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Lego Serious Play - September Recap

Community CSW2 — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 08:40:59 GMT

Thank you to everyone who came along to our Lego Serious Play session last evening, I think it is safe to say we all had some fun with the Lego games that were played

Our first game was to sort the pieces in the fastest time. Our winner was very fast indeed, well done Lottie.

Our second game was to build 5 diamond shapes which were shown on the screen, again we had a very fast winner, well done Ali.

Our third game was to follow verbal instructions to create something similar to this:

These are a couple of interpretations, I think you will agree they are superb:

Another game we played was to create a self portrait in 5 minutes, again some great Lego building went on:

We also played the sock game - given the selected 10 Lego pieces and then asked to pop them in a sock in no particular order. Then tasked which Lego piece to retrieve from the sock - the quickest wins a point.

Our last game of the evening was verbal instructions to build the letters to spell out Lego with some of the new bricks we had received:

This was a tricky build but lots of fun.

Thank you to everyone for a fun evening of Lego, and very much looking forward to next month's session already!

Book Club Discussion

Community CDW6 — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 12:47:58 GMT

In September we come to the last of the books for this 6 month period, as agreed we are moving towards three books form the group and three mystery books chosen by Waterstones, which is very exciting !!! I am aware that not all members are able to join us on the online meeting each month so I thought I would start a discussion on the RN Forum on which genres people would like from there choices. Any genre will be looked at, this round the book that seemed to hold its own the best was the "The Girl with the louding voice" which was under the genre "Cultural Authors"

We need three genres by the 21st Sept to put to the room and then depending on numbers for each genre we will then share with the group on line and on the RN Forum. If you wish to be involved in the voting process this time please let us know via email direct or on this feed.

Kind regards

Sarah

August Hobby Club

Community CDW2 — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 14:23:34 GMT

This months Hobby Club was mosaic art which was new to most of the group. After a bit of googling to work out the consistency of caulk everyone got stuck in creating beautiful mosaic feathers and dragonflies.

Book Club Discussion for The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Community CSW2 — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 13:10:53 GMT

Our books will be with us soon, and I have started this discussion before they arrive as I am going to be taking some time off to spend with my grandchildren

Our next read is The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion:

"Love isn't an exact science - but no one told Don Tillman.

A thirty-nine-year-old geneticist, Don's never had a second date. So he devises the Wife Project, a scientific test to find the perfect partner.

Enter Rosie - 'the world's most incompatible woman' - throwing Don's safe, ordered life into chaos.

But what is this unsettling, alien emotion he's feeling? . . ."

We look forward to seeing you at our next meeting on 21 September at 7.30pm.

Happy reading everyone.

If you would like to become part of the Book Club then please email navypeople-psrnfpscom@mod.gov.uk to express your interest in joining.

Discussion Group "The End of Oak Street" OR AND "A House of Dynamite" for Film Club

Community CDW6 — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 10:41:53 GMT

Here is the space to share your thoughts and reviews of the Film Club chosen movies for this month. This is the space to share your reviews if you cant make the online meeting or wish to share your thoughts with a wider audience.

I have not seen the film yet, but am looking forward to going and cant wait for us to review both films at the film club on the 14th September

See you all soon

Sarah, Nicky and Clare

Online Children's Summer Parties - Arts & Crafts and Lego

Community CSW2 — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 13:57:24 GMT

Thank you to all who came along to our online Summer parties this year, I for one had a great time at each and every party and I hope all those who took part did too

The arts and crafts we did involved some mosaic tile making, felting for the older children, making tea light holders with clay and also some trinket trays with clay. Unfortunately we haven't had many pictures sent in yet but here are the ones that have:

We also had some summer fun with Lego too, and first we made our ice-breaker build with the bricks we were given and we were asked to create a lion, there were lots awesome lions, some were given names, others weren't!

We all received the Lego book "Build Your Own Story! Space Rescue". We had an enormous amount of fun building Bitz, who was our main character, his Spaceship and then his friend Rocky the Angry Asteroid! We also built DJ Mushroom, Bitz and Aster's Raceship, the rock climbing mech and Aster the Grown Up. Here are the pictures that have been received so far showing off the creations the children made with their Lego's from the book ...

A huge thank you to everyone who took part.

