Category: Blog

Lisa welcomed visitors and residents of Carlton Court whist they were enjoying their teas/coffees and wonderful cakes . As the music entertainer Aaron was getting ready, Lisa started a sing song with everyone to get them warmed up. Everyone likes to hear She’ll be Coming around the mountain’ and ‘Que Sera Sera’

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Aaron then played some music favourites which got everyone smiling and some singing and dancing. This of course included the carer staff.

The music quiz is another favourite for everyone especially as they get to throw the dice. A lot of cheating to try and get a six but no one minds! It’s so much fun. After the music, visitors and the residents had the opportunity to try our fabulous interactive game table.

“A good laugh and a cuppa are the two best cures for anything”

Our Dementia Club UK Outing to the Mikie Driver Variety lunch and show at the Wood Green Social Club was a great success on 14th February – Valentine’s Day.

It didn’t matter that the weather was cold and horrible as all the members had a very enjoyable time. Another group was expected but there was a problem and unfortunately they didn’t turn up. This didn’t matter however as it became a private Show for Dementia Club UK.

We first had lunch which was delicious. The slices of beef were generous and lots of gravy with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and peas and carrots. The additional condiments were also served – horseradish and mustard. The vegetarian option was also equally delicious. For pudding the chef made homemade cherry pie with custard which again was really delicious and lots of clean plates. On a cold day like today this was a very comforting lunch. Compliments to the Chef.

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The Show then started and Mickie introduced Jackie Simmonds who was very glamorously dressed. Her duty during the afternoon was being the sound engineer but Mickie also told us the Jackie used to be a ‘tiller girl’ – she posed at the London Palladium on a revolving stage on Sunday evenings. Jackie then gave us a demonstration.

Mickie then started singing some musical favourites and was also joined with Annie Riley who had a love hearts dress on and sang beautifully. Everyone was singing and some members also were up dancing.

During the short interval the bar was open for anyone who wanted to buy any drinks and also ice creams. The ice creams were a real treat. The Show then resumed with a comedian – Bob Curtiss who made us all laugh with various jokes.

He was then followed by Mike Marandi who was absolutely amazing singing more musical favourites and also singing a couple of songs in Italian which pleased our Italian members.

A very enjoyable afternoon and big thanks to Mickie Driver and the other entertainers. We were sad to hear that the Wood Green Social Club which has been there for many years will unfortunately be closing soon as developers will be building housing on the site.

A very busy session today. As Valentine Day is in a couple of days, Lisa decided to decorate the tables with red tablecloths and each table had a vase of yellow tulips and red petals.

Members were delighted to see the beautifully decorated tables as they arrived. Lisa welcomed everyone and gave them a Valentines quiz to start doing together on each table as a team. Lisa also introduced a visitor – Mrs Mami Kato who wanted to observe and study our dementia club so that they can use the information to set up similar dementia clubs in Japan.

Mami also mentioned that her TV Director Ms Murakami may also try to attend one of our dementia clubs to film it. Members welcomed Mami.

Mark then called out the quiz answers. Members enjoyed doing the quiz as there were some very interesting questions. Lisa then did some Valentine poetry reading with everyone and each table had to choose someone to read a verse. The poem about ‘A simple Hug’ was then read and at the end everyone gave each other a hug which was really nice.

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Paul Jaffa our music entertainer then arrived. Paul plays the piano at the West Lodge Hotel in Cockfosters on a regular basis. Paul brought his keyboard today and played some familiar songs which everyone enjoyed listening to and some that they sang to and even danced. Mami our visitor also enjoyed interacting with members and even danced too. It was a very enjoyable Valentine session.

Thank you to our volunteers today – Melvyn and Arzu for their help throughout the session. Also a big thank you to Marina one of the carers who was also very helpful.

Today’s session was the first session following the BBC Inside Out programme about Dementia Club UK. Many of the members that attended were featured in the TV programme so everyone was feeling very upbeat.

Muz and Faz presented Lisa with some flowers to thank her for her incredible achievements with Dementia Club UK. The members praised the TV coverage and discussed the idea of making a TV series in the future so more time could be dedicated to the topic.

Whilst members enjoyed their teas, coffees and lovely cakes, there were several games to keep the members occupied which were themed around TV, given there had just been a TV documentary on Dementia Club UK. Members were given 41 letter cards and had to make 5 single word TV programmes. Everyone managed to get the answer right surprisingly quickly. This followed with a verbal quiz about famous TV double-acts. Everyone contributed and suggested their favourite double acts.

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Muz then introduced a card game where people had to match the famous couples together. Everyone loved playing the game. There was also colouring and word searches so there was something to keep everyone occupied before Richard took over with seated exercise. Richard’s session was lovely with everyone enjoying their stretches and working out their muscles.

After the exercise session, members were entertained with a variety of games that included golf putting, a bowling green and table tennis. Everyone was having lots of fun with the variety of activities. Sotiris was elated when he got a hole in one. It was fantastic watching Mabel enjoy the golf and seeing Viv and Brian get stuck in to the bowling. The session concluded with a sing-a-long of Que Sera Sera which everyone really enjoyed.

This was a very enjoyable session and big thanks to Lisa, Mark and to Pat, one of the carers and Annette for helping out today.

