End of another school year!
Thank you to all the support you have given the youth club over the last year we have had some really good times! We have said goodbye to fellow worker (sad times) as they move on to the next step in their's life chapter and we ended the school year with a fabulous Summer Fete, we managed to raise over £700 which will be split between the youth club and the Murray House Appeal. So thank you for all your hard work and help in making the day a fantastic sucess in which we are hoping to repeat next year!!
FILMING IN THE DINER WITH DOM WOOD
(from Dick & Dom Children's tv presenter & magician)
On Thursday just after we broke up Dom Wood and his film crew came along to shoot a DVD in our very own diner! Dom loves magic and is a fantastic magician who has won many awards for his work and he is part of a magic website called http://www.magictricks.co.uk along with his friends Keelan and Charlotte. (who are brilliant quick change magician's who were in the semi finals of Britain's Got Talent last year) They are making a new DVD to teach you the tricks featured on it in the style of an American Diner. The tricks are fantastic to watch and are simple to perform once you know how, Dom shows you the secrets behind the magic in a fun way! Here are some photo's that I took on the day Dom came to the Diner:
The DVD is being editied as I type this and I will have 100 copies to sell to you signed by Dom to help raise money to buy a juke box for the diner!
NEW SIGN FITTED
Thank you for all of you who sponsored us when we did our 10 bridge walk in London here are photo's of the new sign all lit up and also some photo's of our weekend walking:
It was a lovely weekend and we shared some fun memories of the youth club with the old workers and managed to raise over £1286 for the new sign at the same time!! The sign was made by a local company in Hungerford called Ultimate Signs - and they did a fantastic job t is now fitted and all lit up looking fantastic!
We are also in the process of our patio being completed so the outside is now well under way ready for the summer just need the sun now!
A Look at recent events in the diner:
Eggstravagant fun
Bug eating
St Patricks night
Girly pampering night
Very different nights proving lots of fun!
Eggstravagant fun night
Our eater menu fill of chocolate delights and lots of yummy eggs and prizes to win. Hope you enjoyed the night and didn't eat too many sweet things!
Bug eating night
For most of you, you simply thought I had sweets that looked like bugs well not me I never do things by halfs! So we had real bugs, insects and sea creatures from dung beetles to cockles from flying crickets to cod roe, from lava to squid we had them all! And many of you actually enjoyed them too - but a few of you didn't it was a very fun night!
St Patricks night
What a way to celebrate with good food and good company. A few of you really got into the spirit of things and dressed up for fun. We enjoyed Irish stew from a secret recipe and had coke floats instead of Guinness! Thanks for being part of the celebration.
Girly pampering
We had Kirsty are resident Avon girl providing facials and make up tips and we had Ellen are nail expert providing some funky nail designs. Plus not to forget the chocolate fountain and fruit punch.
A MURDER IN COLES DINER!
Over the weekend 7th Feb 2010 a horrible crime occured & it was up to eight young people to solve the case! It was great fun a murder mystery game unfolded over lunch in the Diner.
THE PLOT!
Since the Security Express armoured vehicle robbery in June Greasy Spoon Services' has run very smoothly, at least up until now. Today the food hall was rocked by a terrible tragedy: The death of Ron McDonald, Greasy Spoon Services favourite burger flipper. Unfortunately he didn't just die of a coronary, but something far more sinister. The staff and regular visitors of the interstate services have therefore been detained within the premises to help solve the Murder.
Take a look at our photo's:
SPONSORED WALK #2
LONDON'S BRIDGE WALK
For a few of the 6th formers it is an end of an era and a start of a new beginning. So for the youth club we are going to be saying farewell to a few good men and women those who have been at the youth club at the beginning seeing all the changes happening and as they hold the youth close to their hearts it is time they feel to give something back.
We are planning another adventure to walk 10 bridges of London on the 20th & 21st March 2010.
The money raised will go towards a brilliant new sign for the outside of the diner so it will light up at night and is something for the students to say we bought that in years to come.
