpour didn’t dampen spirits.

Please note the Shrewsbury House car park will be closed for about two months. Street parking is available.

If you know someone who has dementia and you think might benefit from coming to the group, please contact us on 07981 741 499. Numbers are limited and many safety measures will continue to be in place.

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.

This week we had a special visitor – Mr Elvis Presley. He sang everyone’s favourite tunes and got the room singing and dancing.

Janet was keen to have a picture with himself..

Before the entertainment, we had a serious period of quizzes, wordsearches and dominoes.

Our volunteers, David, Julie and Pearl were in top form. No jokes from Pearl this week… so next time we should have a bumper offering.

Everyone was wearing their visors and there was social distancing – but Elvis still managed to generate a great atmosphere.

This time we only overran a little bit. Fortunately, the Shrewsbury House cleaning team had plenty of time to sanitise our three rooms before the evening rush.

The Reflections Friendship Group is next at Shrewsbury House on Tuesday, 14th September at 1pm.

Please note the Shrewsbury House car park will be closed for about two months. Street parking is available.

If you know someone who has dementia and you think might benefit from coming to the group, please contact us on 07981 741 499. Numbers are limited and many safety measures will continue to be in place.

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.

We had another very enjoyable afternoon. The entertainer was our favourite quick-change singer. Jamie produced another dazzling display of danceable dexterity as a star studded stable of singers.

Here is… a Beatle, Shirley Bassey and Sandie Shaw.

Caroline from Asda also popped in to say hello to the group and we took the opportunity to thank her, and Asda, for their continuing support.

Joanne managed to entice people away from their puzzles to hear about the Greenwich Ecology Park. You can find out details of the park here.

As usual, there was plenty of singing and dancing.

Marc first showed us how to use a bow and arrow in April 2017 – some of us (me) haven’t improved since then.

In addition to the group activities, here are today’s bonus recordings from Pearl and Gyda:

and

The Reflections Friendship Group is next at Shrewsbury House on 31st August at 1pm.

If you know someone who has dementia and you think might benefit from coming to the group, please contact us on 07981 741 499. Numbers are limited and many safety measures will continue to be in place.

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.

After 16 months on Zoom, we returned to Shrewsbury House. We also celebrated our 5th birthday.

Peter and Janet demonstrated the see-through visors. These enabled us to talk, sing and see each other, without problems. We had a variety of safety measure in place, including restricting numbers to half the usual room capacities and ensuring suitable ventilation.

After an hour of chatting, quizzes and birthday cake – we were ready for some entertainment.

At this point we welcomed our friends from Exeter via Zoom.

Tony was in top form. He got us singing and dancing to some great songs from the 50s, 60s and 70s.

The Carers Centre and BLG Mind will be sending representatives every 12 weeks for 1 to 1 advice sessions.

Pearl and Gyda were very popular on-line, so we plan to record regular contributions from them. Here’s today’s recordings:

and

We are very grateful to ASDA Charlton and their Community Life Champion, Caroline, for providing cakes, drinks and entertainment for today’s session.

The Reflections Friendship Group is next at Shrewsbury House on 17th August at 1pm. Numbers are limited and many safety measures will be in place.

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.

After 16 months on Zoom, we came to the last online meeting of the Reflections Friendship Group.

We had a selections of photos showing members gardens, prize blooms and vegetables. There were a lot of excellent examples. I particularly liked this rose named after our member J.

We didn’t have time for Gyda’s craft, but if we had, we would have produced a lovely flower like this.

We had a chat about our favourite crafts over the last months. C was keen on this flower (you can see a theme here).

We hope to see Nikki, in person, for the first time next week.

O told us she woke up at 3am one night and looked at this web site. She worked her way through Pearl’s jokes (in the general menu under Recordings) and really enjoyed herself.

Pearl’s songs included “Congratulations, by Cliff Richard. This was played for A&G who will be celebrating their 44th wedding anniversary. Congratulations from all of us.

Gerry is branching out! Jokes and poems – an extra special offering.

