Thamesdown hydrotherapy Pool

thamesdown hydrotherapy pool website

Conratulations Debbi Smith winner of the Christmas Quiz

Registered Charity Number: 267687

Hydrotherapy

is

relaxing!

Keep on Running (or walking) 

On Sunday October 12th all eyes will be on the Nationwide Swindon Half Marathon and its associated races. Once again the pool is entering a team of runners/walkers (Harry’s Team) in the three events that take place on the day, they are the Half Marathon (13.1 miles), the Multi Terrain Fun Run (5 miles) and the Fun Run (2 miles). 

Last year we had 40 plus runners take part, they helped to raise £4,501.20, a truly magnificent effort. This year we have already recruited 30 plus to participate on the pools behalf and we are looking for even more to come forward. Everyone running in "Harry's Team" gets a personalised T-shirt and car sticker, plus a goody bag and another race T-shirt plus the all important medal. If you are interested please contact us at the pool for more details on how to join in, telephone 01793 496002 and ask for Paul Or Jan or e-mail us on Info@thamesdownhydrotherapypool.com More deatis about the route etc can be found on the Swindon Half Marathon website at www.swindonhalfmarathon.co.uk.

Check out the pool website  you can see from the smiles what a great day everyone had; just go to the Support-Events Page, it also shows anyone can take part; you don't even have to be a runner.

Take part, help make a difference

Urgent Help Needed

Calling all folk who live in the Areas of: Bourton, Shrivenham &  Watchfield

We have the chance to run some Games (under cover) on August 23rd to help Raise FUNDS for Thamesdown Hydrotherapy Pool during the SHRIVENHAM FETE.Which is based in the Recreation Ground behind the Memorial Hall (our Village Hall).

We’d love some help with this, can you spare some time and come and join us? If you can please ring:  01793.784564 and we can tell you more and help you find the right slot for you. We look forwards to hearing from you, it should be fun.

Jane-Anne  & Andrew Morrison.

Old Age Treachery

An old farmer built a pond in a back field which he fitted out so it could be used for    swimming and had not been used for many years. One warm summers evening he decided to go down to the pond and look it over. As he neared the pond he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee. As he came closer he saw it was a group of young women skinny-dipping in the pond, he made the women aware of his presence and they all went into the deep end. “We’re not coming out until you leave” they shouted.

That’s alright with me he replied I only came down to feed my alligators

Table Top Sale

Due to ill health and lack of manpower the Friends of Thamesdown Hydrotherapy Pool have had to cancel the table top sale that was planned to take place in the pool grounds during August.  We are still planning other events and hope to be able to make some announcements shortly. The Friends are very happy to be able to donate another garden bench which has completed the "Garden of Remembrance" area, which looks a picture at this time of year. If you have not been across to the corner of the car park where it is located, please go and have a look.

We have plenty of items that have been donated for the table top sale, would anyone care to take a pitch at a car boot sale on our behalf? The Friends would pay the pitch fee, if you are interested contact Barb on 01793 610130. On a personal note I would like to thank everyone for the cards, calls and good wishes during my current illness it means a lot and is really appreciated by both me and Paul.

Barbara Charlwood

Friends Chairperson

One for the ladies

1.   One day my housework-challenged husband decided to wash his sweatshirt. Seconds after stepping into the laundry room he shouted to me, “What setting do I use on the washing machine?” “It depends what it says on your sweatshirt?” He yelled back “University of Oklahoma”. And they say blondes are dumb.

2.   A couple are lying in bed. The man says, “I am going to make you the happiest women in the world” The women replies, “I’ll miss you”.

3.   Q. Why do little boys whine?

A. They are practicing to be men

Remembrance Garden

As mentioned earlier the Friends have now donated the final bench to make the garden complete, so now is the time to think about having a plaque erected. If you would like a loved one, friend, associate or colleague to be remembered, the pool can arrange for an engraved plaque to be made and placed in our Remembrance Garden. The plaque is made of brass and is approximately 14.8cm x 4.5cm in size and you can have up to a maximum, of 30 letters in no more than three lines. The plaque will cost £30.00 including fitting. For further information and an application form can be obtained from a member of the pool staff.

Know your e-mail address?

A man checked into a hotel in Australia, as there was a computer in his room he decided to send an e-mail to his wife. However, he accidentally typed the wrong e-mail address and without realising his error, sent the e-mail.

Meanwhile – somewhere else in the UK a widow had just returned home from her husband’s funeral. The widow decided to check her e-mail expecting messages of symphony from relatives and friends. After reading the first message, she fainted. The widow’s son rushed into the room and saw the computer screen which read:

To: My Loving Wife

Subject: I’ve arrived

I know you’re surprised to hear from me but they now have computers here and you are allowed to send e-mails to your loved ones. I’ve just arrived and have been checked in. I see everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then! Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was.

PS. It is damn hot down here!!!

Misheard

Two items which appeared in a newspaper advert had been phoned in and clearly with a misunderstanding on the part of the recipient. The first advertisement appeared as “6 Irish Jays” for sale which should have read “6 RSJ’s” – meaning steel joists. The second was for the Lonely Hearts section and appeared as “Professional man, 45, head on a stick, seeks similar women”. It should have read “Professional man, 45, hedonistic, seeks similar women”.

Thank you 

Two very small words that mean such a lot. I would like to place on record the thanks of the everyone connected with the Hydrotherapy for  two special gentlemen who have helped the pool out of many awkward situations, have enabled us to improve and repair many items at the pool over many years, with no personal gain. Peter Foster and Ken Cattell have been good friends to the pool using their skills and knowledge in all matters electrical, plumbing, mechanical engineering, building skills and sometimes on the pick and shovel. The voluntary contribution they have made is immeasurable; long we will be in their debt. They have turned out at some unearthly hours, given up holidays, come down to help out after finishing the “Day Job”, given up their own weekends just to help out or get us running again. The Association is very lucky to know these two modern day “Knights in Shining Armour” who turn out when we have a problem. I am doubly lucky to be able to call them both my Friends.

Paul Charlwood

Pool Manager

Presentation 1

Earlier this year the Swindon Branch of the National Anklosing Spondylitis Society (NASS) asked if a second shower head could be fitted in the new changing room showers. The shower cubicles being quite large and a second shower head would speed up the changing routine. This was agreed by the pool committee, with the Friends agreeing to share the costs with NASS

Peter Jones, Chairman of Thamesdown Hydrotherapy Association receives a joint cheque from Barbara Charlwood the Friends Chairperson along with Giuseppe Lorusso (Left) and Neil Lee the Friends Treasurer. The Shower project cost a total of £2,066-82 with the pooled resources: NASS contributed £1,000 and the Friends making up the difference of £1,066.82

Security Appeal

As a result of the numerous break ins over the last year to remove the lead flashings from the roof and its associated general vandalism the Pool Association launched a Security Appeal in May to assist with enhancing our existing security measures. Having been rejected for a lottery grant towards improving boundary fence security the whole pool security issue was reassessed. New floodlighting and CCTV cameras have been installed; a lead substitute (Ubi-flex) material is in place and discussions, with concerned parties, to re-site the north side boundary fence 2 metres away from the pool buildings is now in the final stage of being approved.