Please feel free to upload pictures by replying to this discussion, it goes a long way to helping us secure funding for future online parties.

Keep your eyes peeled for our Online Halloween Parties which will hopefully be promoted on the Royal Navy Forum by the time the children go back to school.

Thank you again!

Lego Serious Play, Designing a Lego Game - Lets Help Each Other

Community CSW2 — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 07:53:02 GMT

Hello Lego Serious Player's,

Seeing as we have been set a challenge to design a game using Lego which we will all present at next month's session (10 minutes each) I have started a discussion to see if we can help each other.

I have recently found the link below to see if it will spark my imagination, maybe it will help yours ...

10+ Totally Awesome LEGO Party Games - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

I look forward to us all working together to come up with some different ideas, suggestions and how we see next month's session going

Adults Lego Serious Play - Recap from August Session

Community CSW2 — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 07:44:10 GMT

Thank you to all those who attended our August Lego Serious Play session, and I hope you enjoyed the builds as much as we did

Our first build challenge was to build something we have done so far this summer ...

this is the Prince of Wales

someone has been overusing their ice cream maker, but it has been so warm outside?!

visiting National Trust gardens

made a light sabre as they have been crocheting a few

have been visiting castles

going down the zipwire with their grand children in the play park

catching up on sleep when they can as been working long hours

We then went on to build something you might find in a tree ...

An apple

An abstract bat ... or is it a spider ...

A parachutist

A jeep in a tree from the movie Jurassic Park

An angry cuckoo stealing another birds nest!

and we had a Tree House

Again the imaginations of everyone when they build without any instructions are amazing.

Thank you again for coming along and we look forward to seeing you on 7th September for our next session.

If anyone would like to get involved in this group then please email navypeople-psrnfpscom@mod.gov.uk to express your interest.

Book Club Discussion for Madhouse At The End Of The Earth by Julian Sancton

Community CSW2 — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 09:07:52 GMT

Hello National Book Club

This month's book is Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton which many have probably already received their copies by now.

The harrowing, survival story of an early polar expedition that went terribly wrong, with the ship frozen in ice and the crew trapped inside for the entire sunless, Antarctic winter

August 1897: The Belgica set sail, eager to become the first scientific expedition to reach the white wilderness of the South Pole. But the ship soon became stuck fast in the ice of the Bellinghausen sea, condemning the ship's crew to overwintering in Antarctica and months of endless polar night. In the darkness, plagued by a mysterious illness, their minds ravaged by the sound of dozens of rats teeming in the hold, they descended into madness.

In this epic tale, Julian Sancton unfolds a story of adventure gone horribly awry. As the crew teetered on the brink, the Captain increasingly relied on two young officers whose friendship had blossomed in captivity - Dr. Frederick Cook, the wild American whose later infamy would overshadow his brilliance on the Belgica; and the ship's first mate, soon-to-be legendary Roald Amundsen, who later raced Captain Scott to the South Pole. Together, Cook and Amundsen would plan a last-ditch, desperate escape from the ice-one that would either etch their names into history or doom them to a terrible fate in the frozen ocean.

Drawing on first-hand crew diaries and journals, and exclusive access to the ship's logbook, the result is equal parts maritime thriller and gothic horror. This is an unforgettable journey into the deep.

Please feel free to leave your comments here about the book.

If you would like to be a part of our Book Club then please email navypeople-psrnfpscom@mod.gov.uk

We look forward to seeing you at our next meeting on the 17th August from 7.30pm till 9.00pm

Adults Lego Serious Play - Recap from July's session

Community CSW2 — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 11:53:29 GMT

We had all received a lovely parcel in the post for our creations at our meeting this month. There were different builds all Technic Lego sent to the group members. There was an aeroplane, a backhoe loader, dune buggy, digatron truck ... I think that was all of them, please do correct me if I have missed or got one of them wrong!

Our session always starts with if we have built anything in the last month, or finished off a build that we have already started and shared with the group. There were a couple of us who had done a build, one being the Panda (oh he is so cute) and another had done the Parrot, both fabulous builds and thank you for sharing with us.

We then set about building our Technic Lego, there were some fast builders with us this evening as some finished during the meeting, the rest of us will finish them off over the coming weeks but before the next meeting and hopefully upload to this discussion or please do send them to me and I will upload them for you

Thank you to everyone for making the session another great one.

