Emmaus South Lambeth

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

You may have thought we were heading for a quiet week between the excitement of Assembly and Christmas - but no… quiet is not known at this address.

For a start, of course, we have an endearingly  boisterous Community Leader.  One who LOVES Christmas, no less.   One for whom ‘Subtlety’ was on holiday when his Talents were being dealt out - though generosity and big-heartedness made up the lack in superabundance. And oh dear - he lurves his lights.  As does our electricity supplier, of course….  they’ve had to reinforce the wattage of output to the whole of Sarf Lun’un in order to keep up with the needs of our ‘front of house’ display :  One reindeer, one house-in-outline, one gift box, one snowflake and about 12,000 flashing varied colours in an assortment of sequences joining them together - not to mention the sets on BOTH Christmas Trees… Google Earth are even now exploring what this bright new constellation is that appears on their satellite pictures (er, guys,  we have a problem - y’all think we just plain gone and misplaced Bethlehem?)  You think I jest?  Jest come and see for yourself - but the Health and Safety Executive would advise you ensure you wear sunglasses within a 2-mile radius!

On Thursday, we had a star outshining even this display, however.  Antonio Carluccio paid us the honour of holding a Masterclass for three visiting Companions , our chef-Companion David and Yours Truly.  Yum!  The five of us were instructed in how to create Stuffed Eggs with tuna and capers, with some wonderful Italian Salami and Chorizo as antipasti, and the main course was big penne pasta with meatballs and tomato sauce with a wonderful cheese topping.  My favourite, however, was the ‘bread and butter pudding Italian style :  Pannatone and butter, spiced custard-and-cream sauce, and a breadcrumb topping- to die for, believe me.  Just in case we needed a little smackeral after that lot,Snr Carluccio generously provided some touronne covered in fabulous dark chocolate to go with the coffee.  I fear I will need to be on a lettuce leaf diet till Christmas - if I ever find room to eat a morsel at all over the next week!  He was immensely patient and helpful, and altogether charming, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his generosity of time, effort - and food.

I finally got up to the allotment in sufficiently decent weather to do some work this weekend - somewhat relieved to find it had not been washed away in my absence, I have to say.   Unfortunately, it is still too much of a quagmire to work, but it has given me two creative ideas for revenue;  The first is to box it up as mud-packs, retailing at £1 a pound,  However,  it is my second idea which has captured the imagination of my Companions (all males, I need remind you) more than somewhat:  to use the oblong of uncultivated land to hold Women’s mud-wrestling contests.  Believe me, it would be a howling success.

And so I guess that wraps it up, which is a fairly pointed reminder that I have some more wrapping of my own to do…

I wish you all :  A Jewel of a Yule, Season’s Greetings and a very Merry Christmas.  We’ll get to the New Year bit next week.

Elizabeth

Hello again, Well, what a lot I have to relate this week. The evening before we went to Assembly I attended a meeting of West Norwood residents known as the Norwood Forum, and learned that Lambeth Council is giving its Councillors (OUR Councillors) small amounts of money for capital projects labelled ‘Ward Purses’. Having dozed gently through the more erudite progress of a revised Constitution, I instantly did a passable impression of a meer-cat at the mention of ‘…sums for small capital projects’: at that very moment we were about 4′ deep in 2-weeks worth of rubbish, as the bin men had been unable to reach the bins to collect them last week. They actually were cleared the next day, but I am hoping we can appeal for a sum from the ‘Ward Purse’ for our bin area to be improved in due course. I will keep you posted…

