It seemed a bit late to be saying ‘Happy New Year’ but as this was our first meeting in 2008 that was how Chairman Sybil Saunders greeted the members. As usual there were a few notices to give out – our next meeting on March 4th will be the AGMand all members are encouraged to attend, this year was the 60th anniversary of Arthritis Care and a picture of our celebratory cake, made by Pam May had appeared in the Bulletin for Southern England. Member Barbara Brown had brought in a warning from the TV programme ‘Watchdog’ about how to avoid being victim to the many ‘scams’ that prevail today and as something to look forward to there is the possibility of a mini bus tour of Blackmoor Apple Farm in April to see the blossom.
Now – anyone who has attended a meeting when Peggy Weeks was our Speaker will know that you can’t just sit and listen! Peggy always brings lots of ‘props’ with her and for ‘BeatingThe Blues’ each chair was covered with a brightly coloured silk scarf. Peggy makes no secret of the fact that she is 81 years old and started by telling us that her children are telling her to slow down. To this end she described how she had passed her Advanced Driving Test last year and the fun it had been to appear on BBCBreakfast TV afterwards.
That 5 minutes was the last time we were allowed to sit still as we were led through a series of exercises, first on our own then to music which invariably meant a lot faster (all the time still in our seats)
Starting with simple finger movements and moving on to arms, shoulders, feet, legs and even eyes there was much laughter as we all tried to keep up. The climax was exercises using both arms and the silk scarves and then, just to test our brains, a German clapping dance that was nowhere as easy as it looked. Peggy is a great advertisement for the benefit of exercise and all members enjoyed joining in to the best of their ability and it certainly cheered us up on a dull day.
After thanks from Sybil it was time for tea, cakes and the raffle.
The next meeting is our AGM and after the short business side is out of the way we will be entertained by Roger Saunders – ‘You’ve Probably Heard This Before, But……? Which promises to be an enjoyable musical interlude.
If you would like to come to a meeting please call Shirley on 01428 643625. Also we are ALWAYS looking for volunteers and you don’t need to suffer from Arthritis to help out.
