Tracey and Gwyn met the happy crowd at Derbyshire Cricket Foundation's Monday Mates monthly café. It was a special occasion once again: this month the Central CoOp came with a fascinating session on the history of the CoOp that started a lively and hugely enjoyable discussion. There was a lovely bingo session along with the presentation, with many prizes. The best prizes though were the smiles of the participants.

I popped along to help Mr P out in his garden. Having warned him I wasn't much of a gardener, he kept me company from his garden bench and gave clear instructions about what needed to stay, what needed to go, and the best point on the stem to prune a rose.

We enjoyed a good old chit-chat, and he was delighted to have had some help in his garden. The ninety minutes sped by, and the back and side flower beds are now looking a lot clearer.

We had a full team today at Parkinson's Cricket; eleven people with Parkinson's, along with their carers. After a competitive warm-up session, the focus was on batting - I did plenty of running to retrieve the balls from every corner of the hall. We then moved onto a game, where everyone who wanted to took a turn at batting and bowling. We all enjoyed ourselves before settling down for tea and biscuits.

Gwyn and Tracey made a return visit to the lovely Mrs A to finish painting her fence, supervised by a gentle little cat, and a HUGE spider.

Tracey and Gwyn met Alex and the happy crowd at DCF's Monday Mates for a special gathering. Lovely people from the Hindu Temple came with great chat, an informative presentation about Diwali, celebrated this month, and delicious food. One of the participants with dementia said "I can't remember why I came here but I've really enjoyed myself". That's a mark of success!

It was a delight to join the Parkinson's Cricket gang for their batting practice. I fielded with a trusty net & helped with the washing up after tea.