Book Club Discussion for The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

Community CSW2 — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 07:11:40 GMT

Hello book club members, this month's book, The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton should be with you now...

Please feel free to share your thoughts on the book here.

A military space probe, sent to collect extraterrestrial organisms from the upper atmosphere, is knocked out of orbit and falls to Earth. Twelve miles from the crash site, an inexplicable and deadly phenomenon terrorizes the residents of a sleepy desert town in Arizona, leaving only two survivors: an elderly addict and a newborn infant.

The United States government is forced to mobilize Project Wildfire, a top-secret emergency response protocol. Four of the nation’s most elite biophysicists are summoned to a clandestine underground laboratory located five stories beneath the desert and fitted with an automated atomic self-destruction mechanism for cases of irremediable contamination. Under conditions of total news blackout and the utmost urgency, the scientists race to understand and contain the crisis. But the Andromeda Strain proves different from anything they’ve ever seen - and what they don’t know could not only hurt them, but lead to unprecedented worldwide catastrophe.

For kindle readers this book was unavailable and were given a choice of an audible copy or reading Book 2 "The Andromeda Evolution".

We look forward to our next meeting on 20th July starting at 7.30pm on MS Teams.

Film Discussion - Cinema: Disclosure Day - The R.I.P - Home Movie - June / July 26

Community CDW6 — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:21:37 GMT

A place to share your thoughts and feelings of this month's Film's

Cinema Film: Disclosure Day

Home Movie: The R.I.P

I will admit I am really looking forward to this month's film choices and I am hoping the Cinema Film will be as good as I am expecting ... crossing fingers

Review club meeting will be on the 13th July for more information please see advert on the RN Forum calendar

Adults Lego Serious Play - June's Homework

Community CSW2 — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 07:21:48 GMT

This month's homework was to create a Forest or Garden scene.

Our first submission is this wonderful creation:

"I did Titania and Oberon in the fairy garden from A Midsummer Night’s Dream… in front of the fairie door in my flat:

You have set the bar Su!

Adults Lego Serious Play Recap from June's Session

Community CSW2 — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 11:06:00 GMT

Another great evening of building, talking Lego and sharing homework was had by all who attended this month.

We did some great builds which included: what we did at the weekend, to build a logo and to build something with wheels

Here are some pics from the evening:

Build what we did at the weekend (a timed 10 minute build):

Build a logo (a timed 5 minute build):

Build something with wheels (timed 10 minute build):

Thank you so everyone who has sent me their pics from last night, I look forward to seeing more from the evening posted below

Adults Lego Serious Play Homework for May

Community CSW2 — Fri, 29 May 2026 12:06:41 GMT

I'm not sure if I am on the right tracks with the homework that we were given at May's Lego Serious Play session, but I am going to be brave a post a photo of what I have done, I think I may have cropped the picture badly to show forced perspective... you tell me ???

As I believe we can now post photos in the reply feature, I would love to see what others have done before our next session on Monday evening.

Looking forward to seeing everyone on Monday.

Book Club Discussion for The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Daré

Community CSW2 — Wed, 20 May 2026 07:06:53 GMT

The books will be on their way to all members of the Book Club this week, and this month's book is chosen by the group from the Cultural genre: The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Daré:

I don't just want to be having any kind voice . . .
I want a louding voice.

At fourteen, Adunni dreams of getting an education and giving her family a more comfortable home in her small Nigerian village. Instead, Adunni's father sells her off to become the third wife of an old man. When tragedy strikes in her new home, Adunni flees to the wealthy enclaves of Lagos, where she becomes a house-girl to the cruel Big Madam, and prey to Big Madam's husband. But despite her situation continuously going from bad to worse, Adunni refuses to let herself be silenced. And one day, someone hears her.

Please feel free to add your comments/views on this book to this post.

Sarah, Nicky and Clare look forward to seeing you at our next meeting on 15 June 2026 from 1930-2100.

Happy reading everyone

Jaws movie

Carole Scott — Tue, 12 May 2026 15:21:06 GMT

Hi all … after the movie club discussion last night, I looked for Jaws at the cinema. Sadly, it’s not showing near us.

If anyone did want to watch it, though, it’s on Amazon Prime, currently, to rent for £3.49 or £5.99 to buy.

