Last weekend, Ray decided to visit Meon Valley Repair Café which he had read about on the local Next Door community website. He was taking a piece of garden machinery, a broken leaf-blower. I decided to go too with my camera - just in case - plus hopefully have a walk afterwards. (I also understood that there would be bacon for breakfast.)
Arriving at Waltham Chase Methodist Church where the Repair Café is held on the first Saturday of each month, we met Neil on the reception desk, not his usual role but standing-in for an absent member. Details were taken and Ray explained what he had brought.
I took the opportunity to ask Neil if he would be the subject of a photo for my strangers' portrait project, once the queue of people had subsided. He readily agreed and in the meantime we visited the kitchen area for breakfast of bacon baps and coffee - and cake. Ray then investigated how two volunteers were progressing dismantling his leaf-blower, while I returned to Neil on the desk for a few photos.
Neil was one of four members who set up the Repair Café, based on the Dutch model and with a grant from Veolia and Hampshire County Council. The day we visited was the first anniversary of the set-up, now staffed, after one year, by around a dozen volunteers repairing items, and not forgetting the ladies running the kitchen and their home-made cakes.
Other folk had noticed the first entry on the website so that brought in more people that morning with items needing repair and also more volunteers wanting to help.
Neil seemed a tad nonplussed when I asked him about other interests, then thought to tell me he is a parish councillor and also runs a Men's Shed at the church once a month on a Thursday evening providing coffee and cake, and hot dogs, a favourite for all, and a space for men to meet and speak with others about any issues they wish to share. His main work is running his own electrical business.
I thanked Neil and took his email to send photos: Ray checked the work on his garden machinery and, once home, soon received more helpful information about its progress. The Repair Café runs solely on donations so that nobody is deterred from coming for help because of excessive cost.
Happy first anniversary to this Repair Café!
https://flic.kr/p/2ofVK94
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I'm looking forward to returning to the repair café next month to collect Ray's leaf-blower - and having another delicious breakfast! Camera in hand of course!