All this costs money, money that could be better spent providing and maintaining the pool facilities for our users rather than trying to keep vandals at bay.

The Appeal to raise £15,825 was sent to 45 Charitable Trusts/Foundations who have previously supported the pool on other appeals. To date the response has been positive with 3 donations received totaling £4,000 and a further 20 Trusts will review our request at their next meeting. One welcome surprise we were not expecting was our insurers paid out in full for the third time – I hate to think what next years premiums will be like – even though we were not replacing the lead flashing with like for like.  Fingers crossed, with this and the Friends donation, we may yet make our appeal total or at least get close to it.

Hot Stuff

All those who attended the recent Curry Evening at the Bombay Lounge at Peatmoor voted it a resounding success. The evening which included a raffle raised £167 for the Friends of the Pool to use on future projects. Thanks to the generosity of the owner of the Bombay Lounge, local charities had the profits on Monday evenings donated to their cause; luckily the Friends had Monday 23^rd June as their evening. It was good to see a smattering of pool users, staff, suppliers and committee members all enjoying the cuisine on offer in delightful surroundings and having a great evening out while helping the pool. Thank you to everyone who supported the event, who knows we might try to follow it up with another evening.

 Gift Aid

This is an important element of the pools income and it can not be emphasised enough the importance of completing the Gift Aid forms correctly. Last year, following loses of over £2,200 due to forms incorrectly completed; we amended the forms so it was almost impossible to in fill the wrong information.

We hope this was a success, we say hope, because although all the forms we sent away looked good to us it is the Gift Aid scrutineers who have the final say and to date we are still waiting the returns for last years applications. Therefore when completing your Gift Aid form please answer all the questions, if in doubt ask a member of the pool staff for assistance.

Remember this must be the only thing we get from the government free of charge; so let’s not miss out. Many thanks for your anticipated support.

Presentation 2

Neil Lee, the Friends Treasurer, presents a cheque to the Thamesdown Hydrotherapy Pool Association Chairman Peter Jones towards the security upgrade project/appeal for £2,127.62

Genuine Newspaper Ads
Free Yorkshire Terrier:
8 years old. Hateful little dog. Bites.
Free Puppies:
1/2 Cocker Spaniel, 1/2 sneaky next door neighbour's dog.
Free Puppies:
Mother, German Shepherd.
Father, Super Dog...able to leap 6ft high fences in a single bound.

FOUND – Dirty White Dog
Looks like a rat; must have been out for a while.
Better be a reward for bathing it!
For Sale
Wedding Dress, worn once by mistake.
Call Stephanie.
For Sale

Complete set of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 45 volumes.
Excellent condition.  £500 or best offer.
No longer needed, got married last month.
Wife knows everything 

Future Events

Three fund raising events we have not yet mentioned but not forgotten are the Swimathon, Christmas Bazaar and the Winter Quiz.

Swimathon: The date is all but finalised and it will be either Saturday 8^th or 15^th November. Conformation of the date will be displayed at the pool shortly along with the appropriate sponsor forms and lists.

Christmas Bazaar: The Friends have had to change dates as the hall was became unavailable for their original date. They are still wait confirmation for the last Saturday in November; again notices will be displayed at the pool as soon as we know.

Winter Quiz: Nothing finalised yet but it is hoped to get something in print before the pool shuts down over the Christmas period.

The River

Three men were hiking through a forest when they came upon a large raging violent river. Needing to get on the other side the first man prayed, "God, please give me the strength to cross to the other side".  "POOF" God gave him big arms and strong legs and he was able to swim across in about two hours, having almost drowned twice.

 After witnessing that, the second man prayed, "God, please give me strength and some tools to cross the river". "POOF" God gave him a rowboat and strong arms and legs and he was able to cross in about an hour after almost capsizing once.

 Seeing what happened to the first two men, the third man prayed, "God please give me the strength, the tools and the intelligence to cross this river"  "POOF". He was turned into a woman. She checked the map, hiked one hundred yards up river and walked across the bridge.

Annual General Meetings

The most common reaction to Annual General Meetings is to step back in horror and rush for the cloves of garlic, but with the Hydrotherapy Pool and the Friends AGMs they should be treated with reverence due to all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes. In both cases the committees are working continuously in the best interests of the Pool ensuring that it continues to function as a viable concern.

Therefore these two particular AGMs deserve the support of the people who benefit from the facility. It would be much appreciated to see some new faces this year.

No dates have yet been confirmed for this years venues but as usual we hope to get them in for early October. Dates and venues will be displayed at the Pool once they are finalised.

Another one for the ladies

1.   Q: Why do little boys whine?

      A: They are practicing to be men

 Q: What do you call a handcuffed man?

      A: Trustworthy

2.   “It’s just too hot to wear clothes today”, Jack says as he stepped out of the shower. “Honey, what do you think the neighbours would think if I cut the lawn like this?” “Probably that I married you for money”, she replied.

3.   Q: How do you keep your husband from reading your e-mails?

      A: Rename the e-mail folder “Instruction Manuals”

Feed Back

It is encouraging to think that this newsletter is not compiled in vain, every now and again we get some feed back, not always positive, but without criticism you could be getting carried away and heading in the wrong direction without realizing it. However one article in the December newsletter appears to have been well received and just maybe pricked a few conscious's. The article ‘Your Surgery – Our Pool’ has generated no end of requests form surgeries asking for more information and/or referral forms.

We thank all of you who took it upon yourselves to bring to Pool to the notice of those people who can pass on the benefits of thermal hydrotherapy to those who most need it. Again your assistance is much appreciated.

Spring is nearly here !!!!!!!

Those old clothes & shoes you have been thinking about throwing out are desperately needed by our organisation, and others. For the Hydrotherapy Pool it can be turned into money, to ensure the future of this unique facility. Devizes Textiles (who collect and sort the old clothes etc.) will be able to give employment to more people, and help people in developing countries. You will have helped the World to conserve valuable resources. Take your unwanted Household textiles, clothes and pairs of shoes to the nearest Swindon Borough Council recycling site or the Textile Bank in the pool car park. We can arrange small personalised flyers that you can put through neighbours doors to make them aware of the scheme or distribute at your place of work or club/group you attend. Talk to Paul (Pool Manager) for more details or phone him on 01793 496002 or email Info@thamesdownhydrotherapypool.com All proceeds raised from the bank go to the pool. With your help we raised over £3,500 in 2006-2007. Thank you for helping and supporting us.

Friends Future Events

Barbara Charlwood – FTHP Chairperson

Whilst it’s good to see how the Friends can support the pool on various projects The Friends Committee are looking ahead to 2008 and what ideas we have in the pipeline for further fundraisers. Some of the ideas we are currently working on are:

1.   Musical evening with either Ten in a Bar/Swindon based band – we are having difficulties in agreeing convenient dates and to find a suitable location to hold it in, but we have a couple of committee members working on this.

2.   We are also hoping to have a fund raising evening with Sheila Harrod and the Kentwood Choir later in the Year – Neil Lee our Treasurer is taking responsibility for bringing this one together.

3.   Summer Table Top Sale/Plant Sale/Refreshments – this will be held at the Pool in the back car park. A Saturday date yet has yet to be confirmed for this.