I’ve searched all the platforms and this is the only place I can find it, other than Sky Cinema (which we don’t have).

Carole

Adults Lego Serious Play Recap from our May Session

Community CSW2 — Mon, 11 May 2026 07:47:06 GMT

We had a great evening at our Lego Serious Play session this month, showing off our homework from March's session (we had to miss April due to the Easter weekend falling when it did), and catching up on what builds we have done since we last met, there were quite a few!

Our homework from March's session was to build a face and there were some amazing creations, one person even googled what else they could build with the bricks from from bunny we built in our last session, the results were astounding and we were all suitably impressed with their creation. Here are the homework builds, see if you can guess which one was built with the bricks from the bunny:

Our first build challenge for the evening was the make something that flies, here were the creations:

Our next build was to do something you might see in the garden:

We had a snail, fox, raised beds, flowers, a filled wheelbarrow and a garden scene.

Our last build for the evening was to build something you would find in the sea:

We had corals, submarines, shipwrecks and a lighthouse.

All our builds this month were timed so added to the challenge!

As always we had a fun evening, thank you

Hobby Club Cake Decorations

Community CDW2 — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 18:56:16 GMT

The Hobby Club met this week to take part in a cake decorating session.

Book Club Discussion for Jaws by Peter Benchley

Community CSW2 — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 07:15:52 GMT

This months book is Jaws ... please do leave your thoughts and comments on the book here.

"The vintage thriller which inspired Stielberg’s blockbuster film. In a small Atlantic resort the mutilated body of a young woman, or what is left of it, washes up on a long, white beach. It is merely a harbinger of the horror that is about to unfold, as a sun-drenched holiday turns into a nightmare."

The National Book Club team, Nicky, Clare, Sarah look forward to seeing you on the 18th May from 1930-2100 to discuss at our Teams meeting.

If you are interested in joining the National Book Club please email navypeople-psrnfpscom@mod.gov.uk

The wedding planner

NicolaBee70 — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 07:09:15 GMT

I am nearly half way through this book at the moment I’m finding it a little slow but am persevering .

National Online Easter Lego Parties

Community CSW2 — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 07:18:07 GMT

Thank you for joining Sarah and Clare for some Easter Lego building fun on Sunday 29th March.

We all had an amazing time building from the World Builder Create a World of Play Lego book and building our icebreaker build of a bunny pulling a cart with easter eggs and some of us had a minifigure to build instead - we had frogs, cats, koalas, Dalmatians, crocodiles, monkeys and parrots!

We built a City Car, a Jungle Car, a Spacecraft, a Submarine and there were some awesome free builds with a few taking on the challenge of using all 150 pieces that came with the set.

Here are some pictures from all our parties:

Thank you again for joining Sarah and Clare for our Easter Online Lego Parties, we all had an eggstraordinary day of fun Lego building.

We look forward to seeing you all again soon, keep your eyes peeled for our Online Summer Parties

Book recommendation

Carole Scott — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 10:15:16 GMT

If you haven't already read it, I highly HIGHLY recommend All the Colours of the Dark.

Online rumours are that it's also in the early stages of being made into a cinematic tv series - this could be amazing if the casting is good!

National Online Children’s Easter Arts & Crafts Parties

Community CSW2 — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 13:44:12 GMT

Thank you for joining Sarah and Clare for some Easter Arts & Crafts fun on Sunday 22 March.

We had a great time painting decorative clay eggs, bunny sun catchers, making clay bunnies and ultimately making Easter bonnets while listening to a story, The Scarecrows Wedding.

Everyone made some eggstrordinary creations and here are some of the pictures we have received so far:

Please do continue to send in your photos and they will get uploaded to this post.

Thank you again to all those who came along and had some eggstraspecial Easter crafting fun.

Book Club - The Wedding People by Alison Espach

Community CSW2 — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 07:37:01 GMT

This month's book is The Wedding People by Alison Espach:

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

It's a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn't here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she's dreamed of coming for years--she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she's here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan--which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can't stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach's The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined--and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

Feel free to comment on the book in this discussion.

If you are interested in joining our Book Club please email: navypeople-psrnfpscom@mod.gov.uk

Our next meeting is on Monday 20th April from 1930-2100.

Happy reading