Considering the bad weather yesterday and today, we again had a full house turnout at our lovely new venue in The Finchley Cricket Clubhouse – 30 members, Mark (a Trustee), Rotarians Sheila, Michael, Dick and myself

Julian and Jacqueline set the tables and prepared a lovely afternoon tea of sandwiches and cakes and biscuits and hot drinks and served on each table. Thank you to all our volunteers and carers today for helping to serve

Lisa welcomed members and provided some programme updates and also reminded members about the BBC1 film tonight. As today was a special Jewish holiday celebrating “Tu Bishvat”, Lisa explained that in Israel the day is celebrated as an ecological awareness day and trees are planted in celebration in honour or in memory of loved ones and friends. It’s the Jewish Festival of trees and also marks the beginning of Spring. It is also traditionally celebrated by eating lots of grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates

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Lisa then talked about the importance of trees and how planting trees is important to stop climate change. A quiz then followed about trees and how some leaves from trees are used to treat various symptoms. Lisa lastly mentioned that Barnet Council was awarded the 2019 London Borough Tree Award after pledging to plant 900 trees per year for the next 5 years

Lisa then distributed to all members a “Tu Bishvat” greeting card picture of a fruit tree in colour and also distributed another picture of an outline of a tree asking members to colour their own tree. Members were very interested and enjoyed doing the colouring.

Lisa then introduced Julian, Chairman of The Finchley Cricket Club to say a few words about the Club and its history. Julian gave us a very interesting talk about the Club, which was founded in the 1830s and has had many famous Cricketers over the years and more recently has hosted quite a few Women’s teams, who are doing better than the men!

We then met the lovely Sian who took our seated exercises. She certainly kept everyone’s attention with great music and exercises. Many people commented how they enjoyed her session.

This was then followed with music entertainment by Ian who got everyone up and dancing. This was followed with a music quiz where members who get the right answer also get to throw the big soft red dice to try and get a six. We scored 138 with some jiggery-pokery cheating.

We all went home to watch Lisa on BBC 1 “Inside Out London.” I must congratulate Lisa on a great performance and for showing Dementia Club UK in such a great light. I’m sure you’ll get great feedback and many enquiries from this superb documentary about your work in starting up this wonderful support for sufferers in the community.

WELL DONE ! Valerie Chodosh Trustee 

 This is always a very enjoyable session. Whilst members were enjoying their teas/coffees and cakes, Lisa welcomed everyone and provided some programme updates. This is always a favourite time as members enjoy chatting together whilst also being busy colouring some beautiful pictures with magic water painting. 

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The fabulous Richard then led our Yoga session which all members participated and enjoyed. Then our talented Aaron entertained our members with a variety of popular songs which members and volunteers danced. Aaron then did a music quiz which is always a great challenge and lot of cheating when rolling the dice to try and get a six.

Thank you to day to Rotary Club Northwick Park volunteers – Helen our session leader, Mollie and Ritu for making the teas and coffees and serving them to members and of course Mark one of our Trustees for all his help throughout the session.

Our monthly Dementia Club UK session was held on the 3rd February at Sha’arei Tsedek Synagogue in Whetstone.

Our members were served tea, coffee, delicious biscuits and cake at the start of our session and were happy chatting to each other.

The fabulous Jane then led an exercise session which all our members participated in and enjoyed.

It was Keith, one of our amazing volunteers, birthday and we gave him a birthday cake and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to him! He was very chuffed!

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Then the very talented Aaron entertained our members with a variety of popular songs to which many of the members and helpers danced. He also did a music quiz and everyone got very involved in guessing the artists!

32 members and carers attended the session with the assistance of eight helpers who were:- Justine, Gilda, Stephen, Caroline, Keith, Dot, Judy & Risom.

It was a busy session today as we were also joined by a group from Aarundel Manor Care Home. Lisa welcomed everyone and provided some programme updates and other news. She introduced Muz and Faz as the session leaders and welcomed and thanked all the volunteers. Lisa had a surprise visit from Sarah who used as a volunteer for the dementia club and she very kindly gave a small soft memory ball as a gift to Dementia Club UK. Everyone thanked Sarah and wished her all the best for the future.

Muz and Faz started the session with some fun games on the tables and also handed out some colouring in while everyone had their teas and coffees. Whilst chatting to one of the members Muz was inspired to do a fun game using the phonetic alphabet. Another member then decided to recount the phonetic alphabet in German and amazed us all!

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The session then followed with Richard who always runs a fun packed seated Yoga session. As well as making everyone work their muscles, Richard also uses humour to make exercising fun and as it was also Brexit Day he also added a joke to mark the occasion.

After the seated exercise, Muz decided to also use the memory ball that Sarah had brought and started to throw the ball around to members asking them to catch it and share a memory. The members enjoyed sharing facts about themselves. There was an avid gardener in the room. Someone recounted that their longest journey ever had been to Tunisia. Amongst the memories, we also found out that Doris Day was a member’s favourite singer. Lisa then played some music and distributed the lyrics to all the members. This was like turning on the light in the room as members started singing and were also up and dancing.

The room was now buzzing with joy and everyone was having lots of fun so we brought the games over to the dance area. There was a tin can alley game, a ball throwing game and a hoop throwing game where Muz even became a table for the target cone to rest on! Finally, there was table tennis to finish the afternoon. Some members played seated but today there was also a table for people to play standing up, which some members thoroughly enjoyed.

[Everyone had a really fun afternoon with lots of games, singing and dancing.

Thank you to our Rotarians from Mill Hill – Rotary Club President Desmond, Bobsie, Jeanette & Graham and thank you also to our other volunteers – Theresa, Annette, Risom and of course Lisa.