Category: Blog

Today was our first session of the year at the Finchley Memorial Hospital and it was buzzing with so many members. Everyone said how they really missed the sessions over the festive period.

Lisa welcomed everyone and then asked Mark to read out the quiz questions which today were about fire safety especially as we were expecting the Fire Brigade to be visiting today to give members a brief talk about fire safety. Members did really well with the questions.

We then followed with some birthday celebrations. As Peter and Dawn’s birthday is on the 11th and 12th January, they didn’t mind celebrating their birthdays and therefore Lisa prepared a large Panettone cake with the usual firework candle which members always enjoy seeing. As there was another birthday a little later on in the month for another member, everyone also sang Happy Birthday to Enzo too.

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We then had some time for a couple of our members who wanted to share some of their Christmas experiences.

James talked to us about some of the medals he was given by a family member recently. In the photo;

The item on the left is a Para Regiment Medal (Northern Ireland, Falklands, Argentina clasps) Top middle – Royal Regiment of Fusiliers C1854 Cap Badge (Crimean War) Middle bottom – Parachute Regiment cap badge To the right – SAS cap badge

Thank you James for sharing this with us Laurie then wanted to say how he did not enjoy being bossed! around over Christmas by the family but was very proud to become a Great Great Grandfather. Thank you Laurie.

It was then time for our Firemen who arrived and received a warm welcome. We had Matthew, Adam and Karl from the North Finchley fire station. They gave members a short talk about fire safety and members also asked questions. We are very grateful for them attending. It was lucky they stayed for 3o minutes and then they had an emergency call and they had to run.

The session then continued – Lisa did some exercises with everyone and then there was the Tovertafel followed with some music and dancing. A busy and very enjoyable first session of the year.

Great first session of the year. Members were greeted with the usual warm welcome which also included tea and cakes prepared by Rotarians Mollie and Helen.

There was still a festive atmosphere especially as Lisa decorated the tables with some left over Christmas crackers which members were happy to see. The room was buzzing with chat whilst members enjoyed their teas and cakes and doing some colouring in which is always a favourite.

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I welcomed everyone and then Lisa filled us in about forthcoming events. I then ran a general knowledge quiz which members found enjoyable and created conversations.

Richard then arrived and got us all moving with chair Yoga, warming us up ready for our new music entertainer, Aaron.

Members really enjoyed Aaron’s music and were happy to have the usual music quiz which as usual also has a bit of cheating with the feet as the big dice is thrown. The score was amazingly high with 144 points and this now sets a tough challenge for the other dementia clubs to beat.

Lovely to see members Irene, Mabel and Ruth rocking to the music, along with Simone, Rita, Joy and Kevin. Thanks to Mark for his usual sociable banter. It was a fun session all round!

Our monthly Dementia Club UK session was held on the 6th January 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.

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Our members then took part in an exercise session lead by Jane which everyone enjoyed. David K entertained our members with a variety of popular songs, including Elvis! to which many of the members and helpers danced.

27 members and carers attended the session with the assistance of seven helpers who were:- Justine, Gilda, Stephen, Keith, Dot, Judy & Radha.

Today was the Finchley Memorial Hospital Christmas party and Lisa and Mark made they were there in time to decorate the tables with red table cloth, Christmas napkins, a real small Christmas tree for each table to be won by one person from each table. There was also mince pies and other biscuits and Christmas foil money chocolates scattered all over the tables.

It was a lovely surprise for members as they walked in and there was also Christmas music. Lisa had prepared a Christmas picture quiz for members to guess the which Christmas movies the characters in the picture appeared. Lisa also provided some other Christmas quizzes to keep them busy whilst enjoying their chats and eating their mince pies and chocolates.

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Lisa welcomed everyone and also introduced David K – a new entertainer who will be starting on the 6th January. Lisa also welcomed back Lizzy one of our volunteers who has unwell for a number of weeks. Lizzy was enjoying being spoilt today and everyone was happy to see her.

It was then time for the music entertainment to start as Wayne and Charlie arrived. Everyone was so excited and as usual Wayne and Charlie got everyone up and dancing and having a good time.

Thank you to my volunteers today, Melvyn, Angela Chen, Dr Angela and Melissa and of course Mark for all his support.

Today we had our Christmas Party. We had a very good attendance, about 12 of our members plus 8 members with their carers, from Aarandale care home in Mill Hill. Also attending were 3 members of the Rotary Club, 3 from the Church plus Lisa and Mark.

Mince pies, biscuits, tea and coffee were given to all the members to start the Christmas celebrations. The session started with Lisa welcoming everyone and providing a Christmas picture quiz where members had to guess from the picture the Christmas film titles. They also had some Christmas word search too which was given out by Faz.

