AJ Day Options Trust

16/01/2025

Paul was quite keen to give an update about life at AJs today 😊

14/01/2025

Staaf Update: Mary – The Candlemaker @ AJs

Happy New Year everyone. Another year has flown, and we are now back at work after a lovely break.

Last year, the Candlemaker @ AJs had a busy year, stocking up and filling orders – we covered many church celebrations, remembrance candles to acknowledge the life of loved ones, naming or dedication candles for all the special births, personalised candles for birthdays and anniversaries and the many school leaver candles that the students will have already lit.

Kevin had a good year working in the candle room. He poured many candles and loved to meet the customers and see the joy on their faces when they picked up their candle. He enjoyed a few days, here and there, being in the workshop helping with urgent jobs that came in – he loves to get in to help when he can and as they say, a change is as good as a holiday! He loves the good weather which gives him the chance to bike to work and has noticed it is quicker than waiting for the bus at the beginning and end of each day.

Sarah does the Client Pays during the week – we have a trip to the bank and NZ Post, and she sorts the pays out herself once we get back. We often take a group to bowls on the way to the bank, dependent on weather and if Julia-Grace is taking able-walkers or not – this means Sarah starts the pays a little later, but it doesn’t bother her. She hops in the front seat of the van, makes sure the radio is off, then we all chat.

Biddy loves to start her day with a good catchup about what she has been up to over the week. She sorts out whether she is in this week’s Polybat or T-Ball team and informs me when she comes in. Her tasks include cleaning moulds, re-wicking, cleaning sticks and cutting wicks and bubble wrap to size. She also enjoys pouring floating candles when we need to stock up. Biddy has a Taekwondo session with Julia-Grace on a Thursday morning – she really enjoys her self-defence drills and has steadily improved. When doing her punches her kihup’s are loud and impressive! Biddy enjoys her day at AJs and between work, Learn Active, dance and performances, she likes to find some relaxation time for herself to watch YouTube, Netflix and TVNZ On Demand.

Alecia is always keen to see what job I have ready for her when she arrives. We have a chat about her week then she puts on her apron and starts work. Her favourite task is cleaning the sticks, which are used to keep the wicks straight in the poured candles - she often checks out the ‘clean’ container of sticks to find some that are not so clean, so she can do them before moving onto another task. One of Alecia’s highlights on a Wednesday, is going with Jacob to help with the McDonald’s order – she brings the big box filled with bags of McDonalds in for us to distribute at lunchtime. Once a month, I go with Alecia and John G to the Vinyl Café for morning tea, where they enjoy a good chat and a few laughs. She also enjoys her fortnight activity with Lyric and Julia-Grace – the many activities have included café visits, making bracelets, bowling, Timezone, tie-dyeing, watching a movie, they organised a lunch outing and are also working on a movie project.

Acacia comes in on a Tuesday morning now, as her Thursday is filled with work experience at the Thai Terrace Restaurant – she also works at the Super Fresh Fruit & Vege Shop in Rolleston on a Monday. She uses her communication tablet to tell me of any news or activities, she has been up to. I love to see her beautiful smile and a thumbs up when I ask how things are going. Acacia cleans sticks and moulds and re-wicks them, along with cutting wicks and bubble wrap to size. One of her favourite outings is to go to the movies, I look forward to hearing which one she saw when she gets back.

Our middle table, that is used for workshop jobs, is often filled – we have Sharon, Michelle and Laureen who love to sit and work alongside us. We also have Matt K who has now joined us – he comes and goes and sorts his own work out with Jim or other staff from the workshop. He enjoys the quieter pace in the candle room and likes to listen to the radio as he works.

Not long ago, it was brought to my attention that the candle room stank! Not a great realisation when I had just had a customer and some visitors in earlier! I was getting over a cold and couldn’t smell it, but apparently it was awful. At lunchtime I said I need to ‘find’ the smell which was overheard by Clement, Harley A and Harrison and they were happy to come in and help. With a great sense of smell, they surveyed my room with their noses! Harley A decided it came from a certain corner, and they proceeded to pull everything out…and yes, there it was…a dead mouse! Harrison scooped it up in a shovel and threw it in the bin. Thanks boys, I really appreciated your help.

