May 2018 Extra

At our second Maytime Memory Café our visitors arrived in good spirits and were soon chattering about personal experiences since they last met, as well as the very recent national events – the royal wedding and the cup final!

On the tables were copies of the new ‘Sparkle’ magazine with puzzles and articles of interest to peruse, as well as a word-search with an Australian theme.

With everyone settled and relaxed, Joan and Richard introduced their illustrated talk entitled ‘Australia, the Promised Land?’  The scene was set by a table-top display which included Aborigine-inspired fabrics, books and maps, an ingenious folding hat to be worn in the ‘outback’ (sadly without corks!) and, of course, the inevitable boomerang.

Richard told us of a recent journey which he and Joan had made to visit close family who have emigrated to Australia, and his interesting talk gave everyone an insight into the geography and infrastructure of the country. We learnt of the similarities to and differences from living in Britain – a fascinating and often amusing perspective of life on the other side of the world which everyone very much enjoyed!

As tea-time approached a representative from ‘Wiltshire Farm Foods’ spoke about the services which the company can provide and our refreshments were augmented by samples from their current range.

The afternoon concluded with a game of ‘bird bingo’ before reminder slips for our next meetings on Monday 4^th June and Monday 18^th June were distributed and it was time to say goodbye and close our doors once again.

New members, who have a degree of memory loss, are always welcome to come along with their carers, and should you require more information please contact Di on 01637 830544 or David on 01637 830617.

May 2018

Another entertaining and amusing afternoon awaited visitors to the Memory Café on May 7th. Along with a ‘Tool and Utensils’ word-search, our guests were greeted with a fascinating table display of unusual and interesting implements and tools brought in by our helpers and then added to by our visitors.

After time to settle in and have a chat, David introduced our guest for the afternoon Max Simpson who brought along a wide range of tools, machinery and utensils that he has amassed over the years and fittingly gave us a lively presentation entitled ‘ Tools to Amuse and Confuse’ – and they certainly did!

Max and his wife Suzanne introduced us to an amazing range of tools and implements used in homes, farming, industry, the garden and more. Once familiar objects, they were a mystery to us, but we had great fun guessing their uses, which ranged from stretching shoes to alleviate bunions and shoes for horses with deformed hooves to mole traps and seed drills! It was fascinating to see the ingenuity and skill of our predecessors and it gave us all a real insight into life in days gone by.

Max was very interested to see our own display and we even managed to amuse and confuse him with a couple of our items including the luggage pole and the Jew’s harp!

Following a break for afternoon tea, it was time to get our thinking caps on as photos of everyday items, taken in close-up or at unusual angles were distributed around the tables to be identified. It might sound easy, but it was surprisingly challenging and only by working in groups were most of the items identified. However, when the answers were given, it all became clear!

As the afternoon drew to a close there was just time for a quick song or two before thanks were given to Max for a most interesting afternoon and the café doors closed until we meet again on Monday 21st May.

New members, who have a degree of memory loss, are always welcome to come along with their carers, and should you require more information please contact Di on 01637 830544, Joan on 01637 831347.