Newsletter

Goatacre Manor Care Centre Newsletter

AUTUMN 2008

Well, what a summer, or lack of.   We don’t seem to have had a respectable spell of good weather at all this year - just lots of rain and wind!!  Let’s hope the winter is not too cold and we get lots of crisp but sunny days to make us all feel better.

Thank you to everybody who came to our summer barbecue at the end of July.  With your generous help the raffle and table top sale raised £85 for the residents amenities fund.  We were so lucky with the weather as it was held on one of the few beautiful, warm and sunny days we were fortunate to enjoy.  We were pleased to welcome the Lyneham Rainbows with their leader Val and the Rainbows’ parents.  All the children enjoyed the bouncy castle and a good time was had by all.  The Rainbows have “adopted” Goatacre and are planning to visit nearer Christmas to entertain our residents with their singing.

Hydrotherapy Pool.  The opening of the pool continues to be on hold due to the delayed delivery of crucial parts but we remain optimistic that the news will be better for the next newsletter.  We are continuing with refurbishment and upgrading residents rooms as well as improving the office and rest areas for staff.  This will be ongoing for several months to come.

A warm welcome to our new residents:  Margaret, Veronica, Steve, Reita, David, Kathleen, Rosemary, Joan & Sheila and  new carers Sally, Kyesha, Kayley, Vicki, Sue, Samantha and the return of  Helen as well as  Kirsty following her maternity leave – new Kitchen assistants Anna and Ben and  general assistant Kayleigh. 

The venue for the residents to visit the Cotswold Wildlife Park in early September was changed, after a last minute conference, to Cribbs Causeway as  the weather the day before and the forecast for the day in question was wall to wall rain.  Twelve residents and some families as well as  twelve volunteer carers had a thoroughly enjoyable day and at least managed to stay dry and do some shopping together. 

Our next outing will be our usual annual trip to Cribbs Causeway towards the end of November for Christmas shopping.  Date to be announced.

The Goatacre Cat.  Smokey has been very lazy this summer.  He is not keen on the wet and tends to only go outside when it is dry or he has no choice!!  He has been on many frog and toad hunts and his success rate was high, presumably because it has been so wet.  The worst result of one of his “hunts” was having a frog brought in through the kitchen window and deposited on the window sill.  On the few occasions we managed a barbecue this year Smokey joined us ever hopeful that something might fall his way, needless to say he usually got fed.  We will post another picture next time.