Tag Archive for: laughter

The Value of Staying Connected Online

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10 Good Things About Being On The Internet: 

  1. Stay in touch with friends and family using video calling or messaging
  2. Shop for groceries from your computer and get them delivered to your front door
  3. Share memories, pictures and videos over email or social media
  4. Keep up to date with local, government, and community activities
  5. Pay your bills from the convenience of your home by using online banking
  6. Conduct medical appointments at home with online video (via e-health)
  7. Keep the grand kids entertained on the internet when they visit
  8. Watch and stream TV shows online through services like YouTube, Netflix, Stan, Presto and Catch up TV
  9. Read books, newspapers and magazines articles online from your smartphone, tablet or computer
  10. Use social media like Facebook and Twitter to stay in touch with local communities, friends and family.

Mental Benefits

Knowledge of the Internet can also help improve mental alertness. Aside from the vast information from the Internet, it is also a great source for video games. Why video games? According to the Psychology and Aging magazine, playing video games helps improve cognitive functions which normally decline during the passing years. Strategy video games help in keeping our brains razors sharp and improve hand-eye coordination.

Learning and Leisure

One can continue learning by browsing the Internet to get more information on important topics, such as health and fitness. Watching tutorial videos related to their interests such as painting, playing the piano, gardening, flower arrangements, cooking, and travel, among others, is a great way to expand knowledge and keep the creative juices flowing.

Reconnect With Old Friends via Social Media 

Facebook is the most popular social networking site that brings family and friends together. Share photos, chat online, play games, search old friends and more. What an exciting way to reconnect with old friends to whom they have lost throughout the years.

Helps Build Relationships With Grand Kids 

Many seniors or grandparents feel they are being left behind because they cannot keep up with the world. With Internet knowledge and use, seniors can still catch up with their grandchildren, bridging the gap between them. Having a common activity together and frequent interaction via the Internet helps to build a better relationship.

Join our Tech Forum!

On the first and third Monday of every month (12 noon – 2pm)

One on one sessions are also available on Tuesdays and Thursdays

The Benefits of Walking

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Some people may not be able to do full exercise or go to the gym, but just walking 30 minutes a day can greatly improve your health and is also a great way to maintain your overall health. If you can’t manage 30 minutes a day, remember ‘even a little is good, but more is better’.

Regular walking has multiple benefits:

  • Help to maintain a healthy weight
  • Prevent or manage various health conditions such as, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes
  • Strengthen your bones and muscles
  • Improve your mood
  • Improve your balance and coordination
  • Walking with others can turn exercise into an enjoyable social occasion

The statistics are impressive: The American Diabetes Association says walking lowers your blood sugar levels and your overall risk for diabetes. Research shows that regular walking lowers blood pressure by as much as 11 points and may reduce the risk of stroke by 20% to 40%.

In a study by the New England Journal of Medicine in 2002, it found a 30% lower risk of cardiovascular disease, compared with those who did not walk regular.

And according to a 2014 study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, Learning, Memory, and Cognition, going for a walk can also spark creativity. “Researchers administered creative-thinking tests to subjects while seated and while walking and found that the walkers thought more creatively than the sitters,” says Jampolis.

Walking can also keep your legs looking great. As we age, our risk of unsightly varicose veins increases—it’s just not fair. However, walking is a proven way to prevent those unsightly lines from developing.

If you already suffer from varicose veins, daily walking can help ease related swelling and restlessness in your legs and can also help delay the onset if you are prone to them.

Come join our walking group, The Coasters!

Walking For Pleasure every second Friday (Feb – June 2018)

Contact the Coast Centre or visit the Coast Centre office for the schedule or more information.

The Benefits of Playing a Pinball Machine

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Playing with a pinball machine may just seem like a fun past time, but did you know that there are a multitude of benefits?

