Category: Blog

It was a rainy day but this did not stop members. This was a very busy session.

Nick one of the Trustees and Lisa’s son, attended the session to show members what he created with the figurines he took away with him last week. Nick made a long banner sticking all the figurines made by all members together. Everyone was so pleased to see their work. Members were really delighted and thanked and applauded Nick. The banner was held up by members and a photo was taken.

Nick also showed members the leaflet he made for the Christmas tree festival at Christ Church which everyone also liked very much.

The session then followed with a presentation from Samantha – a solicitor from Michael Anvoner & Company, a firm of solicitors based in Barnet. Her presentation was excellent and everyone was really interested to learn about Wills and Powers of Attorney. Samantha talked about some of the problems that occur with Wills and included some examples which was helpful. Whereas a Will looks after your assets when you die, a Lasting Power of Attorney allows you to appoint one or more persons to look after your affairs when you don’t have the mental or physical capacity to do it yourself.

Samantha talked about the two different types of Lasting Power of Attorney. One which relates to your property and financial affairs and the second relating to your health and welfare. Again some very interesting examples were used which was very helpful.

Members had quite a few questions to ask. Samantha then gave out some leaflets and a voucher which would allow members to make an appointment and have their first consultation free of charge. Everyone thanked Samantha for her excellent presentation and advice.

The session then followed with a birthday celebration. It was Shital’s 63rd birthday two days ago and it was celebrated in the usual DCUK fashion.

Lisa then did a quick quiz asking members to provide answers to the questions using only 4 letters and the fourth letter to end in o. Members did really well. It was then time for some exercise and Lisa got all the members ready to do some whole body exercises which they all really enjoyed. It was then time to have a sing along to their favourite songs. Everyone had an enjoyable session and left with a smile.

This was a busy session with the arrival of 15 ‘Friends in Need’ members.

Rotarian John was away today so Lisa took over running the session. Jim the Rotary President attended with Malcolm, Victor and Simon.

Once everyone settled, Lisa started the session and then asked Simon to introduce the quiz which was a name the faces quiz. It was not easy however and members kept asking for some clues.

Richard then attended to do some Yoga. Everyone joined in as Richard makes exercising enjoyable.

 James Le Bec then arrived and members were ready for a little dance. Thank you again to our Rotarians, Andrew from the Church and our ladies Dorothy, Brenda and Sue for making the teas and coffees and looking after the members.

Thank you also to my husband Mark and also our doctor – Dr Rebecca Hatjiosif who attended to take some blood pressures.

We were honoured that tonight’s concert was in aid of Dementia Club UK. The theme tonight was music from around the world, the music started in the UK, went across Europe, ended in Australia and came back to the UK via the Americas.

The concert was held in St Andrews Church, Southgate. We were introduced to the different clarinets some of which were very rare. Adele played a solo in “Waltzing Soprilda” with an ‘Ab Clarinet’ which is the smallest Clarinet in existence and might be the only one in the UK today. The largest instrument was Craig’s Contra Bass Clarinet which was capable of playing the very low deep notes.

The ICC can be contacted at the following websites:

http://www.ionianclarinetchoir.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/ionianclarinetchoir

Today’s session run by Danielle:

Lisa decided to let our two Rotary clubs run this week’s session without her and delighted to say, thanks to her guidance over the past few months, we did ok.

Danielle made the introductions and was glad to welcome a new gentleman service user with his lovely wife from Canons Park. Dr Nandini answered some particular medical queries and comments about our good cups of tea by the ladies of Northwick Park : Helen, Ritu, Mollie and Lucille were, in part, down to having a good tea pot and proper cups and saucers, all very English! Yummy cakes and biscuits where served, and eaten whilst colouring in using groovy 60s patterns.

Much chatter and laughs with Kevin and Mabel until Richard started the chair yoga, which we all participated in with smiles. Musician Ronnie kept the 60s theme going with ‘why must I be a teenager in love’? and everyone joined in dancing. No real time for games this week, as it was a rather chatty and active session with Sonia and Anne from Edgware and Stanmore tapping to the beat till packing up time.

