Another good Saturday morning.
All set up on time thanks to the Saturday Club helpers, plus a growing number of juniors are arriving early enough to help set up to, its so good to know they enjoy it that much, and of coarse appreciate what goes in to setting it up each time. It’s just a case of giving them something they like to fiddle with and of they go.
Today we tried something new……Invite a Special Person……the idea was that each member chose and invited their special person to come along and join in with the activities, and what a brilliant idea that was. Each of the activities here today was introduced by the juniors; each had turned a microphone last month and with Kayleigh at the News Desk in the studio she went to roving reporters around the hall, they in turn explained what was happening, there were a few funny bits put in and all went very well and received a good round of applause at the end, all this done with just the one run through together in the kitchen minutes before, everybody was I’m sure very proud of them, the juniors jumped at the chance to do this and managed it very well, something different which is what their club is all about.
I’ve got 129 brilliant pictures taken by members throughout the morning, and everybody in them has the biggest widest happiest smile you could ever want to see, you can imagine my delight when I came to edited and store them this morning, it made my day…
Unfortunately senior helpers Dave, Eric, John, Keith, Sue, Nikky and Don couldn’t make today for various reasons, all had politely made their apologies beforehand, that’s 7 helpers less than we normally get here on a Saturday, despite this we were all set up and ready to go by 9.00am, so while I’m here many thanks go to Rachael, Ken, Dave, Mike, John, John, Angy, Ron, Colin and Alex, and of coarse Kieran’s mum Debbie for making us all a hot drink while we set up, much appreciated. As you probably guessed I’m very busy turning and answering a million questions throughout the morning, so I don’t make notes to help write these articles, all done from memory, and for those of you who have visited a junior meeting you will understand that’s no mean feat, so if I left anybody out I apologise now.
Angy did plaster casting amongst other things, Ron managed the computer along with Alex with his camera, the 5 turners did various things from bell type mushrooms for the garden to light pulls, pens and bowls etc, John filled in with anything that was needed, like drilling a blank for a screw chuck etc. Rachael did painting, but not just any old painting, this was blindfold left hand painting, squirting straight from the bottle, rolling, brushing and smearing with anything you can think of including your hands were just some of the techniques used, as you can imagine there were lots of happy excited people there all morning, well done Rachael, if I was to do a risk assessment for this morning I think that would have to be top of the list………everybody had a brilliant time at this, lots of free expression.
Talking of painting…..a while ago I gave the juniors the opportunity to each paint any one of 6 sides of the boards that cover the windows of my workshop…Emily took a board some weeks ago and brought it back today….absolutely brilliant, its called “Four Seasons” there has obviously been a lot of thought gone into this, and a lot of work to, I feel very privileged to have it in my workshop, so many thanks to young Emily and I look forward to see the others along side hers.
I miss most things at our meeting because I’m turning, so you can imagine my delight when I received some more pictures from Ron, curtsey of Alex no doubt, as I said a total of 129 in all, these pictures are a true record and will be filed away, for me personally there are quite a few very special pictures there, that’s what makes all the effort worth while.
In all the goings on at the beginning I completely forgot to pass round the newsletters, plus I always ask “what’s the date of the next meeting” that’s written on the bottom of the letter, to which the juniors in chorus reply 22nd of May or in this case they didn’t, never mind…..our next meeting could be one of our quietest……..
To conclude….all the helpers were very busy today and thanks go to them, I can’t remember who did the kitchen duty today, one of the few pictures not taken, but thanks to those from all of us, and a special thank you from us to Kieran for making Banana cake, he made sure there were some pieces wrapped and in the fridge for Heather (my wife) to taste, she said it was tasty…cant argue with that.
And well done the members for bringing their special person today, I think that is going to be added to our annual events list. Quicker than usual the 3 hours has gone, and this time there is more mess than ever……but true to form in no time at all with an army of willing helpers the hall is spotless (see insert picture) and as if by magic there gone…….the people that is……not the spots………well the spots did go…..(I wish I hadn’t mentioned it now)…..and there’s just Mike and I there, you could hear a pin drop….and there goes an absolutely brilliant Saturday club.
Mick Giles