This kept everyone busy and created a lot of discussion on each table. The session then continued with the usual chair yoga by Richard. Richard always makes exercising interesting but also great fun.

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The yoga was followed by our new music entertainer Aaron, who replaces James. This was Aaron’s first performance for our Dementia Club, and everybody enjoyed his singing. Aaron sang some very popular songs which made most members get up and dance. We also had birthday celebrations, and everybody sang happy birthday to them. Aaron then started a music quiz and had prepared 10 music quiz songs to ask members to identify the songs and singers by playing a few seconds. If they guessed them correctly then they were asked to throw the large fluffy dice. As usual someone would keep the points and some cheating to get a six on the dice is sometimes necessary. The members enjoyed themselves by getting a lot of points and this now sets a challenge for other dementia clubs.

Thank you to our church volunteer Dorothy and Sue for making teas and coffees and Andrew for setting up the venue. Thank you also to our Rotarians from Barnet; John, Jim and Malcolm. Also, many thanks to Lisa and Mark for their continuous support making the Dementia Club at St John’s Church successful.

Lisa was arriving late today as she had to go to The BBC to do some voice recording for the film that will be shown in the new year.

Our two Trustees Mark and Valerie who is also a Rotarian had to lead the session. There were 25 members who attended today. This new venue is becoming one of the favourites for members as it is so welcoming. The fireplace with the heat blasting out and the lovely finger sandwiches and cakes and biscuits and tea pots and fresh coffee is such a treat especially when it is also served with a smile.

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Unfortunately Ami today was not there as she was ill with the flu but her mum Sarah was there with Becky another family member. Valerie welcomed everyone and Mark also explained why Lisa was going to be late. Valerie then talked to members about Chanukah which starts on the 23rd December. Members were very interested.

Mark then started a quiz with everyone which was prepared by Lisa. The questions were based on television Soaps. At that moment Lisa walked in and members were eager to hear about the BBC before Mark carried on with the quiz.

After the quiz, it was time for exercises with Eon. Eon’s first job is spacing the chairs out for members. Members always enjoy the workout with Eon and this also prepares them when the music entertainer Ian James arrives. Everyone is warmed up and ready to dance.

Ian played mostly Christmas songs today and everyone did a lot of dancing. It was an enjoyable afternoon. A few members also decided to played some table football. Thank you today to Valerie and Mark for leading the session, thank you also to Rotarians Dick, Sheila, Kuljit and his wife Satwan. It was lovely to also see Risom today – a volunteer from one of the previous venues.

Today was both sad and happy as it was James Le Bec – our music entertainer’s last performance but it was also a Christmas party organised by Annalisa who is GLL Barnet Community Sports Officer.

The area near the cafeteria was soon set up and Annalisa made sure the teas/coffees were ready to serve to members as they arrived.

Muz had prepared some word searches and quizzes and handed them out on each table. So as members arrived, they were kept busy as they were enjoying their teas/coffees and cakes.

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Lisa then welcomed everyone and introduced Annalisa to start the session. Annalisa organised her group of dance ladies today to perform a few popular dances like ‘Singing in the Rain’. Members enjoyed watching the dance ladies perform and also sang along.

The dancing then followed with Tombola. A game similar to bingo was played and the winning prizes were; a Session with a massage therapist, a consultation with Sandra who is a personal fitness trainer and a free pass for some classes and some Aloe Vera products. There were 2 winners in this game and Annalisa asked them to come to the front and collect their prizes.

Well done to all the ladies who took part and well done especially to Annalisa who trained and prepared the group for today and also preparing the Tombola. Lisa thanked all the ladies individually.

The session then followed with James le Bec who started with some Christmas songs and Annalisa had also prepared copies of the song lyrics which helped and everyone sang along. It was then time for James’s quiz questions and as usual members really love this part trying to guess the song title or artist. They like the challenge as they need to score high points to beat a previous score achieved from another group.

Each person who gets the correct answer also gets to throw the red dice and that is also great fun as a few of the carers try to tackle to make sure the dice lands on number six. James then played some music favourites which got some members up dancing and even doing the Conga dance. Everyone is very sad to see James go and all wished him and his partner Joy who always helps during the session the best of luck for the future.

The session was a great success – thanks to Annalisa for organising this session. Thank you today to Annalisa for all her hard work making this Christmas party a success. Thank you to all the cafeteria team who helped with the teas/coffees Thank you to Chris Parker – General Manager for Barnet Copthall Leisure Centre for his support and making sure everything was running smoothly. Thank you to Muz from Ping is King Ltd for his quizzes and also helping throughout the session. It was also lovely to meet his mum Sharifa and his dad Faiz who also enjoyed the session. Thank you also to Mark one of the Trustees who also helped throughout the session.