Jacob’s Staff Update
It’s been a cold few weeks at AJs as winter well and truly rolls in, nevertheless the ship keeps moving forward. It’s been a very busy period, with all the different jobs coming in, not made any easier by all the colds and flu going around at this time a year.
I’m lucky enough to take a variety of activities and outings in the AJs workroom and out in the community over a weekly basis.
I have a pool group during the day on Monday, this is with Josh, Harley A, Hamish and Kevin. We previously went to the Woolston workingmen’s club for this but over the covid period they had closed, we are hoping to get back once they open. The afternoon consists of going out to Ferrymead golf, we alternate between a boy’s group and a girl’s group, we stop at countdown on the way for an afternoon tea bite usually consisting of a piece of fruit (Bananas are a crowd favourite).
Tuesdays are bowling day; There’s a pool of about twelve clients I take so they get to go every three weeks we walk down to garden city bowling after lunch. All the clients enjoy trying to beat me and they always are stoked when they get 100! Everyone is always so supportive when others get spares/strikes! (Except for when I get one!).
On Wednesdays I pick up the McDonalds for the clients with my top-notch helpers Harley B, Alecia and Kyle! They are in charge of carrying the boxes to the car and into AJs.
Every second Thursday I would take a group of clients down to St Albans community centre for a gaming group where we would meet up with a couple other schools/providers and play some board games together. This was all organised by Harley A, unfortunately, like the Woolston workingmen’s club they stopped having us due to covid, we are hoping to get back in the near future. In the meantime the guys that went every second week, now sort out a board game to play quietly in-between morning tea and lunch with each other in a corner of the workroom. In the afternoon every week we go to the Canterbury Table Tennis stadium. We normally take ten clients and play games of Polybat and Table Tennis.
Every second Friday we have the “Wise Guys” group. Ralph, Jimmy, John G and I go out for a browse around some shops and then park up at a café for a coffee. My last activity for the week is an active group with Laughie, Ben NF, Josh and Eddie when he feels like it. We use the cable machine at the back of the workshop. They have all their weights for different exercises on the wall next to them so they can track their progress and see the improvements they have made.
