Emmaus South Lambeth

Bonfire night was held in our back lot, and it was very impressive. There were many young  families enjoying the fireworks. Afterwards food was served in the main building.

Tom, Phil,  Elizabeth and I went to  Shorditch , where there was an exhibition of photography and furniture from Emmaus Communities.  Free beer and wine was enjoyed, and a good time was had by all of us.

Clothing was on display, as well as some furniture, but there was no discussion about the problems of homelessness. I feel that I got to know my colleagues better that night.

We went to the Emmaus National Conference in December, which was interesting.  I learnt about the community, and all the good positive things that Emmaus does, including recycling projects, and International lobbying for the poorest people.

December also saw a time for training, in basic business practices, such as customer services, communications, and  fire safety.

I’m looking forward to the community going from strength to strength, as regular business meetings have now started.  All companions and volunteers  have opinions about how to improve and how they do things in our warehouse and shops. With all  that input, it is bound to make a difference.

My website is www.leisurehive.co.uk.  Social events and hobby activeties can be posted to this site.
I welcome contributions.

Jason

As a Companion Assistant, I do the evening/night On Call duty 2 or 3 times a week, which means I have the ‘On Call’ mobile, to respond to any calls from Companions - or to ring for help in a huge emergency neither of which, I’m glad to report, has so far arisen.

So imagine my anxiety when it rang to announce a text on Monday - well Tuesday morning, in fact. 02.38, to be absolutely precise. One of the Companions fallen ill, my bumbling waking thoughts ran - who, what…how…? Oh heck, how do you get to the text messages on this system? This - no there - ah right…

“Your credit is now £58.03 and you have 22 free texts before 10th February…”

Aaaarrrggghhh…. I need this in the middle of the night? If natural justice prevailed, the inventors and implementers of this “service provider information” known to me as a refined form of harrassment and torture, would have been standing in icy rain about 100m from their front doors, having set their fire alarms off through the heat caused by their ears burning from the invective I was heaping on their heads by around 2.41am, once my heart had calmed down and I realised nobody needed an ambulance.

Well, that’s my Rant of the Week off my chest, so let’s turn to the Community. We have had the delightful Emmaus UK trainer visiting, providing training of many and various kinds for us, as a result of which we are awash with Certificates, which is very nice. We have really got back in the swing of having a lot of visitors, so we were some 20 for Tuesday lunch and on Wednesday one of our Volunteers had a birthday to celebrate (and believe me, when it comes to a chance for Chocolate cake, over and above there being a Wednesday in the week or an ‘r’ in the name of the month, we take our celebrations very seriously!)

On Thursday we had a 2-hour Business Meeting, which was very productive, and I hope it was helpful to our Trustee Lorna, who has bravely stepped in as interim Business Manager until a new one is appointed.

Since I have had a couple of days off, I feel it’s like a protracted holiday, which officially begins on Saturday; I am going up to visit “Sn-oreburns’ as Emmaus St Albans is fondly known for a few days.

With work starting on the warehouse soon, I have raided the building site for Useful Items for the Allotments - bricks and concrete blocks for the terracing, wire netting and - joy of joys, a wheelbarrow has suddenly made an appearance. To it’s surprise, it is off to a busy new life in pastures green. Ok - not pasture exactly, and more of a muddy brown at the moment, but I’m sure it will be happier, than being empty and forgotton on a building site, anyway. This afternoon the van crew kindly took it all up for me, since I could take the bricks up on the bike a handful at a time - but 6′ 6″ sleepers are a little beyond me, never mind thinking how I could strap the barrow - which I’m glad to report has already done a couple of trips between our two patches, and works brilliantly!

So after four hours of digging and spreading sand and compost, chatting to the robin, being shouted at by the parakeets, fixing gaps in the fruit cage netting and taking some wood bark and kitchen peelings down to the far allotment, I made my way home, mucky, exhausted - but very satisfied with the day’s efforts indeed; thanks for your help, Van Crew - I certainly couldn’t have done it without you!

Take care, have a good week, Elizabeth

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.  It takes an exception to prove a rule.