We are buying the sign from a local sign maker Paul from Hungerford Ultimate Signs and here is a drawing of the sign, it will have blue led lights behind the white lettering and will be made out of metal that is painted:
The walk should be great fun we are planning to stay in a youth hostel for the night that used to be an old courthouse it still has the court room and even a few cells left! They have kindly offered us our nights stay for free - their website if you want to take a look is http://www.clinkhostel.com/
There will be a black tie event a couple of weeks after the walk to say a big thank you to all that has helped in the youth club and to unveil and switch on the new sign!
RECORD BREAKING ATTEMPTS:
In January we had a go at breaking some world records - this was tricky but we came close:
The world Record we tried to beat were:
Cream cracker eating - eat 3 cream crackers in 34.78 seconds
Our winner Thomas Paull did it in 1 min 44.5 seconds
Eating smarties with chop sticks - 138 smarties in 3 minutes
Our winner Hannah Miller ate 23 in 3 minutes!
Getting in and out of a suitcase - in 13.31 seconds
Our winner Henry Munro did it in 32.2 seconds
Our own care staff Steph had a go:
WELL DONE TO THE WINNERS!
Christmas Fete was held on the 18th December 2009 and we raised around £100.80 for the Murray House Appeal. Thank you for everyone who helped out and gave donations it was a fun day - look out for next year this will hopefully be an annual event!!
The art club helped design the pictures for the designs (and after a few false starts due to the weather) and the outside of the youth club has been spray painted in an American theme and looks very bright and cheerful!! A new sign will be going up after Christmas with thanks to Daniel Clements and Graeme Gray who have donated some money left over from their sailing challenge THANK YOU!
Sailing Challenge: COMPLETED!!
Daniel Clements & Graeme Gray share their experiences with us: Well Done!
Sailing with the Jubilee Sailing Trust on the Lord Nelson Tall Ship - LN731 – Great Yarmouth – Holland – France – Southampton.
After a long four hour journey from London to Norwich we arrived in Great Yarmouth and saw the tall ship which we would be living on for the week, the thoughts that came to our minds was how old the ship looked, and would we really enjoy it or would it be a bad idea to attend.
After signing in and finding our bunks, we started to see people of a mixed age arriving to sign in, we were the youngest of all those who signed up to be on the trip, but we didn’t let this get to us.
The Captain and the first mate, gathered everyone together for a welcoming and safety meeting. Once we were all introduced to the permanent crew on board, we all introduced ourselves and said why we were attending the trip, for us this would count towards our Gold Duke of Edinburgh Residential section.
We spent the night at Great Yarmouth, getting used to our bunks. After the morning call at 7am, it was time to have breakfast and split into our watches. After breakfast, we motored out of the harbour and into the North Sea. Once we entered the ocean, the waves were crashing up against us on our boat, which made us nervous, as is this is what is going to happen all week? The sails were released and the motors were turned off, we were now powered by wind.
After being at sea for one night, we arrived in Holland Tuesday afternoon, once we arrived into port and harboured, we got off the ship and had our group picture taken. The evening was ours to spend ashore and to climb up the mast, which we had already done the day before.
We spent the night at Holland and left on Wednesday morning, we were then at sea for two nights, sleeping through rough waves, being woken up in the early hours of the morning due to the ship rocking and waves crashing onto the deck.
Friday lunch time we arrived into France, we stayed in France till midnight, where we were all woken up to set the sails back to Southampton, the night was cold, we had strong waves and winds which made it harder for us to secure the sails. On Saturday we arrived in the Solent for the afternoon, where we waited for our place at the Southampton boat show to clear, as there was a huge Caribbean Cruise ship taking our place.In the evening we arrived into the harbour where we had a party to celebrate our journey.
While on board we had a watch card, telling us when we would be on watch, the watches would rotate every day.
Watch times;Midnight – 4am
4am – 8am
8am – 12.30pm
12.30pm – 4pm
4pm – 8pm
8pm – Midnight
While on board we had our own chef who made everything from scratch, the chef would make all the meals, with help of four crew members each day, who would also lay the tables and do the dishes.
In our spare time we would climb the mast going to the first, second platform then the top, while climbing up you are not clipped on to anything, it isn’t until you reach a platform where you have the option to.One member of the crew was so brave he sat at the top of the mast for hours while out at sea!!