4.   Curry Evening at the Bombay Lounge Peatmoor West Swindon on Monday 23rd June. The restaurant is very kindly donating all profits from the evening to the Friends and we will be having as Raffle as well on the night. Further details will be put up at the pool in due course as to how you can book places/tables for the evening. We are hoping that if this night is a success and well supported the restaurant would be open to running it again for us. If anyone has a Raffle prize they would care to donate this would be appreciated. Remember your diary date is Monday 23rd June.

We are also looking at one or two other ideas such as a Skittles evening, a Quiz & supper evening but are still working on these. The committee and I would welcome suggestions for fundraising events and as always please post any suggestions, thoughts or comments in the large silver Friends Box in the lounge at the pool. Alternatively if you are thinking of doing something yourself, like a car boot sale to raise funds for the Friends and would like support or help with getting it advertised please let us know. Committee members and I will be making ourselves known and available at the pool over the coming months and would love it for people to come and say hello.

SECURITY

How far can you go?

In the first 20 years of the pools existence very few acts of vandalism, if any, occurred. After that we had random items stolen from inside the building that had little adverse effect on the pools well being. The first major incident was in March 1998 when money from the pool safe was stolen. At this stage the pools security relied on a chain link security fence and an internal intruder alarm system connected to a call out service. Following this two internal CCTV cameras were installed. We then suffered a spate of break ins by vandals (as did schools etc in the area) who managed to damage external windows and sky lights. This prompted the installation of two external CCTV cameras plus two dummies and associated flood lighting, all this was to no avail as shortly after we had our first visit to steal the lead flashing from the roof.

When the new changing room’s extension was built in 2002 we also erected the palisade fence and increased the number of external CCTV cameras and flood lighting.

The Pool security now stands at; an 8ft palisade fence on the complete perimeter, 8 external and 2 internal fully operational CCTV cameras connected to the latest digital recording technology. These also work in conjunction with a ‘movement sensed’ flood lighting system.  Internally we have an intruder alarm system connected to a local provides response centre. We are currently installing two 30 ft masts at adjacent corners of the property which will carry two additional CCTV cameras equipped with infer-red night vision.

Anyone reading this newsletter for the first time, and not familiar with our line of business, might think that Swindon has some new high tech military establish or detention centre in their midst rather than a local charity providing thermal hydrotherapy treatment to the disabled. Unfortunately this is the to-days world and if the pool has to become Stalaag SN27HJ in order to provide our services 7 days a week to thousands of disabled users a year then so be it. On the financial aspects of our unwanted visitations they have cost the Pool Association over £100,000 in the last ten years. This includes the new and upgrading security equipment, repair damage to the building, increased insurance premiums and lost revenue caused by pool closures. This is money we can ill afford; it is hard enough to raise funding to provide the facilities running costs without having the addition handicap to support.

Despite all our efforts the pool had more lead taken during February. The thieves were well organized and systematically disabled each camera/flood light in turn and were oblivious to the fact that their images were captured. Police are investigating. Throughout these unwelcome visits the Pool Association are indebted to the support it has received from the Friends and associates who offer their services free of charge, local businesses/companies who have come to our assistance and finally to the pool staff who have never waived in their dedication in keeping the pool operational.

Gates Lament

If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port, And the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,

And the access of the memory makes your floppy disc abort, Then the socket packet pocket has an error to report.

If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash, And the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash,

And your data is corrupted because the index doesn’t hash, Then your situation’s hopeless as your system’s gonna crash!

If the label on the cable on the table at your house, Says the network is connected to the button on your mouse,

But your packets want to tunnel to a completely new protocol, That’s repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall.

Your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauess, So your icons in the window areas wavy as a souse,

Then you may as well reboot the lot and go out with a bang, Because as sure as I’m a poet the sucker’s gonna to hang.

When the copy of your floppy’s getting sloppy in the disc,  And the macrocode instructions tell you unnecessary risk,

Then you’ll have to flash the memory and get your RAM to ROM, Then quickly turn off the computer and be sure to tell your Mum.

Anon

Friends Support

FTHP Chairperson

Well, here we are again, where has the time flown from the last Newsletter. Your ongoing support of the Friends has enabled us to assist the pool with two quite major projects in the first quarter of 2008 and the Friends have been delighted to do so.

Firstly we came in on a joint project with our friends the NASS group to obtain additional shower facilities in the new changing rooms, with both groups contributing half each to the cost of the project. I am pleased to say these are now in and working as many of you will know. Contribution from the Friends - £1,066.82

The second project was in light of the further break in at the pool where the lead was again taken off the roof and the additional major damage done to the external lighting and security cameras the Friends have contributed to the pool an additional external security camera. This is an unusual contribution for the Friends but under the circumstances we felt it was appropriate to step in and offer the Friends support in this way at this time. Contribution from the Friends - £2,127.62

Did you know?

1.   In English pubs ale was traditionally served in pint and quart pots. So when customers got unruly the barman would yell at them ‘Mind your pints and quarts’ and settle down. Hence it’s where we get the saying ‘mind your P’s and Q’s’

2.   Many years ago pub regulars had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic ale pots. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service; hence the practice inspired the phase ‘Wet your whistle’.

Break in revisited

As a result of the October 2007 break in the Pool association was advised to further improve our boundary security (as if the 8ft palisade fencing was not enough). This advice came from both the Police crime prevention officer and our Insurers to erect a razor wire barrier at the top of the palisade fence. This barrier would be on our side of the fence ensuring injury to only those who saw fit to climb into the pool property. The Association applied to the Lottery ‘Awards for All’ scheme for funding the £5,700 project. Our luck ran out for a Lottery Grant this time as we were rejected on the grounds that a razor wire barrier would not be beneficial to pool users. It is very hard to explain any user benefits on the sole ground of building security other than pool sessions could be lost while the building was made safe for both the staff and pool users. Several Charitable Trusts/Foundations have also been approached with no luck to date. However a major rethink on the total security of the pool facility has been undertaken and we await decisions from the outside parties involved.

The Scores on the Doors

In the last newsletter I promised to give you the final totals for the Swimathon and the Half Marathon. Both events have done very well and we have just sent off our claim for Gift Aid, so the final totals will increase even further. Swimathon 2007 raised £4,619.14, just about the same as last year. The various races within the Swindon Half Marathon raised £4,501.20 almost double last year’s efforts. A fantastic effort by everyone involved. A special mention must go to a long time pool supporter Patrick Broderick from Meadowcroft who has helped the pool on many fundraising efforts. Patrick raised £1,528 doing the Multi Terrain Run. A big thank you to Pat and everyone who took part and supported these events, your efforts in helping the pool to keep going and provide a service for the benefit of many, brings joy to thousands of people

Memberships Cards

A gentle reminder to all to collect their Friends membership cards from the A-Z boxes in the lounge. All old non-collected cards will be removed shortly. Your membership card does entitle you to vote at the Friends AGM.

Winter Quiz

Well it’s all done and dusted for another year and judging from the many thoughtful comments we received you all found it most enjoyable with over 15 people getting more than 90 correct answers. This year we managed to get nearly 350 quiz sheets in circulation but unfortunately only 230 were turned into funds, plus the Friends were unable to secure any sponsorship this year but at the end of the day it was £180 we did not have before we started.