Well, I’m the exception that proves the rule that after an absence of three years, I should be fonder of “retail therapy” than I was then.  ‘Fraid not, folks.  It’s still purgatory.

I was really happy to get tokens for Christmas, I was looking forward to spending them.  I put some planning into it, waiting till the first mad rush of the sales was over, even waiting till the kids were back at school, before taking my tokens and gift card off to  Croydon.  Suddenly it all came back to me :  the overpowering heat for one dressed carefully to wait at bus stops in sub-zero temperatures;  the twanging, awful muzzak, the total lack of a bright red banner over articles saying “Elizabeth, this is what you want”….

Of course, I didn’t help matters much;  if I liked the style and colour, they didn’t have it in my size;  if I liked the style in my size, it wasn’t in my colour;  and the 3 items (out of possibly 1034) I spotted which were the right size, style and colour - were out of my price range.

At last I found a very snazzy pair of shoes, slipper-socks, and a replacement towelling dressing-gown, which sopped up about 40% of my spending power, before I high-tailed it back home.  Final error - it was bang in the middle of “School’s Out” wasn’t it?    Well, let’s face it, I thought on the bus home, I never was of the age or inclination to be a ‘WAG’ - but what DO people enjoy about the experience?

So, back to the ranch, where we have been grinding up to full power after the holidays.  The joyous news of the week has been that work on the new warehouse is due to begin later this month, hurrah.  Trading has started picking up, and we have had the benefit of a lot of donations from people taking the opportunity of the holidays to turn out their attics and general storage areas.  And possibly a few (no doubt duplicate) surplus Christmas gifts…

Next week we have a member of Emmaus UK coming to provide training, which will be interesting, and the following week I’m on holiday, off to Emmaus St Albans for a few days.

I hope your New Year has got off to a good start too.

Best wishes,
Elizabeth

I hope Santa was as generous to you as he was to us!  Biscuits, chocolates, bath smellies, a gadget to download the numbers on our mobile phones, er, more chocolates :  we will have to reinforce the floors to accommodate our additional weight soon!

I had a lovely day with my family, returning to a Marie Celeste of a Community with Mike having taken the Companions to the pub;  on Boxing Day Majonne and her partner Warren came to visit and Mike organised a splendid Treasure Hunt around West Norwood.

And now here we are at the end of the year - and for once, I will follow tradition by offering a Revew of the Year for Emmaus South Lambeth - at least, the three months before I began blogging our intimate secrets to all and sundry!

We faced the New Year with the departure of our Community Leader :  thanks and praise can never be adequate for the deidcation of the remaining Staff to keep us going for eight long months before Mike was appointed. We have a VERY different start to the New Year to look forward to now!

In February we had a change of Chair of Trustees, when Alex took over, and Deputy John and I went on a Food Hygiene Course.  March saw us acquire the first allotment - the plot was under a thick dusting of snow the first time we saw it!  It was fortunate we only took it on 1st April, as by then we were making frantic final arrangements for the Official Opening on !the Glorious  (yes, I know that’s meant for August..)  12th;  quite an easy date to remember, as the canvas bunting announcing it is still hanging over our front door!

Highlights thereafter on the blogs were the Flood, the Kitchen Re-Vamp, the Salon and Assembly Visits, Mike’s arrival, Fireworks night and a vastly enjoyable Christmas season kicked off by Celebrity visits from Jerry Hall and Antonio Carluccio.  Join Emmaus and let the world come to see you!.

As to what beckons for 2009, we’re looking forward to the new Warehouse being built but apart from that I can offer only 4 certainties:  1)  A horse will win the Grand National;  2)  George W. Bush will step down as President of the USA - and 3) the hill up to the allotment will feel ever steeper!

Apart from that, my final prediction is that I will spend 365 happy days working to promote Emmaus and its ethos, and helping Companions, Staff and Trustees to the best of my ability to make South Lambeth “the shining beacon of hope in a cruel world” as Joanna Lumley exhorted us to do when she performed the Official Opening - and getting a heck of a lot of fun doing it.

I wish you all an equally rewarding, healthy and peaceful 2009.

Elizabeth