Club 06/07 Week 8

This week was:

• Tree Planting Week
• Thanksgiving
• Anti-Bullying Week
• Christmas Sale
• Cash Giveaway Auditions
• Poplar Indoor Rainy Season

This week we...

• planted trees for young people to take home & painted some ceramic flower pots ...btw...more of the bulbs we planted a while back are starting to sprout and the wild flowers are still doing well and the Paradise Zone Gardening Centre is due to open in the spring...not really...saying that...I suppose we could grow stuff like plants and herbs and sell them for fundraising...what a good idea...
• had some anti-bullying poster competitions which Daniel & Kieran won...lots of talk about bullies...even Gordon Brown mentioned it in club - ok not quite in club...a letter that Tony got from Gordon Brown in reply to his letter on the issue of bullying had what Gordon Brown said about bullying...so he said it in a letter in club...and on the subject...Thomas and Tony both got replies to their letters but I didn't get a reply to my letter and 7 postcards even after signing one with Love & Kisses...I don't understand - I suspect ageism.
• had a stall in the Christmas Sale manned by Craig, Sarah, Thomas, Josh, Keeley & Michelle and made £45.60...hula hoops and historical romances went well...and Craig's sales pitch seems to have been able to sell almost anything to anyone...along the lines of pyramids to Egyptions but failed with Laura who turned down the beautifully carved antique, oh so lovely and would look perfect on any mantlepiece or living room shelf or side table 'Lovers' statue even at the rock-bottom price of 50p.
• made marshmallow and chocolate Pilgrim Hats...decorated with icing buckles...Henry used the 'one for me-one for cooking' approach...and Lorrie had an abstract version of the icing buckle while some versions of the Pilgrims' Hats were more art than hat
• more George Greenies started coming out of school for the morning...now we have 2 weekly groups and one monthly...and Tony is the first Langdon Parky to join us...yay!
• Thanksgiving turkeys - with feathers featuring what the young people were thankful for...Keeley & me were thankful for finally getting all the bodies, heads and feathers of the turkeys cut and glued and labelled...and that in the making of the turkeys no small children were harmed...reminds me though of nightmares I used to have about turkeys in the attic and feathers flying like ice in Edward Scissorhands...and finding out later that when I was little we used to keep turkeys in the attic and my dad used to pluck them there...it wasn't a dream.
• painted some pine cones for the Christmas Tree...yes the ones I mentioned picking on Tuesday and putting on the radiator to open...if u do this at home you can collect the seeds that fall our after they open and plant them...somewhere nice where you can check on them in years to come...probably in soil as that usually works better than concrete, water or tarmac.
• had a Thanksgiving version of 'I went shopping and bought...' (great idea Josh) instead we said what we were thankful for and listed what the previous people were thankful for...the lists included friends, families, club, legs (that was Keeley...mmmm?), volunteers, the good in the world (that was Sarah - she's like that u know), a brother, a new baby nephew (that was Thomas who just became an uncle to the youngest person to ever come to club - Billy who was only 2 days old when he came) an unborn baby (Sues), a parent & toddler group (Nick's) and lots more great things I can't remember because I am getting old...sorry no am old.
• the indoor rainy season bucket shuffle continues...rain on PCs & TVs...the plants get watered well...as does the carpet...I love an indoor shower...I'm singin in the rain...just singing in the rain, what a glorious feeling I need never go out again...

Oh and we were told on Tuesday we had an audition for ITV's Cash Giveaway for money for our Youth Africa Project, on Wednesday we met up to decide what we were going to do, Thursday made the props and got help from everyone at club and Friday finished them and practised the pitch and Saturday, after the sale went into the West End for the audition - which took the form of 7 people in white umpa-lumpa suits (and red ribbons), with Timmy (the Fairtrade banana) and Geoffrey (the Make Poverty History Sign) strutting our stuff for the camera for 60 seconds followed by questions, smiles and sighs of relief that no more energy drinks would be needed.

Everyone did fantabulously...and our pitch was loved...how could they not...and our project was loved...how could they not...and we were loved...how could they not...if we don't get further then it will be because of a break-down in communication where the person in charge tells someone who is not in charge that we are the best and we should have whatever money we need but the person who is not in charge thinks the person in charge has said that we failed the test and should should not get even any honey if we plead ...you know how these things happen.