Thank you for all the lovely gifts of chocolates, lollies and biscuits you have given us for Christmas – these will get shared out to everyone occasionally over the next few months as a treat in the afternoon. Sharon and Michelle are more than happy to hand them out and walk around with huge smiles on their faces as they pass them around to the many ‘thank you’s’ from everyone.

From the Candleroom, I hear many activities going on in the storeroom. We have a group of clients - Harrison, Harley A, Anthony, Harley B, Clement, Sam T, Nick F and Jeff who love to play a board game weekly on a Thursday afternoon or sometimes during lunch. It is often Monopoly, and they play by their own rules, which seem to work…I never hear any arguments, just laughter as they tease each other about some part of the game one is winning over the other!

I enjoy watching the many clients that spend time doing a FOCUS session, and I have to say they have all steadily improved – it’s amazing what a good walk, a session of Taekwondo or blazepods does for their fitness, attitude and keenness to work. I have noticed that some clients join in with another client’s FOCUS session, which can become quite competitive! I have seen them compete in ping pong ball games, basketball, soccer, blazepods, rowing and some even enjoy a dance or two together. They usually end with a smile on their face and there’s nothing better than to observe good sportsmanship!

Once again, we must thank all the wonderful businesses that kept us in work throughout last year and we look forward to continuing working with you. We are fortunate to have so many varied jobs to do - these give the clients a choice to do a job they enjoy, to their own ability.

I hope 2025 brings you all happy times and may it be your best one yet, filled with love and laughter.

16/12/2024

Hi everyone,

Last Thursday we had our client’s Christmas lunch. Lots of excitement and fun for everyone.

We even had a special band performance, and they were brilliant!

MERRY CHRISTMAS 🎄

03/12/2024

The Craft Group - Creating Photo Boards 📸

16/09/2024

STAFF UPDATE - Jim

Hi all,

Sorry for the delay in this update post. Julia-Grace has constantly reminded me its my turn to write one but I always seem to find something else crops up.

I am lucky enough to spend a lot of my time in the workroom where we work on supporting each other to develop our work skills while completing jobs we have received from local businesses. We receive work from a variety of local businesses including Mainland Fasteners, Modular, Fulton Hogan Signs, Pro Kiwi, Bremick Fasteners, Every Educaid and a variety of Printing firms. Its great having this variety of jobs as it means most days everyone in the workroom can do something they find interesting and enjoy doing.

The start of the day is always interesting as there is always someone who has either arrived back from a few days off or someone who has done something interesting and they are keen to catch up with their mates to tell them what they have been up to. This is also when the guys work out who’s going out as some group activities are fortnightly there is often discussions on which group went out last week. Also, if someone is away from the group you see the rest of the group asking who might want to fill in.

Finally, all the chaos settles down as the groups head out and then those of us still in the workroom start finding a job to do and sort out who they feel like sitting beside for the day. The workroom can be a hive of action most days and its great watching many of the guys work together helping each other. You will see someone sealing the bags that someone else has filled but has difficulty with the final sealing. Others will be helping get more materials for people who have runout but have trouble carrying heavy boxes.

A while ago I was really impressed with a group of guys who approached me about organizing a games group 1 morning a week. There are now around 6 people who on a Thursday morning after morning tea that will play a table game that one of them has brought in from home. A favorite appears to be monopoly and I have been surprised at the variety of monopoly boards there are now. This has now lead to another group on a Tuesday morning playing group games on the PlayStation. I’m never sure how much of the games get played but there is always heaps of talking and laughter going on which is great.

Around 11.45 each day chaos resumes as the groups arrive back keen to tell everyone how things went whether its who won at bowls, who won what at Timezone, who they may have seen while they were out or anything else they thought was interesting. Its then lunchtime and after that the process continues for the afternoon.

Another thing we have the privilege to do in the workroom is welcome school students who are starting their transition from school process. Usually, a student will start with coming 1 half day a week. The guys at AJs always like meeting a transition student and many of us will introduce ourselves and talk about what we do at AJs. Several of the guys will ask the student what school they go to and what other things they like to do. The guys are always keen to show the students around AJs and will help them during the morning tea break.

AJs has always had a tradition that on your last day of work for the week, regardless of whether you do 1 or 5 days you are allowed a free drink. A couple of the transition students have just started a full day and several of the guys from AJs were quick to remind me that now the students are here a full day they should get a drink. I was really impressed by how they advocated for the students and how important it was to be fair.

