We enjoyed a spooky afternoon with our most regular entertainer…
… young Tony. Who was as popular as ever
There was the usual dancing. A couple of our new members have taken the energy level up several notches – they must be taking some very good vitamin pills!
And we volunteers joined in with a spell of seasonal silliness. It was a fun afternoon.
Following and hour of chat, quizzes & puzzles – we welcomed our first visit from Julian.
– he proved very popular indeed.
The dancers quickly joined in and soon packed the floor.
and kept going until close at 3pm. We all agreed, Julian will be welcome back next year for more of the same.
What a great day for a sing-a-long
Emma came to give us another exercise in group singing – a very popular and loud group activity.
Jamie followed-up with his West End Nights session (I’m not sure about which musical featured this outfit!)
A whirlwind of costume changes and a wide range of our favourite tunes from the musicals
There was more singing and the usual enthusiastic dancing.
Our renaissance man, David, produced his new painting of the group – and he brought three of his latest poems, one of which is to accompany the poem. You can see some of David’s work here.
Thanks, once again, to our wonderful baking ladies for their lovely cakes. Thank you also to Natasha, from the Greenwich Carers Centre, for running another group of on-to-ones with carers.
It must be autumn, Shrewsbury House had the heating on!
More next time.
Back from Butlins and popular as ever – Jamie got a round of applause before he had even started.
The outfits and performance certainly had an impact on those who had not seen him before. And we all welcomed the return of old favourites, like Doddy.
As ever, there was plenty of dancing.
Prior to Jamie’s start turn, we also welcomed back Emma, for her second singing group session. Once again, she had everyone joining in.
We were very pleased that Janice, from the Carers Centre, ran their usual advice sessions. The feedback from these has been very positive.
Angelika, Marcelline and Martin from the Greenwich Dementia Reference Group popped in to say hello (and do a little dancing).
We were very pleased to welcome Emma for the first time. She had agreed to come along and run a 30 minute singing session. We were not sure how many people would be interested – we needn’t have worried, everyone joined in – 58 people singing together for the first time and sounding awesome !
How do you follow that? With a one-man Beatles tribute. Last time Chris was singing up a storm as Elvis here, this time he pumped-up the volume for an hour of our favourite Beatles tunes.
Everyone was full of energy and the dancing started with the first tune.
Yesterday’s Reminiscence Project mystery bride was keen to join-in.
Not everyone could be in the centre of the action, but the view from the door was enough for some. And they brought two friends who provided us with some wonderful cakes – thank you again.
And thanks to Sharon, from the Carers Centre, for coming and providing advice and support to group members.
A busy session with plenty quizzes and word searches.
Tony made his second appearance in a row.
He got so excited, he broke a string.
Fortunately Pearl stepped-in with acappella versions of “Heads, shoulders, knees & toes” and “Ging-gang-gooley”.
Tony sorted out his string and we were soon back with his popular sing-and-dance-a-long.
It was good to see the recent purchase of some second hand drums being put to good use.
Thank you to Janice, from the Greenwich Carers Centre, who came along in place of Sharon and held one-to-one sessions with a few people.
It was also lovely that Caroline, from Asda, popped in for a visit.
A very hot day for everyone, and particularly for our singer Tony.
We had a very good turnout – 48 group members and 15 volunteers.
The quizzes, word searches and other brain exercises were as popular as ever.
Surprisingly, given the heat, there was lots of dancing.
We enjoyed Tony’s performance so much we have invited him back for next time.
Many thanks to Sharon, from the Greenwich Carers Centre for coming along and running a series of one-to-one advice sessions.
And we were very pleased to have a visit from our friends from the Rotary Club of Greenwich: Liz Gale (president) and Sarah Campbell (community/vocational). The Club has generously provided funds to enable us to run our Reminiscence Project.
The Mayor, councillor Mick Hayes and his wife Gillian the Mayoress came to wish us well.
Maritime Radio popped in to interview some of the attendees.
We had some relaxing chats, puzzles…
and cakes, strawberries and drinks, supplied by the wonderful Carole from Asda, Charlton.
It was all very restrained
Until our new singer, Andrew, opened the entertainment.
Then the party really started.
And everyone – including the Mayor and Mayoress – joined in.
It was good to have Sarah, one of our trustees, plus Natasha, Janice and Macie from the Carers Centre with us, helping out and dancing up a storm.
A wonderful afternoon. Thanks to everyone who came. Special thanks to our fabulous volunteers.
Today was probably the best Reflections birthday bash since this one
The Pearly Queens returned this week for entertainment and lots of photo opportunities.
It was great to have Sharon, an outreach worker, from The Carers Centre, joining in as well. As part of a new initiative with the Carers Centre, she will be coming along regularly to offer support to carers. For her first official visit she started by talking to some members of the group about carer contingency plans should they become unwell. She will be doing more of this over the coming weeks. We also had a visit from the lovely ladies from The Alzheimer’s Society, Leanne and Hannah who popped in to say hello and have a catch up with some of the group.
We started with some puzzles, quizzes, word searches, aqua painting and dominoes.
Then we moved on to a cockney knees-up with time to test our knowledge of cockney rhyming slang.
Nearly everyone knew the words, or sang along even if they didn’t.
Thank you Gwen, Pearly Queen of Royal Greenwich and Kim Pearly Queen of Woolwich for a lovely afternoon. The Pearly Queens raised £63.34 from their bucket collection from the group. A good day for everyone.
We had a big turn-out today, including two new people – they gave us some lovely feedback, which you can see on our Testimonials Page. We also welcomed our friends from the Greenwich Carers Centre who will be attending our group once each month to provide information for carers. We are pleased to have been invited to their Carers Event on 14th June.
Tony was back and he was in very good form.
Everyone seems comfortable with using two rooms in the first hour. Those in the Green Room were even more comfortable once they had rearranged the tables – we are always open to ideas from group members.
The dancers were particularly keen – and rather flexible. Here the tune was Ring of Fire and we got to the part in the song which goes: “I fell into a burning ring of fire – I went down, down, down“…
As it was Volunteers Week last week, as chair of the Reflections trustees, I was very pleased to present certificates to our regular volunteers in recognition of their excellent work. Each volunteer was given a certificate and a much deserved round of applause.
Reflections 