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Oct. 12th, 2006 10:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eiffel_71We went up to Winchester this evening for the Hampshire Youth Clubs' AGM. Over coffee in the foyer we met a lady called Karen who works in our Town Hall; obviously my mother knows her well but I'd never met her before. We had a bit of a chat, and she invited me to come along when me ma hosts a reception for the Gosport Youth Council in the Mayor's Parlour next Wednesday. Karen asked how my mother hurt her arm; she was a bit reluctant at first to say she'd done it clearing dumped shopping trolleys out of the creek, but I pointed out that her injury was incurred in the line of valuable community service.
Jim and Maria, Richard, Brian and Audrey, and Charles from the Isle of Wight (unaccompanied this time, poor sod) were all there, plus Steve, the Sheriff of Southampton, and his Lady. The actual meeting only lasted half an hour, consisting of a couple of quick speeches, officials being elected unopposed, and presentations of awards to a couple of achieving youth groups. One lad, asked what he would do if he didn't have the youth club, replied "I'd be a destructive yob."
After the meeting, a lady from a group called 'Drum 4 Fun' told us to take out the African drum that was under every seat and take off the fur drum-cover and put it on our head. For the next half hour she led us all in some rhythmic African drumming! She explained that Drum 4 Fun operates in a lot of Hampshire youth clubs and has been a huge success, providing the lads and lasses with a fun activity that also helps them release tension. Towards the end, she got us all to sway as we drummed (some of us carried that off more successfully than others). Very jolly.
Drum session over, we all repaired to the foyer for a buffet and 'non-alcoholic cocktails' served by a couple of 10-year-old lads. Delicious cakes - chocolate-coated squares and treacle-topped flapjacks! The cocktails were mixes of various fizzy and fruit juice drinks - I went for a coconut and pineapple, a drink I was very familiar with from London as 'Coco Pina'. We stood by the buffet chatting to Brian, Audrey and Richard: Richard, seeing my mother's arm sling, asked me "Have you been beating your mother up again?" while Brian said I should have dived in and broken her fall - I pointed out that I wasn't there, explaining that she incurred her injury not at a mayoral function but cleaning the creek. "Isn't that a mayoral function?" quipped Brian.
Jim and Maria, Richard, Brian and Audrey, and Charles from the Isle of Wight (unaccompanied this time, poor sod) were all there, plus Steve, the Sheriff of Southampton, and his Lady. The actual meeting only lasted half an hour, consisting of a couple of quick speeches, officials being elected unopposed, and presentations of awards to a couple of achieving youth groups. One lad, asked what he would do if he didn't have the youth club, replied "I'd be a destructive yob."
After the meeting, a lady from a group called 'Drum 4 Fun' told us to take out the African drum that was under every seat and take off the fur drum-cover and put it on our head. For the next half hour she led us all in some rhythmic African drumming! She explained that Drum 4 Fun operates in a lot of Hampshire youth clubs and has been a huge success, providing the lads and lasses with a fun activity that also helps them release tension. Towards the end, she got us all to sway as we drummed (some of us carried that off more successfully than others). Very jolly.
Drum session over, we all repaired to the foyer for a buffet and 'non-alcoholic cocktails' served by a couple of 10-year-old lads. Delicious cakes - chocolate-coated squares and treacle-topped flapjacks! The cocktails were mixes of various fizzy and fruit juice drinks - I went for a coconut and pineapple, a drink I was very familiar with from London as 'Coco Pina'. We stood by the buffet chatting to Brian, Audrey and Richard: Richard, seeing my mother's arm sling, asked me "Have you been beating your mother up again?" while Brian said I should have dived in and broken her fall - I pointed out that I wasn't there, explaining that she incurred her injury not at a mayoral function but cleaning the creek. "Isn't that a mayoral function?" quipped Brian.
