Thought for the week ...

Thought for the week ...

Thought for the week ...

Easter Bring & Share

Whilst there were only a few of us at the Bring & Share lunch, we had a lovely time together and the food was truly scrumptious!!!

Many thanks to those who came and cooked 😀

It doesn't really matter what age you are, an Easter Egg Hunt is a good excuse to go completely bonkers, run around like a mad person, looking high and low in search of chocolate!!

Thought for the week ...

HAPPY EASTER

Thought for the week ...

Thought for the week ...

Thought for the week ...

Time for a farewell

First of all, I want to say a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Akhil on finding a great placement for his MSc year in industrial practice.  It has been such a pleasure getting to know Akhil, and walking just a portion of his journey with him 😃😃😃

*You Found Me in My Darkest Time*

Hello Everyone, Thank you all for the love and support you've given me. Your companionship has soothed my loneliness in this strange country.

Over the years TABLEtalk has meant a lot of things to students. To me it was a place of belonging, a place of sanity while everything seemed insane. 

23/02/2023 was the first time I attended TABLEtalk, at the time I used to live in London and things weren't working out for me. After attending once, TABLEtalk was something I looked forward to every week. I'd come down from London every Thursday since then to attend the best time with Lynne and the rest of this family. Later on, I moved to Gillingham and things started turning out much better with all the people I've met here - Pauline, Jon, Barbara, Aiste, Arun, Himanshu, Robert, Jane, Jessica, Janice, Wissam, Diksha, Adenike, Victor, Nonzo, Mustafa and all the others. Every Thursday night would bring some light into my life at dark times. 

Once again I thank Lynne for creating something wonderful and serene for students like me. You have helped me to create a circle of friends that I'm proud to have. I'm happy that I got to spend my time with you and I will miss you all dearly. I will try my best to visit when I can and be part of this family again. I wish you all the very best in your future endeavours.

With love,

Akhil

The Art of Story Telling

We were small in number for TABLEtalk last night, and the plans I'd made for our Story Telling evening weren't workable with just a few folk. So, hey, improvisation is part of the art of story-telling, plans changed and we spent the evening playing a game we call 'Consequences'.  This is where each person writes part of a story, folds the paper over and the next person adds to the scenario  ...  without knowing what has gone before.  The outcome can be quite funny, and it certainly kept us entertained for two hours 😄😄😄

We ended our evening with an activity that's a cross between Consequences and Pictionary. One person writes a word or place, the next drawers that thing; the inital word is then covered, and the third person writes what they think the picture depicts. And so it goes ... word, picture, word, picture, until you run out of paper.

Thought for the week ...

Nigerian Night

Many thanks to all those who helped put together our Nigerian Night at TABLEtalk.  It was a LOT of fun 😀😀😀

Victor gave us a potted history of Nigeria, and Emeka shared some of his poetry.  With the help of Emeka and Adenike, we also learnt some songs in Hausa, Ebo and Yoruba.

Musical chairs was great fun, we are all so easily entertained 😀  Then, whilst some were cleaning up, there was time for a spot of dancing.

A very BIG THANK YOU to Adenike, Emeka and Victor,

who led our evening. 

And the HUGEST of THANK YOUs to Dammy, our visiting chef, who provided jollof rice, chicken and fried plantain.  Sooooooo scrumptious!!

PS. My apologies for the lateness in completing this post.

I'm not sure where the week has gone 😞

Thought for the week ...

 

Friendship is a precious gift

Here's my advice  ...

As you go through life, make friendship a priority!!

I'm not a poet and I really don't have the words to express how blessed I am to have some amazing friendships that have lasted the test of time and distance.

Penny spies her
welcome committee,
who had been waiting
at the wrong part
of the station 😏

I have just had the most wonderful long weekend reunion with friends from far and wide.  Louise now lives in Plymouth, but we hadn't seen each other for 24 years!!  Penny lives in Louisiana and I'd not seen her for 16 years!!  Joke (pronounced yo-ka) is from the Netherlands and we have visited each other a number of times over the years.

Penny was the last to arrive, and after a circuitous drive from Abbey Wood station, because the A2 southbound was closed, we headed straight for coffee.

Me, Penny, Joke & Louise

Sadly, Louise was only able to stay two nights.  On Monday, I worked from home whilst Penny & Joke went off to explore Rochester.

Don't think I mentioned it, but Monday 19th was my birthday. So later on, along with Pauline, we went to see the Bob Marley: One Love movie, which was excellent; and followed that with a truly scrumptious Turkish meal at Taze Restaurant in Chatham 😀

Tuesday was a day off and we took ourselves to Bateman's House, which was the historical home of author and poet Rudyard Kipling.  If you don't know the name, he wrote the famous children's story 'Jungle Book' and a well-known poem entitled 'IF'.

We thoroughly enjoyed the day, exploring the house, having coffee & scones in the cafe. and an extremely muddy woodland walk, which we had to abandon half way around.

It was Penny's turn to leave on Wednesday, initially to spend a few more days with Louise.  Whilst Joke had the 'privilege' of coming to help with our weekly World Cafe, where we fed and watered 160 students.

What an absolute privilege it is to not have seen someone for one year, 16 years, 24 years and yet feel so utterly comfortable and at home in each other's company.

But Joke, too, had to leave this morning

...  and then there was one 😢😢😢