Church Garden Party

Once again the sun shone on the Annual Wesley Memorial Church Garden Party. Many scones were made, and consumed with clotted cream and strawberry jam. In the interests of science both the Cornish method (jam first, cream on top) and the Devon method (cream first and then jam) were tested, and the conclusion ? – More research needed!

The swimming pool was available, as well as impromptu games of football and badminton, and to top off the event a choir sang madrigals.

It was a welcome opportunity for Phab and church members to mingle and chat.

Thanks to many generous donations the event also raised over £500 for Oxford Phab.

A sad goodbye to Wendy

Wendy, who had been a member of Oxford Phab for over 20 years, died on the morning of Monday 5th June 2023.

She was keen on craft activities, Zumba and Phab Discos, and our regular club nights where we get together and chat.

George and Wendy at a Club Night

She also performed, as a backing Chicken in ‘We are poultry’ – part of our Phabulous Evening of Entertainment in June 2003, and as part of the hairy bunch of Ishmaelites in a Wesley Memorial Church production of Joseph, in October 2003.

We are Poultry singers and chorus
Wendy in white tee-shirt in the chorus

She came on holiday with us to Alton Towers and enjoyed the more sedate rides there.

  • Wendy at Alton Towers

She will be missed, particularly for her concern for others and her bursts of enthusiasm for the simple pleasures in life – often shared in the car on the way to or from Phab.

An interesting Quiz Night

Tom and Martha teamed up to give us another interesting and well-balanced quiz. Questions included recognizing biscuits and board games from pictures, some of only a part of the subject – enough for the teams to know they have seen it, but not always enough to be able to identify it.

We play in teams, and it is helpful to have a range of interests on the team, and surprising to find out what members know. We also learnt some things that none of us knew, such as that a sloth takes two weeks to digest a meal, and that the animal which produces cuboid poo is the wombat. We also played a couple of Rebus games, which some members had not encountered, and enjoyed once they caught on to the format.

Celebrations and Art

Although Helen was announced as this year’s winner of the Paul Hope Award in December, as the announcement was done remotely via a video link, she could not receive the certificate which accompanies the award. This was presented to her tonight

We also had a small Coronation Party, in anticipation of tomorrows ceremonies.

Remains of party food!

Wesley Memorial Church is also a venue for Oxfordshire Art Weeks – with people who use the buildings being invited to create or submit works on a theme of ‘Special Places, Holy Spaces’. This sparked inspiration in some of our members –

It also kicked off some interesting discussion about what made Phab special to its members.

Chatting, planning and Jigsaw Beetle.

As it was our first meeting since Easter we had a lot of catching up to do, and sat around chatting in small groups. We also suggested subject areas for our next quiz, and in the process discovered that the game we know as Dingbats is known in other countries, and historically, as Rebus.

Helen had brought with her a Jigsaw puzzle version of Beetle, familiar to us in the drawing version, but in this variant came with four different coloured Beetle Jigsaws, each piece with a number, and needed a 1 to start the body. It provided similar fun and frustration to the pencil and paper version, if fewer opportunities for displays of artistic talent.

Easter Bingo

Once again, as we like to do in the run up to Easter, we asked member to bring in prizes, and played Bingo to redistribute them.

This year the prizes included some home grown chilies, which the winners turned into a tasty meal, with sea bass and ginger.

Initially we used traditional Bingo calls, such as ’59 – Brighton Line’, but moved on to our own variant, using Hymns from Singing the Faith, thus ‘59 – Lord the light of your love is shining‘ – with audience participation for the catchy ones.

Romeo and Juliet by the Banbury Cross Players

Our talented Chair, Helen, was playing the part of Nurse, in a production of Romeo and Juliet, performed by the Banbury Cross Players at The Mill theater.

All the characters delivered a strong performance, and the well timed delivery and acting meant that the authentic Shakespearean language was not a barrier to following the action.

The strong bond between Juliet and her Nurse, and the complexity of their relationship was well played by both actors, and we were glad of the opportunity to see it.