Wicked - The Musical - 3rd September
‘That was Wicked!!’ – Kellie’s review of the hit Musical. Yup! All round it was a fantastic night. We started with great food at Pizza Express (a GADA favourite for their friendly staff, tasty menu and great prices) followed by a show with theatre loving social buddies Karen, Jess and Holly. We were out until midnight making the most of living in such a vibrant city!
Beautiful Octopus Club - 4th September
Members and volunteers had another great night out – this time we were at the Beautiful Octopus Club on the Southbank. We enjoyed spending time with friends, got free massages, did some screen printing and listened to some crazy beats on the balcony overlooking the river bank. We stayed out late and had danced till our feet were sore - roll on next year! All of our pics can be found here.
England Vs Switzerland at Wembley - 8th September
Harish, Hassan, Kellie and Charlotte joined social buddies Paul, Rachel, Karen and Joe to Go Anywhere Do Anything’s first ever football match trip. There was an air of excitement in the air throughout England in the run up to this European qualifier match as Wayne Rooney was just 1 goal away from breaking the goals record for any one player to have played for England, ever. The group hopped on the tube at Clapham Junction and were soon joined by thousands of football fans, all making their way to the famous Wembley stadium. It was busy, but it was an amazing atmosphere. Especially when we exited Wembley Park stadium and were faced with the beautiful and historic view of Wembley Way. We sang songs with both England and Switzerland fans, took photos and bought a few pieces of memorabilia to remember our trip. And to top it all off, Wayne Rooney delivered, scoring his 50th goal for England, and sending the GADA crew absolutely wild!
Brighton - 13th September
A blustery day out in Brighton was a fitting end to the end of the 2015 summer season of GADA trips and adventures. We weren’t lucky enough to have glorious sunshine, but we did have cake, friends, laughs, chips, a big band and sharks! What more could you want?!
10 GADA members were joined by 8 fabulous social buddies to enjoy a day by the sea. Of course our first stop was the beach! Daniel and Roxy dodged the waves at the seashore and Elise skimmed stones across the waves. It was a special day in more ways than one; Peter’s birthday was celebrated in style with a giant pink cake that fed us all. We scoffed the lot after singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to him.
We went our separate ways to explore the very best of Brighton. Andrew, Courtney and Diana ventured to the Sealife Centre to discover more about ocean animals. Andrew loved the shark tunnel. Meanwhile the girls headed into town for lunch and shopping; spending a very long time drooling over everything in ChoccyWockyDooDa and at jewellery shops in Brighton’s famous Laines. The guys drifted down to the iconic peer for slots of fun in the arcades and funfair.
Of course, we had so much fun we missed our train home (so went to the pub to wait for the next one). It was a perfect day out. Why not plan your day out to Brighton now? http://www.visitbrighton.com/things-to-do/top-50-things-to-do?p=2
Cricket for Heroes at The Oval - 17th September
Our cricket loving members and social buddies, Ummair, Harish, Maitre, Alix, Mansoor, Edmond, Robert, Michael and Paul joined a futher 20,000 happy cricket fans to enjoy an evening at The Oval. Dhoni (India's ODI captain – and one of Ummair’s all time heroes!) and several other former and current stars were in action at the Help for Heroes XI versus Rest of the World XI charity Twenty20 game. Players included some real favourites - Andrew Strauss, Herschelle Gibbs, Damien Martyn, Shahid Afridi, Graeme Swann, Darren Gough, Simon Jones and Matthew Hoggard. Former India opener Virender Sehwag, also played and scored 30 runs. This event raised nearly £300k for Help the Heroes and we loved being a part of it!
Fun Day - 27th September
A big thank you to our 10 volunteers from NCS and social buddies that supported us to run this special event for our members and potential new members. We saw lots of familiar faces and welcomed a few new ones. People got to try out different sports, enjoy a pamper session in our beauty corner, do some crafts with Alix and try out some of Courtney's delicious inventions in the smoothie bar. We enjoyed competing in a special mini Olympics, with Ross, Lawrence and Chris winning gold medals! Thank you to Karina for supplying the tunes and The George Shearing Centre for hosting us. The young volunteers from NCS impressively raised over £300 to make the day possible so a very big thank you!! NCS support young people aged 15-17 to make the most of their summer break by getting involved with a local charity to run fundraising campaigns and events. Visit their website here to find out more: http://www.ncsthechallenge.org and view all our photos from the day here.
Chelsea Stadium Tour - 18th October
Georgina, Ross, Kellie, Michael and social buddies Alix, Karen and Joe all made the short bus ride across the Thames to go on the Chelsea Football Club stadium tour. We had an amazing time and learned a few things too. There is a Hawk named blue who flies through the stadium every 3 days to keep pigeons away (Pigeons have 3 day memories by the way!). People came on the tour with us from all over the world, including Beijing and Korea. We learnt that all the players who cannot speak English are made to have lessons every day, and in the dressing room players with the same languages all sit together to support each other and help each other to understand when Jose Mourinho is telling them to do!
London Zoo - 25th October
Three members (Mansoor, Doris and Edmond) were joined by three Social Buddies (Alix, Jess and Aleks); for a day out at London Zoo. There was a mixture of people who had and hadn’t been to the zoo before. As with all of these trips, excitement was high, with talk of what animals we would meet, the route to get there (walking through Regent’s Park, which was especially pretty) and expectations for what we would see.
We loved seeing the giraffes, monkeys, lemurs, the rainforest, tigers, meerkats and the petting farm – everyone especially loved the monkeys! Of course, being the day that day light saving started, it was freezing cold outside, but that didn’t stop us all having a really good time. Doris summed the day up nicely with “The social buddies were really nice to me; we all had a really lovely time. I haven’t been to the Zoo since I was a little girl so it was great. The penguins were my favourite – I wanted to take one home!”.
James Bond - 31st October
GADA trips are chosen by our members through our monthly steering group forum, and we almost always have a request to go to the cinema. When we heard about release of the latest movie in the James Bond series we were first in que to see the internationally renowned Londoner. This years 007 adventure was a chance for us to explore the big city on the big screen; with much of the action taking place across famous London Landmarks.
David, Doddy, Courtney, Jodian, Ali, Daniel, Haroon and Jenny went to see the show at Clapham Picture House, our local arthouse cinema. It was an unusually warm October day, and so we enjoyed a drink in the street café over looking the Saturday food market before the film. We liked the Picture House Cinema’s relaxed atmosphere and it was nice to chat in the sunshine. The Picture House offers good discounts for disabled patrons, offering a free carer ticket, which is also available for non CEA Card holders.
We loved the film – the action, the drama and the music. In the aftermath of one very explosive scene David remarked, ‘He blew that up nicely!’ and we all had to agree.