I hope this gives you a bit of a picture of the fun and enjoyment we get to have with each other every day at AJs. I’m also sure the next update will be done shortly as most of the staff are more organized than me.

Jim

09/07/2024

https://youtu.be/XbZv9UgDT1Y

Special Guest: EddyThanks for watching!

23/05/2024

On Saturday it will be our 27th Anniversary, which we celebrated early at AJs yesterday. There was a BBQ lunch and some cake to celebrate.

Thank you everyone for the continued support 😊

07/05/2024

Tania - Staff Update

We have some really fun outings at AJs!

Our Timezone mornings are especially lots of fun! HELEN and CAMERON M go regularly on Mondays, and CARA and MARK on Tuesdays, and the rest of our Timezone crew is on a rotation. Team games and challenges are always popular. And everyone seems to have a game they are drawn to or are especially good at.

HARLEY B is our ace big-game fisherman; HELEN has our top strike rate for mini ten-pin bowling; SHARON surprises us with her stealth goal-keeping in air-hockey; CAMERON M loves nothing better than playing The Claw Machine and recently picked-up a hoop of 500 tickets; MARK is our very strategic basketball Connect-Four player; HAMISH is our Cup-Pong expert; CLEMENT drives a racing-car like a pro; SAMUEL T is determined to master the Giant Claw Machine; LEWIS spins some great deals in Monopoly and is one of the few to have never been sent to jail; ALECIA makes riding a motorbike look simple; HARRISON is such a good sport and takes on anyone's challenge to a duel; JOSEPH has great rhythm on the Taiko Drums; BETHANY gives everyone a run for their money on Mario Karts; TE RAMANUI has amazing skills on the chocolate bar scooper (much to everyone's envy!); PAUL R is a surprisingly quick footed soccer player; ANGELIQUE loves destroying aliens in Halo; DEAN is our Nerf gun sharp-shooter; KIRWAN has been mastering the art of axe throwing; NICK F has a keen eye for squirting down dinosaurs; NICK T has just started coming back with us (we're not sure what he has up his sleeve just yet), and ME - I just seem to lose to everyone!

On Wednesday mornings we deliver our giant bags of shredded newspaper to Orana Park. CRAIG B and TE RAMANUI go regularly and the rest of the group on rotation (HAMISH, BETHANY, LIAM, ANTHONY, MARK, CLEMENT, LYRIC, LAUREL, ALECIA, ANGELIQUE, ANTHONY, BEN N-F, HARLEY B, HARRISON, JOHN G, NICK T, LEWIS, PAUL R, KYLE, NICK F and PAUL S). The gorillas, lions and giraffes seem to be the all-time favourites. Everyone gets a real kick out of seeing their shredded paper being bunched up into a cushion or a nest by the gorillas. We usually cover one end of the park each week. CRAIG B and TE RAMANUI get along really well with the shuttle driver, Phil. Each fortnight or so, we catch the shuttle from the gorillas, and have a catch-up with him. It's such a terrific place to be able to visit so regularly. It's great getting out in the fresh air, getting to watch the new animals as they grow, and seeing our clients recognise new and interesting animal behaviours.

MARK is in-charge of keeping all our AJs cars clean. Every Wednesday afternoon, MURDOCH and IAN join MARK for a drive to the carwash. If there's room, other clients might join us too. IAN is always on the look-out for emergency vehicles and MURDOCH likes to point out the car yards and other regular sights along our drive. Mark takes care of the ticket machine, puts in the car mirrors, and sometimes puts air in the tyres. He does a great job and takes this responsibility very seriously.

On Thursday mornings we go the Multi-Sensory Room. CALLUM, STUART, ANTHONY, and JOHN G go fortnightly. JACK, KYLE, GEORGIA, SOPHIE, and ANGELIQUE take turns on a rotation. Every month the room is refilled with sensory objects related to a new theme. Everyone is free to explore and discover as they wish. CALLUM loves the new rocking chair and the weighted blanket; STUART is in charge of choosing our music (although you might get the sack from that job soon Stuart, as Peggy Lee is starting to feel like Ground Hog Day!); ANTHONY likes being in the egg-chair; JOHN G always checks that the smell machine scents are authentic; JACK loves getting a laugh and tells us his own jokes on the microphone; KYLE is a showman and loves watching himself in the mirror with the microphone or playing the drums; GEORGIA loves fossicking through the tactile box; SOPHIE loves dressing up and ANGELIQUE enjoys colouring in the fluro corner. And of course, everyone loves to have a chat with their favourite lady at the Sensory Room, Catherine.

