'Life
Begins at Sixty Five!
..or
at least it does if you went to the United Benefice
Over-65 Holiday Club 2009
Between 15th and 19th June, 2009, a select group of citizens of mature
years
from the United Benefice enjoyed a week of varied activities, at home
and away.
The photographs, by Bill Tudhope and Maureen Madden, are interspersed
below
with diary entries by some olf those who took part.
Monday,
15th June
10.00 am – and the doors of St. Mary’s Hall opened, into which entered
forty-odd senior citizens whose
combined ages would surely cause eyebrows to raise!
A cup of tea or coffee welcomed the thirsty, while the first of the
day’s activities saw people doing a Quiz of
European capital cities (forty-nine in all) – the winner to be
announced later in the week.
Then a female member of the Hugh Baird Catering Department, accompanied
by a handsome final-year male
student treated us to a cookery demonstration. They distributed
their offerings in small dishes – yoghurt and
cucumber, salsa of red peppers and tomatoes, and finally a vegetable
rissole eaten between two halves of a
small roll.
Following lunch brought by club members and eaten in the hall, promptly
at 1.30 pm, a coach took the whole
company off to visit Knowsley Safari Park – where we were greeted by
heavy rain and dramatic black, black
clouds from which emitted zigzags of lightning. It did clear and
most of the hour’s drive was done in golden
sunshine.
We saw a variety of animals, while listening to an excellent recorded
description of the Park and its inhabitants.
We delighted in the baboons sitting on cars, and we had to edge very
slowly past a most aristocratic camel that
refused to move while holding its head arrogantly high.
A most welcome cup of tea or coffee accompanied by a rich cream scone
in a private room of the restaurant
ended a most happy afternoon’s visit – and we did not get one drop of
rain on our persons!
June Birch, St. Mary’s Waterloo Park
Tuesday, 16th June
The programme for today promised us entertainment by Waterloo Primary
School Children in the morning,
followed by an afternoon of being pampered.
The first part of the entertainment was a performance of very energetic
Irish style dancing – think ‘Riverdance’
–
by either 2 or 3 girls. We then had the choir, boys and girls,
though it was far more girls than boys. They sang
a varied selection of songs with several solo items. All the
children, dancers and singers, were excellent, with
the soloist being outstanding. After all their efforts the children
were given a tour of the church and rewarded
with orange juice and biscuits. They then came and moved about among
us, and one of the girls assured me
that it was much better than school!
Pampering in the afternoon consisted of having either a Back massage or
an Arm, Hand and Finger massage.
Choice was limited to whoever was available when your number was
called. I think that only one of us managed
to have both. There were some very attractive young females doing
massaging, but sadly for our ladies, no
attractive young men. On the other hand, two of the masseuses
claimed that they were old enough to join us.
Ron Rankin, St.,
Faith’s Great Crosby
Wednesday, 17th June
Wednesday was a very wet day, so we were very pleased to stay in the
Church Hall!
To start we did Circle Dancing – no one had ever heard of it before but
it was very pleasant. We did various
dances, including Jewish, Greek and French. The dancers enjoyed
it and so did the onlookers.
We have numerous cups of coffee or tea during the day which is most
welcome.
After we had had our lunch and a chat we watched a film called “Mrs
Caldicott’s Cabbage War” starring
Pauline Collins and John Alderton, which we very much enjoyed.
The week so far has been most enjoyable and we are looking forward to
the next two days.
Margaret Hurst,
Christ Church Waterloo
Thursday, 18th
June
On Thursday of the ‘Holiday week’ an eager group of people met at the
gates of St. Mary’s to go to York.
We settled into a comfortable coach and were soon off through Seaforth,
Litherland and up ‘the new road’.
I was especially pleased to go as I hadn’t been to York since
1943! After a coffee stop on the way we began
to see towers, walls and battlements and pulled into the coach park.