There were two winners with 97 correct answers which could not be separated; so well done to Sue Woolley from Mickleover (a previous winner) and Sandra Harding from Swindon and to all the other participants and the quiz sheet sellers, in particular the pool staff who sold over 100 sheets.

You might not know this

There is a two letter word in the English language that has more meaning than any other two letter word and that is UP. It’s easy to understand UP, meaning towards the sky or UP at the top of a list, but when we awake in the morning, why do we wake UP. At a meeting, why a topic does come UP, why do we speak UP and why are people UP for election and why it is UP to the secretary to write UP a report.

This UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP and we open UP a shop in the morning but we close it UP at night.

One could go on and on but I’ll wrap it UP, for my time is Up……….

 I have checked my Chambers dictionary and find three and a half pages of explanations of the word UP.

Worse thing happen at sea!

This is the transcript of the actual radio conversation of a US Naval ship and the Canadians, off the coast of Newfoundland in October 1995.

Canadians: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the south, to avoid a collision.

Americans: Recommend you divert your course 15 to the north, to avoid a collision.

Canadians: Negative. You will have to divert your course 15 degrees to the south to avoid a collision.

Americans: This is the Captain of a US Navy warship. I say again, divert your course.

Canadians: Negative. I say again, you will have to divert your course.

Americans: This is the Captain of the Aircraft Carrier USS Lincoln, the second largest ship in the United States Atlantic Fleet. We are accompanied by 3 Destroyers, 3 Cruisers and a number of support vessels. I demand that you change your course 15 degrees north, I say again 15 degrees north or countermeasures will be undertaken to ensure the safety of this ship.

Canadians: We are a lighthouse. Your call.

Are you a Friend?

If you are reading this Newsletter and aren’t already a Friend of the Hydrotherapy Pool, please think about joining our merry band. Membership is £3.00 for the year which is not expensive and all membership monies goes back to helping the Friends contribute and support the Pool throughout the year on a variety of worthy projects. Please join us we would really appreciate it. Joining details can be obtained from Pool staff.

And Finally

To bring you right up to date with the Flashing news. Following our latest (and it will hopefully be the last) break in during the last week of February to remove over one ton of lead flashing the Pool Association has now taken further action to protect the property. How can we be so sure no more lead will be stolen?

 Because last week-end (April 5/6th) we removed all the remaining lead flashing and sold it to help pay for its replacement. The new flashing is a lead substitute that has absolutely no re-sale or re-cycling value, we just hope that any would be lead thieves in the future can read and understand the notices that explain what the new Ubi-flex material is all about.

We offer no apologies for yet another item on the seemingly never ending run of vandalism on the pool property but being at the deep end it is hard to focus on our true aim in life of providing thermal water treatment for the disabled, which we sincerely hope we can now do.

Friends Update

Barbara Charlwood

At the Friends AGM back in September, Mike & Julie Baxter decided to stand down as Chairman and Secretary/Treasurer respectively. Mike & Julie both helped to set up the Friends and I/we knew it was always going to be a tough act to follow.

We secured the services of Neil Lee to act as Treasurer; Neil for one so young has an excellent background in financial services with Zurich here in Swindon and as a pool user was happy to meet the challenge. As a serving committee member ever since the foundation of the Friends, I offered my services in the role as Chairperson. I was accepted and was voted into post at the AGM. My first task in the new role was a pleasure to do; in that I got to thank Mike & Julie for all their hard work, dedication, friendship and effort on behalf of the Friend’s and the Pool over many years and was delighted to present them with Wine and a Bouquet of flowers.

Pool Christmas/New Year

Opening/Closing Times 2007-2008

Sunday  23rd  Dec         9am –1pm

Monday   24th Dec          Closed

Tuesday   25th Dec           Closed

Wednesday 26th Dec      Closed

Thursday     27th Dec      9am –1pm

Friday          28th Dec        9am –1pm

Saturday     29th Dec     9am –1pm

Sunday        30th Dec      9am –1pm   

Monday       31st Dec         Closed

Tuesday       1st Jan            Closed

Wednesday    2nd Jan 2008.  

Reopen as normal

Jan, Hannah, Edwina & Paul wish all pool customers  and supporters a very Happy Christmas & Prosperous New Year

Winter Quiz

The Friends tenth winter quiz is ready to roll. By popular demand the quiz sheets will again be on sale at the pool from mid December, cost will be just £1 per sheet.  Closing date is Sunday 10th February 2008.  If you need quiz sheets earlier – i.e. going on holiday, WI meeting etc then please tell a member of the pool staff. The prize will again be £50 worth of gift vouchers from a leading store. This year’s quiz is a Question of Sport so if you so your well up on the world of sport or just read the back pages of your daily paper (there are plenty of questions for the ladies and remember the quiz is set by a lady) then this is the one for you. Over ninety of the questions came from the same book, so remember the right book from the library will help get you there.

To make this years quiz the best yet we need your help. Don’t just buy one quiz sheet, buy two, three or even four and sell them to friends and family, even if they don’t like doing quiz’s their £1 will be very rewarding. Better still can you sell a quiz sheets at work, in your pub/club or would your local WI be interested?  If you can pick up the sheets from the pool, it will be much appreciated and help the Friends towards their next project target to support the pool.

What I am trying to say is we need your help more than ever to sell quiz sheets to boost the sales even higher for this quiz, last year we sold nearly 300 sheets lets make it over the 300 mark this year. Oh! - If you’re doing the quiz yourself, no cribbing from the Internet – it’s not always right, good luck.

Ever Wonder Why-
 The sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin?
 Women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?
 Don’t you ever see the headline "Psychic Wins Lottery"?
 Is "abbreviated" such a long word?
 Is it that doctors call what they do "practice"?
 Is lemon juice made with artificial flavour, and dishwashing liquid made
 with real lemons?
 The man who invests all your money is called a broker?

Spot the Difference

You don’t have to be mad to work at the hydrotherapy pool but being quackers helps

Harry’s got company or is it competition? which ever he welcomes them both.

Something for Christmas?

Having a problems with Christmas presents this year we may be able to help, I know from personal experience as people get older what to get them becomes more difficult, because lets face it Old Spice & Lilly of the Valley bath cubes can get a bit boring. How about a practical present like a Hydrotherapy Pool 10 or 20-session swim has? Passes for either 10 sessions £40 or 20 sessions at £80 the present that is useful and will be appreciated; contact any of the pool staff for more details. We can even personalise them, have someone's name added, we just need 24 hours notice. A couple of stocking fillers that might be worth considering a very high quality Cotton T-Shirt with the pool logo of “Harry the Duck” in sizes from Small to XXL at a very reasonable price of £8-00. The final little gem we have some quality pens in their own presentation box with the pool details inscribed on them in 4 different colours at £2-50 each. I am sure anyone would be delighted to receive any of these gifts and at the same time you are supporting the pool.

Textile Banks—Less we forget

The Hydrotherapy Pool got involved with clothes banks – in association with Devizes Textiles – nearly ten years ago before the phenomenon of recycling became a major issue. During that time these banks have raised over £20,000 towards the pools running costs.