During our morning outings, we always enjoy our visit to a café or the mall for morning-tea. It's such a good time to get to chat together properly and catch-up on what everyone's been getting up to.

Winter is creeping closer. And that means our store-room door will be closed soon. I'm going to miss the "Bunny-Ears Welcoming Committee" when I arrive each morning!!

08/04/2024

Matt’s Staff Update

Well it’s my turn again, and I’ve got no idea how long it’s been since I last wrote a Facebook update. It feels like forever, and I was hoping I could stretch it out a bit longer. But JG has been cracking the whip, so here it is.

I should really start with the fact that I’ve dropped Mondays for now as I have to finish the degree I started all those years ago, in Spain. After a whole lot of rigmarole with the Uni, I’m close to the finish line, and I’m finally getting excited about graduating. But since I’ve dropped Mondays, I’ve had to give up the Monday morning walks I was doing with Mike now taking over the Walking group. We’d started out with an idea of possibly working up to some running. But the group was quite keen to stick with the walking. Matt K, Harrison, Luke, and Ben M started out in the group. But Cameron H has taken over from Luke, with Lewis, Clement, and Justin filling in for others at times. It was quite a fun group and a good way to start the week. We tried to mix up the walks and see as many different parts of the city as possible. We did walks from Redcliffs to Sumner and back. Walks along Brighton beach, in either direction from the Pier. Walks through the Residential Red Zone, and even on the Port Hills with Rapaki and along Summit Rd where it’s been blocked off since the quakes. The group did really well walking almost 232kms last year, averaging 6.62kms each walk!

Tuesdays I’m onsite mostly and like working with the guys on the workroom floor. We’ve had a fairly good and steady flow of work since the New Year. With most of it seeming to be newer jobs that I’d say we’ve only gotten this year.

Wednesdays in the morning I have the Sensory Room at Pioneer Southern Centre. I take two different groups there, with each group taking a turnabout. The first group is Joe, Murdoch, and Ben M. Joe likes to settle in the UV corner and have some space to himself. Ben will have a good look through different smaller items tucked away in the cubby holes under the seats and takes a photo to send to his flat-mate. Murdoch has a few different things that are his favourites. He likes to check out the animal sound board with the different animals to tap to hear their calls. Or having a good lie down on the bed before getting his six pieces of paper to do some art. Murdoch actually gets to enjoy it every week as he’s part of both groups, with Kaine and Oscar making up group 2. Kaine has a mirror music box he loves sitting with and seeing the coloured lights that seem to disappear into the mirror. Whereas Oscar loves sitting on the new rocking chair they have and relaxing under the weighted blanket.

On Wednesday afternoons I’ve just started taking a group to a new Special Olympics Golf group that has recently started up. Anthony, Lewis, and Joshua have been doing well developing their golf skills and showing off a few they’ve already got. The group will run till the weather starts to get too cold to keep going over winter, then look at restarting again towards the end of the year once we’ve all defrosted again.

Thursday mornings is when I’m now doing the Film Group, since I’m not here on Monday’s. With the change of day, Eddie and Ben M aren’t part of the group as they’re not here Thursdays. But Lewis, Sam T, Nick F, and Nick T all agreed that Clement could join the group as we now have room for him to join us. It will give us the opportunity to create a character for him to include in our plans. Then on Thursday afternoons we have been part of the regular inter-service Helen Anderson Trust Tee-Ball competition. The competition is as popular as ever, with plenty of the guys all keen to come along and play. Sometimes we have to navigate some thorough negotiating to keep everyone happy. But we make sure everyone that wants to play, can get as many games as possible.

