Health

We are well supported by all visiting health care professionals including the three local medical centres with their teams of GPs and Practice Nurses, our wonderful Community Nurses, local Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists. In addition to the NHS Chiropodist who visits we have a five-weekly private Chiropodist, the services of Vision Call - an optician service designed for those in residential care - and a dental technician. For other aspects of life which keep us healthy, our hairdresser visits weekly, library books are changed regularly and other professional entertainers visit by appointment. Friends and family receive a warm welcome whenever they call, can stay all night if anyone is ill, and will always receive news if there is any development.

Food

Jacqui, our cook, enthusiastically provides a wide choice of home cooked meals from locally sourced ingredients. She has specialised in cooking for the elderly for more than twenty years and has a wealth of training and knowledge about what \'goes down well\'. She is especially interested in cooking for the diabetic and loves to provide a wide variety of choice.
Birthday teas are looked forward to. We always have a buffet and Jacqui\'s birthday cakes are a source of comment for days afterwards.
Breakfast is usually taken in the resident\'s room and although most people have a fairly predictable routine, everything from cereals, porridge, toast, eggs, juices and prunes or grapefruit is available.
Most people eat Lunch around the one big dining table, unless families join us when the gate leg comes out as well. There is always a choice of main meal and at least three, often as many as five, dessert options to ponder over.

Games

We have a wide variety of activities to choose from and as a small home, do not work to a rigid programme. There is a local coffee morning that some residents choose to attend and Alison takes people out for rides in the car when they feel like it or the weather makes a drive especially inviting. Some residents, who have lived in the area all their lives, like to drive up and down Broad Street to marvel at how the shops change hands or try to spot a familiar face. There are also cinema visits - matinees and Wednesday morning \'Silver Screen\' showings are most practical - and occasional Marine Theatre trips, especially when the Street family is involved. Most residents like the occasional game of Bingo or cards - especially Newmarket. We have giant Ludo and Snakes and Ladders which cause both hilarity and argument. Scrabble is not a great favourite in the summer months, but is more popular in the wintertime. One resident is particularly fond of jigsaws and will spend patient weeks trying to fit one together. Cecilia is very keen on creative art and there is a gallery of pictures hanging in the lounge. She also helps residents make models and little sculptures and then has to vacuum up the dropped glitter and scraps. Most residents like Quizzes and other word and number puzzles, and most like a noisy game of dominoes. Some just like to listen to music, watch videos, TV and sport together or join in with comments from the far side of the room. This autumn\'s project is for Cecilia to be trained in exercise programmes for the elderly which are designed to work for those sitting in an armchair.