Tania Staff Update
On a Monday and Tuesday morning there is always a lot of fun going on in our Timezone groups. As soon as seatbelts are clicked Mark and Clement transform into serious street racers. “No brakes – Just gas!” Their competitive excitement often draws in onlookers, which these two love. Helen makes ten-pin bowling look easy with her terrific strike rate, and Cara’s hit-rate on games is the envy of many. Cameron M nearly holds his breath with anticipation through the entire game of ‘Deal or No Deal’. Then before we leave, there’s always a three-person motorbike race, with our standout riders so far being Alecia, Mark, and Harley B.
Wednesday mornings we’re off to Orana Park, where Te Ramanui is in charge of delivering our shredded paper for animal bedding. Lions, tigers, and gorillas are the most requested animals to walk to, as well as watching the growth of the baby giraffe. For some curious reason, whenever John G. or Hamish visit, we seem to see interesting activity from the gibbons, lemurs, and gorillas (our animals whisperers?!) Every fortnight Craig B. likes to ride the shuttle. We have gotten to know the drivers and get to find out about any animal births/deaths and the goings on of the park.
On Wednesday afternoons Mark still takes pride in keeping the AJs cars clean. Each Wednesday afternoon, Ian P. and Murdoch come along for a drive through the carwash. Then we take it back to AJs, where Mark vacuums and polishes the interior. He does a great job!
Thursday mornings is the Sensory Room, where each person seems to have their favourite activities: Callum loves lying under the weighted blanket with hand puppets; John G likes singing with the microphone; Stu carefully chooses the best CD’s; Anthony loves the pin art frame; Kyle plays on the drum kit while looking in the mirror; Josh enjoys sorting through the bags of tactile goodies; Georgia always sniffs the scents on the smell machine; and Jack enjoys making shapes in the kinetic sand. Everyone feels comfortable there and it’s great seeing them feel free to move around independently and explore the entire room and it’s activities.
We finish off all of our morning activities with morning tea at a café of the group’s choice, where all enjoy having a laugh and a catch-up.
Keep warm and well everyone. Roll-on Spring!
