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!
Gyda’s card making craft
The front and inside of the card – a nice wedding craft.
Avoid the wind and rain – the sun will be back soon.
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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.
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?’
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.“
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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.
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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.
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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.
You may now nominate Reflections as your charity when you buy items on Amazon. Click herefor more information. It does not cost you (or the retailer) anything and Reflections will receive 0.5% of what you spend.
You may now nominate Reflections as your charity when you buy items on Amazon. Click herefor more information. It does not cost you (or the retailer) anything and Reflections will receive 0.5% of what you spend.
You may now nominate Reflections as your charity when you buy items on Amazon. Click herefor more information. It does not cost you (or the retailer) anything and Reflections will receive 0.5% of what you spend.
You may now nominate Reflections as your charity when you buy items on Amazon. Click herefor more information. It does not cost you (or the retailer) anything and Reflections will receive 0.5% of what you spend.
Janet couldn’t vote, but she would have picked “Something funny” – her mum playing drums – to everyone’s surprise, while on holiday.
L – played with her mum’s jewellery, rouge and lippy.
M – her Mother was a brilliant accordion player and she liked poetry.
A – his mum taught him to cook and bake cakes.
P – recalls a trip to Ramsgate on a train with the tent loaded on a pram.
J – her Mother made toffee apples and toffee onions for prizes on camping holiday sports.
P – showed a photo of her mother aged about 75 playing the piano.
M – her mum was a knitter.
C – said her mum always stuck up for her (even when faced with a motorcycle gang).
Gyda was just a blur with her speedy flower basket craft. We expect great things from the group’s homework – no pressure.
Nikki, joined us again. She recalled a special dress, pink with yellow flowers. She went out to play, forgot how special the dress was, and it was cut while playing jungles in the garden with the boys.
Lynne produced another tricky quiz. Fortunately, we have some top quizzers.
Stay home, Protect the NHS, Save lives, have a jab, and a second jab (I’ve had mine).
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Pets are popular – especially with our group – from cats to snakes via tortoises. Some unusual pet behaviour included an Alsatian that jumped over a 7 foot fence and a black cat that bit people that tried to stroke it.
Our volunteers had some very friendly looking pets, which you can see below.
We ran our usual sessions today: homework, a chat about pets, quiz, jokes, songs, dancing, craft, poem Chi ball, and a reflection reading.
Janet was a bit slow seeing some of Pearl’s joke, but eventually… saw the funny side.
Gyda had a tricky craft – making a paper tortoise (based on Lynne’s pet). She also suggested drawing, and colouring-in a tortoise.
Pearl’s showed us her friend and shared a top joke selection:
I almost forgot to show one of our top homework crafts…
Stay home, Protect the NHS, Save lives, have a jab, get ready for emerging from lockdown!
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Reflections 