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View Article  2nd Year Anniversary


I can’t believe another year has gone by! Yes, on the 28th January I celebrated my 2nd year at Valerie Manor. I wanted to say thank you to all the staff, residents and not forgetting my wonderful family and my partner Robin who made it all very special for me. I received, cakes, presents, flowers and cards from everyone and it was an excuse to enjoy a little sherry together!

I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone for their support during the past two years, without the fantastic team and support from the relatives as well we wouldn’t have such a happy home so thank you to everyone and here’s to many more happy and exciting years at the Manor!


View Article  Congratulations to Cath!
Another success story! Congratulations to Cath who has joined her colleagues and passed her NVQ level II in Health and Social Care. Cath has worked extremely hard over the past year and it is a great achievement for her. I’m very proud of Cath as at one stage she was finding it quite hard but was so determined she remained focus and carried on despite of everything.


View Article  Activities and Menu Review
I do apologise for the gap in our weekly blog last week. I think everyone was concentrating on the snow and unfortunately a lot of our activities were cancelled due to the weather. Robin was one person who was snowed in for a while... I must say it was lovely to have her back entertaining the residents again this week, with John also working on the maintenance for me! It’s great to have you back mum and dad!

Robin started this week with a review of the activities that we have at Valerie Manor. The meeting was enjoyed with all the residents and some relatives while having a cup of coffee and a lovely chocolate éclair! I’m pleased to say that it appeared that everyone is enjoying what we are currently doing and there were very minimal suggestions for change; We are going to get a ‘score board’ so that we can write things up and keep scores etc when the residents are taking part in games, my what a competitive group we have! There was also the suggestion of ‘story telling’ which I think is a fantastic idea which we will introduce soon.

Our care assistant Sheri will soon be driving the 'Jalopy' (mini bus) with her colleagues as she is now insured to take the residents out - which means there should be more trips as it won’t be reliant on me!

The menu review was held on Thursday with myself – I must say it was so nice to sit down with the residents and staff together for over an hour! The residents say I am always on the go and often tell me to ‘slow down’!

It was lovely to chat about the food the residents like and it was also good to have input from some relatives and staff. The relatives helped us with things that the residents used to like at home which was great! Again, I was pleased to hear that in general the residents are very happy with the food they have at Valerie Manor and there isn’t a lot that they want to change. Some of the food that they have suggested which we will add to the menus are sweet potatoes, broad beans, spotted dick and good old fashioned lamb stew with pearl barley (I still love it when my mum cooks that for me!).


View Article  December Activities Summary

Happy New Year everyone !

I hope everyone enjoyed a great Christmas and New Year. 

Here’s to a very peaceful and healthy 2010 !

Goodness me it was like a whirlwind at Valerie Manor in December... Zoe and the Staff’s feet hardly touched the ground !  Everyone works so very hard to ensure a lovely time was enjoyed by our lovely ladies and gentlemen.  I must mention all the volunteers who came along to decorate the Manor and pupils from The Towers School not forgetting the Reverend John Challis.  I know from past personal experience that time is one of the most treasured gifts you can give !

Lots of entertainment was enjoyed in December.  Our dear Brian paid us a visit as did Rita and Peter, SG Productions performed ‘The Magic of Christmas' and not forgetting the lovely children and adults from my Dance School.  The ladies and gentlemen planned their own Christmas/New Year Menus, made Christmas Crackers,  enjoyed Musical Christmas hats and played getting the ‘snowballs’ in the box.

After Christmas I went along intending to do some exercise with everyone but instead of that we had great fun in the lounge taking down decorations,  everyone helped and had a few ‘stockings’ to empty of paper stuffing....so it was a physical event after all....Whilst all this was happening we were singing along to Billy Cotton....go on....own up if you remember him !

Be careful in the snow !

Robin x


View Article  SG Productions - The Magic of Christmas


As the residents loved SG Productions 'Hooray for Hollywood' so much back in the Summer we booked them again for 'The Magic of Christmas' over the festive period. I must say, it was a truly magical show where the residents and staff all sung along, laughed and cried at times as memories came back. The show was filled with numbers from musicals in London and popular Carols were sung by all after watching the array of costumes, colours and dancing.

You can visit the SG Productions website here; www.sgproductions.co.uk