Category: Blog

We had 18 members today. Lisa welcomed everyone and announced that today was ‘World Alzheimer’s Day’

Lisa also welcomed Jamie Demetriou the son of Sotiris – one of the members. His wife Rona was away today. It was a pleasure to meet Jamie who is an English Cypriot comedian who recently won 3 BAFTA awards in his Shows – ‘Fleabag’ and well known in ‘Stath Lets Flats’

Our music entertainer Ian and Eon our exercise instructor joined early as usual before starting to meet and chat which members always appreciate. Everyone enjoyed the music and also worked hard exercising with Eon but it’s all fun at the same time. Lisa then continued with the session and today she decided to read a poem as it was ‘World Alzheimer’s Day’. This was a poem written by someone living with dementia but it was quite funny too.

Lisa then continued with a general knowledge quiz of 15 questions. Pam scored 12, Joan scored 11 and Nyla scored 10. It was then time for a joke which everyone always enjoys and finally the Bingo. Today we had 2 winners for the Bingo. Well done to Keren and Frances and also Joan.

We had 17 members today with their carers. Lisa welcomed everyone and Dr Angela one of our Trustees and also Andrew Mills a church Warden at St John’s United Reformed Church in Barnet. Lisa also wished all our Jewish members a Happy New Year ‘Shanah Tovah’ which is celebrated on Friday 18th September.

Our music entertainer James Le Bec was then ready to start and sang 2 songs before starting the music quiz. The first song which got members moving their arms to was- ‘You got the whole world in your hands’ and then followed with a Cliff Richard song called ‘Young Ones’. One of our carers held a photo up showing Laurie London (the singer who sang ‘You got the whole world in your hands’ ). The photo showed Laurie sitting at the table with them celebrating their 50th the wedding anniversary.

Members were then ready for the music quiz. Everyone is muted so that they can hear each song clip. Before James plays a few seconds of the song, Mark rolls the digital dice which appears on the screen. Members used to physically throw a giant size dice before and it was always good fun trying to get a high score. In the virtual game each time the dice is rolled this is added up to a total score at the end after the 10 music quiz questions. Our score this week was 93, unbelievably one less than last week. We might need to improve this score next week! Thank you James.

Richard Kravetz is then ready to do the Yoga with everyone which members as always enjoy. Richard then continues to do a general knowledge quiz after. Very interesting questions especially the question about who in the Beatles song ‘Penny Lane’ keeps the portrait of the Queen in his pocket. The answer was the Fireman.

Lisa thanked Richard and wished him also ‘Shanah Tovah’. Lisa then read a couple of jokes and then called out the Bingo numbers. Our Bingo winners today were Gina and Chris.

Lisa welcomed everyone at the carers group meeting and also Dr Angela one of our Trustees. It was also a pleasure to welcome Louis the grandson of one of the carers who is a student at college and is interested in medicine. It was an interesting meeting as usual and carers in turn raised their concerns and questions.

Carers asked Lisa how her meeting went with Matt Hancock and Lisa informed everyone that visiting care homes is now the decision of the local Director of Public Health and the care home. She has therefore written to the local Director of Public Health and now waiting for a response. Lisa informed everyone also the Matt Hancock said it could be early Spring next year for the vaccine. Dr Angela mentioned at this point about an interesting BBC4 radio programme presented by Jim Al-Khalili where Sarah Gilbert talks about how she and her Oxford team developed the vaccine for Covid-19 so fast.

Everyone then wanted to know whether I had any response from the CEO of Barnet Carers regarding the carers ID card. Lisa mentioned that unfortunately she still had no response but we could all raise this next week when we are joined with Cllr Sachin Rajput the Chairman of the Adults and Safeguarding committee.

One of the carers then mentioned about how devastating it is for family carers not being able to visit the loved ones in the care homes. She sent me earlier an article which was in the Observer newspaper last week which highlights how this has become a very serious mental health issue and how it denies people’s human rights. Another carer also raised how important it was to have a carers assessment which is free. Lisa mentioned that this was a good idea for any carer who needed help not only with any adaptations in the house but if carers needed to know if they were entitled to any benefits.

Some other matters of a personal nature were also discussed and Dr Angela was able to provide some advice which members were grateful.

The meeting ended with one of the carers reading a poem written by another lady carer which was quite moving.

We had 14 members today at the Lisa and Mark Karaoke session. Lisa welcomed everyone and started the Show. We had a very good mix of sing along songs which everyone enjoyed. Lisa then introduced and welcomed Sian Kenrick the music exercise instructor. Sian used to attend the Finchley Cricket Club and some members already knew her so they were delighted to see her again.

Sian had some great music and lots of interesting moves. Everyone followed with great interest especially when Sian started the Salsa moves. Sian finished off with a Frank Sinatra song called ‘When you’re smiling’ for the stretch. Thank you Sian.

Lisa then a quick short joke which everyone enjoyed and then called out the Bingo numbers. It was touch and go today when there were two balls left to call out. Marina and Andreas were the lucky winners.

We had 14 members on this very warm day today. Lisa welcomed everyone and also introduced Percy pig sitting with her which everyone liked. It was good to see some of the new members today too Zena and Maurice and Nyla and Derek.

Ian our music entertainer was ready as usual and always joins early to welcome the members too. Members love him as he is charming and funny. He played some lovely sing along songs which everyone enjoyed. Thank you Ian.

Eon who also joins early with Ian also interacts with the members before he starts the exercise to music. Eon’s salsa type music gets everyone motivated. Thank you Eon.

Lisa then takes over with the quiz. There were 2 parts to the quiz today. A picture quiz showing 10 London landmarks to name and then 6 multiple choice general quiz questions. Pam got the top score followed by Nyla and Joan. Lisa then read out 2 short jokes which members always like to hear and then called out the Bingo numbers. Today’s Bingo winner was Joan.