So Think Textile Banks!!! Old clothes, shoes, etc are back in fashion as very profitable recycling items. In recent years the cost accrued from these items dropped to around £20 a ton, this price as now escalated to near £120 a ton and that’s worth having. The textile banks are now run by Swindon Borough Council and only those banks on their property (not those in Supermarkets car parks) can the Hydrotherapy Pool benefit from the disposal of the items you deposit in the banks. The banks are dotted around the town at all the re-cycling points and are a good source of income for the pool.

It’s that time of the year when we all start to clear out the bits and pieces we have been meaning to get rid of, so if its clothes or old bedding please pop them into your nearest textile bank or to ensure that we get maximum benefit use the one at the Hydrotherapy Pool on your next visit. On the same theme perhaps you know a group or organisation that is having a jumble sale and does not know what to do with the left over’s. Suggest they use a council run textile bank rather than a visit to Darby Road. All items in the banks are sorted and graded, some are then sent to third world countries in Eastern Europe and Africa, so the brilliant scheme benefits everyone. One item that is most valued in these situations is shoes, so again “Don’t bin them, bank them”.

And Finally

The Pool Trustees, Committee and Staff (Jan, Hannah, Eddie and Paul) would like to thank all of you for your support over the past year and to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Thieves Strike Again

We are sorry to have to announce that Pool Association has twice been the victims of a callous and mindless theft of lead from the roof of the Hydrotherapy Pool. Thieves struck in the early hours of 23rd August stealing more than 50 metres of lead flashing from the roof of the pool. This mindless & selfish act has meant that money earmarked for use to benefit pool users has to be diverted on additional security measures. Although insurance will cover part of the cost, the Association will have to cover the excess and security upgrade. Then during the early hours of 10th October they returned and took almost 40 meters of lead flashing. In a report in the Swindon Evening Advertiser, pool manager, Paul Charlwood said, "The cost of replacing the lead will be £3,000 - £3,500."   Anyone with information on the theft should call Swindon Police on 0845 4087000. Our Insurer’s inform us that they are currently receiving in the order of 37 claims a week for metal theft (mainly lead & copper). We have on their advice put up information notices on our fence line asking people to inform Police immediately if they see anyone inside the pool area between 9-00pm and 8-00am as they shouldn’t be there and they are probably stealing our roof lead. Other steps are in place to further protect the roof, which we cannot go into for security reasons, but some will become apparent over the coming weeks.

This story does have a happier ending, after reading the articles about our thefts in the Evening Advertiser, Steve Graham & Shirley Lawrence of PRIMARY INSURANCE & FINANCE SERVICES based in Commercial Road Swindon, kindly offered to cover the cost of repair for our second theft to the tune of £1,050 which was gratefully accepted, this meant that we did not have to make two substantial Insurance claims along with the excess involved that without doubt would have an impact on the premiums we pay. So we would like to thank everyone at Primary Insurance & Finance Services for their generosity of Spirit & Deed

You have done it Again!

Paul Charlwood

Every year when the months of October & November come around we know we are in for a busy time with AGMs, The Swimathon, The Half Marathon/Fun Run and The Friends Christmas Bazaar. Every year we worry how are we going to match last years effort, will we have enough people to take part? Every year you provide the answer with a resounding YES. This year we had over 40 people take part in Swimathon at the pool, ranging from Hannah Aleti doing 70 lengths in 20 minutes to some of our friends taking part just managing to get into double figures, both are amazing results when put into context. The main thing about the event is “the taking part”, the amount of sponsorship raised at the time of going to print is £2,255.50 with more still to come in and Gift Aid to be claimed as well, a really brilliant effort by everyone, and remember every penny raised goes back into your pool. As always there is plenty of humour in these events, such as Jamie being cooled down with a hose pipe, Jan dressed as Harry the Duck and completing 43 lengths (We have the photo’s to prove it) when she came out the outfit must have weighed at least 15stone. This was the same costume that she wore during the Fun Run part of the Swindon Half Marathon.

Your Surgery – Our Pool

Pool users come from three distinct areas:

1.   Schools with special needs units

2.   Adult Groups mainly associated with learning and/or physical disabilities

3.   Doctor/Hospital Referrals – These cover a wide range of disabilities which could be

either temporary or permanent

It is the third area, Doctor/Hospital Referrals, which the pool has very little input, if any, in encouraging doctors to place a person as a referral to the hydrotherapy pool. Every surgery manager in the Swindon area and beyond have been sent application (referral) forms and pool brochures but in many cases doctors are unaware of the facility and therefore will prescript some other form of treatment whereby thermal water therapy may have been a better option. Next time you visit your surgery with a problem and, say physio is suggested, ask about a referral to the pool or just enquire if he/she is aware of the pools existence – every little helps as Terry Wogan would say.

Last year the pool provided thermal water treatment to 1490 new referrals; some to become long term users other just to complete their the number of sessions recommended by their doctor. These came from 97 different locations, 35 of them from outside the Swindon Borough, with the Great Western Hospital referring over 300 people. There is still room for lots more so please help us to help you by spreading the word that Swindon has probably the best thermal hydrotherapy facility in the UK a real little gem that more people should know about.

Swindon Half Marathon

PaulCharlwood

On the day of the race people thought they were seeing double when they saw two ducks walking around, thanks to a very clever lady called Krisha we now have two duck outfits, Harry & Harriet (Jan & Wendy - a physiotherapist who brings a couple of groups to the pool). Children were absolutely fascinated by the Ducks; wanting to have a photo taken with them, walk with them. The 3 races themselves were as always superbly organised we had over 40 people making up Harry’s team. All of whom successfully finished their chosen events. Employees from companies such as Cartus, W H Smith, and Zurich took part, along with our friends from One Step Ahead and many individuals. The weather could not have been better for the event, with lots of spectators along the route to cheer on the runners, who all very much appreciated that support, all our runners had special Harry T shirts with their name printed on them so they were easy to spot as they approached the finish line. To date we have raised £1,733.00 from the events and again with that so important Gift Aid to claim. The T-shirts were so popular we now sell them at the pool in various sizes at just £8-00 each, an ideal Christmas present for someone. The last month has been a lot of hard work, but very rewarding, in terms of the fun that has been had and the money raised in Aid of the pool. In my book you are all stars and all winners. See you again next year! If you want to see images of the events and to see Jan as a Duck log onto the Pool website at www.thamesdownhydrotherapypool.com and go to the Pool Support/Events page.

