Gravesham Repair Café

One of our most successful Repair Cafés to date.  We saw and repaired the usual trawl of clothing, electrical items, clocks and bikes.  The skill of new volunteer Celeste led to the repair of jewellery in the form of bracelets and necklaces. On this occasion we were joined by Dave from Sidcup Repair Café and new recruit engineering student Oliver.  We were mightily impressed by Oliver's ability when he diagnosed and fixed an electronic scoreboard within minutes of his arrival. Everyone was in good spirits - volunteers and visitors alike.  It is worth reminding that we successfully repair over half the items brought to us and it's free of charge, even the tea & coffee.  If you are in doubt, just bring your broken item along ( calendar ) or ask in advance via email to GraveshamRepairCafe@gmail.com  

Today we welcomed new volunteer Peter who set to work fixing several bicycles.  Thanks Peter.  Secateurs and garden shears were sharpened by several of us. Our sewing ladies were busy with zips and seams while our electrical buffs sorted out vacuum cleaners, lamps and so on.  We removed two links from a bracelet to make sure it didn't slip off its owner's arm.  Oh, and we had an early Christmas decoration to mend. Volunteer Tom manned the kitchen café on his own this time because both his fellow staff were unable to attend.  Well done, Tom, that was impressive.   

Is it the weather?  Our previous session was mainly about electric fans.  This time it was our sewing specialists who saw lots to repair.  We welcomed back Liz to the sewing team as well as new volunteer Celeste.  Celeste showed her talent mending and strengthening a nasty tear even getting the printed design to match up. Before & After   Trousers altered to fit Naturally we saw our usual crop of other household items - more fans, a steam mop etc.  Volunteers Andrew and Celeste 

We didn't hold an August event at St George's in Gravesend because the hall wasn't available.  Instead we took the opportunity to hold our Summer Social gathering by way of a thank you to our hard working volunteers.  We met at Eternal Lake a nearby nature reserve and café.   At Vigo two days later we had another day repairing electric fans more than anything else.  We also had a typical crop of other household items requiring attention - vacuum cleaners, bedside tea maker, sewing machine, hair straighteners, bikes and so forth. As is usual at Vigo we were joined by the ladies repurposing empty crisp packets into thermal blankets etc. for charity donation.  And naturally our kitchen hands kept us supplied in this hot weather.