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I’m pleased to report that this venue is now getting busier. We had 2 visitors today from Australia (mother and daughter) Whilst in the area they heard about Dementia Club UK and the daughter wanted to visit and bring her mother.

As usual members sit and chat over a cup of tea/coffee and cakes and Lisa also provides some Word Searches and quizzes for everyone keeping them busy. Richard then arrived to do chair yoga with the members. Richard knows exactly what to do to make the exercises challenging but fun especially when he shows members exercises to ‘Swing Low Sweet Charriot’ and the ‘Hokey Cokey’ with slightly different words.

For the final part of the session Lisa got everyone singing to some of the favourite songs. It was an enjoyable session

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As usual Stephens House and Gardens was setup impeccably ready to receive members. Lisa was not present today as her mum has had a fall and is in hospital with her broken hip.

Mark and Valerie one of the other trustees welcomed everyone and made sure everyone had some refreshments. We started with a quiz that Lisa had prepared a previous day.

James Bernard was our star singer today. He sung a collection of swing numbers, everyone got up to dance. We all had a great time.

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A busy session as usual. Lisa welcomed everyone and provide members with some pictures to colour whilst having their teas and cakes and chats.

Lisa provided members with updates on the outings soon and also talked about programme of events at other dementia clubs. She also distributed some leaflets providing information about Dementia Club UK Social Media. There is often confusion when people are donating to Dementia Club UK as some people donate to Dementia UK.

Everyone was grateful for this information. Lisa then read some jokes from a new joke book which everyone enjoyed and then started a multiple choice quiz. As always this is challenging but everyone enjoys working together on their table to get the right answers.

It was a pleasure to welcome back 2 members of the Barnet Walking Football Team who enjoyed sitting with the members and helping during the session. We then played musical bingo and this got members singing and some of the members up dancing. It was an enjoyable session.

Thank you to our volunteers Lizzy, Melvyn, Melissa Dr Angela, our other Angela volunteer and of course Mark.

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Session leaders Helen and Mollie with Ritu and Mark set up the tables and chairs in the room ready and prepared a delicious early afternoon tea for members and visitors on arrival.

We’re building up a bright collection of completed 60s colouring in patterns, always a therapeutic activity to do over tea and chat, whilst waiting for session leader Danielle to make the opening welcome. Chairman Lisa ran through forthcoming events and mentioned the various recent promotions she has implemented to spread the word of the various groups we run.

After a quick vote, the members decided to start with a general knowledge quiz, which was very entertaining and everyone enjoyed participating. This was then followed by a game of Bingo which and was won this month by Rotarian Mrinal’s wife, first time supporter, Rama.

It was then time for some exercises as Richard arrived. Everyone joined in the chair yoga exercises and, true to say, we always have a laugh doing this with his entertaining banter. Delighted to welcome some first time visitors, including Simone with Mabel and Kevin, as well as Joy with Irene and Rita, and the lovely Ruth who excelled when it was time to dance to James’ popular songs.

It was lovely also to see Lisa and her husband Mark on the dance floor. Thanks to James’ partner Joy for getting people up dancing and Rotarians Selwyn and Suresh for joining in the music quiz. Dr Nandini was on hand for any medical and community questions.

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It was a very warm humid day today so there were only a few members. It was still however an enjoyable session.

Lisa brought out the colouring books and crayons and Word-searches which kept members busy and chatting at the same time whilst having their cups of teas and coffees and cakes.

Annalisa then did some chair exercises with members which was great fun as she also got them to mimic the actions of what they do every day to get ready in the morning.

The session followed with James Le Bec who as always is amazing with everyone getting them to sing and dance and also to guess the songs and throw the big dice. Although a small group they did really well with gaining a high score in the music game.

Thanks today to Lisa and Mark helping throughout the session and also to Annalisa and Jalpa. It looks like our next session will be in the new building which is exciting.

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This was a small group today and we were all in the hall as the Church organ was undergoing some major restoration.