Christmas Bazaar

Barbara Charlwood

The first event to take place under “new management” was the Annual Christmas Bazaar in Gorse Hill. I was lucky enough to enlist the help of the Mayor & Mayoress of Swindon to officially open the event for us and after some very kind and complimentary words about the work of the Friends and the Pool the Mayor declared the event open. The happy band of volunteers did not stop selling for the next two hours! All the usual stalls were there, backed up with a background of Christmas Carols and songs with stall holders entering into the spirit of the event with a combination of Father Christmas hats and reindeer antlers, the atmosphere created was very much appreciated by all those who attended and who joined in with us and the spirit of the event. The Compton’s (Angela & Graham) pre wrapped Christmas tree presents went down a storm, as did the exceptional prizes on the Tombola ably managed by Yvonne Lock and her husband. We even had a sit down “café” managed by Pete “The pool sparky” who many of you will have seen around the pool with Paul, Pete’s wife Jan and my friend Sarah. Jean and her merry band were on the White Elephant stall, Jill Stranks and her son Elliot on a couple of stalls and Edwina from the Pool staff kindly gave up one of her Saturdays off to help us and manned the door with a cheerful smile despite just getting over a cold. This all contributed to us making £769 on the day, which I think is marvellous and is really not bad for the two hours the bazaar lasted. Of course the preparation and sorting out and collection of sale items takes a lot longer (Jan your help with this at the Pool is always appreciated) and thanks must go to all those that donated items for the event and contributed to prizes for the raffle, especially Ingrid and the SHARKS for the beautiful hamper, and Ken Hislop a Pool trustee for several great prizes. Thank you to all the volunteers who gave up time and energy to make this event such a success, so much so we are already thinking of other events to raise funds for future projects over the coming months. As a direct result of the event it looks like we might have a secretary and another committee member come forward. Please remember you can join the Friends at anytime just ask a member of the pool staff for an application form, your only commitment need be your £3 annual membership, but if you have a special skill or a resource that might help raise our profile or our fundraising capability I and the committee would be only too delighted to hear from you. So onward now to the Winter Quiz, the quiz sheets will shortly be available from the pool (Courtesy of Julie Baxter who’s quizzes are always a lot of fun) and the annual membership draw. In conclusion on behalf of the Friends I would just like to say thank you for all your support in 2007 and we hope for more of the same in 2008.  All forthcoming events will be posted up at the Pool so you can see what we are doing and what’s going on. If you want to contact myself/the Friends committee please remember we do have a large collection box in the lounge at the pool where any donations, letters, questions or suggestions may be posted to us.

On behalf of the Friends may I wish you and yours a very Happy Christmas and a Peaceful and Safe New Year to all.

Dates for the Diary

By Paul Charlwood

This is an early heads up for a couple of our annual fund-raising events that are so vital to the future well being of the pool and its work in the community.

The first event is the Nationwide Swindon Half Marathon and Fun Runs on Sunday 14^th October. Again we are trying to get as many runners to enter and raise money by sponsorship as possible, last year we had 45 runners in “Harry’s Team”. This year we hope that Harry will be joining you in person.

He is going into strict training, so he can be in quacking condition, and will be at peak waddle on the day. We had friends from Cartus Ltd (Relocation Specialists), W.H. Smith & The Physiotherapy team join us, all runners besides the race organisers goody bag got a “Harry’s Team” T shirt with their name on it and car sticker. So if you as an individual would like to join in, or a group from your company would like to join Harry and his friends please contact us for an information pack at Info@thamesdownhydrotherapypool.com or ring us on 01793 496002.

Have a look on the website to see some of last year’s pictures. http://www.thamesdownhydrotherapypool.com/eventssupport.htm 

The next event for your diary is Saturday November 3^rd for Swimathon 2007 when we get pool user’s their families and friends to take part in a fun day at the pool and walk, float, be pushed, pulled as far as they can in 20 minutes or as a last resort try swimming it. Last year we had 40 people take part on the day. Several others did their swims a week earlier or a week later because they could not make it on the day (there is no escape) again if you go the website you can see pictures of last year’s event. http://www.thamesdownhydrotherapypool.com/eventssupport.htm

The two events combined after Gift Aid was claimed, raised £10,860 a fantastic effort, with your help we can better that this year. Can we?

Strange but true

There are some clever people, such as the person we are about to discuss, but some clever people lack common sense.  Peter, as he will be called, worked in a Geology Lab and had noticed a wasps nest.

In considering ways to remove the wasp’s nest, Peter enlisted the trusty services of a vacuum cleaner. Very soon, the efficient vacuum cleaner had sucked up the wasps.  The wasps, however, were still alive and buzzing angrily from their new home inside a vacuum cleaner.

It was time for Peter to think again.

Nearby was an aerosol can of Raid: with the vacuum cleaner in one hand (switched on) and the Raid in the other, the laboratory technician sprayed the contents of the aerosol into the vacuum cleaner.

Now for some basics: the aerosol is flammable and the motor of a vacuum cleaner generates heat, Peter initially suffered some minor burns; but now, the wasps are free from the exploding vacuum cleaner and seeking some form of revenge.  Peter, adding insult to injury, is now repeatedly stung. Peter is quoted to have commented that the episode was "an unfortunate lapse in calculation of consequences."

This is a true story reproduced from ‘Arrow Leisure Services’ safety file publication for June 2007.

How does it work?

The Galileo thermometer was invented by Galileo Galilei the Italian mathematician, astronomer and physicist around 1589. It consists of a of a sealed glass tube of clear liquid, usually water, with a number of glass bubbles filled with a coloured liquid, again water. Attached to each bubble is a small metal tag that indicates the temperature, but how does it work?

The bubbles are calibrated by adding the same amount of liquid to each of them ensuring they all have the same density. What does differ, however, is the weight of the tags, which are calibrated counterweights – the heaviest tag is for the lowest temperature i.e. the first to sink. Thus after the weighted tags are attached to the bubbles each now differ slightly in density ( the ratio of mass to volume) and therefore each bubble at some point will match the density in the sealed glass tube.

As the temperature of the air outside the tube changes so does the temperature of the water surrounding the bubbles. As the temperature of the water changes, it either expands or contracts, thereby changing its density. So, at any given density, some of the bubbles will float and others will sink. The lowest weight of the floating bubbles indicates the ambient temperature.

The Friends

The Friends have been raising money for pool projects to purchase new or replace old equipment at the pool since 1997 and have achieved considerable success. The heat retention blanket, static pool side hoist and all the equipment in the new changing rooms including the overhead patients lift plus numerous small items all of which help to kept the pool facilities operational with the very best of equipment for the benefit of the pool users.

All that time Mike Baxter has been the Friends chairman with Julie Baxter as its secretary and for the last two years taking on the additional role of treasurer. Unfortunately all goods things have to come to an end and at the forthcoming AGM both will be standing down and moving to pastures new in the New Year.

This leaves two vacancies on the Friends committee with the positions of chairman and secretary/treasurer to be filled. New blood is urgently required to carry on the good work that the Friends have started and again for the benefit of the pool and all its users must be allowed to continue. Names please to a member of the pool staff or a note in the Friends box in the coffee area.

Eight Again

A man asked his wife what she'd like for her birthday, "I'd love to be eight again" she replied. On the morning of her birthday he arose early, made her a nice big bowl
of Coco Pops and then took her off to the local theme park. What a Day! He put her on every ride in the park: the Death Slide, the Wall of Fear, the Screaming Monster Roller Coaster, you name it she went on it. Five hours later she staggered out of the theme Park. Her head was reeling and her stomach felt upside down. Right away they journeyed to a McDonalds where her loving husband ordered her a Happy Meal with extra fries and a refreshing chocolate milk shake. Then it was off to the movies: the latest Star Wars epic, a hot dog, popcorn, all the Coke she could drink, her favourite lolly and M& M's. What a fabulous adventure! Finally she wobbled home with her husband and collapsed onto the bed exhausted. He leaned over his precious wife with a big smile and lovingly asked "Well dear, what was it like being eight again?"
Her eyes slowly opened and her expression suddenly changed. "I meant my dress size, you b***** idiot"
The moral of this story: Even when a man is listening, he's still going to get it wrong.

