It was a lovely warm day today and a very busy session as always at the Finchley Memorial Hospital. Lisa welcomed everyone and then introduced Mehdi who came to visit today. Mehdi ‘CEO & Founder’ of Shift 8 Ltd installed Tovertafel at the hospital and he came today to do a second training session to show members a few other tricks when playing the Tovertafel games. Members were delighted to see Mehdi.

However the training did not begin straight away as Lisa had a surprise for members first. Lisa organised through Lulubelle Animal Rescue to bring 2 small dogs to the session. Lorraine Perkins from Lulubelle came with her assistant Mike. One of the dogs was a French Bulldog called Flamenca who was 8 years old and the other dog was Chi Wawa called Rosie who was 2 years old. Lorraine spoke about the life of the dogs and how they were previously mistreated. In fact Flamenca was so ill-treated before he needs an operation as he has continence problems. He was in fact wearing a nappy which was cute.

Members were very sad to hear about their life stories but were happy to hear that they are now receiving so much love. Members enjoyed holding the dogs and caressing them.

Lorraine and Mike stayed for a long time as members became very attached to the dogs. Members would like the dogs to attend again and Lisa will try and organise this at least once a month.

Mehdi then followed on with the session to show members the various tricks with Tovertafel games. Everyone was excited as usual to play. Mehdi decided that perhaps the Tovertafel should be calibrated on to 2 tables to make the games bigger and more members can then sit around to play. Members enjoyed the games and also learnt a few tricks.

Thank you to our volunteers today Melvyn who is always there right from the start. Dr Angela who came later and is one of our Trustees and Karish the student who wants to study to be a doctor and enjoys attending the sessions. Karish was so interested in the Tovertafel that Mehdi asked him if he wanted to become a Tovertafel ‘Buddy’ This means that Karish will be trained and he will then be able to help people using the games. Karish was very pleased and also suggested a friend to join him.