As the television is now into full scale Christmas advertising mode, and has been showing Christmas Films for months, even though it is not yet Advent we are starting to get into the spirit, by making Christmas Decorations.
Amazingly one of the key components of these decorations is the humble wire coat hanger !
Phab members from all over the South East of England congregated in Chichester for a weekend of activities and socialising.
We started a weekend of delicious food with a buffet dinner on Friday evening.
After a cooked breakfast buffet on Saturday we went off to a range of activities. These included Amazing Animals, which I had already seen 2015 and 2017, so I did not go to the session again, but those members who did saw (and – if they wanted a chance to touch !) a similar range of Amazing Animals.
Other members tried Indoor Archery, Taekwondo, making edible Christmas decorations etc.
Another option was Boccia and Indoor Curling. I had not tried Indoor Curling before, but Tom, already our club Boccia expert, proved a dab hand at Indoor Curling too.
After a buffet sandwich lunch we had an afternoon session including Laughing Yoga, which was great fun and a good way to relate to other Phab members.
The evening culminated in a dinner, which was made extra special by a bottle of champagne to celebrate the wedding of Leslie and Caroline. The hotel were fantastic in making this a special weekend for them, providing many thoughtful touches such as flowers in their room.
Entertainment was provided by DJ Lee, who sang and danced, while awarding chocolate prizes to anyone who could hit him with a balloon rocket while he sang and moved around the dance floor.
Breakfast on Sunday started a little later. Another buffet breakfast with a range of options and an opportunity for those of a voracious appetite (or those who had not remembered that a full roast dinner Sunday lunch was not far away) to have a full cooked breakfast again.
Breakfast was followed by an Act of Worship, led by Mary, for those who wished to attend. This was followed by a Quiz – in which Oxford Phab came second !
Finally after a Sunday Lunch, with Roast Beef (or Turkey or a vegetarian option) and all the trimmings, we said goodbye to the old friends we had met again, and the new friends we had made, and departed for home.
As we did last year, we joined in the Zumbathon at the Christian Life Centre on Cowley Road for an evening of enthusiastic Zumba dance, where we joined the participants making donations to Children in Need
It was quite chilly before everybody started, but everybody soon warmed up once the Zumba got going. We had a slot, doing a routine we had practiced with George Martini. Our energy levels may not have been the same as some of the Zumba instructors, but we enjoyed it, and it was great to participate.
The fun continued as we joined in other dances – great fun, and raising money for a good cause.
Banbury Phab invited us to the Halloween Party. We ate hot dogs and pizza, and tasty treats, some with a Halloween theme.
Some of us got dressed up, as did several of the Banbury members.
Then we finished the evening with a disco.
Oxford Phab members were very happy for the opportunity to help Leslie and Caroline, two of our members, celebrate their wedding.
We gathered at Wesley Memorial Church to go down to the Registry Office for the ceremony.
The ceremony was lovely and the Registrar and staff very helpful, followed by the traditional photo opportunity on the steps.
Then it was back to Wesley Memorial for the reception, where Phab members and their families and friends had been involved with makings cakes and sandwiches, decorating the Hall, preparing music and tidying up afterwards.
Sarah put a lot of preparation into the Video Games night. She prepared a presentation with information about the Handheld Computer game systems she owns, putting them into their historical context and telling us more about them.
She also brought along a selection of handheld game consoles and some games
and told us about them
We also had George Martini come to give us a Zumba refresh, and we celebrated Wendy’s forthcoming birthday with cake !
Anything involving eating is very popular, and for a chilly autumn evening what could be better than our making and eating cookies.
Maria made authentic American Cookie dough, into which we incorporated our choices from a deliciously unhealthy selection.
These cookies were then passed to our kitchen team for baking.
And the result was delicious cookies for us to enjoy !
We all gathered in the Hall, due to a meeting in the John Wesley Room. I hope our enthusiastic Zumba session did not intrude on their meeting.
We all sat around and chatted beforehand.
The session started with some Seated Zumba, which still provided a good workout.
We also rehearsed the routine we will perform at the Zumbathon to raise money for Children in Need on November 8th. A video of the routine is posted for club members to the Oxford Phab Private Facebook Group for rehearsal purposes. If members do not have access to Facebook they should contact me and I can share it with them via Google Photos.
We then moved on to some more conventional Zumba, this section had us in a circle, with some seated and some standing.
We had a jolly time at Bowlplex, using 3 lanes, and several of our members achieving good scores. We were slowed a little by lack of availability of bowling balls with Medium or Large finger holes – across our 3 lanes we had 2 Medium balls, which meant people had to wait for a ball they could bowl with quite a bit, as most of us could not get our fingers in the Small and eXtra Small finger holes. Luckily we were not in a rush.
In our lane the conversation between bowling had turned to Retro Gaming so it was a coincidence to see a modern take on Space Invaders in the Arcade section of Hollywood Bowl. Who could resist having a go ?
When we have a Film Night we do it in style, making Popcorn to eat as we watch.
