Block the Bridge

Westminster Bridge was blocked by NHS Cuts protestors

More photos to come...

Postcard from London Arms Fair

Summer Club - Thursday 4th August

It had rained all day and then the sky cleared as we made our way over Tower Bridge...

...to go to see Around the World in 80 Days at the open air theatre: The Scoop.

On the way back we had to wait for the bridge!

LONDON WORK/EXPERIENCE

David's Work Experience took place at The Paradise Zone Youth Centre in the East End of London from the 4th to the 8th of April 2011 generally at the following times and changing according to needs: Monday 11am - 3pm & 5.30 - 9, Tuesday 11am - 7pm, Wednesday 10am - 3pm & 5.30 - 8pm, Thursday 10.30 – 3.30 & 5.30 – 8pm and Friday 11 - 5

David did lots of preparation before sessions like buying ingredients for cooking & planning activities like the 'Going Camping' game for the Young Leaders Project. For each session he set up the main room, put equipment, games and the Carrom Board out, switched the PS2 & WII on, set up the pool & table tennis tables, put out drinks and the fruit bowl, set up the art table, put music on & set up the IT room.

Other prep work he did included:

• Risk assessment – looking at hazards etc
• Session briefing & Reflection
• Studied clubs policies & documents ie. Aims, Framework, Equal Ops
• Learning British Sign Language

During sessions whether 1:1 or group evening Open Sessions or day time School Sessions or the Young Leader Project, David signed young people in, got to know them (even using BSL when he could) and worked with and supported them teaching skills and learning from them when appropriate. He ran activities like making origami bunnies and cards with young people with complex needs, did worksheets on subjects such as homophones with a home-schooled girl, ran a scavenger hunt round Poplar with the Young Leader Project and a plethora of other activities including Easter Egg Hunts and Egg and Spoon races, cooking chocolate Easter egg nests, playing musical bunny statues & cotton ball bunny tails with different groups. David also did things like set up the tables for lunch & clear up with the young people and after sessions evaluate the session with the team and switch off, put away, tidy up, clear away and lock up.

For specific groups David had to adapt activities like providing more support in activities for those with specific learning needs and disabilities, providing Easter egg alternatives as gifts for Easter when a member of the group was diabetic, in the Young Leader Project was willing to be led by other young people in games such as tangle hands and line up and used sign language as appropriate. As part of David's development and experience he also observed a British Sign Language Exam at an Idea Store, sat in on a Supervision meeting, climbed at the local Mile End Climbing wall, visited local meeting/eating places such as the Departure Lounge and Noodle Street and the centre cafe for Thursday Breakfast Club.

He did all that as well as experiencing some of London's places of interest, history and culture as can be seen in the picture below...

Snow Pictures

Snow Prints

Whats the story here I wonder...and was there a happy ending?


Snow Trees

The snow makes everywhere look magical - even Mile End!

Snow Heart

You have to love snow - not just for the snowballs, snowmen and days off school but for the sounds of the city under a blanket of white and the conversations with complete strangers on traffic islands just because it snowed!

Strangers into Citizens Rally

3 mins 44 secs

Song & Music
God's Humble Opinion
by
Patsy O'Brien

London Pillow Fight at Elephant & Castle

World Pillow Fight Day 2009

On this day at 3.03, in front of the Michael Faraday Memorial at Elephant and Castle, dust rose and the stuffing was knocked out of pillows!

The peaceful solution to conflict - the pillow. Proven in battle to cause fewer combatant casualties, no collateral damage and higher incidence of outbreaks of smiling and laughter.

Song 'Cry' written and performed by Patsy O'Brien

Pillow Fight in Trafalgar Square

Just like it sounds...for fun a bunch of us met up in Trafalgar Square for a two minute pillow fight...including a guy who just tagged along, stole someone's pillow and proceeded to get really into it...fortunately no injuries were sustained due to the nature of his weapon!

Westminster Bridge Freeze

So I saw a link about Improv Everywhere then checked out if there were any groups in London and if they were doing anything. There was and they were...the next day.

So I ended up next day with working with 12 complete strangers on a freeze on Westminster Bridge, where one person stops and looks out (not at the obvious like Big Ben) and another comes along and stops and freezes and so on until Big Ben chimes and we all just disappear into the crowd as if nothing has happend.

Why? For fun and because we could!

I was quite impressed with the fact a bunch of complete strangers could co-ordinate and co-operate with each other to do such a thing in such an impromptu fashion...gives you hope for what might be achieved with a little planning...

(Picture by John Ryan)

440,000 MARCH TO PARLIAMENT SQUARE (Part 3)

40, 000 IN STOP THE WAR MARCH IN LONDON (Part 2)

40.000 IN TRAFAGLAR SQUARE RALLY (Part 1)

Demonstration today in London

Stop the War Site with info on demonstration today.

Lights Out London

Tonight London switched off its non-essential lights between 9pm & 10pm to save energy & heighten awareness of global warming.