Summer Quiz

This is the second Summer Quiz offered by the Friends and again it’s about Swindon, actually Swindon Borough ancient and modern. Quiz sheet are still on sale at the pool with a closing date of Sunday 9^th September. If you are up on the history of Swindon and know your way around the town and the surrounding area then here is your chance to pocket £50 worth of store vouchers. Don’t forget to ask your friends, family and neighbours if they would like to try their luck and help a worthy cause.

Gift Aid

Ken Hislop

I apologise for raising this subject again within 12 months but the good news is that in that period we received over £1,660 from Gift Aid, but the bad news is we lost over £2,200 because your Gift Aid forms were incorrectly completed. So as we approach that time of the year, Swindon marathon and Swimathon, when a great number of people will be sponsoring different events for the pool and it is essential that we get it right. So please bear with me as I jump upon my high horse.

As you are probably aware, the Government operates a scheme whereby Charities are able to claim a grant of 28% on donations received from any person paying income tax.

Obviously there are procedures to which the charity organisation must adhere, to prevent fraud. I act as the “authorised officer” for the pool in seeking to maximise the monies we can claim.

To halt the slump in lost Gift Aid cash I have just one message for all our donors, please stick to the simple gift aid rules. Give me your name, home address and post code; forms have been amended this year hopefully to get round the problem. All very simple and it won’t cost you anything except the effort of writing.

Of course only tax payers give us the opportunity to claim the extra 28p in the £. If you are still a student at school, ask your dad if he would allow you to make the donation in his name – you never know he might even give you another quid to add to your donation and the pool would benefit even more. But do stress it won’t involve him in any more action; it will NOT effect his tax code in any way.

This must be the only thing we get from the government free of charge; so let’s not miss out. Many thanks for your anticipated support.

No balls on this Monkey

Early Navy sailing ships had to have cannons for their protection. These cannons were required to fire a round iron ball, hence cannon balls. Captains wanted to store these cannon balls close to the cannon so that they could be ready for instant use when needed, yet not roll around the gun deck of a pitching ship. The solution was to stack them as a square-based pyramid next to the cannon. The top level of the stack had one ball, the next level down had four, the next had nine, and the next had sixteen, and so on.

Four levels would provide a stack of 30 cannon balls. The only real problem was how to keep the bottom level from sliding out from under the weight of the higher levels especially on a rolling ship. To do this, they devised a small brass plate ("nicknamed by the common sailor of the period as a brass monkey") with one rounded indentation for each cannon ball in the bottom layer. Brass was used because the iron cannon balls wouldn't stick to the brass, but they would have rusted to an iron plate in that salt laden atmosphere.

But when the temperature falls, brass contracts in faster than iron, so when it gets it cold on the gun decks, the indentations in the brass monkey get smaller than the iron cannon balls they were holding. If the temperature got cold enough (near freezing), the bottom layer of cannon balls would pop out of the indentations spilling the entire pyramid 30 balls over the deck.

Thus it was, quite literally, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey." Not a lot of people knows that.... as Michael Caine would say. Odd how many expressions we still use have from our Nautical Past?

Follow Up

By Paul Charlwood

You may remember from the last Newsletter the story of our deceased slide projector, and how we were trying to replace it with new technology. Well we have got a result thanks to Simon Kent and his partners at ICCM Solutions who were upgrading their projectors and kindly donated an almost brand new one to us. Our sincere thanks to Simon and everyone at ICCM (http://www.iccm.co.uk/) for the most generous gesture. This will enable us to continue giving our talks in the community. Thanks to another donation we were able to purchase a small laptop to give us the whole presentation package. We have converted all our old slides into the required format and taken loads of new photos. So watch out we are back on the road giving talks (No Bristol Blue Glass Lectures Please) thanks to the kindness of local businesses.

Remembrance Plaques

If you would like a loved one, friend, associate or colleague to be remembered, the pool can arrange for an engraved plaque to be made and placed in our Remembrance Garden. The plaque is made of brass and is approximately 14.8cm x 4.5cm in size and you can have up to a maximum, of 30 letters in no more than three lines. The plaque will cost £30.00 including fitting. For further information and an application form can be obtained from a member of the pool staff.

Winter Quiz

This year the quiz will test your sporting knowledge and will be on sale at the pool before it closes for the Christmas period. To make this the best little money earner of a quiz to date don’t just buy one sheet, buy two, three or even four and sell them to friends and family’ even if they don’t like doing quiz’s their £1 will be very rewarding. Better still can you sell quiz sheets at work, in your pub/club or would your local WI be interested.

Easter Bunny Raffle

A big thank you to all those who participated, we sold the complete set of 169 squares making a nice little earner for the Friends of £84.50. The Bunny (soft toy) was won by Waylat Ali. Also many thanks to the pool staff for selling the squares.

Health & Safety (Believe it or not)

In a recent letter to the magazine Safety and Health Practitioner a contributor described a bizarre request made by a local council.

A local cub pack wished to use a local authority-owned walled garden for an Easter egg hunt, an hour long event, which would involve a group of boys looking for chocolate eggs. The cubs received a request for a risk assessment for the event and a fire risk assessment for the walled garden.

The cubs entered into some debate regarding this request.  As the contributor suggests, this would be akin to a supermarket having a person on the door asking for shoppers' risk and fire risk assessment.

The council would not be swayed, pointing out that grass could be wet creating a slip hazard and trees could fall over onto someone and catch fire if it was windy. The event was subsequently cancelled.

Box Clever

By Paul Charlwood

A valuable source of income to the pool over many years has always been the good old collection can that can be seen in pubs, clubs, newsagents and even your or a friends home. Besides raising money it also helps to raise our profile in the community. Every year the collection cans manage to raise £500 -£600.  As part of the Silver Anniversary appeal we have just taken delivery of one hundred new collection boxes. We hope that pool users, their families and readers of this world renowned newsletter can “Adopt a Box”? We want to expand the number of collection boxes already in the community by getting them placed in new sites with the person who places the box being responsible for its collection and return to the pool twice a year (More often if necessary) where it will counted, a receipt issued and a letter of thanks given. Can you help? If so contact the pool staff or ring 01793 496002 for more details.

Christmas Bazaar

The hall has been booked for this years Christmas Bazaar and it’s on Saturday 24^th November at St Barnabas Church Hall Gorse Hill. We will again be looking for your excellent support in helping us to fill our stalls.

Notices will go up towards the end of September and again we want good White Elephant, Tombola and Raffle prizes, unused or part tried smellies, old videos/cassettes/records/CDs and not least those lovely cakes.

Please do NOT bring items into the pool until the notices go up as we have an acute storage problem at the pool. Another please, no clothes items or books for the Bazaar and nothing delivered to the hall on the morning of the Bazaar.

Remember that the Bazaar is on Saturday 24^th November at St Barnabas Church Hall Gorse Hill with doors opening at 10.00pm and finishing at 12.00.