We would spend most of our time every day pulling the yards round, setting the sails, tightening the sails and manning the ship. We would have to take a log of the weather and location every hour, keeping a look out for incoming boats/ships especially fishing boats.
Every morning we would have to do “happy hour”, which meant cleaning the ship for an hour, from the scrubbing the decks to cleaning the heads (toilets).The best time of every day was “Smoko”, which was our tea break with lovely cakes made by the chef, and of course the break we get in the afternoon to catch up on our sleep.
We were very lucky with the weather all week, apart from rough waves we had the sun shining on us all week and not a spot of rain.
We enjoyed this trip and would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in sailing, we enjoyed the week very much and was glad to have gone. The JST (Jubilee Sailing Trust) is the only company to have their ships accessible to non and able bodied crew. On our voyage there were people with deafness, vision loss, wheelchair users, people with learning difficulties, everyone was treated equally which was a really good thing.
Daniel Clements & Graeme Gray
(Forward Port) (Forward Starboard)
THE DINER IS CHANGING!!
With the money raised this year we are putting it to good use to help make the youth club a space for all.
Wednesdays: This is the day for everyone you don’t have to be a member so you can just drop in when you want no membership card to worry about!! The diner will operate like a coffee shop selling snacks and drinks.
6-7 pm ART CLUBCome and join us in the youth club for a spot of art. We will explore impressionism and look at expressing yourself with a grafetti art project to decorate the outside of the youth club.
7-9 pm DROP IN COFFEE HOUSEIf you need a chat, advice, ideas, information then the chill is the place to go! If you are feeling: upset, worried, confused, angry, sad, happy or just need a chat then we are here for you!
Thursdays: This is exclusive for members only with cool events and competitions on offer! Full American diner menu to enjoy!!
6.30 - 8.30 pm COLES DINER MEMBERS You will only be allowed in if you are a member and show a valid membership card. Thursdays is the day full of games and events take a look at the events page to see what's on!!
Sailing Challenge:
One of our current workers Daniel Clements and an old worker Graeme Gray are trying to complete their Duke Of Edinburgh Gold Award. This will be an exciting and great opportunity for them. A once in a life time experience as they will sail around the Carribean next year 2010 in a tall ship! They need £6000 between them and have already had a few sponsors including Coles Diner we have managed to raise around £1500 for them so they are at least half way but need your help to achieve their goal and dream can you help? If so then please go to their page and sponsor them! www.justgiving.com/dofe_sailing_mhgs
Fashion Show: re-fashion works!
We hold a BIG event each year and this time we wanted something different so we came up with a recycled fashion show. Coles Diner transformed into a workshop with a team of designers, models and make up artists all putting their idea's in. Three groups were formed with three very different themes: JUNK YARD ANGELS a mixture of gothic styles using second hand clothes and rubbish! TIME WARP a mixture of 70's and 80's styles using second hand clothes and materials. WEDDING SHOW a wedding scene using second hand clothes, rubbish and materials.
Sponsored Walk: Lambourn Valley Way
WE DID IT-£2482.70 raised so far!
The walk took place on the 2nd and 3rd May 2009 - we walked the Lambourn Valley Way over two days a total of 22 miles. We wore fancy dress in forms of Coles Diner's t-shirts and Hawaiian skirts for our summer walk! 23 of us in total completed it so well done to: Daniel Clements, Graeme Gray, Roger Watson, Mikhail Novak, Asher Ben Pearl, Mark Hamill, Micheal Cook, Oliver Thorne, Leon Duplessis, Sol Warwick, Jacob Labrosse, Alex Mercier, Simon Potter, William Everett, Chloe Norton, Lisa Kelly, Chelsea Pritchard, Rosie Lopez along with Jacqui and Charles (teaching assistants) and Charlie (Mansell care staff) and myself! Oh not forgetting Hector (Jacqui's lovely dog!!) Liesl (care staff and teaching assistant) joined us on day two - but we couldn't of done it without our glamourous assistants who drove us and our bags Kirsty, Anita and Louise THANK YOU!!
