Blog

It was a very busy session today in Mill Hill with great support from the Rotary club members. Muz introduced the session which Lisa then kicked off by providing some very sound advice to members on how to minimise the risk of catching the Corona virus.

Jeanette from the Rotary club then introduced to members and started the first part of the session with an interesting game. Members were given a list of all the letters of the alphabet and for each letter of the alphabet they had to think of a word which describes ‘something that you wear.’ Members only scored a point if their word was unique. Amazingly members managed to find an item for every letter and Sotiris won the game by identifying 11 items that nobody else came up with.

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The session then followed with Richard and as he was so inspired by the alphabet game, he decided to continue with the alphabet theme by asking members to identify a body part for each letter of the alphabet and then exercising that body part. Members had great fun exercising both their bodies and their minds at the same time.

After the seated exercises Muz added a musical interlude by playing “Coming round the mountain”. Lisa led the way and had all the members singing and swirling their hands in the air every time the chorus was played.

After the sing along, there was a circuit of activities including, Putting golf, table tennis (both seated and standing), skittles, carpet bowls and a giant noughts and crosses game. There were lots of smiles and laughter as members tried each activity in turn.

Everyone had a really fun afternoon with so many different activities to try. Thank you to our The Rotary Club members of Mill Hill for their help and support today – President Desmond & Bobsie, Jeanette & Graham, Alan Scott and Ken and Jane. Thank you also to all our other volunteers today – Theresa and Annette and of course Muz and Faz and Lisa.

We had lots of great support today from members of the Hendon Rotary Club. The Rotary Club Honorary member Yvonne Phelops (also Past President of Rotary Club Wembley & Willesden) and her husband Arnold attended along with Charlyn and new Rotary Club member Angela Mezue.

There were several new members who visited for the first time today. It was a busy session. Muz and Faz distributed some colouring in pictures today about Leap years and members also had the choice to do word searches and also play with a giant noughts and crosses game whilst sipping their teas and coffees and snacking on the delicious cakes and biscuits.

Lisa welcomed everyone and then handed over to Muz and Faz. The session started with a True or False Quiz which had several facts and fiction on Leap Years. Members had to hold up whichever card – TRUE or FALSE – they believed was the correct answer. Members were very good, though there were some questions which were not easy to decide on whether it was True or False!

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Everyone enjoyed this game which also provide some interesting learning about Leap years. They occur every 4 years and apparently getting married in a Leap year is not lucky at all and if a lady asks a man to marry him, if she is turned down then the man has to kiss the lady or buy her an expensive gift.

Members also had a surprised treat when the current Mayor of Barnet Cllr. Caroline Stock, popped in with her Escort to say hello to everyone dressed in all Mayoral regalia. She was accompanied by a group of school children from Pardes House Grammar School who visited today. This brought many smiles to everyone’s faces. After the visit from the Mayor, there was a seated exercise session with Eon.

Eon had everyone using resistance bands to get them working out hard. It was an excellent exercise session which everyone really enjoyed. The session then followed with music entertainment by Ian. He got everyone up dancing, holding hands and kicking their legs with his passionate renditions of old classics like the Lambeth Walk.

Whilst some members continued to enjoy his wonderful music, a few members played passing a ball with their feet and others also enjoyed some Putting golf. It was a very busy and fun packed afternoon session with a variety of activities. This was a fantastic session.

Thank you very much to the Rotary Club of Hendon members and to our volunteers Annette, Radha, Muz and Faz and of course Lisa and Mark.

A very busy session as usual and we also had some new people. Everyone was excited to be here today as they were looking forward seeing Yuri Sabatini a classical Italian tenor. He came once before.

Lisa welcomed everyone and whilst they were enjoying their teas and cakes Lisa provided some program updates and also some advice about what precautions to take with the Corona virus. Members were grateful.

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As pancake day was yesterday Lisa gave out some pictures about pancakes for colouring which members enjoyed doing and also read out something about the history of pancakes and a couple of jokes about flipping pancakes which everyone enjoyed.

Some singing then followed with members favourite songs and Ernie then continued with more singing and was joined with Terry. Everyone was in a very happy mood when Yuri arrived and gave him a very warm welcome.

Yuri sang some beautiful songs and also sang some requests which overwhelmed some of the members. Yuri’s voice filled the room which also resonated through the hospital corridors. Members really enjoyed listening to Yuri. Lisa thanked Yuri and members applauded. Yuri had a few CDs of some of his songs and members were very excited to buy them.

What a wonderful afternoon and everyone went home very happy. Thank you to our volunteers today Melvyn, Arzu, Angela Chen, our student from last week Assanta and of course Mark.

We had 16 members and carers during the Dementia Club today plus one guest, Maria our doctor’s mother. As soon as the members arrived, they were offered teas and coffees plus biscuits before the entertainment started. Lisa welcomed all attendees and made some announcements including advice on how to protect against Corona virus based on advice from the Council’s Public Health committee.