Looking forward to our Christmas meet-up 19 December. Time flies when you’re having fun, which we certainly did.

We had an arts and crafts session today to start with as Dr Angela brought in some blank male and female figurines for members to colour. The idea would be for Angela to use these figurines to decorate a Christmas tree for the Christmas tree festival at Christ Church Southgate.

Members were therefore very busy with their colouring and produced some really lovely colourful figurines. Nick, one of the Trustees and Lisa’s son also attended today. Nick is the IT expert and Lisa announced to members that Nick would be taking these figurines away to create a poster for the church and will also create a banner and also to create a new Christmas card for Dementia Club UK.

The session then followed with Lisa doing exercises with the members which they all enjoyed. Some singing then followed and then the Tovertafel. It was an enjoyable session. My thanks to our volunteers – Melvyn, Eleanor, Nick and Dr Angela.

This is the last session unfortunately at Allum Manor. Despite all the advertising it has not attracted many members to this beautiful venue. Lisa has therefore decided to start another new dementia club at a different venue in Borehamwood in the New Year.

Although only 2 members attended today, Lisa still made it enjoyable and challenging. Lisa brought some artificial fruit and organised it in a bowl. The members then tried to draw the fruit bowl. Mel was very proud of his picture. This was then followed by a quiz and other games.

Dementia Club UK joined together with 1st year Pharmacists from Boots Brent Cross today to do a Dementia Awareness Day.

We displayed various literature about dementia, the Pharmacists from Boots had designed a pull up banner depicting the Alzheimers bookshelf. At the bottom of the bookshelf are all the memories of your younger days and as you move up the bookshelf you have the recent occurrences. If the bookshelf wobbles then the recent memories will start falling off so new memories are hard to retain. The memories at the bottom of the bookshelf are not affected but in time these will also be affected as the bookshelf gets weaker.

When approached by the public today the Alzheimers bookshelf was explained and each person was given a yellow sticker to write one of their memories. Dementia Club UK Christmas cards in packs of 10 were also given as a freebie to raise awareness.

It was a very successful day. I would like to thank Anisha from Boots Brent Cross for organising the event and inviting Dementia Club UK. I also like to thank other Staff from other Boots stores from around North London who joined us – Ting, Heather, Narmeen, Anmol, Vishnu and Bhumika. It was also a pleasure to meet the Boots Brent Cross General Manager Kunjal Sutaria and also the Boots NW Regional Manager Andrew Gordon. I would also like to thank Brent Cross for hosting this event and Karl from the from the Brent Cross Information desk who offered to help with some bucket collecting.

Today’s session was taken by Annette:

“Today’s session went well and Moshe was very good, neither him nor the members were eager to end the session at 4p.m!

There were 41 members today and we were grateful to have Volunteer, Melissa and her husband Bob on hand to help.

The afternoon was spent creating Christmas cards for our loved ones. As the year comes close to an end, the session was spent making customised cards for members to send out to some of these people to show them how much appreciated they are.

Thereafter, we had a quiz on cities and things. Moshe took over and at the end of the session, I reminded members to join us at Brent Cross on Friday and also at the next two sessions. We definitely had a wonderful time together as usual.”

It was a smaller group today but it was still a very enjoyable and very busy session. Lisa started with a quiz and asked members to make some words from random letters in a wheel picture. The challenge was to first find the 9 letter word and 8 letter word. There was a lot of thinking and they all did very well.

Richard then arrived to do chair Yoga. Members always look forward to this as Richard makes it a really fun way of exercising.

The session then followed with Helen Tierney who brings her accordion, harp and piano keyboard. She started playing ‘She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain’ and then leading on with music from the war years to commemorate Remembrance Day which was yesterday. Members then heard further favourites which everyone enjoyed and sang along to and even danced.

Thank you to our Rotarians – Valerie who is also one of our Trustees, Kuljit and his wife, Ian and Michael. Thank you also to Mark my husband who is also one of the Trustees and of course thank you to Risom for looking after everyone with refreshments.