Events: April, 2019

Here is a round-up of the events at The Swan during April, 2019.

27th Apr: Stripping Day

We had another volunteer day on Saturday 27th April. Again it was really well attended. This time we had a wide range of tasks, a lot of them based on striping: wires, paint, wallpaper ... We were also making the courtyard and garage more usable by dumping a lot of the old furniture and debris.

Doors and vanity units were removed from the first floor bedrooms. More work was done in the kitchen including moving the old boiler out so the area can be worked on by our heating engineer. And who can forget the waffles that were being freshly made to keep the team going?!

There was also a bit of preparation for the BBQ in the evening.

Safety briefing

Wallpaper stripping in the ladies loo

Emptying the garage

Results of clearing out the courtyard

The Demolition Boys hard at it

Paint stripping in the main bedroom

Starting work in the courtyard

The wallpaper strippers

Creating a lot of space in the garage

Dad being supervised

The wire stripping crew hard at it

Paint stripping in the bar

Quickly making a difference

Ready for another tip run

Georgine making waffles

A wee bit of wire to get through

And more wire stripping ...

And more paint stripping ...

27th Apr: First Sneaky Beak BBQ

On the evening of Saturday 27th April, we had our first fun event at The Swan: a fundraising BBQ. It was called the Sneaky Beak, a name that would return for subsequent BBQs. Over 250 people attended from all areas of the community, and all ages too.

We went through quite a few barrels of Windsor & Eton ale, and hundreds of hamburgers!. We were quite surprised by this to be honest and it took some emergency runs to make sure things kept going. There was some excellent entertainment, tours of the building, and a whole pile of information about The Swan. There was even the opportunity to influence the final colour of the exterior.

Huge thanks to all the volunteers during the event, and those that set it all up including the stage and sound system. Hopefully these photos encapsulate some of the community spirit and fun that was had.

The welcoming committee

The courtyard was busy

Carol and chums having a good time

Enjoying a chat

Richard looking after The Bevy

Taking shelter from the rain shower

Putting the world to rights

Even the short shower didn't deter

A real community affair

Anne who was our cashier

It was a wee bit busy

Enjoying the BBQ food

The volunteers who manned the bar

Another tour getting ready

Richard enjoying a beer

Deep in discussion

Big Alan - one of the Demolition Boys

It was busy until dusk

The BBQ team who did a fab job

Tony the BBQ maestro

John looked after the fire, BBQ, set-up ...

Selecting the colour of The Swan

Our excellent entertainment

Some found it a little cold

Listening to the short update

Update from Richard

Night, night ... time to go