Playing with a pinball machine can actually be crucial in developing or maintaining motor skills. It is widely known that to be good at playing pinball one has to have good hand eye coordination. Hand-eye coordination is the ability to track the movements of the hands with the eyes, thus enabling the eyes to send important signals to the brain about hand movement. Poor hand-eye coordination can greatly compromise your ability to exercise and can also affect everyday tasks such as writing.

In learning how to play or by playing pinball frequently, hand eye coordination can be increased two fold, as well as developing lighting fast reflexes and incredible timing. Pinball can be quite a mental game, as you think of moves and strategies on the spot.

Hand-eye coordination tends to deteriorate with age. However, regular physical activity that utilises both fine and gross motor skills can help.

Pinball can also help those dealing with grief. As mourners’ movement between different stages of grief such as shock and depression can be unpredictable, this process has been likened to the workings of a pinball machine, according to Mental Health Practice journal.

The authors of the September 2012 journal are in no way trying downplay grief or suggest it is a game, but they are however trying to explain through the metaphor of pinball that the process of grieving is not linear.

With grief, there can be triggers that can prolong or even restart the process – just like on a pinball machine, in which pressing the buttons can prolong the game. Anniversaries or special events can examples of triggers for mourners. Many mourners describe themselves as ‘bouncing’ from stage to stage in the grieving process, which is similar imagery to pinball. Mourners can seek comfort in the fact that their responses are normal and grieving doesn’t have to calculated. Grieving takes time and effort. This model can also be adapted to help those coping with separation, divorce, loss of employment or financial loss, say the authors.

So come by on Seniors Week (April 9-13) and play some good ‘ole vintage pinball for free!

Five Good Reasons To Visit Canberra Now

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Canberra offers a great diversity of attractions and experiences all within close proximity.

Our trip on 22 March offers two outstanding destinations: The National Gallery of Australia and The Australian War Memorial; you choose.

Delight in the art and world-class exhibitions on show at The National Gallery of Australia, on the shores of Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin. Art lovers will enjoy meandering through the galleries and admiring the collection, which includes the famous ‘Blue Poles’ by Jackson Pollock and the Ned Kelly series by Sidney Nolan.
Tours and activities are a great way to get more out of your visit. One hour Gallery Highlight Tour available 10.30 am, 11.30 am, 12.30 pm, 1.30 pm and 2.30 pm daily.

The Gallery currently has 4 outstanding exhibitions open to the public at no charge, among many others.  The standouts are :-

Namatjira
Painting country

This display celebrates the donation of Gordon and Marilyn Darling’s collection of watercolours by the critically acclaimed Western Arrarnta artist, Albert Namatjira. It also features works by the Hermannsburg artists who continue his legacy.

Australian
Impressionism

This Exhibition heralds the return of Arthur Streeton’s Golden summer, Eaglemont from the National Gallery, London, all of the NGA’s major Australian Impressionist works will be hung together, offering an unprecedented opportunity to experience the depth and richness of the national collection.

David Hockney
Prints

David Hockney has been an important figure on the international art scene for half a century. This   exhibition explores the broader history of his printmaking practice through key works from the NGA’s  extensive collection, one of the largest in the world.

Arthur Streeton
The Art of War

This Exhibition brings  together key works from Streeton collections around Australia and overseas, Streeton’s contribution to the Australian war effort was significant.

The  Australian War Memorial is also a standout place to visit.  There are free frequent guided tours.

Trip details

Departs Brodie Ave, Little Bay at 8am Returns 7pm.

Cost  $60 pp.  Bookings Essential.

Call us at The Coast Centre Reception 9311 4886

Tango Lessons

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Christmas Market 2017

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To celebrate Christmas 2017, we’re hosting a Christmas Market day on Saturday 9 December between 9 and 2. Stalls will be available, under shelter, on our western verandah. Anyone in the neighbourhood who has great Christmas wares to sell is welcome to join us as a stall holder. A spot at this market will cost just $50. We already have stallholders with speciality giftware to sell as well as cakes, jams, cards, ceramics, artworks, jewellery and plants.

