Its been a busy week here at the West End Centre, although saddened by some mindless vandalism at the beginning of the week, it's turned out to be a cracker!
Monday saw a raft of good news, firstly the English group,-read more about that next week. In the job club several people had got interviews for this week, fingers crossed for them.
In and amongst our usual groups on Tuesday we were out and about litter picking and planting wild flower seeds as part of our Guerrilla gardening project, I can't wait for summer to see the results!
Wednesday is always our busiest day, lunch club, yum yum! It was extra special this week because it was long time volunteer Sue's Birthday! After a good old munch Fran and volunteer Ami-Jane were out and about again in the glorious sunshine with the walking group getting a good mix of exercise, vitamin D and chat! Dan was with a group getting the allotment ready for spring, and back at the centre Ratty was supporting the Sewing group whilst Hassan and Haleema were running their very successful Urdu group!
It's been a great group and people have learned basic introductions, greetings,numbers and how to enquire after someones health. Our oldest participant is 90! Sadly the group has come to an end for a while as student Haleema finishes her placement today (Farewell and good luck Haleema) and Hassan is taking a break to travel to Saudi. We can't thank him enough. He has been one of the best students, then a volunteer that we have had, he is always smiling, and has run some fantastic schemes for us, including teaching people how to use their smartphones to look for work and keep in touch with family and friends. We hope to see him back here soon.
Thursday was action packed with an impromptu lunch in the 'Friends in Need' Depression support group. Kevin and Martin kindly brought some old films to watch for the 'Back in the Day' reminiscence group which brought back nice memories and provided a good talking point for people, and the 'Rat Pack' had fun packed karaoke session, 17 people attended and everyone had a go- I hear the stars of the show were Norman, Lorraine Vervoot and Emma, so thanks to Lorraine and Ray for bringing your kit in and organising an enjoyable evening for everyone!
Today its our Cooking for health and Wealth group, i'm frantically typing this while the group, who have come in early today, are helping out by tidying the centre around me ready for next week, before we make stuffed vegetables, cous cous stufed peppers, samosa stuffed tomato's
So coming up next week........ in amongst our usual groups ( to find out what's on, see our 'whats on page') we have Sallie coming along to introduce the Reiki to the Friends in Need group on Thursday. There is a community meal and race night Thursday evening in the Rat Pack, and Razina will be teaching us how to make chicken biryani on Friday, feel free to come along and join in, as always there is no appointment needed and you will be assured of a warm welcome.