We were happy to have Banbury Phab come to our Easter Disco.
Before anyone else arrived a small team were busy in the kitchen making sandwiches.
The bread and eggs for the sandwiches and the cakes were donated by Tescos via the Fareshare Foodcloud scheme, while crisps etc were donated by Oxford Phab members.
We ended up with quite a spread !
When Banbury arrived our disco got started.
After a bit of disco to work up an appetite we broke to eat, and play some games, such as “Heads or Tails”. As usual at Phab the prizes were largely chocolate based !, small Easter eggs, or chocolate bunnies.
We also had some drawings of Easter Bunnies, which also won prizes.
Then we went back to the disco.
Although very dark, if you know there are to wheelchairs circling each other you get a flavour of a Phab disco.
Throwing ourselves into the Hokey Cokey with lots of energy !
Hinksey Heights Captain's Drive In 2017
We were the Hinksey Heights Golf Club Captains Charity in 2016, and were invited to their Captain’s Drive In. We were very happy to come back, and sell more tickets for their raffle, as well as sticks which their members could place on the course to show where they thought first drive of this year’s captains would reach.
We were very pleased to accept a cheque for the amount their members had raised on our behalf during the year, at events like the Captain’s Day.
Tom won an Easter Egg in the raffle
Tom won an Easter Egg in the raffle
Noodle Night
Here we are tucking into noodles and other dishes from Noodle Nation. Members had made their choices on our Quiz Night on March 17th, and we had let Noodle Nation know who had ordered what.
We collected the order and when we unpacked it the box was full of little individual orders labelled with who they were for. It made dishing up much easier.
Zumba Event in aid of local cancer organisations
About 20 Oxfordshire Zuma instructors held a Zumba fundraising evening at the Christian Life Centre on Cowley Road. The money raised went to various local cancer organisations.
Oxford Phab were very glad to have a chance to participate in this event.
Refreshments and lunches for Open Doors
Members of Oxford Phab helped to serve refreshments in the John Wesley Room at Wesley Memorial Church while a CD and Record Fair was held in the Hall, so we were able to sell refreshments to music enthusiasts, and also church members who had been to a meeting at another central office church and then came to purchase the home made soup, jacket potatoes, cakes and other delicacies prepared for the occasion.
We raised £121.20 for Open Doors.
Quiz Night
Once again Robin had gone to a great deal of trouble to prepare a quiz for us.
We divided into four teams and tackled the various parts of the quiz.
The team I was in were particularly fortunate, as we had “The Queen of the Wordsearch” in it. Despite our advantage in this section all teams were equally triumphant, and everyone shared the prize – a tub of chocolates.
Boccia – but not as we know it !
Normally our games of Boccia are pretty similar to anyone else’s, but this is something you don’t see in the Paralympics.
The red ball is on top of the white !
For comparison – this is how it should look
Evening at Donnington Social Club
As always we were made very welcome at Donnington Social club, where we enjoy a change of scene and a chance to sit and chat.
We could also watch the club members play darts, which we did not join in – I think they play at a higher skill level than we do.
Wheelchair Dancing – and Pancakes !
When we went to the Crafts Day at Hounslow Phab we brought back a quantity of surplus lemons, as well as all the items we made that day. These went well with the pancakes we cooked in the new John Wesley room kitchen at Wesley Memorial Church. We also had a sugar, bananas, squirty cream and a selection of chocolate and other sauces.
To work off all these calories we went through to the Hall for a spot of Wheelchair Dancing, arranged though the Wheelchair Dance Sports Association, sponsored by National Phab, and provided by West Oxfordshire Wheelchair Dance.
Once we had warmed up we really got into it !
As you can see in this video !
Amazing Love
Some Oxford Phab members performed in the Musical “Amazing Love“, while others came to watch. All those who took part, and hopefully those who watched, found it inspiring and uplifting.
It was written by Jack Godfrey, a member of Wesley Memorial Church, and who came to Phab from time to time – and tells the story of John and Charles Wesley. This might not sound like the most promising material for a musical, but the Wesleys had an exciting life and Amazing Love features a fire and a storm at sea, both accompanied by appropriate special effects, as well as scenes at Oxford University and the Colony of Georgia. We also learnt the less widely know “Tale of Jeremiah‘s Wife”.
Here we see, in the background, Oxford Phab members Penny, John, Sarah, Mary and Karen. Note the simple, but effective 18th century costumes.
In the background are Mary, Sarah, Karen and John from Oxford Phab looking on as John Wesley talks to Sophie Hopkey.
Here John (on the upper level), Mary and Sarah are joining in the finale.
Up in the gallery Simon was running a Followspot to illuminate principle characters, and helped with the setting up and taking down of the lighting rig.
This video was shot during the setting up of part of the Fire! scene. The production version of the scene used more fire effect lighting systems and a smoke machine.
Rehearsing for the musical and thinking about some related issues led to the article Amazing Love, Demographics and Mass migrations on my blog.