Please give us a call or email if you’d like to part of the day. Tel. 9311 4886

35 Days of Christmas

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On this day before Christmas, my health coach said to me ,

“Go to the Coast, take lots of classes and don’t waste your time,

there’s a lot to do, dance, sing and rhyme,

laugh, smile and hum,

sew, paint and draw,

and you’ll never, never need, a partridge in a pear tree”

–

Apologies to composer Frederic Austin

Benefits of Line Dancing

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Line Dancing will:

  1. Teach you to dance.  If you can’t dance by yourself, how can you possibly expect to dance with a partner?  Line dancing teaches you to actually move your body.
  2. Improve your Balance: teaches you how to maintain your own balance while moving to the beat
  3. Help you Find the Beat:  Oh a big one.  Staying on beat (on time) is critical in any dance whether by yourself or with someone else.  Learning to find the beat and timing of any dance is critical before getting with a partner.
  4. Teach you basic footwork. Learn how to do triple steps, turns and spins, rocking steps and many other steps that you will use in every form of dance.
  5. Improve your confidence. Helps overcome feeling of having “two left feet”; Offers sense of pride and accomplishment  and improves your coordination.
  6. Provide you with a dance outlet whether you have a partner or not.  Today, it seems there is a line dance for just about any song you can think of.  If not, many line dances are timed that they can fit multiple songs providing you many dance opportunities.
  7. Provide you a way to practice.  You always hear that practice is necessary to improving your dance but you may not know exactly how to, or what to practice.  Line dances are a perfect structured means to practice dance technique.

And the list goes on and on.

Take advantage of the opportunities to improve  your dance.

Join Nancy this month .

 

Learn some exciting line dances, have a lot of fun!

 

 

Mayor and Deputy Mayor commend the Coast Centre

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The Mayor and Deputy Mayor attended the Fete and Grandparents Day at the Coast Centre on October 29, 2017. They presented speeches on the day commending the Coast Centre on our work and involvement with the community.

“They say that the minute we cease to grow and learn is the minute we begin to be old. So as I look around me at all the opportunities and classes offered here at the Coast Centre, I realise this is a youth
centre!” – Mayor Lindsay Shurey

“I’d like to commend the amazing work of the Coast Centre, and the importance of grandparents within our community.” – Deputy Mayor Alexandra Luxford

The Mayor and Deputy Mayor were very pleased with our work in keeping retirees active and engaged with their grandchildren, and generally keeping our community young!

We were very happy to have the Mayor and Deputy Mayor here and hope they come back again soon!

You can read their full comments on our Testimonials page.

Appearing at the Coast Centre

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The Clan Macleod Pipe Band of Sydney will be opening the Fete and Grandparents Day on Sunday October 29, 2017 at 10am!

They will be opening with a march through the Centre playing various songs including Advance Australia Fair.

A little history about the band:

In about 1942, the Mosman Scottish Association was formed and the Chief of Association Charles Christopherson dreamed of having a pipe band in the Mosman area to go hand in hand with Scottish tradition.

It wasn’t until after 1948 that the Association formed the Mosman Pipe Band and bought Lawrie pipes, imitation ivory mounted pipes, and rope tension drums with pig skin heads. This lead to their first official formal appearance on ANZAC Sunday 1949 in Mosman, gaining much needed experience in the years following.

In 1954, Bruce MacLeod formed the Clan MacLeod Society of Australia (NSW) in preparation for the first visit of the Chief, Dame Flora MacLeod of MacLeod.

Following the demise of the Mosman Scottish Association in 1963, the Clan Society was then renamed to the Clan MacLeod Pipe Band. They wear the Ancient MacLeod of Harris and Dunvegan Tartan and even to this day, some of the original pipes, sporrans, buckles and brooches are still used.

The band continues to regularly participate in many major Sydney Community events and Parades, and has even appeared on television.