Aquamove, and baking for the Fair

Aquamove sessions:

Here at Parkwood we have a lovely swimming pool which isn't used much during the day - a few people come and swim early, but mostly it is empty.

I had thought about how I would like to do some kind of aqua movement classes - nothing too strenuous or noisy, but some exercise to keep my joints moving well and to give me some exercise. So at one of our sector meetings, I asked if anyone was interested in Aquamove classes. Yes, Wendy was. Then I asked again at the new residents' morning tea, and Ann was. As always, it then took me a while to build up the courage to canvas more widely for interest. I am not sure why this happens to me, i.e. being overcome by a feeling of anxiety about whether people will like my idea (therefore like or not like me - doh!)

Anyway, after a couple of weeks or so of inaction, I finally got off my bum and got on to getting it sorted. 

I rang and arranged to meet with one of the Kapiti Coast District Council aqua-fitness leaders, and we discussed what sort of exercises would be useful for us older people. She suggested Aquamove and sent me some exercise sheets - it is gentle, non-bouncy exercises that stretch, assist with strengthening, joint mobility and fitness. We talked about having one of her team come to take the sessions; however at the same time, having listened to the questions I asked, she assured me that I would be able to run them.

My task then was to get an email sent out to all of Parkwood asking for people to register their interest and elect whether Tuesday or Thursday would suit them better.

I thought I'd probably get about 12 replies which meant I'd would be able to form two sessions.

But there were 32 responses! Amazing!

Then came the tasks of:

• organising people into different sessions based on their preference where possible, 
• getting the exercise sheets laminated, 
• making a notice for the swimming pool/gym door publicising that the pool would be occupied from 9.30 to 12.30 Tuesday and Thursday, 
• purchasing polystyrene pool noodles, 
• emailing all participants with information and a list of who was assigned to which group - and 
  
• most importantly, letting them know that if they wanted to swap sessions, it was up to them to find someone to swap with...

So I am now running 4 sessions each week, 2 on Tuesday morning and 2 on Thursday mornings. Not everyone who registered an interest has come along, and that is fine. I did rather spring it on them - from the time I asked for interest to the first sessions it was less than a week, and people here at Parkwood lead busy lives.

I was a bit nervous on at the first Tuesday session, but that dissipated quite quickly. And I realised we could fit a lot more exercises in the half hour than the KCDC person had thought possible. And in the second session that day, Janet R who had attended aquarobics for a number of years, made several suggestions of exercises that we could also do. I love other people's suggestions, so when I came home from the first Tuesday, I wrote Janet's ideas on the back of one of my laminated sheets and they are now a part of the routine.

Of course, as the leader I cannot be in the pool with them (in part from an H&S point of view, and in part because I am short - they wouldn't see me if I was instructing from in the water!), so I am doing the exercises poolside. Some of them are easier on dry land, others are not. It's a good thing I can touch a wall to keep my balance at times...

They are smiling!

On Thursday the sessions went smoothly and were a lot of fun - I feel very relaxed about running them now.

The Parkwood Fair

And a big part of the busyness for David and me and for a lot of Parkwood people was getting ready for the Parkwood Fair that was held on Saturday. I baked and baked and baked.

• two chocolate brownie cakes
• two almond and coconut gluten free cakes
• about 38 cheese scones
• a batch of shortbread
• a small batch of cheesy shortbread
• 5 loaves of sourdough bread 

 And I also made a batch of red capsicum and chilli jelly - it's easy and yummy.

The almond and coconut gluten free cakes

 

Cheesy shortbread - a wee bit more golden than I wanted, but they were delicious.

 

The great bake off of 9 Wren St...

 

I was assisting on the Baking and Preserves stall. I think I may have missed my calling - selling ice to Inuits. No one who made eye contact escaped without buying something, and many people made eye contact when I called out to them, and then they purchased...

David was helping on the Fine China stall - he didn't wrap or sell anything, but he took the money and organised any EFTPOS payments. And of course, the women he was assisting just loved him - haven't I done a good job on socialising him over the years? 😀😂😍😇😈

Preliminary results are that we made a goodly amount of money from the sales: china and cakes, preserves, white elephant, electrical, furniture, paintings, games, knitting/crocheting, plants.

By Saturday afternoon, I was really tired so I had a long nap. Sunday I was still quite tired so we had a quiet day apart making dinner early so I wouldn't have to motivate myself later in the day, and we went for a walk. And I did manage to break a string on David's second ukelele - I was tuning it to lend to another ukelele participant and wound the wrong string winder, all the while wondering why the string wasn't coming in tune... 

So on Monday, after I'd prepared the loaves of sourdough in the morning, I drove to Levin - again -  to get the ukelele re-strung - doh!

I've run the Aquamove classes again this morning (Tuesday) - gosh it's fun. But tiring and I've had a snooze in the armchair.

Our Australian citizen:

We had a text from our lovely daughter Kirsty on Saturday telling us she'd voted in her first local body elections in Sydney as an Australian citizen.

The lovely Kirsty. Well, half of her...

Apparently they go hard out with some kind of food stall and sausage sizzle at the polling booths. This is a democracy sausage! Yay!! I think we need to start that here in NZ.

 The lovely David:

This morning David took 3 ukeleles to his class: a soprano one (very small) that is too small for him and he is donating it to the ukelele teacher to be given to a local school, his own one, and the baritone one I had to get restrung yesterday - he is lending it to a classmate who is struggling with a soprano (too small), and his own, plus his music stand and sheet music. He has an A3 stand and has printed his sheet music (words and chords) on A3. You can probably tell by the background that I took this photo while I was still in bed...

 

He thought it was very funny, okay?

 

Definitely!