Category: Wesley Memorial

Events which take place at Wesley Memorial Methodist Church, New Inn Hall Street, Oxford

Annual General Meeting

Once again it was time to look back at what we had done during the year, and look forward to next year, in our Annual General Meeting.
Our chairman, Helen, summed up the year in her report

Oxford Phab Club 2018

Another year has passed, and I can’t believe I am already writing another annual report.

Friday nights filled with fun activities.  We have had sports nights doing Boccia, hockey and Zumba.  Food nights including pancakes and noodle night, and of course our very own Christmas dinner which was cooked by member and a few friends of Phab.  This was really successful as it was a lot more inclusive and we had a lot more room to move around and mingle, which was lovely.  We have had a number of arts and crafts nights, had quiz nights, film nights, bingo nights, beetle and we even had a Connect 4 competition night.  We have also been invited to many events in the Wesley Memorial Church including the folk festival and the new years party as well as helping raise money for the Open Doors project by helping sell refreshments.

Out and about we had a meal at Oxy, went to a Halloween disco with our friends at Banbury Phab.  We went to see Mamma Mia, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Band at the theatre, we took part in two Zumba Fundraisers, went to Donnington Social Club, have been bowling a few times, went to a barbecue at the home of Simon and Sarah.  We went to the annual garden party fundraiser this summer.

Last year some of our members went to the South East Phab Fun Weekend back in November last year.  We also went back to Avon Tyrell in the New Forest in July.  Members got to have a go at many activities including archery and climbing.  We cooked marshmallows on an outdoor fire.  This year we were also welcomed by the crew of The Dolphin boat in Poole Harbour who took us on a trip around the harbour.

The Roy Lewis Memorial Prize last year was awarded to Darren and Maria for their wedding celebrations.

 We have lots of fun activites planned for Christmas and have already booked to see a pantomime early next year (oh yes we have!)

Once again we really do appreciated all the continued support from our friends and families and everyone else who continues to make Phab fab.

Helen Williams Chair, Oxford Phab, November 2018

We had  the usual financial reports, election of Officers and the Committee etc. After these routine matters we were very pleased to have Robin, who has organised many quiz nights for us, and Penny, who has been been a valued and helpful member for many years as this year’s recpients of the Roy Lewis Award.

Oxford Light Night

Oxford kicked off it’s Christmas Light Festival with events around the city, and a parade which included New Inn Hall Street in its route.
Wesley Memorial Church was open for the event with a range of activities in the church.

The calm after the storm !

There was blind drawing, badge making, card making as well as a some toys to play with, and an area of quiet respite.

In the John Wesley room Phab and church members gave free refreshments to members of the public.

We were in an ideal spot to watch the parade !

And then to offer doughnuts to passers by.
 

Zumba with rehearsal for Children in Need Zumba night

Zumba is always popular, and tonight we had a real crowd.

After a chance to chat and a cup of tea we moved through into the Hall, where George Martini took us through the Zumba routine which we will be performing at the Zumbathon to raise money for Children in Need.

If you are an Oxford Phab member, and have access to Facebook you can find the video for rehearsal purposes on the Oxford Phab Facebook Group page.
After our rehearsal we moved on to a more general Zumba session

Traditional Zumba with George and assistants leading the session.

Also some more rock style circle dances.
 

Zumbathon – fun fundraiser.

We picked a hot evening for our Sponsored Zumbathon, but George’s enthusiasm, and plentiful supplies of water and squash kept us going.
That, and the need to raise funds to keep doing fun things. Some members have individual donation pages for the event. If you know someone who has one please use it, or the paper form if they are using those. Otherwise donations are welcome via the Club Fundraising page at https://mydonate.bt.com/charities/oxfordphabclub.

High Energy George, even in the heat

No slacking for us either !

Following Kelly’s lead

 
Two Georges

To find out more about our Fundraising, and how you can Donate, please see our Donate page.
 

Cookery Night

We did a survey of our members to see what we should cook, asking everyone to rank the dishes in order out of these choices.

  • Noodles
  • Pizza
  • Burgers
  • Mexican

The winners were Noodles and Pizza (though we also cooked burgers for those who did not eat either of the group winners)

Preparing ingredients in the kitchen

 
Before the start of the club night a small team prepared the ingredients for all the dishes we were going to cook, and made pizza dough.

Members chose their selection of toppings and put them on a pizza base. We had

  • cheese
  • passata
  • spinach leaves
  • mushrooms
  • spring onions
  • pineapple
  • peppers
  • sweetcorn
  • chicken, which we had cooked in the preparation stage
  • sausages, also pre-cooked and chopped up

The preparation team had been busy !
The pizzas were put into the oven in batches.
And were then enjoyed !
We also had mixed salad, and fruit salad for those who wanted to add some healthy extras.

After the pizza round we had a choice of vegetarian noodles, with mushrooms, broccoli and peppers, or a chicken and cashew nuts one – or a bit of both !
Many thanks to Maria who masterminded the event.

Playing Beetle

The object of the game is to draw a Beetle, rolling a dice to see which bit you can draw next, but you have to have a body or a head before you can start to add other pieces to them. Some throw swiftly – in some cases so swiftly that the dice ends up on the floor, others take their time, focussing on the dice and willing the elusive six (or five) to get them started.
The first player to complete a Beetle calls out and everybody stops, and counts the score of the pieces they have drawn, and then the player with the highest score at each table moves to the next table clockwise, and the lowest score moves anti-clockwise. The game is thus sociable as well as allowing us to practice our mathematical, in in come cases, artistic talents (some people draw really elaborate beetles, while others – don’t).