Lastly there’s Friday and shopping. I only do this once a fortnight and have two groups that come and help keep this place running. Group 1 is Ayden, Ben N-F, and Jeff. The three boys work well together to help keep the place well stocked. Jeff likes to help pushing the trolley and getting items from the shelves. Ben is much the same, but also likes to give some of his wisdom from having done the shopping in the past with other staff. And Ayden particularly loves doing the scanning at the checkout and is incredibly fast at it. Group 2 is Elizabeth, Liam and Lyric. Liam does well holding his own amongst the ladies. Or to be more honest, is kept inline well by the ladies. Though to be fair, Liam is a gentleman with the ladies, especially when asking them to be a bit quieter at times. Both groups then help putting away the shopping after-lunch, often helped by Oscar who has come along shopping in the past too.

I’m sure there’s probably a million things I’ve forgotten to put in here. But I’ll have to do another one of these, no doubt before long. So will have a chance to include them then. But until then, welcome to winter ☹
Photo notes:
- Golf: Lewis at the new Special Olympics Golf group.
- Film: Clem and Sam trialing prop ideas.
- Sensory: John’s first Sensory visit and chance to see Catherine.
- Shopping: The three working together to empty, scan, and place the groceries.
- T-Ball: Daniel all ready to step up to bat.

05/04/2024

Harrison & Bens Famous Pokémon Show - Episode 10

Apologies for the delay, there have been some technical issues with this episode but it was originally supposed to come out before Christmas last year! Apologies for the delay, but now that this has been sorted we are hoping to get some more new episodes out soon.

SPECIAL CHRISTMAS EPISODE

SPECIAL CHRISTMAS EPISODESorry viewers! There have been some technical issues with this episode but it was originally supposed to come out before Christmas l...

28/03/2024

Fundraising Concert for the Hapai Access Card.

AJs is not running this event, however a lot of the guys at AJs use these cards to access different things in the community.

13/03/2024

Jacobs Staff Update:

Three months into the year already, where has the time gone!

The clients at AJs have been hard at work this year. We have been continuing with jobs such as folding/shredding paper for Orana park, assembling the screws with washers and plates for Bremick Fasteners, and counting out and packing different coins and counting tools for Every Educaid. On top of this, we’ve also had a couple of new jobs come in, such as packing envelopes with sheets of paper and donation slips for Caxton as well as some new Cookie Time wobblers for Rainbow Print. All these jobs get broken down into multiple steps and stages, so the clients can cooperatively complete the tasks inclusive of all abilities.

On Monday mornings I kick my week off doing some one-on-one FOCUS with Joe, this consists of four rounds of boxing with some dynamic movements in between to get the blood moving, followed by some press ups! Following morning tea I have a pool group, the members are Harley A, John, Hamish, Kevin, and Alecia! These games can get quite competitive! After lunch I take a group to golf at the driving range - there’s two groups I alternate between with Harrison, Justin and Daniel being one group and Alecia, Cara and Cam being the other. We enjoy trying to hit or get closest to certain points when we swing our club.

On Tuesdays I take a group to bowling. I have a big pool of clients I take so we aim for 3-4 each time. Clients that enjoy this are Josh, Nick T, Nick F, Anthony, Te Hia Hia, Clement, Cam M, Simon, Georgina, Emelia, and Dean. The guys are always stoked when they get 100 or better yet, beat me!

On Wednesdays some of the clients get McDonalds for lunch. I go down with Kyle, Harley B and Alecia to pick it up and leave them to do all the heavy lifting - I just pay for it! After lunch I have two “outing” groups I alternate between. The first group is Jeff and Liam and we’ve been doing a lot of obstacle courses and body weight circuits recently. The other group is Nick F and Harley A and we usually go climbing at the YMCA or go for a walk if they feel like a more relaxed outing.

On Thursdays I skive from the workroom and go car cleaning for the day. I take Kevin and Harley B to Hillmorton Hospital to clean their fleet of cars where we clean four cars throughout the day.

Friday mornings I have a “Young Guys” group with Samuel, Nick F and Harley B. What we do that day is up to the boys – we’ve done fishing, go-carting, and been to the movies to name a few. After lunch I take Ben N-F and Laughie out to the gym - we usually warm up with weights and then do boxing drills, a great way to finish the week!

To finish up my update I wanted to make a special mention to a lifelong member of the AJs family who unfortunately passed away at the end of last year. Anne Harding has been with AJs since opening day and has been such a big part of the place ever since. Her infectious smile and cheeky personality will be remembered by many of her workmates and staff for a long time to come.

