Category: Blog

We had a very busy session today with 29 members. Lisa & Mark started the 2pm Karaoke session which everyone enjoyed and then everyone was happy to chat for 30 minutes before the next part of the programme.

Lisa welcomed everyone and also the new members. Our music entertainer Ian was away today as he had a work interview and will be moving on unfortunately with other work so he introduced Lisa to a new singer.

Lisa introduced Katie Paine a new singer who was absolutely amazing and she was a great hit with all the members. She played some music which got members dancing in their seats. The session then continued with chair exercises with Eon and as usual Eon had some lovely music which got everyone happily working out.

Lisa then continued with the session with a general knowledge quiz and then Lisa read out some jokes which everyone loves and lastly called out the Bingo numbers. The Bingo winners today were Stephen and Brenda.

We had 24 members today. Lisa welcomed everyone and started the Lisa & Mark Karaoke Show. At 2.30pm it was then the meet and chat time which everyone always enjoys. James Le Bec then joined us to start the music entertainment and also sang a tribute song for Des O’Connor who recently passed away. James then started the music quiz and today James decided to play a few seconds of the song and gave 3 possible answers which made it more interesting and everyone really preferred it. Of course the digital dice are still also thrown which makes it also exciting scoring points.

The session the continued with Yoga with Richard Kravetz and today there was a lovely surprise towards the end when Richard played ‘Staying Alive’ from the film Saturday Night Fever. Everyone really enjoyed the moves. Richard then continued with a general knowledge quiz with 10 questions and the quiz winners today were Keren and Pam and Janice.

Lisa then continued with reading a joke which everyone enjoyed and then called out the Bingo numbers. The winner today was Sandra and Laurie.

We had 18 members this evening. Lisa welcomed everyone including Mike Rich from Barnet Carers Centre. Lisa first started to talk about the Forum which is being organised to discuss ‘Visiting in care Homes’ and summarised the reason for the forum. Lisa then asked Mike to brief everyone about the forum. Mike informed everyone that he has been having meetings with the council and is still trying to confirm who will be attending at the forum. There are 4 care home providers who have agreed to attend so far also.

Mike said that he would confirm with Lisa.

Lisa then continued the session and first raised how Cllr Sachin provided responses to some of the concerns raised in previous weeks and members confirmed they were happy. One of the concerns was about Barnet carers cards and as Mike was at the meeting he was able to respond and inform everyone that he was happy to provide Carers emergency cards to anyone living in Barnet. A form would need to be completed however for members to register as carers. Mike said that he would email Lisa the form. Some of the other discussions this evening was about;

• The difficulties in other neighbouring Boroughs applying for Blue badges for someone living with dementia.
• How to get access to priority supermarket deliveries
• Why Non Paid Carers are not ranked the same as Carers in Care Homes to receive the Covid-19 Vaccine. One of the members also mentioned that he will be attending the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency ‘MHRA’ patient group meeting tomorrow and he will be raising the question about vaccinating carers.

Lisa also informed everyone that she has organised 2 visitors to attend the carers meetings. On the 24th November Dr Paresh Malhotra who is a consultant neurologist will talk about dementia and his ongoing research and latest drug trials. On the 1st December an Admiral Nurse will be attending – Mr Alan McVitty and he will be attending with 2 other colleagues from the Barnet Memory Service.

This was as usual a good meeting and everyone thought the meeting was very informative.

We had 24 members today and everyone was looking forward to the Karaoke session. Lisa welcomed everyone and then started the Show. There were a couple of special requests which Lisa always takes from members and tries to include in the Show and this makes members very happy. The session then continued with Sian with chair exercises to popular music which gets everyone moving as members sing along. It was lovely at the end when Sian always plays ‘When you’re Smiling’ as she also brought her son Owen who is 10 years old to also participate. Members thought Owen was so sweet and liked that.

Lisa then read a couple of jokes which everyone enjoyed listening to and then called out the Bingo numbers. Today’s winner was Jo Alaimo, Grazia and Enzo.

We had 26 members today. We decided after popular demand from members to do a Karaoke Show on Monday and Wednesday too. This means that we start at 2pm promptly with the Lisa & Mark Karaoke Show until 2.30pm. Then we have a break for 30 minutes for the chat session as usual and then the normal programme starts at 3pm again. We were not sure how many would attend at 2pm but there were a good number and everyone enjoyed it. Lisa will formerly make the changes by email to everyone.

Lisa welcomed everyone and also congratulated Aarandale Manor Care Home who were in the local Times newspaper recently for getting a ‘GOOD’ CQC rating. Lisa also announced sadly the loss of another of our members Michael Epstein.

