Category: Friends Group

Back again, by popular demand, Tony gave us another excellent afternoon of entertainment. There was plenty of singing-a-long.

 

The badge making continues – they are all individual. What a creative group of people we have!

And finally. A really big thank you to Ellie and the Thorntree school dancers for a cheque for £206 for the group and thank you Sally for collecting it from the school. We will make sure the money is spent wisely.

It’s a shame I couldn’t be there to join in the fun. I hope to see you soon.

28 Friends came along on Tuesday and by all accounts the soft archery set was a real hit. Thank you to archery coach Marc – our own Errol Flynn of Sidcup – who gave his time to come along and provide tips and guidance. By all accounts at one point there were more people watching the archery than doing anything else. We are really pleased it was so popular.

Thank you to Caroline for once again donning her bingo callers hat. Another popular activity.

A big thank you to the Reflections Team who ran the group in the absence of Janet and myself. You really are stars!

The Easter raffle was well received and raised £31 for the group. Thank you to the team members for donating the prizes.

It is encouraging to see from the feedback sheets that everyone enjoyed the group meeting. There were requests for more singing, dancing, activities and crafts so we will look into providing more of these for the group.

By request we are pleased to announce that Marc will be available again on 18th April to provide archery coaching. We have bought another bow and a couple more arrows so people should be able to have more goes.

Lastly, thank you everyone for my card and good wishes. It was very thoughtful and much appreciated.

 

We had 29 people, 8 team members plus Loren and 1 dog, lovely Bea.

 

P.A.T. dog

We thought we had a dog coming for a pat. However, the group found out Bea was no ordinary PAT dog and is a highly trained retired sniffer dog. Bea had been trained by the police to search for drugs and money. We were treated to a demonstration of her skills. She managed to find a £50 note hidden under a box with no trouble, after a little play acting to the audience. All the group patted Bea and some Friends gave her treats. Thanks to Loren for the interesting chat and bringing the lovely Bea.

Knitting and Nattering

Pearl started the all-new-knitting bee today. The aim is for each knitter to produce squares. The squares will be joined together to produce a blanket which we hope to donate to an animal charity. I asked if they could knit me a pullover, but they said they were too busy with the squares.

Thank you also to Pearl who donated a chick she had knitted, with a hidden chocolate egg in the body. We plan to hold a raffle next time and this will be one of the prizes.

Bingo

Caroline provided another entertaining game of bingo as well as donating some more bingo prizes. Thank you Caroline.  I think she has found her vocation and we are pleased this is becoming a regular feature.  Thank you also to Pearl for sewing the covers for the emery boards that Janet had bought on behalf of the group, as bingo prizes.

Badge making

Some people took part in badge making organised by Julia and Maria who cut out the badges. Those who didn’t make a badge this time, will have the opportunity to make one in future, if they wish. They are all unique and look great.

Oral history

June ran her second interview session this week. It is great to see June’s confidence in interviewing going from strength to strength. This week she interviewed Jeff. I believe they both enjoyed it. With a bit of support in the preparation it is so lovely to see what someone can achieve and is so good for their self esteem. Further interviews with other members of the group are planned.

 

See you on 4th April, when you can try out your archery skills and maybe win a raffle prize. Good luck everyone.

Today we had a great Friendship Group session at Shrewsbury House. Tony gave us another wonderful all-singing-and-dancing hour. The group singing was loud – so Tony, we think you are going to need some amplification. Lovely to see the ladies in the wheelchairs joining-in.

I blurred some faces in the picture to ensure privacy – and sorry to those whom I couldn’t squeeze in.

Good to see Kathy and Kim return. Amazing to see Kathy dance the afternoon away, even with a bad back.

32 Friends came today, plus all our lovely volunteers. Welcome to Marie, our newest team member, on her first visit – hopefully the first of many. Joan was busy elsewhere, so she volunteered to sharpen all the pencils this evening!

Thanks to Matthew for the tasty choice of food in the cafe, I certainly enjoyed my sandwich and coffee.

Hope to see you all in two weeks.