And with that, another update done! Till next year 🫡

Thanks,

Jacob

08/03/2024

Stephen's Update

01/02/2024

Julia-Grace Staff Update

Hello everyone, welcome back and Happy New Year!

Starting back at AJs this year we’ve got right back into the swing of things. A job came in from Bremick Fasteners that everyone has been able to work on. This job has required assembling various hexagon screws with cyclone washers and plates. Everyone has contributed to getting these done and has been a really good for job for AJs. Other work that has come back this year is the newspaper job that requires separating the paper, folding it, then putting it through the shredder so it can be used for the animals at Orana Park. Aucom is another popular job in the workroom which requires screwing a screw into a cage clamp. The guys have been working hard and have been doing really well at all of these jobs.

On a Monday I take a group out bowling. Ayden and Ross are regulars with this group coming every week. The staff are wonderful to us, always making sure the fryer is on when Ayden asks so we can get our beloved curly fries during our game. We also bring one other person with us who changes each week, that group that rotates through are: Hamish, Kyle, Laurel, Harley A, Harrison, Eddy and Daniel. I’ve noticed that they all seem to love coming back and telling everybody at AJs when they have beat me at bowling, which funnily enough appears to happen quite often!

On Wednesdays I have two groups which alternate every week. One week I have the girls – Alecia and Lyric. They enjoy various activities, and the favourite seems to be going to a café but others we’ve done that they’ve enjoyed have been Timezone, tie-dying, board games and the one they told me was their favourite last year was going to the cat café!

Every other Wednesday is the boy’s group – Jack, Daniel and Harrison. Jack and Daniel were the original members of this group and they decided they wanted to make a movie. The story and their characters were chosen by them. They brought Harrison on to be another main character in the movie. The story is about a ghostbuster (Daniel), a rockstar (Harrison) and a wizard (Jack) who track down some ghosts through different worlds, including pirate world, wiggle world and Christmas world to name a few. This project has been taking us a while to complete, but we are hoping to finally finish in the coming months.

During the week I have FOCUS sessions with various people. F.O.C.U.S stands for: Fitness, Outcomes, Commitment, Upbeat, Setting goals. I do one-on-one sessions which are more concentrated on individual goals and interests. I start off the week with Chris, who likes to mix it up and we do a different activity each week, although he seems to like the activities where we count the exercises out loud the best. On a Tuesday Kaine likes to go for a walk and look at motorbikes or lime scooters, then Joseph picks out which activity he would like to do, which normally favours going for a walk if the weather is good. Jack has a set routine he does then he likes to finish up by doing some work on the weight machine. On Wednesdays Anthony likes to learn some earthbending (from Avatar the Last Airbender) during his sessions. We found that earthbending was based on Hung Gar Kung Fu, so we spend the session learning fundamentals from this while also incorporating some other martial arts techniques. On a Thursday Helen has her session and she enjoys having a go on the Blazepods and attempts to set herself a new high score each week. After Helen’s session, Laureen likes to do some dancing and she often likes to bring in Georgia and Sophie to join her. Popular songs with the group are ABBA songs, however Laureen’s all-time favourite that she likes to make us sit through, is definitely ‘Jesus loves me’. Last day of the week is when Hamish likes to either play a game or go for a walk, Kyle also indicates he likes to go for a short walk and Clement likes to do some rowing on the rowing machine during his session. Lastly, Jeff and Harrison like to do their session together where they play various games of skill competitions against each other.

26/01/2024

Liam's Update

24/12/2023

Merry Christmas everyone!

11/12/2023

Mary’s Staff Update

It’s hard to believe this is the final update of the year with Christmas looming fast! The last few weeks have been either super busy or a little quieter – no steady pace in the workshop!

We have been applying reflective stickers to road signs for Fulton Hogan and putting together bags of metal components for Modular. Another job that keeps everyone busy is sorting and filling nuts, bolts and washer packs into tool-like compartment boxes for Mainland Fasteners. OJI send in several pallets at a time, filled with boxes that need restacking – this job gives all the young guys a good workout! Aucom cage clamps keep a number of our clients busy and ProKiwi and Every Educaid always send in a variety of interesting jobs. KM Business Equipment have toner cartridges that Kevin cleans on a regular basis – he needs to do a good clean-up of his area when he is finished, including himself! We have printing firms that also bring work in for us – Inkwise, Caxton, Rainbow Print and Blue Print keep us busy with plenty of different jobs, such as putting large magazines into bags, labelling, making up Christmas card packs and assembling buntings.Jacob has been running a new AJ’s job – cleaning Te Whatu Ora’s fleet of cars every Thursday and Friday morning. Kevin and Harley B are the regular cleaners with Nick F and Sam T filling-in when needed - they all do a great job.

