The Pavilions

Yesterday was one of those days to treasure ,It was the official opening of the Pavilions ,Axiom's latest Extra care home for the elderly ,and everyone who attended had such a wonderful day from the residents who live here ,to all the people who made this happen ,and of course all the disinguished guests ...the Pavilions is on the site of the sports field where the staff from Baker Perkins a company in Peterborough would enjoy many leisure and sport facilities ,and yes ,there were Pavilions on the site ,incidently My Late husband Mick served a six year apprenticeship with and went on to work at Baker Perkins for many years .But back to yesterday as a member of the board ,as a tenant Board member I was among the priveleged to receive an invitation ,which was indeed a great honour .

If you care to double click you will be able the read the story from our local paper .

Here some of the guests are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Lord Lieutenant of Cambidgeshire, Hugh Duberly CBE .In each County in the British Isles ,Her Majesty The Queen has a Lord Lieutenant to represent her ,and to defend her .though today The Lord Lieutenant was'nt wearing the ceremonial sword ,(Health and safety issues !!!)

Extreme left our Chief exec Alan the lady with her back to us in the cream jacket is Irene Walsh the right worshipful Mayor of the city of Peterborough ,Then we have the MP for Peterborough ,talking to John Haste the chairman of the board at Axiom next is Gillian Beasley who is the cheif executive of the Peterborough city council ,next to her ,with her back to us is Angela who is PA to Alan our Chief exceutive ,then two of the supported housing line managers.

Here is Stuart our operations director ,with Louise who is head of the finance department ,the lady who controlls the purse strings

HE'S HERE !!

See Alan , waiting to accompany The Lord Lieutenant into The Pavilions

Board members lined up waiting to be presented To the Lord Lieutenant by Our board chairman John Haste

See anyone you know ?

Alan made a speach, then the Lady Mayor ,and then John .

Sir Hugh had time for everyone chatting away to each in turn ,here he is talking to a married couple who are residents at the Pavilions .June the scheme manager can be seen in the picture introducing her residents to the Lord Lieutenant .

I like this picture of Mavis ,with him ,Mavis is on our News letter team ,so this picture will be very handy for the next edition ,never miss a photo opportunity !

Even the Community Bobby's got involved,I asked this resident if they were arresting him ,he chuckled and asked me to bail him out .

And I couldn't let the day go by without a picture of Eileen and I, who, I have known since she was in sheltered care and is now of course in the Pavilions ,which she says she loves .

Here is The Lord Lieutenant unveiling the plaque

The Lord Lieutenant ,and the Lady Mayor helping June the very worthy manager of the Pavilions ,to cut the cake .

I am sure you would like to join me in wishing 'The Pavlions' and everyone involved ,every success in this wonderful venture

One man's rubbish is anothers treasure

Huntingdon ,the county town near to us , and the postcard a favourite of mine , I dont seriously collect postcards ,but find I have quite a few collected by accident really .Although having said that I do have my Late Fathers collection of saucy sea side postcards ,my Dad was the village Barber ,and when his customers went to the seaside ,would send him a postcard ,vie-ing with each other to send the most outrageous ones ! he would display the latest ones round the mirror ,and this created much interest with his customers .
Now where is all this leading you may ask , last Wednesday was my club day ,and we had a speaker who was really interesting ,He has an antique shop in our town ,and doesnt mind if you buy or browse ,but he is always a mine of information,his wife collects Mabel Lucie Atwell ,so there is always lots of interest to muse over .
John came along with his private collection ,as he says some of it is worthless ,though to him priceless .We were enthralled as he took us back down memory lane, with many of his treasures
In the picture below is a bottle with a marble in the top that used to work as a seal ,but as kids we broke the bottles to get the marble out ! The bottles were made by a man called Cod so the bottles are called Cod bottles ,and the drink inside ....well ...'cods wallop '!

What else can you see, that you remember ? double click the pictures to see the detail

Here is John discussing a hat pin with a lucky rabbits foot on the end .

See the record player ?on the top left of the picture ,sorry it is so dark ,John has a Donald Peers record ,of the song' By a Babbling Brook 'which Donald Peers wrote as he sat beside the Brooke that runs through the Abby grounds ,here in this town where he used to stay .He then played a bit of a record by the Andrews sisters singing'Red River Valley ',and explained if the music was too loud a sock would be placed in the back of the record player case ,hence the saying 'put a sock in it '

To the right of this picture you can see John's collection of WI (womens Institute) badges ,and among his treasures he has a little statuette of Lord Baden Powell,(the founder of the boy scout movement ) that he bought as a young married man ,for sixty pounds ,alot of money for those days ,he said they lived on baked beans for three weeks ! and though John says his wife is fairly tolerant of his crazy buys maybe on this occasion she wasnt perhaps quite so enthusiastic !!

You can see the little Baden Powell statuette at the bottom left of this picture ,

So there you are I do hope you enjoyed John's visit as much as we did

As ever lots of love

Here come the girls ......

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a number of years ,will remember when I went to Portcullis house ,in London for an award ceremony for people involved in promoting the internet for the older members of our society ',Silver Surfers ',I went with Karen who was then our Resident inclusion manager .We spent a lovely morning wandering up Whitehall taking pictures and seeing the sights .After lunch, Karen and I went to the meeting at Portcullis House ,for the ceremony ,we knew I hadnt won but it was so nice to see those that had ,and hear about their work in this sphere ,gave us lots of ideas too ,during the networking and coffee tea break we met this charming Chelsea Pensioner who was only to happy to have his picture taken with me ,

So I was interested in the announcement last year when I learned that Ladies were to be allowed to live at The Royal Hospital at Chelsea ,for retired service personnel .(this happened almost a year ago and I have been meaning to blog about it ,since then ! Ah well better late than never !)

'The First Women to join the ranks of the Chelsea pensioners have been welcomed with a ceremony'

Dorothy Hughes 85,from Oxford,who was a gunner and Winifred Phillips 82 who is from Deal in Kent was a former Auxiliary service member.

They will live along side 300 men at the Royal Chelsea hospital and wear the red coat .

General Lord Walker said it was " an historic event ".

The decision to open up the membership ,reflects the growing number of Women who have joined the Army since the 1950s

Ms Phillips who served in the Army for 22 years said she raised the question of why women were not allowed to become members a decade ago ,

Now she has seen her wish come true .

"When I was living in Shropshire 10 years ago I read a magazine article called the legion and it said they wanted more men ,so I wrote back and said ! why not Women".

They wrote back saying they agreed ,but it has taken me ten years to get here .

Declaring! "I like men",she added ; "its been fabulous.Its just like the Amy all over again,but you dont have so much to do ".

The new pensioners will wear specially adapted scarlet coats while off site and blue tunics when on it .

Like the male veterans they must also meet the criteria of being over sixty five,free of a dependant spouse and in receipt of an army pension.

There is also talk of designing an official handbag .....

I think its fair to say these Gentlemen think its a good idea !

These Ladies took part in the Royal British Legion ,Festival of Remembrance service last November ,at the Royal Albert Hall in front of The Queen and others members of the Royal Family ....

I hope you enjoyed the story, as much as I did in reseaching it ,history in the making ....

As ever lots of love

Jan xx