The session then started with Ian James who is always great fun and interacts with everyone. Eon Walters then continued with the exercises to music and gets everyone working out in their own pace. No one falls asleep in Eon’s sessions!

Eon then finished with some Greek exotic cool down music which members also enjoyed. Lisa then took over with a short True or False quiz. The quiz winners with the highest score was Stephen and Brenda. Lisa then continued by reading a couple of jokes and then called out the Bingo numbers. The Bingo winners today was Helen and Chrystalla.

We had 24 members today. It was also lovely to see our volunteers Annette and Melvyn. Lisa welcomed everyone and then James was ready to start the session. After a few songs however James had some technical issues today for 10 minutes and therefore Lisa rescued the situation by playing a couple of songs from the Lisa & Mark Karaoke Show. James then took over again and all was well.

Richard then continued with the Yoga exercises which everyone enjoys and then he also does a quiz. Today’s quiz was to name the artist and the title of the song from the lyrics. Richard had to hum a couple of the lyrics to give a bit of a clue. It was great fun and our winners today were Gina and Chris and Pam and John.

Lisa then called out the Bingo numbers and today’s winners were Keren and Frances.

We had 20 members this evening and we also had one of our Trustees Valerie and we also had a visitor from Carlton Court Care Home – Andrew Wrench –Community Development Manager.

Lisa first started by welcoming everyone and said that whilst we were going to try out some ‘breakout’ sessions, she informed everyone about her previous meeting and how the Zoom ‘breakout’ sessions just didn’t work and people were getting lost. Lisa mentioned that this was something that needed to be looked at further and tried at a later date especially as she had some updates to deliver.

Lisa first mentioned that after her Council Health Board meetings today regarding the up to date infection rate in Barnet, she was pleased to report that the infection has gone down but we still need to be very careful. Lisa also mentioned about a new COVID strain from Denmark derived from mink that have re-infected humans. This also applies the same in Italy and therefore the UK Borders are now closed so that there is no risk of this new strain entering the UK.

The new vaccine that has been recently developed from Pfizer and BioNTech would probably not have any effect on the new strain. Lisa mentioned that it is certainly good news that there is finally a vaccine that may be ready by the end of December and Councils are preparing for sites so that people can attend and be vaccinated. The vaccine will be delivered in 2 doses and it is important during the doses that people continue to be very careful until the body has had time to develop the antibodies.

Lisa then continued to inform everyone about a search that can be made on Google ‘A Break from caring – Barnet Council’ and from this search everyone can find different information that has been discussed in previous weeks. Everyone made a note about this. This led to other questions raised from everyone on the various topics and Andrew from Carlton Court was also able to respond to some of the concerns raised by members.

It was also mentioned by everyone in the meeting how much they really enjoy the Lisa & Mark Karaoke Show and how this has made a huge difference to their loved ones being able to singalong. In fact it was requested to have more sessions of the same if possible.

This was a very interesting meeting and everyone fed back how helpful the meeting was.

We had 21 members today. Lisa welcomed everyone and then started the Lisa & Mark Karaoke session. Members are really enjoying this and so much good feedback is being received to say that even the most progressed of members with dementia are enjoying to read the lyrics and singalong.

Lisa then changed the order a little today and called out the Bingo numbers after the karaoke as she had another meeting she needed to go to at 4pm. Today’s Bingo winners were Stephen and Brenda.

The session then followed with Sian who does the exercises with the members. Everyone really enjoy exercising with Sian as she has a different twist to what she does which also includes some line dancing and salsa for those who want to. Mark who had to take over to close the session wished everyone a happy rest of the day and reminded them of the carers session later and the session tomorrow.

We had 25 members today and it was lovely to welcome again Lawrence from Rotary Club Hendon, Christine from Rotary Club Roding and Sheila from Rotary Club Golders Green. Lisa announced sadly the loss of one of our members Ella. She did in fact come to our zoom session 2 weeks ago to visit and it was so lovely for all the members to see her and Ella was also very happy to see friends. Everyone was very sad to hear that she passed away.

Ian our music entertainer was ready with a new improved sound system today and also played some Motown music which everyone really enjoyed. Eon our exercise instructor then followed and surprised everyone with some Greek music to start with for the warm up and then followed on also with some Motown music which was great to exercise to.

Lisa then did a quick picture quiz asking members to see if they could recognise from the pictures what the horror film was called. This was a bit challenging and members needed some clues. It was still fun though. Lisa then called out the Bingo numbers and todays winners were Muriel and Ivor.

Lisa was unable to take the meeting today as she had a family emergency, Mark ran the session which run smoothly ending with Bingo and the winners today were Karin and Corrado.