Thank you to all these businesses for your continued support. Many of you have supplied us with work for numerous years and it is much appreciated.

The clients have been busy enjoying all the different community activities on offer and I often hear them, and the staff, chatting to each other and tell us about the fun they have had or what they have seen or eaten. Biddy always looks forward to playing T-Ball on a Thursday afternoon, when it is her turn, and has great delight in telling me when she arrives, that she will only be working with me in the candle room until lunch time! Alecia has an outing every second Wednesday with Julia-Grace and Lyric – the girls take turns choosing an activity to do, and they have certainly done a variety of things including many café visits, making friendship bracelets, Timezone, tie-dyeing t-shirts and bowling.

From the candle room, I have noticed some great improvement of the clients who have taken on the FOCUS exercise programmes. I hear them walking or running up and down the stairs, counting catches with a ball and boxing with much enthusiasm. I see them run from one end of the car park to the other several times, going out for walks and doing exercises using the bollards outside. When I hear the loud ‘kihups’ coming from those doing Taekwondo with Julia-Grace, I like to pop my head out the door and let them know how impressed I am. I enjoy the laughing when they are competing against each other when they use the blazepods or the frustration as they try and land a table tennis ball into a cup by bouncing it against the wall. We also have the gym boys who like to flex their muscles to show how ‘ripped’ they are!

The Candlemaker @ AJs has had a busy year. All the school leaver candles have been done and picked up or posted out and now the shelves are getting restocked. We continue to have our lovely regular customers come in and re-order and we have met some wonderful new customers that say they are going to return, with some already coming back a couple of times.

I work alongside some terrific people in the candle room…
Sarah A joins me on a drive to the bank on a Monday morning to pick up the clients pay. We often bump into her Mum and Dad who are getting their morning coffees and have a quick chat - Sarah doesn’t like to hang around as she has a job to do! She has been doing the Client Pays for a long time now and has the job done and dusted in no time! Alecia always comes into the candle room on a Wednesday with a big smile on her face. She enjoys a chat about her week before getting to work cleaning moulds or cutting wicks and bubble wrap to size. It’s also the day she enjoys helping Jacob pick up the McDonalds order and once a fortnight heads out on her outing with Julia-Grace and Lyric. Biddy enjoys her Thursday with us – she has been very busy with her performance shows over the last month – she is a talented young lady who loves to dance and has no problem getting in front of the camera.
We have enjoyed the company of Acacia over the last few months – she comes into the candle room on Thursday mornings and is happy to take on any task. She is only with us until the end of the year as she is returning to Melbourne to live. All the best Acacia and thank you for your work.

Biddy and Acacia took charge of setting up the Christmas candles in the candle room this year – they enjoyed sticking on the tinsel and choosing which candles they wanted on the shelves. I think they did an awesome job – well done girls! Don’t forget to pop in if you need any Christmas candles – we still have a few in stock.
Kevin is our main candle pourer in the candle room, and he does a great job. He is also responsible for cutting the bases of the candles with the skill-saw, so they lie flat – he always starts with putting on his protective gear then proceeds with caution. Kevin’s days in the candle room have changed recently, since he took up the opportunity to clean cars, so he now joins us on a Tuesday and Friday. Kevin loves the banter between himself and us ladies and gives as good as he gets! He went to the Cup Day Races this year and although he had a great day out, it wasn’t a profitable one!

We still have the extra table in the candle room that was used when we had to ‘spread out’ during the Covid period. The girls who came in during that time, wanted to stay when we returned to normal, so now we have Annie, Sharon, Michelle and Laureen who love to come in and do a job from the workroom…along with enjoying a chat and singalong to the songs we know on The Breeze as we work.

I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and hope you set aside some time to relax, as we all need to recharge! Take care and see you in 2024.