Our volunteers – Brenda, Dorothy and Sue were as usual ready and waiting and had already organised the plates with biscuits. Lisa however also brought some of her left over chocolate birthday cake from yesterday which went down a treat.

Andrew the Church Warden had also brought the round tables downstairs to the hall and had them as usual covered in their tablecloths. Our Rotarians were also ready to greet everyone – Malcolm, Victor and Jim. Simon our quiz master although not able to attend had prepared a quiz and made sure it was delivered to Lisa.

When everyone was settled, Lisa welcomed everyone and informed them about some of the outings organised. She then read out the answers to the quiz as members found them quite hard.

Richard then arrived to do some chair yoga with everyone which is always challenging but fun. The session then followed with James Le Bec and as always James has a magical way of interacting with members and captures their attention. The dice game which is played trying to guess the name of the song is always fun and gets very competitive as each person who throws the dice tries to roll a six.

A lovely afternoon. Thank you to all our volunteers today especially Andrew who had to bring all the tables down which was hard work.

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Today is a day I will never forget. As I walked into the hall, I was surprised to see that the tables and chairs were already set up and there were already a few members there. Most surprising was that there were tables with red tablecloths and sandwiches and cakes displayed.

I had no idea what was happening until a crowd of members and volunteers burst into the hall shouting ’SURPRISE’ Everyone had organised a birthday surprise for me and I had no idea.

Even my husband knew about it but didn’t tell me. More and more people were entering the hall, even people I had not seen for some time. I was so overwhelmed. There must have been about 60 people altogether.

The main organisers were Sylvia, Marina and her granddaughter Natalia, Joan, Pamela, Annette, our new volunteer Angela and Arzu. They bought a big chocolate cake for me and this was of course celebrated in the usual DCUK fashion with firework candles. Usually one firework but my one had 4.

Everything I had planned for the session was now not happening which included Joanna who attended to do the chair exercises. Joanna however enjoyed the party instead. We also had 2 other birthdays to celebrate. It was Frances’s birthday and she was 91 years old and Ivor who was 82 years old. Lisa of course prepared the two cakes for Frances and Ivor and everyone sang happy birthday to them too.

It was then time for Ronnie our music entertainer. Ronnie played some really wonderful songs which got a lot of people up and dancing including me and Mark. I thought it was a lovely surprise when Ronnie played the song ‘When I called to say I love you’ and got Mark to sing some of the words to me.

Everyone had a really enjoyable time. My thanks goes to everyone that organised this party for me and thank you to everyone that attended.

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Thank goodness – today was a cooler day after yesterday’s extremely hot day. Lisa welcomed members and also 2 new members.

Everyone was happy to chat whilst drinking their teas and coffees and lovely cakes and crisps. Lisa played Family Fortunes with the members which was fun trying to guess what the public’s top choice of answers are for each question.

Richard then arrived to do some chair yoga which everyone enjoyed as Richard always makes exercise fun.

Members also had the pleasure of meeting for the first time today James Le Bec a very talented musical entertainer who interacts with members and gets everyone up dancing and singing. This was a very enjoyable session. Thank you to Sarah our volunteer for helping though out the session.

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The extreme hot weather today didn’t deter members and volunteers attending the session at Hendon Town Hall.

With the heat, hot drinks were out of the question as everybody went for refreshing cold water and other refreshments. In attendance today were six new members with their family and carers. We didn’t miss an opportunity to give them the DCUK resounding welcome.

The volunteers took members through a quiz session which was challenging but with a few clues they were able to answer most of the questions.{gallery}HTH20190725{/gallery}

We had a special entertainer today – Peter Webb in the person of Elvis. It was obvious for all to see how thrilled and excited the ladies were when Elvis wiggled his hips. He sang all the well-known Elvis songs and members danced and sang along with so much pleasure.

Everybody had fun especially the new members to the club and all are looking forward to the next session. A special thanks goes out to volunteers from Rotary Club of Hendon, Charlyn, Eugenia and Alex. Our thanks also to Lisa.