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.
We had an enjoyable series of games of Boccia, refereed by Tom.
As we get better some games become harder to decide the score
Sometimes the scoring is easier !
Once a year Oxford City opens its doors to give the public access to many places which are not normally open to the public in its Open Doors event. On the same weekend the Ride and Stride event raises money for the Oxford Historic Churches Trust, with people sponsored to walk or cycle to visit churches. Visitors for either event, or who were merely passing were welcome to come to Wesley Memorial Church to purchase refreshments in aid of the church Open Doors project.
Since Oxford have have benefited, and continue to benefit from the improvements to the premises the project has provided several Phab members were happy to join the other volunteers from the church to help.
We are still sorting out what we will do through the autumn, however for those of us who keep up with current events, we are being provided with plenty to chat about !
We also did a little preparation for tomorrow when Wesley Memorial Church will be open for Oxford Open Doors, and some Phab members will be helping sell refreshments in aid of the Wesley Memorial Open Doors church redevelopment project.