Lynne had to quickly run off for a toilet roll – so she could do ChiBall.

ChiBall is a serious matter.

The Reflections Friendship Group returns to Shrewsbury House on 3rd August at 1pm. Numbers are limited and many safety measures will be in place.

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.

A very hot day. The group spent some discussing who had sunshine, rain, thunder and/or lightning. By the end of the session, I think we had all had some of everything – except for our friends in Exeter, who just had extreme heat.

Today it was a day to remember the fun we have had on Zoom. The poll showed Pearl’s Jokes were clearly very popular – but exercise did very well too. The members said they did addition exercises outside the group to keep flexible (no-one mentioned cycling, although we have some keen cyclists in the group).

Not everyone joins in with the craft sessions, but those that do are very positive about the quick crafts. The poems “were always appropriate.  Often touching and uplifting“. The other sessions were also popular – including the Reflection reading – and the missing Quiz sessions.

The most popular was the chats. A said they brought back lots of memories covering lots of topics.  C said they provoked lots of memories. D suggested that when back at Shewsbury House we could possibly record peoples’ stories. P enjoyed the funny stories.  L enjoyed finding out about other people’s lives.

The Shrewsbury House poll speaks for itself. We look forward to being back there soon.

No Gyda this week, but we did have homework to show.

David showed us several of his paintings. We hope to see an exhibition when we return to Shrewsbury House.

Pearl’s songs were “Memories are made of this”, “Magic Moments” and  “Daydream Believer”.

Lynne always enjoys being quizmaster, but some of her questions are very tricky.

The Reflections Friendship Group returns to Shrewsbury House on 3rd August. More information coming 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.

We have put the celebrations on hold until we return to Shrewsbury House.

Today it was a day to remember summer holidays.

• C – learnt to paddle board in Greece. Recently also on Romney Marsh Lake. She’s hoping to do more maybe at Danson Park. 
• G&M – had a coach trip to Scotland and became friends with a couple from South Africa. They flew to South Africa where they had a wonderful time and went on safari for 5 days. 
• L – in Ireland with a friend going on holiday to Turkey. They had to drive to Belfast, but her friend went the wrong way and then nearly ran out of petrol!
• C – when young, her brother broke his leg falling off a wall just as they were about to go on holiday. They didn’t drive at that time as her Dad worked on the railway. It was a bit of a palaver getting to Butlins and then they all caught a tummy bug. She has never been again.
• R – paid 61 euros for a trip to the Blue Lagoon and he was the only one there.
• A&G – had a relaxing holiday last week in Cornwall.

Gyda – holidaying in Egypt riding camels and quad bikes in the desert as well as visiting the pyramids. 

Gyda had rays of sunshine for our craft today.

Janet had us singing and dancing to “Summer Holiday” by Cliff Richard, “Is this the way to Amarillo” by Tony Christie & “Ring of Fire” by our man Tony.

Gerry is always keen to give us an appropriate poem.

Lynne is always the consummate quizmaster.

Plans are in development for our return to Shrewsbury House.

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 Prime Minister said on Monday that he expected the final step of the lockdown roadmap would go ahead as planned on 19 July. This will be confirmed on 12 July, after a review of the latest data.

Janet asked the group what they thought about returning to Shrewsbury House next month. The view of the group, including volunteers, was that this would be a welcome move, but everyone would like to feel safe. Janet said that she would be leading a risk assessment and would come back to the group with ideas for how the re-start could be managed. Any further views/ ideas/ comments/ concerns would be welcome.

Group members had been busy again this week. David had ventured overseas (north of the Thames) to enable him to paint this picture of our side of the river. Others had been meeting family and friends, as restrictions have eased. Most people had managed to keep gardening (more on that in coming weeks).

Gyda had another very quick craft, cats on a wall. G seems to have finally found a craft I might be able to do.

The homework had been popular, our members obviously like butterflies.

Pearl had us singing and dancing to “Don’t treat me like a child” by Helen Shapiro Green and “Green grass of home” by Tom Jones.