So back home to sling items into bag and three of our 7-strong contingent set off mid-morning to St Albans, whose Community had kindly offered us a lift - the others remaining to be driven up by our Chair later in the day. We passed the train journey chomping sandwiches and crisps I’d made (the sandwiches, that is) and miraculously the St Albans minibus appeared at the station within 5 minutes of our arrival, and sped us to the heart of England, namely the Swanwick Conference Centre. It was quite an intense weekend : Terry Waite’s welcome speech was inspirational, and then there was a 2 minute round-up of events from each of the Communities and Groups. Mike veered off the usual route, of course – and sang our 2-minute summary to the tune of the Lambeth Walk after all of 5 minutes’ rehearsal with a very good pianist accompanying him – it went down a storm! As well as these we had two more addresses, three workshops and a Working Group discussion to fit in amongst the really important elements – 5-a-side football matches had taken place whilst we were still en route, but there were table tennis matches, billiards, table football and a quiz organised by Mike in his own inimitable style. Alas, I had acquired severe Brain Ache by this time and had to retire early, but the first half was a lot of fun – as was the sing-song in the (naturally dry) bar afterwards. By tradition we finished with an auction : Communities are encouraged to bring their most errm.. let’s be polite here, extraordinary item of bric-a-brac to sell (a carving of Churchill’s hand doing the Victory sign; a knitted Postman Pat; a rubber cushion with huge rubber spikes (said to be very remedial…?) for example, and since we’d failed to bring anything, chef David nobly put himself up for cooking for a day – and raised no less than £210 from Hampshire, a group who are opening their Community early next year! I met quite an astonishing number of folk who had read the blog, and it was a pleasure, if somewhat unnerving, to be greeted by those I had not met personally but of course know me rather (too?) well! All too soon we were piling back into the car and heading South again. Mike was the Curate’s Egg over the weekend – he behaved perfectly, no accidents, lovely singing – but sadly fell off the non-smoking wagon rather badly after a month’s abstinence, and even my threatening to ask the mini-bus driver to take a detour and leave him in Coventry didn’t make any difference. Oh, and he’s now Emmaus’s Chief Professor of Gaelic, having been asked to teach one of the UK team a few words to impress her Irish in-laws when she visits at Christmas. He was very patient, with constant repetition – but there’s still a dire risk she will cheerily call her mother a vulture! You will understand that with all that going on, the allotments had to fend alone this weekend, but I was pleased that a sub-division of one of the workshops, set the task of suggesting areas of diversification, suggested allotments - and even MARKET GARDENS… Ah, dream on, South Lambeth! Take care till next time, Elizabeth

After the terrible sadness of last week, five Companions and Mike are going to Derbyshire to attend the annual Emmaus Assembly.  I will write all about it on Tuesday.

Best wishes,
Elizabeth

This week’s blog is cancelled out of respect to Sean Parker, one of our recent Companions, who sadly died on Friday 5th December 2008.  R.I.P.

Well, hello again,

 

Usually you get a star to put on the Christmas tree – but Emmaus South Lambeth did it differently this year.  We had a Star decorating our Christmas tree on Tuesday alright, but actress Jerry Hall (Emmaus’s latest Ambassador) was decorating it with cut-outs of policemen and teachers and nurses, to help publicise an academic report showing that Emmaus saves tax payers £800,000

 

A vast gathering of the Papparazi gathered in our lounge and launched a firmament of flash-bulbs at her for about 10 minutes – then sped off to the café round the corner to view their efforts on their laptops.  Their departure gave us time to show
Jerry the house and chat to her over a cup of tea, which was very nice.. 

 

The following day
Deputy John and I went over to Dulwich for a very different event – meeting the Dulwich Runners and the proprietor of Ollie’s Fish Bar, Herne Hill, who sponsored their Charity Run a month ago, We received a gigantic cheque for £4,000!  It is always enjoyable to meet people and watch their jaws drop in astonishment when we tell them about Emmaus – and so often they scratch their heads and ask how it is that they’ve never heard of us before.

 

We had good news from Lambeth Council this week, that they are at last allowing us to take the electrical items that fail our PAT safety check (and therefore have to be scrapped) to the local dump for free; given that it is estimated  it costs ‘the average Council’ £25 per collection and around 50% of our collections would be done by Council if we didn’t take it,  it has been something of an irritation to pay them when we provide Lambeth with such dramatic savings.

 

An Emmaus visitor some time ago pointed out the conundrum that Councils operate on the fact that people are either ‘A Resident’  ‘A local Business ‘ or  ‘A charity’ :  when we take a problem to them as residents, they say ‘ah, but you’re a business’;  or ‘ah, but not if you’re a charity’ or they give charitable donations which we don’t qualify for because we’re a business as well… 

 

Let it never be said that Emmaus claims to be a round peg to fit society’s round holes – but it can make dealing with bureaucracy a total nightmare!

 

The allotment terracing effort is getting a little tidier each week, and the immensely claggy clay I was dealing with at the beginning is showing the benefits of the heaps of compost slung on it over the year!  At home, the excitement is that our gift of a lovely Christmas Cactus has started budding, so Christmas really is coming early here!

 

Take care,

Best wishes,

Elizabeth