Our first visit was to the Minster where two helpful, knowledgeable
guides took us to the benches made by
‘the mouse man’, the choir stalls, not as old as we all thought, the
chancel steps, slightly off set and not on stable
foundations. I had forgotten the 1980s fire which burnt part of
the wooden roof and we saw close-ups of roof
bosses designed by local children.
From there we went to a restaurant for lunch – not the best part of the
day. The fish and chips looked good and
came quickly but the rest of us waited and waited and eventually had to
go before we had finished. I really enjoyed
going through the narrow streets like The Shambles to get to the Jorvik
Centre, an underground experience of life
in Viking days, dug out by the local history society.
Then back to the coach and home over the Pennines, the ‘end of a
perfect day’. We give our thanks to the two
ladies who arranged it all, and I especially as a visitor to all the
week’s activities. Thank you for making me so
welcome and I hope to see you next year. I wish my church did
something similar.
Doreen Isles
... a visitor from Dunstable, who came for two days and enjoyed it so
much she re-arranged her visit north and
s=tayed the whole week!
Thursday, 18th
June
Yet another wonderful day so efficiently organised by Joan and Lynne.
We started our outing to York by coach at 8.35 am, arriving there at
11.30 am. (including a stop at a Motorway
Service Station), and made our way to the magnificent Minster where we
were given an guided tour by an extremely
knowledgeable and enthusiastic
gentleman, and the time passed all too quickly.
After an enjoyable lunch we went to the exhibition known as “Jorvik”,
the name of York as known to the Viking
settlers in the 9th century. Originally it had been a Roman
stronghold and had a strong defensive wall and probably
a royal palace. After the Viking Invasion their Kings (both Danish and
Norse) reigned for nearly 100years but in
AD 954 the last one was expelled when the city then became part of the
new Kingdom of England. We saw fantastic
displays of Viking artefacts, craftsmanship, etc., and also had a
unique passage through time of typical 9th century
lifestyle via a very modern mode of travel – rather like going on a
Fairground Ghost Train but much more luxurious
and comfortable!
Finally, we left York soon after 5.00 pm, arriving back at 7.30 pm,
having enjoyed a really interesting and pleasant
day.
Joyce Jones, St.
Mary’s, Waterloo Park
Friday, 19th June
Our 65 Club set off on a nice sunny morning with our Blue Badge guide
for a two hour coach tour of Liverpool;
her name was Elizabeth, and how she could remember all the dates and
names of the docks, people and places
I don’t know, but we all enjoyed it very much. We heard from her
about the first Bishops of Liverpool and our
two Cathedrals, Florence Nightingale and lots and lots more information.
Then our afternoon came to an end with a lovely afternoon tea, which
was enjoyed by all.
Thank you Joan and Lynne for a really great week, and for all the hard
work that must go into this wonderful
week with such a varied programme.
Joan Sutherland,
St. Luke’s Crosby
Extract from a letter from Elizabeth Newell – Blue Badge Tourist Guide
for Merseyside
“You really gave the oldies a wonderful week, and I know from comments
I heard that they enjoyed the week
enormously. I’m sure some of them don’t get out much and will
have really appreciated all the events you organised
and all the companionship of the group. It is quite humbling to
think how easy it was for me to give them pleasure
and I’d be d picturevery happy to do another tour next year”.
Footnote from the organisers
This year we were oversubscribed: we are of course governed not
only by how many people we can manage,
but by the capacity of the coach for going out on trips. We have
doubled our numbers in four years and I
year there will be more people wanting to join us. We are
grateful to those who were brave enough to sign up
for the Holiday Club that first year in 2006, to start what has been
such a successful venture.
We try and keep the cost for members as low as possible, and have been
grateful for a grant from a Trust Fund
and a generous donation from an anonymous source. The money has
been used wisely for the sole benefit of those
attending the Holiday Club, to enable everyone there to have a really
good week.
We are always ready to receive new ideas and contacts for activities in
the hall.
Joan Tudhope and
Lynne Connolly
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