Launch of the SuperJam Tea Parties at Stewart's Melville College

Today we hosted our first SuperJam Tea Party at Stewart's Melville College, in Edinburgh. There were about thirty guests and we all enjoyed singing from the students, as well as a pipe band and highland dancers. Of course, Waitrose kindly came along with some cupcakes and scones, which were served with SuperJam and lots of pots of tea.

Hopefully, we will start running a monthly event at the school. The elderly guests really enjoyed chatting to the students and the young people were amazed by the stories some of them had to tell. One of the guests, Dan Orr, had recently turned 100 and told everyone the story of getting a telegram from the queen and cutting a huge '100' cake with the Lord Provost, as part of the celebrations of the centenary of the state pension.

All of the guests from this week's tea party will be coming along to the huge event that we are running at Meadowbank Sports Centre next Wednesday, 1st October, as part of our week of celebrations for 'International Older People's Week.

A preview to our huge London Tea Party

On the 5th October, we are hosting a Tea Party at Harrow School in North London, as part of our series of 100 events during 'International Older People's Week'. The event at Harrow School will be the finale to a week of spectacular events all over the country, which are being run with the help of Waitrose, John Lewis and Contact The Elderly, to celebrate 'International Older People's Week'.  We are also being helped out by our chums at the ethical tea company, Today Was fun and will be serving their amazing range of teas at all of the parties.

There will be a few musical acts at the event on the 5th, with perhaps the highlight of the show being Shamisen Club. The band is an instrumental world music group of electric-accordion, mandola and darbuka playing original materials and rearranged folklore songs from South East Asia, Middle East and Mediterranean countries with a touch of 1950's retro-electro dance hall music style.

You can have a listen to their tunes on the band's myspace or on their website.

I'm sure everyone will love their act next Sunday afternoon, over a cup of tea and a scone with SuperJam...

Pan drops for all..

As part of our series of 100 events during 'International Older People's Week', we are hosting a gigantic 'knitathon', with the hope of knitting hundreds of blankets for our friends' orphanage in India.

I think the traditional Scottish pan drop, such as those produced by our friends at Millar-McCowan, is the ideal sweet to eat when you're spending an afternoon knitting. The kind folks at Millar's have donated hundreds of bags of their brilliant traditional sweets for everyone at the tea parties to enjoy...

A preview to our 500-person musical extravaganza Tea Party..

Starting from the 1st October, we are hosting a series of 100 events during 'International Older People's Week'. The largest of these events will be at Meadowbank in Edinburgh, from 1pm-4pm and is being run with the help of Edinburgh Leisure and the local Council, as well as Waitrose and John Lewis.

We will be having a number of musical acts along on the day and, in the week running up to the event, I thought it would be nice to feature some of the acts on the blog and in our newsletter.

Twenty-two year old Jake Cogan from Lanarkshire, Scotland has been performing from a very early age, her songs and singing are wholeheartedly honest, at times raw and powerful at others witty and humorous- reflective of her character and West of Scotland upbringing. She is quietly becoming one of Folk Music's most exciting new voices. A servant of the traditions she keeps alive, she belongs to a rare breed of selfless performer-those who live to let tradition breath through them.

You can have a look at her website here or listen to some of her beautiful tracks on her myspace.

I'm really looking forward to her performance on the 1st October at Meadowbank..

Tea Cosy of The Week....

Another week, another cosy. This is a pumpkin-esque tea cosy, and one of the best that has been sent in so far to support The SuperJam Tea Parties project. Feel free to whip out your knitting needles and come up with a masterpiece; we'll send you a bunch of jam and some general love in the post.

Knitting is, of course, becoming very cool. On the coolness scale, its around about yoga, or perhaps sushi, i'd say. Nothing beats a scarf or a jumper that someone has spent weeks knitting, with love and care. I might even just take up knitting myself. I've no idea how to knit but i'm going to get someone to teach me at the next tea party.

As part of our series of 100 events during 'International Older People's Week', we are encouraging all of the thousands of people taking part to knit as many squares (30 stitches by 30 stitches) as they can, for us to sew together and make blankets for my friends' orphanage in Central India. We're aiming to put together hundreds, maybe thousands of blankets - so please please, feel free to knit a few squares and send them in to us.

You can find out more about knitting groups and knitting in general from the brilliant website UK Hand Knitting. It is 'National Knitting Week' on the 12-19th October so there will no doubt be all kinds of crocheting, cross-stitching an speed knitting going on.

Last week's tea party was our biggest yet, with about eighty guests coming along to Meadowbank stadium. It all went very smoothly, as ever, with the kind support of Waitrose and Edinburgh Leisure. At one point, there were about thirty-five people on the dance floor, lapping up the music of the brilliant accordionist, Jan, who did a great job of entertaining everyone throughout the afternoon..

Preparing to host 100 SuperJam Tea Parties..

On the first week of October, it is 'International Older Peoples' Week' and we will be celebrating the occasion by hosting 100 tea parties all over the UK. You may have read about this in an article in the Evening News this week.

The biggest event will be held on the 1st October at Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh, from 1pm-4pm. We are aiming to attract up to 500 elderly guests for an afternoon of live music, dancing and, of course, scones and SuperJam. The event is being supported by Edinburgh Leisure (who are providing the venue and also running several activities in the morning) and will also see the brilliant 'Get up and Go' brochure launched; which showcases activities and events throughout the year for the older generation.

After kicking off at the Edinburgh event, we will be hosting 100 smaller events all over the country, in partnership with our friends at Contact The Elderly and the tea company Today Was Fun. The whole week of fun will be rounded up at an event for around 100 guests at Harrow School in London.

Of course, the event is being supported by our chums at Waitrose, who are kindly providing the food and drink and by John Lewis, who are helping us to organise a massive knitathon.

Everyone at the events will be provided with wool and needles and taught how to knit (if they don't already know), by some expert knitters from John Lewis and the local CSV-RSVP knitting group. Everyone will knit a square, we'll sew all of the squares together and produce hundreds of blankets for my friends' orphanage in Central India.

There will also be a free raffle and goodie bag for everyone who takes part, which has been kindly put together by our buddies at Kshocolat, Miller-Mccowan, Eat Natural, Tunnocks, The Famous Grouse & Highland Park, Jordan's, Rachel's Organic, Dorset Cereals and Edinburgh Leisure.

We are looking for extra helpers for the large Edinburgh event, so if you have some free time on that day, please do get in touch!