Author: admin

In today’s session Kevin played Family Fortunes with the members as last time which they all enjoyed and also in addition played another quiz naming the song title and artist from a line in a song.

This was quite challenging but fun. Lisa then did exercises and some singing and some members got up to dance. This then followed with some poetry reading and then the usual activities and feed back session.

Members enjoyed talking about their Easter break and family experiences.

Thank you to Kevin our volunteer for taking the first part of the session. It was lovely to see our nurse Karen today who interacted with members and took some blood pressures. Thank you to our volunteer Melvyn for helping out in the session and also to James one of the carers for helping out today.

This was our first session after the official launch on 13th March. For this session Malcolm the manager of Stephens House and Gardens gave a presentation about the history of Stephens House and Gardens. He gave a very interesting talk with a slide show and also presented on a table several items of memorabilia of the original owner of the house. He also spoke about a statue of Spike Milligan who is sitting on a bench in the gardens and people from around the world come and get their photo taken with ‘Spike’.

This was also our first Outreach session with our partners from Barnet Carers. Maivel attended for this session accompanied with our own Dementia Club UK Dr Angela. This enabled carers to have a private chat with either Maival or Dr Angela which proved very successful.

Lisa thanked Malcolm and also mentioned to everybody that the Mayor of Barnet’s recent Civic Awards, Andy Savage was recognised for his service to the Avenue House Estate Trust and friends of Stephens House and Gardens. He secured funds through grants and fund raisers.

The session followed with Moshe entertaining which everyone enjoyed including activities in one part of the room where some of the men enjoyed playing golf and darts.

My thanks go to the Rotary volunteers, Valerie, Jeff, Michael, Stephen and Kuljit and also to regular volunteers Theresa and Dr Angela. We would like to thank Risson for his continued help setting up and serving the tea and coffee to members.

In this session members enjoyed painting Easter eggs. They were provided with a kit which included sequins, felt shapes paints and coloured felt tip pens. Members were given the choice to decorate their eggs and take them home, do nothing and take the eggs home to eat or try to hit their eggs with another person to see who the winner is. This is the tradition for the Greek Cypriot Easter.

The winner in this challenge was James.

The session then followed with Tai Chi with Egon and then some singing and dancing and our usual feedback session at the end and jokes.

Stephen Rabin a volunteer gave a short talk to the members about the Jewish Festival of Passover. He explained that it occurs around the same time as the Easter festival each year. The talk explained that the festival was to commemorate the departure by the Israelites from Egypt as told in the Old Testament of the Bible.

The festival which lasts 8 days is marked, on the evening before the first day, by a religious service at home called a Seder which in Hebrew means Order. All Jews around the world would conduct the service in the same way, hence Order, and the service would conclude with a meal. It was also explained that during the 8 day festival Jews are not permitted to eat food where yeast has been allowed to rise.

During the talk a Seder Plate was shown which is usually used during the service. It is often decorated with motifs where the 6 items used during the the Seder service are placed.

The festival ends on the evening of the eighth day when it is again permitted to start to eat leavened items such as bread.

Everyone enjoyed dancing to James Le Bec musical entertainment and celebrated Marina and Andreas 55 years wedding anniversary. Session followed with activities as usual – Table tennis, darts and golf and singing

Today’s session started with a short talk and introduction of our volunteers from the Japan Society, Mrs Kyoko Delaforce, Mrs Hisako Fukushige, Mrs Naomi Ishikawa, Mrs Hiroko Tanaka, Mr Shigeo Tanaka and Mrs Naoko Heckle of the Society. Our special guest, Mr Michael Hodge, incoming Rotary District Governor of London was welcomed and he expressed his pleasure to be with us.

This was followed by rajio taiso, (radio exercise ) a mild warm-up exercise which improves circulation and flexibility, energises and improves overall health. Members joined the volunteers from the Japan Society, London in the exercise.

Next was the demonstration of origami, the Japanese art of folding paper into decorative shapes and this art has been found to stimulate the brain, improves cognitive skills and has overall therapeutic benefits. Again, members were engaged and produced helmets which they placed on their heads in excitement.

A presentation on Japanese lifestyle and culture was made by Mrs Delaforce and then members were dressed in Kimonos, the Japanese cultural attire. This part of the session was followed by exercises, singing and dancing as usual. 

Many thanks to Annette for organising today and thank you to our volunteers Tija, Theresa and our new volunteer Darica who is doing a medical degree and of course appreciation to Ms Hiroko Kimura, Head of Education Department, the Japan Society for coordinating the volunteers and Abi Ajoni for helping with the equipment and power point presentation.

The Time Series of Newspapers did an article on the Japanese day, click on the image below to read.

Today was an arts and crafts session.

I showed members how to make flowers out of pink tissue paper and I also showed them how to make a boat out of paper. All members enjoyed making these and using colours to paint their boats.

The members were then asked to talk about a happy/sad or interesting event from their past. We heard some interesting stories.

The session then followed with exercise to music. As a change I played some reggae music which was really enjoyed. We did our usual singing/dancing which then followed by activities. I introduced a new game today – bowls which members enjoyed in addition to the table tennis and golf putting.

The session finished with a couple of jokes.

Thank you to Theresa our volunteer for helping today.