I’m not sure if Dot and Jen were reacting to Pearl’s jokes or the tricky quiz from Lynne.

Lynne apologised for the difficulty of the questions, but explained that Janet had found the quiz (!).

We hope to be back at Shrewsbury House soon(ish).

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.

• P & G said George Clooney and not for the coffee!
• P has a photo taken with George at Madam Tussauds.
• J said Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe
• M also said Frank Sinatra
• R said Brunel and King Kala 
• G saw JFK coming past in a motorcade when he was working in a hardware store in 1963. JFK was wearing a blue suit with sparkles in it. [You can see JFK & G in the picture here] He would also like dinner with Pope Paul the second. 
• J2 idol was Robert Mitchum, she sent away for a signed photo of him. She liked all his films.
• C & D both said Nelson Mandela and would ask What it felt like to be free?
• D also sat next to Jack Charlton on a train going up north. 
• D2 is not a dinner person but taught Chris Eubank
• A thinks Nelson Mandela is an inspirational person. He has met Wayne Sleep, Michael Ball and Judy Dench when he was working security at the National Theatre.
• J2 went to the toilet at the Orchard Theatre and Judy Dench was in there at the same time.
• J3 met Prunella Scales at the theatres.
• P has Michael Aspel autograph
• J3 saw Acker Bilk at the Barbican.
• G saw Kriss Akabusi when he came to school to do a presentation.
• Mary saw Kenneth Moore at Wembley
• G2 met Linda Lusardi (but his head was cut off in the picture M took)
• G saw met Paul McCartney and Billy Fury.
• J2 met Steve Davis before he was born, as his mother was having him just a few hours before J2 had her daughter. M also had a photo taken with Steve Davis
• D2 met 3 Prime Ministers- James Callaghan Tony Blair and Boris Johnston
• M2 – liked Alan Ladd, but didn’t meet him
• D & J met Jean Alexander on a cruise and the Osmonds at a concert in the US.

As summer has arrived, Gyda had us making butterflies.

Pearl then had us singing and dancing.

Gyda engaged us in more Chi Ball [you can find out a bit more about ChiBall here].

We look forward to seeing Tony when we return to Shrewsbury House.

Another sunny 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.

Everyone had difficulties in their childhood, but they all would prefer to have had their experiences, than be a child now.

• L – remembers children playing football outside her house ‘There were gangs of us’
• D – his older brother looked after him. His big brother cut his leg near the Dutch House and was taken to hospital, leaving David behind. He found his way home and had blackberry pie at his neighbours  house. Also walking through Greenwich to Deptford Creek, there was a factory which the boys went in to mess about in but David decided to go home he was only about 9 years old. He said ‘ we did what we liked’
• C –  her brother was paid six pence to walk C to school. But he never did. He also jumped into the deep end of a swimming pool (he couldn’t swim) and had to be rescued by the lice guard. Their Mum was  not best pleased. He was just showing off.
• D2 – went out with his mates getting into trouble. Now we wrap them in cotton wool. If we did something wrong then someone would tell your mum or dad.
• J – we wouldn’t back chat an older person. If you complain to parents nowadays, you just get abuse back. Now there’s always someone there to keep an eye on the children.
• L – used to go to Epping Forest to catch sticklebacks – it was near a weir. 
• J2 – was evacuated to a village near a farm when she was about 6 years old. She had a lovely  time.
• J3 – was 5 years old in 1934 and spent all the war years away from home. She didn’t have a very good time Her brother looked after her. They had to work hard on the farm.

We are almost able to attend events…

Gyda had a very, very, quick craft. You draw a dandelion (in any colour) and make a wish.

Pearl’s tunes were: “Roaring Twenties medley” and “Lucky Lips” (Alma Cogan version). 

We were very pleased to have Gerry back – he helped out by reading the poll questions, a well as reading “Our younger years”.

We listed to the group song: “Three little birds”, as sung by Tony Martin.

Another jolly 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.