Football, tacos and bowling

Thanks to everyone who joined us for Friday’s T20 Women’s Cricket World Cup opener.

A group of gig buddies were at Sydney’s Showground Stadium for the match between Australia and India, a game in which the visitors won by 17 runs.

To see a full gallery from our trip to the T20 Women’s Cricket World Cup, click here.

What’s next?

As mentioned in the title, we’ve plenty coming up between now and mid-April.

Tickets are still available to our two barefoot lawn bowls events, Waverley on Thursday 5 March and Manly on Tuesday 7 April. We also have room at our first ever trip to the A League for the Sydney FC vs. Perth Glory game on Saturday 14 March, while we’ll also be found at Bondi Rumba for a Taco Tuesday event, taking place on 24 March.

To reserve your place to any of our up-and-coming socials, click here.

Farewell Paul

Last Wednesday (19/2) we said goodbye to Paul who, after visiting us for a week, returned to the UK.

Paul, pictured alongside Carol below, was present for our fifth birthday, meeting many buddies and volunteers.

Before his departure, Paul had this to say:

“In 2013 I was talking at a conference in Birmingham and got chatting with Carol who was visiting from Australia. I wasn’t even speaking about our new Gig Buddies project but I was probably excited to tell someone about it.

Seven years on and Gig Buddies Sydney is just flourishing, supporting 100s and 100s of people with learning disabilities to have great social lives.

Gig Buddies started as a small project in Brighton, but Carol and the team gave us the confidence to share the project. Now there are 14 across the UK too.

So thank you Carol and everyone at Gig Buddies Sydney - it’s just fantastic working with you.

Can’t wait to see what might happen next!”

Seven in the house

We’ve had a big week on the pairing and training front.

Firstly, we’d like to say thanks to James, Carl, Brent, Michelle, Dani, Oscar and Luke (above, L - R) - our newest batch of trained volunteers - for coming in last Wednesday (19/2).

And four more matches

And secondly, we’re excited to introduce a quartet of new pairings.

Say hello to Chris and Tim (top left, L - R), Katelyn and Cayley (top right, L - R), Ishani and Evie (bottom left, L - R) and Harry and Joe (bottom right, L - R).