28th May:
An extremely successful evening was had with Brian on his boat “Felix.” Twelve of us packed the boat with food and drink and set off on the Shropshire Union Canal. We met lots of the local fishermen with their rods spanning the canal, which were like drawbridges as we passed. This was to the delight of the people on board and to the annoyance of the fishermen who didn’t seem to have caught much. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and we hope that next year Brian will offer to take us again (see later for pictures and Brian’s footnotes)

24th August:
The trip to Blackpool on a really sunny day turned out to be a real adventure for Michael, Mussa, Errol and Dennis, I was to go as well but was ill unfortunately. After having a slight hitch with the minibus (the police hadn’t returned it on time) they set off for paradise by the sea. They hit the fun fair and went on the Grand National, the Big One just looked a bit high. After that it was up the Tower to see who dared stand on a see through piece of glass.A good stroll up the beach was followed by lunch at a pavement café and then it was back to the bus. Everyone said they had a good time but it was a pity more people couldn’t come.

Future events
A trip to Blackpool Illuminations is to be planned before the end of October. I will let you know the date, time etc. in a mailing to be sent out soon.Early next year a series of workshops / talks are to be planned to give people an opportunity to meet and discuss issues that they may find interesting. If there are any things that you would like to have a speaker talk about, let me know and I will schedule it sometime next year if enough people are interested. The workshops may be on different days from the drop in so that the drop in can take place.

The Drop in
During the summer there has been a slightly lower attendance due to holidays, the sunshine etc. but the start of September has pushed up the attendance back to usual levels. It’s nice to see some new people attending and some people coming back.

Changes at the Centre
During the last few weeks there have been some changes to the set up of the services during drop in. These have come about due to the appointment of the new Director. The blue room now becomes the Director’s office and the complimentary therapies have moved downstairs to the green room. It may be necessary to stagger the times of the complementary therapies so that the Resources room can be used during the drop in. It may be that the therapies will start earlier at say 11am and finish at 3pm. This will enable people to access the services without coming to the drop in if they so wish. It also allows time to access the Resource room for leaflets, books etc. As this has not been set yet it may be worth ringing me at the Centre to ask about the services.

Archive
The first addition of “archive” has been successfully produced (thanks to every one for the help that I received especially Bob and Andrew). We have had some very positive feed back from our first edition. Our second addition is in production, as I write, so it will be with you very soon. If you wish to critique a leaflet for the next edition let me know.