We had 20 members today. Lisa welcomed everyone and informed them that the last Bingo winner was Fulvia and Shannon they are the ‘Bingo 3 game’ winners as they have won 3 times. A new Bingo game will therefore be starting today – Bingo 4

Lisa welcomed everyone and also Rotarians Nandini from Rotary Club Edgware& Stanmore, Helen from Rotary Club Northwick Park and Laurence form Rotary Club Hendon. It was lovely to see our music entertainer James Le Bec with Joy especially after they couldn’t make it last week because of Wi Fi issues.

James sang a few songs to get everyone singing and then he had 10 music quiz questions. We had 2 virtual dice today spinning just before James played each music question. The last time we played this everyone scored 88 points. This would all be played whilst members were muted and then members will be un-muted to give their answers. The score again today was 88 points which was spooky. Lisa suggested we also added an extra challenge to name 10 famous people. James therefore asked everyone to think of 10 famous people whose names started with the letter P. Members did get the names and the final score was 98. Thank you James.

Richard was then ready to start and as usual everyone enjoys Yoga with Richard which is always fun. Richard then follows on with a quiz.

The first set of questions was about famous quotes and the second half of the questions was about pasta. It was interesting to learn a few things about pasta especially as no one had heard of Orecchiette pasta which is also known as ‘little ears.’

We had 6 members join this evening. Our Trustees Dr Angela and Nick and Mark were present – thank you. A few members joined just before 7pm and had already started chatting about various matters.

Lisa then welcomed everyone officially at 7pm. The first topic of conversation was about carers needing respite. The council used to be able to provide respite vouchers but it would appear that these have been suspended because of Covid-19. Lisa suggested that one of the ways to get some respite was to admit your loved one to a care home. Some of the members mentioned that they had tried asking and because of Covid-19, anyone who wants to stay at the care home has to stay for the minimum 4 weeks as the first 2 weeks they need to be isolated.

The conversation then moved on about carers emergency cards and the person who mentioned this showed her card which was provided by Barnet Carers and has a registration number on it and telephone number. This is something that carers are very anxious to have especially if there is a second wave of the virus. Nick one of the Trustees mentioned that as this was raised in previous meetings he had already put an information pack on the website about ‘medical emergencies’ which shows how to set up your phone so that someone can access your medical emergency details. Everyone was very interested to hear this and asked if they could receive a copy by email. Lisa informed everyone that she would ensure Nick sends everyone the information pack.

The conversations then moved on to more personal matters and also the problems about getting the right carers which are suitable. This was a good session. Lisa then informed everyone that she will be having a zoom meeting with the Secretary of State of Health Matt Hancock MP tomorrow to ask him about families visiting their loved ones in care home and also informed everyone that she has organised and we will be having a special visitor on the 22nd September – Cllr. Sachin Rajput who is also the Chairman of the Adults and Safeguarding committee.

We had 15 members today. Lisa welcomed everyone and reminded all about the next session on Wednesday. Lisa also informed them that Sian would have done the exercise to music today but she was unfortunately unwell and therefore organised for Richard Kravetz to cover.

The Lisa and Mark Karaoke Show today was an Italian theme. The songs chosen were requested by one of the members who unfortunately couldn’t make it today. We chose a few popular Mario Lanzo songs, ABBA, Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, Dean Martin and one of the members requested a Michael Jackson song when Michael was just 14 years old. Everyone enjoyed the variety of music.

The session then carried on with Richard. Everyone always looks forward to the Yoga sessions. Thank you Richard. Lisa then read a couple of jokes and called out the Bingo numbers. It was a double win today with Fulvia and Shannon and Keren and Frances.

We had 16 members today. Lisa welcomed everyone and reminded them about the Karaoke tomorrow and the carers meeting.

Ian James our music entertainer always joins ten minutes before he starts and enjoys chatting with everyone. Ian played some interesting music favourites that everyone liked singing along to. Thank you Ian.

Eon Walters our music exercise instructor then joined and as usual gets everyone motivated very quickly. In fact one of the ladies today had to put up her hair as she was obviously working out hard. Thank you Eon

Lisa then continued with the session and had 2 picture quizzes today. One was naming 12 European countries by their shape and the other quiz was to name 10 worldwide flags. Everyone enjoyed the challenge. Colin scored 10 and Pam 11 in both quizzes.

Lisa then read out a couple of jokes as usual and then called out the Bingo numbers. The winner today was Muriel and Ivor.

We had 24 members today with their carers. Lisa welcomed everyone and also visitors from the Rotary Club of Hendon – Laurence Winston who recently became a Rotary Honorary member. Congratulations Laurence.

Other visitors from the Rotary Club of Hendon were – Eugenia and Charlyn. It was lovely to see also Helen from the Rotary Club of Northwick Park and a pleasure to see our volunteers Melvyn and Annette and one of our Trustees Dr Angela.

Unfortunately James Le Bec was unable to join us today for music entertainment as he had no Wi Fi connection. Lisa and Mark therefore had plan B and therefore did a 30 minutes Karaoke Show which everyone really loved.

Richard Kravetz was ready to then start the Yoga exercises as soon as we finished. As usual everyone really enjoys Richard’s exercises as they feel they have worked all parts of the body. Richard then continued with a quiz and had 5 questions about James Bond movies and 5 questions about who said famous quotes. Some of the questions were quite tricky but the quiz winners today were – Pam and John, Gina and Chris, Ann and Connie and Helen and Chrystalla.

It was then time for Lisa to take over and as usual had some short jokes to read which made everyone laugh. Lisa then called out the Bingo numbers and the winner today was Sotiris and Rona. Well done to them