As Tuesday 23rd of February was Pancake Day, Lisa read some interesting history facts about Pancake Day and also why we celebrate Pancake Day as it is the beginning of Lent. Lisa also read a couple of jokes about flipping pancakes which made everyone laugh.

Muz and Faz followed with the Pancake theme and distributed drawings of pancakes for the members to colour in. Members enjoyed doing their colouring whilst also enjoying their teas and cakes.

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Muz and Faz then introduced their seated table tennis with the colourful cups. 8 players sat opposite each other and followed Muz’s instructions to bounce and pass the table tennis balls across to each other. A couple of members also enjoyed playing table tennis with bats. Members had great fun and as usual volunteers were kept busy picking up the balls.

The session then continued with the usual sitting down yoga by Richard. Richard did some interesting exercises for about 30 minutes. Again, all the members joined in and had a laugh.

The yoga was followed by our new very energetic music entertainer, Ian James. Ian sang some popular songs and managed to get everybody to join the singing and to get up and dance.

Thank you to our church volunteer Dorothy for making teas and coffees and Church Warden Andrew for setting up the venue. Thank you also to our Rotarians from Barnet, John, Jim and Malcolm. Also, many thanks to Annette for her assistance, Doctor Rebecca Hatjiosif for her support, plus Lisa for her continuous support, making the Dementia Club at St John’s Church successful.

The cold and wet weather didn’t stop members attending today. Lisa welcomed everyone and provided some word searches and a quiz to do whilst they were enjoying their teas/coffees and cakes.

Lisa then gave members an update about the programme for this week and just before Eon arrived Mark read out the answers to the quiz. As usual members thought the quiz was hard but they always enjoy the challenge.

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There was a birthday to celebrate today. Although Pat’s birthday is on Thursday her daughter Lisa wanted to do a surprise birthday for her today and brought a big chocolate birthday cake. Lisa also brought a little visitor today Zariya who is 2 years old. Members enjoyed having Zariya and Zariya also enjoyed the fussing.

As usual a birthday is celebrated the Dementia club UK fashion with a fireworks cake candle. Pat was very overwhelmed by her surprise birthday and was very happy. Everyone enjoyed the cake too.

Eon was by now ready for members to do their exercises and as usual Eon makes everyone work hard but it’s also great fun. It was good to work off some of the cake.

The session then followed with music entertainment with Wayne and Charlie who today also brought in a Karaoke machine so that members were able to have a sing along and also were able to read the song words on the television screen. Everyone had great fun and a lot of many were up dancing.

Thank you today for Theresa Animashaun who came to volunteer and also Mark for helping throughout the session.

We had a few visitors today from local organisations. We had Karen Rides and Beatrice Bennai from Bluebird Care Camden & Hampstead and we also had Miles Maier – Older Carers Wellbeing Coordinator from Camden Carers Centre.

It was also a pleasure to meet the new General Manager of Kentish Town Leisure Centre – George Woodfield. Lisa and Adriana welcomed everyone and also welcomed 3 new members who came for the first time today.

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Muz and Faz had lots of interesting activities to entertain members at this session including Word Searches, colouring in pictures and table tennis. Muz also introduced some new activities today which members really enjoyed. There was a famous faces game where everyone had to remember the positions and then match the pairs of famous faces.

One of the members James also introduced Scattergories which our visitors enjoyed playing. A big thank you to James for suggesting this game today.

After the activities and table tennis, the session then followed with music entertainment and singing and dancing led by Aaron. He got everyone up and dancing with his rendition of classics like Que Sera Sera and the Hokey Cokey.

Thank you to Adriana, Lisa, Aaron and Muz and Faz for a fantastic session.

A very busy session as usual. We also had 4 new members today. Lisa welcomed everyone and provided some programme updates and other news. Lisa welcomed and introduced a new volunteer today – Assunta from The London Academy.

Her mother works at The Finchley Memorial Hospital in the Wards upstairs and Assunta wanted to come and volunteer as she has hopes to become a doctor one day.

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Lisa then introduced James one of the carers who wanted to say a few words. ‘James read a number of letters he had written to his old RAF Base when he was a regular in the RAF in Egypt in the 1950s. He wanted a beret and cat badge of his old team as he was very proud to serve. He eventually got his beret and cat badge a few days ago and he is looking forward to wearing it at the next official engagement.

He has also been invited at the Officers Mess at RAF High Wycombe for lunch which he is looking forward to.’ Members were very pleased to hear James’s talk.

The session then followed with a quiz and then Lisa put on some music for members to sing along which they enjoyed. This prepared members as they were ready when Ian James our music entertainer then arrived. Everyone enjoyed Ian’s choice of music and there was a lot of dancing and singing. It was a very enjoyable session.

Thank you today to our volunteers Melvyn, Melissa, Angela Chen and Marina who I thank very much not only for her help throughout the session but also for taking the mugs home last week and washing them in her dishwasher. The mugs are now gleaming white.

Thank you also to Assunta for her help today and of course to our Mark.

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.