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.
After our Summer Holidays it was great to meet up with our Phab friends to find out what they had been doing, and have a chat.
We also started to plan the programme for the rest of the year, which needs to be co-ordinated with the church diary, and we will need to find out if some of places, such as Donnington Social Club will be available when we want to go. It looks as if we will have plenty to look forward to.
As we had heavy rain last year for our Barbecue at Simon and Sarah’s House, and it had rained at the Barbecue the previous year as well, the committee decided to plan for all eventualities this year. We hired Botley W.I. Hall for the evening, which turned out to be a good decision.
Simon still proved his mettle as master of the barbecue, ably assisted by Chris, and wisely lent us one of his two new gazebos in case it was needed – it was!
We erected the gazebo and got the barbecue started before most members arrived, when – luckily – it was not too wet.
By the time hungry members started to arrive it was wet !
Luckily there was plenty of space for people inside – this picture was before most people arrived.
We carried on cooking burgers (meat on the left side of the barbecue), vegetarian kebabs (we kept the right hand side of the barbecue meat free), vegetarian sausages. Inside the W.I. Hall we were cooking Chicken, the non-vegetarian sausages and preparing salads, setting out buns for burgers and rolls for hot dogs, serving drinks etc. There were also a selection of cheesecakes and other deserts.
Unfortunately there are no pictures of this feast, and the next stage was loading the minibus, packing away the gazebo, clearing the kitchen, sweeping floors etc.
So that we could leave the W.I. Hall looking tidy.
It was quite a warm night, even before we started doing Zumba. Some members chose to stay in the John Wesley room, but those who took part had a very enjoyable session. Thanks to George for the session !