Check out the Guardian article on the event and Lights Out London for photos of the London Skyline in switched off.

Ice Cream Lunch

Tony loves Ice-cream, so a trip to Haagen Daz (a restaurant which had menus of just ice-cream) seemed the perfect treat for his 'graduation'...as long as he planned it all out from transport to cost. If he didn't get us there and have the right amount of money it meant no ice-cream for anyone.

This is how Tony planned the expedition...

Step 1:Googled Haagen Daz & found website.

Step 2: Checked out Haagen Daz UK website for nearest Ice-cream restaurant in London.

Step 2: Used Transport for London to find the best way from Poplar to the Haagen Daz...a number 15 to Charing Cross and a short walk to Leicester Square.

Step 3:Found the Leicester Square on Multimap and printed the route from Charing Cross out.

Step 4: Worked out how many people needed to get tickets to travel and the cost per person per ice-cream and some left over for 'just in case'

Step 5: Worked out when we should meet and how long the trip should take.

Step 6: Bought tickets & got 15 bus...playing 'spot the place of interest' on the way there and giving us interesting facts (most of the time)...Watney Market, London Hospital, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, St Paul's Cathedral, The Millennium Bridge, Fleet Street, The Savoy Hotel, Trafalgar Square...

Step 7: Told us all where to get off bus and led us as he followed map to Leicester Square & Haagen Daz

Step 8: Checked out the menu & ordered some 'samples'

Step 9: Decided on the ice cream concoction to order (and within budget)

Step 10:Ordered ice-cream and ate ice cream

Step 11: Asked for the bill

Step 12: Worked out how much the tip should be and paid bill.

Step 13: Paid bill, led us home and joined us in a game of "I went shopping and I bought"....which involved Craig buying an Empire and all that comes of such an event.

London Snow

On waking all is still and quiet, as if insulated from sound,




And you look out and see the reason; a blanket of snow on the ground,

Embracing every horizontal surface and non-vertical plain

It lies there until disturbed and it disappears again.

A Tale of Two Cities

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way."

This quote from A Tale of Two Cities came to mind when I thought of the past week. It was a week of contrasts...and unlike Dickens (I am unlike Dickens in so many ways - I am female, alive, dress more fashionably compared to a dead person, have not published a book and do my youthwork face-to-face)...as I was saying...unlike Dickens I will start with the worst of times because its better to end on a positive...its better to remember the good.

Some of the 'worst of times'...

The young people's disappointment being cut from the ITV programme after being told that our pitch had been successful...and my disgust that they should have to deal with that when all would have been happier never to have been told rather than to be told we were in the final and then have it taken away.

Jane, following a fare dispute, was locked in a Black Cab, trapped by the verbally abusive driver in the cab, terrified to the point of having to threaten to call the police and then having to call them and report the incident & her whereabouts and the cab number, before she was eventually let out, (her trust in black cabbies shaken somewhat but her trust in the police increased).

The second time we skated at Canary Wharf there was a delay because a woman had injured herself and could not be moved off the ice. We were shocked to be allowed in and on the ice while the woman lay there immobile with orange cones round her - they didn't even stop people skating when the stetcher came in to take her off. The 'business as usual' attitude just showed the greed of Capitalism at its worst.

News on Trident and the sickening feeling in my stomach when I think of Labour spending £25 billion pounds on nuclear weapons, 'a costly 'insurance' against unknown unknowns', as Polly Toynbee puts it in Dec 5ths Guardian 'This is about defence of Labour not the country.'

Some of the 'best of times'...

After a lively discussion and some Christmas Fayre, playing Silent Night and other Christmas Carols we were learning with Wendy, Thomas, Craig, Sarah, Keeley with Josh L, Mo, Josh S & Diane singing along with us and cheering (well Josh was more jeering than cheering).

Taking young people ice skating with Emma, Jon & Renu and watching them holding hands and picking each other up and looking after each other and having fun and the walk there and back and the different to normal conversations and laughs...even the conversations and laughs with parents who discover the next day that their child's sore arm turns out to be a fracture.

Making mince pies with Joe, who has Down's syndrome and seeing him hand them out to his classmates and teachers and being asked for the recipe (quite an achievement on my part considering my ineptitude in the kitchen kept me out of it in 8 years of volunteering at club).

Recording Feed the World with Junior Club Tayla, Jessie, Kelsea & Cloe and feeling their excitement when they heard their individually recorded voices come together with each others, the music and Bono's.

Holding a Christmas Party for the year 7 & 8 Group from George Green Complex needs Department at Club with the aid of Renu, Jermaine and Tony...the designing of their paper plate counters for the giant Snakes & Ladders game, the aborted game of musical hats, the visit from Santa Claus, the game of Pass the Parcel, the food, the dancing, the prizes, the singing, the gifts, the Santa hats, the music, the laughter, the awards...the left over games and activities we didn't need because they found everything else such fun we didn't need more.

A Tale of Two Cities