Hello everyone, this is Vienne. I hope you are having a wonderful summer! This is probably one of my last blog posts for the Age-friendly VIP in academic year 23/24. But I’m truly happy to have something fun and meaningful to look back on, as Jiachen and I ran another intergenerational activity at the Bath Medical Museum (BMM) on 17 June 2024 thanks to the VIP fund. This blog post is not so much about how we went through the session, but more about my reflection on being a part of it.
A warm community at the BMM
Recalling all my communication with the BMM team, I can feel their ardent passion, because of their prompt replies throughout the past months, often in the early mornings or even during the weekends. As I arrived at the BMM, I met the lovely team and the community. The community comprises members from different ethnicities, both older and younger adults. I’m amazed to see that many members are from Hong Kong. Out of curiosity, I asked Paul if he works at the BMM. He said that he didn’t work at the BMM, but all the team members support the operation of the BMM on a voluntary basis. Wow, this level of dedication does strike me! 
Paul was introducing the BMM to Jiachen as we had a meeting before the start of the gardening session.
Making quality time for each other
To create hygge (a sense of cosiness) for the intergenerational activity, Emma decorated the tables using some colourful cloths and adding some pop quizzes, while Jiachen and I were making tea for the attendees. We were happy to have some returning participants who attended our last session. After an introduction of the Age-friendly VIP, Jiachen and I also joined the second table where Peggy (a member from the BMM), Charlotte (a PhD student), and Asun (my Spanish teacher) were sitting together. 
Emma was busy distributing pop quizzes. 
“Would you like some tea?” 
The participants were asking us questions about the Age-friendly VIP.
What might surprise you is that I brought my mum here as well! I think this was a valuable opportunity for my mum to get to know my work at Bath. It would also be great to make it my mum’s turn, as I invited my dad to work on an intergenerational video clip for the Film Active Project. As I walked past her table, she asked for my case. I was like … what case? She pointed at my mobile, and said, “I want this as my reference.” I came back to check in with my mum after I finished my pot plant painting. She did a fantastic job and is much artier than I am! 
Guess which one is my mum’s work? It’s the one with Anna’s name tag.
During the gardening session, it was intriguing to observe how we all worked diligently on our individual pot plants. Yet, we didn’t forget to talk! We asked each other questions and kept the dialogue flowing.
We and our final products!
I was rather happy with my work this time, as I realised less is more. While it didn’t have much design, I would say it looked clean. You NEED to see my prior quirky work to know why I was happy. 
Me and my painted pot (the one with green and white stripes)
My first attempt at a previous gardening session back in November
Looking forward
We reported back to Fiona about our ongoing work, and she remarked, “I have been sharing the information you sent me below with the Healthy Later Living network, who were really pleased to see that you had got this going, and had some reward from the work you’d put in. … It is really lovely to see this come off, and well done for all the work in getting to this point!” In terms of future work with BMM, we may be able to link in with the doctoral college, and with Emily from the VIP operation team to see what is possible next year.
If you are interested in our work, please join us and we can take this further together!
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