When does a Phab holiday begin ? The official start was everyone assembling at 10:30 to board the Minibus, and three cars (we were joined by another one later with members who had to work during the day on Friday), and set off for the New Forest.
Before that plans had been made, food and other supplies bought, meals cooked and frozen and a host of other activities to make sure the holiday was a success.
The actual loading was very much the same as in 2015 and 2016, and the journey uneventful, but we were still pleased to arrive, have a picnic lunch in front of the house, and then, once our chalets were free, unload.
Club night with games
As well as our normal club night chatting, with quite a bit of administration this week as the money for our meal out at Oxy next week, and for Mama Mia in November needed to be paid.
We have several games in the Phab cupboard, and it is great to have so much space to be able to play them in the Hall at Wesley Memorial Church. We had the indoor tennis out for these pictures.
Oxford Fun Run 2017
We enjoyed doing the Fun Run in 2012 and 2013, and went back again to do it this year.
The Oxford Fun Run is organised each year by the Rotary Club of Oxford. They have run this event every year since 1989, and their activities have raised a lot of money for good causes over the years.
There was a slightly different route for wheelchair users, which avoided having to travel over grass, which can be difficult if the weather has been wet.
We gathered at the start.
We did not race round, but enjoyed the event, content to be overtaken by speedier runners, and walkers.
Reunited at the end.
We were very pleased to be awarded the Pathways Workshop Special Achievement Award.
It was presented by Andrew Smith, MP for Oxford East, who also met us when we did the Oxford Fun Run in 2012.
We did this to raise money for our club activities, particularly so we can keep our Minibus going and to subsidise some events which would not otherwise be affordable for all our our members.
Several of our members have fundraising pages at mydonate, which it sponsored by BT, so does not take any commission of your donation, and deals with Gift Aid etc. Donations via my link, above, or any of the following will all help.
Games Night at Banbury Phab
We had a great time at Banbury Phab, who had kindly invited us to their games evening. They had wide variety of games, from putting to seeing how many marbles you could spoon into an upside down flower pot in 30 seconds. Many of them had been made by their club leader, Barry, over the years, including his amazing switch game.
Bar skittles, also known as Devil among the tailors.
Getting marbles into a flowerpot is harder than you might think.
The marble maze requires patience and concentration – this shows a particularly tricky section of the maze.
They were also celebrating two birthdays, so we had birthday cake as well !
Thank you Banbury Phab !
Zumba – with Tango !
We always enjoy Zumba, and George Martini had us try some dances in a different style, rather like a cross between the Zumba we had been doing and the Wheelchair Dance we did in February.
Here we are in action !
As well as dances in lines there were dances in a circle – this one was taken while dancing, so the room as well as the dancers seems to be moving !
We even did a tango – but participating and filming a circle dance is possible, but a tango would be too tricky !
We all really enjoyed the session and look forward to more Zumba in future.
To fund out activities we will be taking part on the Oxford Fun Run on May 6th, so please consider sponsoring us.
Easter Disco
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.