Gateway Grand Adventures – Pirates, Palaces, and Plastic Ducks

For those who have been paying attention to our website news page, Gateway has had a break, but we are back and itching to bring you up to speed on our goings on!

Whilst some of our members had a week’s break, a few of the members and indeed our hard working staff Sue and Di, not forgetting Fay, went gadding off to the Isle of Wight. Travelling down on a coach to catch the ferry across. That was the first adventure for some of the members. A few braved it out on deck and the others looked comfy inside.

The First day was another adventure with pirates this time but they weren’t brandishing swords, they were brandishing golf clubs! Anyone for a round of crazy golf?

This was followed by a journey back in time and a fascinating tour around Osbourne House. It is a former royal residence in East Cowes and it was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer house and rural retreat. The gardens are lovely too if the picture is anything to go by.

The Needles was the next destination on their tour of the Isle and some of our brave members ventured onto the cable car too.

The week was rounded off with a trip to the donkey sanctuary – I can think of one member in particular who would have enjoyed that day for sure.

Take a look at what else the Isle of Wright has to offer at the Visit the Isle of Wright website.

The evenings were eventful with dancing, singing comedy and mime. All that was left was the ringing out voices saying please can we do this again we had a great time. Let’s face it, that’s what we at Gateway want to hear. We are so proud of our members and our Staff who make these magic moments happen. Not forgetting our wonderful supporters whose donations and grants help us make the magic happen.

Back on the mainland now and another Gateway evening in our ‘home,’ Wilfred House. Rain stopped the planned events but not to be put off it was clearly weather for ducks. Who knew what fun could be had with fishing rods and a plastic duck or two? Look at the concentration on those faces, this is serious fun. A gateway friend has given us a Hook a Duck game which we tried out and it caused great laughter when we actually managed to hook a duck, it took a bit of practice and a steady hand.

Then we made good use of our new Ghetto Blaster (shout out of thanks to Uttoxeter Town Council for the Sundry Grant which enabled us to buy this for our members to use) and played musical statues and musical chairs, well done to Nat and Ben for winning.

We finished the night with some running around trying to match up 2 halves of cut up cards, the most difficult part of the night seemed to be separating them when we had finished !

Our next adventure will be the family evening at Uttoxeter Racecourse ST14 Residence Race Evening. Thank you to Uttoxeter Racecourse and their lovely lady at reception who saved us valuable time by printing our tickets off in advance. Now our members can move swiftly through the turnstiles and get on with the task of having a good time. Looking forward to reporting back as to how their evening went.

Until next time…