Annual General Meetings

Both the Hydrotherapy Pool Association (THPA) and the Friends of the Hydrotherapy Pool (FTHP) Annual General Meeting’s for the financial year 2006/07 are with us again:

The Friends (FTHP) is on Tuesday 11^th September at the Hydrotherapy Pool starting at 6.30pm, all are welcome to attend. With the retirement of the Chairman and Secretary/Treasurer put a strong emphasis of responsibility on those attending to elect new Officers to the Friends committee. Should no candidates come forward then an Extraordinary General Meeting will be called to dissolve the Friends under article 19 of their Constitution.  Notices regarding the AGM will be displayed at the pool shortly.

No date has yet been set for the Thamesdown Hydrotherapy Pool Association (THPA) AGM but it is usually in early October.

Hot Spa Hoist

Observant ones will have noticed the new overhead rail layout for the Hot Spa hoist. The original set up only allowed the hoist to move in single direction, out over the spa and back again. This made it very awkward for helpers/pool staff to get the patient out of or into the hoist sling/chair without getting into the spa themselves. The new system allows the helper move the patient to the centre of the spa and then move to the side of the spa so the slings/chair can be removed or fitted without having to enter the water.

This up grading of the hoist system cost £858.23 and was donated by the Friends. Again it is with help and support that the Friends can continue to up grade, replace or install new equipment for the benefit of both the pool and all its users.

All right for some!!

Twenty Health and Safety Executive Inspectors gathered at a farm in Cheshire for an agricultural safety day.  Around two hundred farmers and other agricultural workers attended the event. Despite the expertise present, no one noticed an open drain near to the entrance and an exhibition area.  One of the attendees fell down the drain damaging tendons and muscles in her right ankle and calf.

A spokesperson from the HSE reported, "a risk assessment was carried out on the drain and inspectors concluded the drain was not dangerous". I bet the Cubs wouldn’t agree!

Another reproduced from ‘Arrow Leisure Services’ safety file publication for June 2007.

Circulation system 

You will recall that the pool had an extended close down over the last Christmas period; this was to install a new main circulation system in the machinery room. The old system had a single metal pump that needed replacing, due to corrosion, approximately every 18 months/2 years plus servicing several times a year. This was an expense that the Friends took on over the last 5/6 years.

The new system now has two circulation pumps fitted in tandem that will allow switching between pumps to spread usage and wear. When one pump needs servicing the second pump can be switched on line thereby not losing any pool time. The new pumps have ceramic moving parts that will not be affected by the pool chemicals and therefore have a much longer life span.

The Pool Association applied to the Big Lottery Fund’s ‘Awards for all’ scheme for a grant to cover the project. We are very pleased that for the third time running we have been successful, and received the ‘Awards for all’ grant for £5.562.68 in January.

We would also like to express our appreciation to Ken Cattel (Engineer) and Peter Foster (Electrician) for their time and effort over the Christmas period installing the system.

The new system has been nicknamed ‘Darby and Joan’ and can be viewed on the pool’s website – address at the foot of the page.

Summer Quiz

By popular demand the Friends will be holding a summer quiz, questions about the Borough of Swindon. Anyone who saw the list of winners for the winter quiz will have noted that the first five on the list lived out side of Swindon, two were from Derby. Therefore this is a chance to get even with the opportunity for a Swindonian and/or a pool user to come out tops.

The quiz will be on sale at the pool during June and again we ask for people to sell a few sheets to family and friends

Did you know?

Many years ago in Scotland a new game was invented. In its rules it stated ‘Gentlemen only – Ladies forbidden’ and thus the word Golf entered the English language.

The first married couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were Fred and Wilma Flintstone

Winter Quiz

Well it’s all done and dusted for another year and judging from the many thoughtful comments we received you all found it most enjoyable with over 20 people getting more than 90 correct answers. This year we managed to get 390 quiz sheets in circulation but unfortunately only 240 were turned into funds, plus the Friends were unable to secure any sponsorship this year but at the end of the day it was £190 we did not have before we started. We received an excellent return of 64 completed quiz sheets, the highest returns so far.

There were two winners with 97 correct answers which could not be separated; so well done to Mr Woolley from Warminster (a previous winner) and Mr Burnhope from Derby and to all the other participants and the quiz sheet sellers, in particular the pool staff who sold over 100 sheets. The questions were set from one book – ‘Book of Lists’ (93 questions) and the other seven from the Daily Mail ‘Weekend’ magazine.

Postage

In August last year the Royal Mail changed the way letter post was priced. From 21 August they started taking size as well as weight into account; this meant a two tier pricing system for all letters.

The lower size letter, 240 x 165 x 5mm maximum and up to 100g in weight could be sent for 32p 1^st or 23p 2^nd class, the same price of a letter prior to 21 August. The large letter size, 353 x 250 x 25mm maximum (A4 envelope size) and up to 750g in weight has 4 levels of pricing. At 100g this size letter costs 44p 1^st or 37p 2^nd class to be sent.

Both the Pool and the Friends are still receiving large letters (A4size) with a single first or second class stamp affixed. These letters are not delivered but retained at the Hawksworth sorting office. Not only is it inconvenient to collect them but we are charged £1.61 for the trouble. Please, oh please, ensure you apply the correct postage for the letter size.

Wake up at the back

By Paul Charlwood

For the past 28 years as I have performed many duties as Manager of the Hydrotherapy Pool one duty that can be lots of fun a trifle scary and give loads of laughs at the same time are the talks we are asked to give to community groups from all over North Wiltshire about the work of the pool. During the course of the year we are invited to give on average 12 talks/slide shows to groups as diverse as Rotary Clubs, Church Groups, Senior Citizens Groups, WI and Professional Bodies. The talks have taken place in the plushest of surroundings to the coldest village halls this side of Siberia.

I have also arrived to find I was the only person to have turned up, the meeting was cancelled all the members had been informed, but they forgot to inform the speaker. I have turned up to the wrong Church Hall and had to make a mad dash to get the other end of town and set up in ten minutes. I always get worried when introduced by the Chairperson just what they are going to say, this stems from the time at one WI group I was introduced as Mr Paul Carwash talking about Bristol Blue Glass, you can imagine the blind panic that followed that introduction. I informed the meeting my only expertise in this area was Harvey’s Bristol Cream Sherry that comes in Blue Glass, but does not stay in the Charlwood household long enough for me ever to observe that closely in its very quickly emptied state. The other big issue I have is with our now deceased slide projector (very nearly a candidate for the Antiques Road Show) we definitely had a love hate relationship, just when I thought I had mastered the projector it would ambush me, go in reverse, have slides upside down and go blank or just refuse to work, its last night of use before it went to the great projectionist in the sky I performed a slideshow with a motorcycle key and screwdriver, much to the amusement of the audience. At the time my relationship with the thing was like that of Basil Fawlty thrashing his car within an inch of its life.

We are moving into a new era, and hopefully be able to have a laptop and projector system, but we are still looking for contributions to this £950 project. I will make sure it get house broken and go to obedience classes at an early stage this time. My final memory on this subject was turning up to a Seniors Luncheon Club, I was the light relief after lunch, and it was a beautiful day, sun streaming through the windows the heating turned on. I asked the Chairlady how long should I talk for, she suggested twenty minutes or so, I thought that’s just time to do the slide show, so with curtains drawn and light turned off we ventured into the wonderful world of Hydrotherapy. After ten or so minutes I was picking up noises from my audience which I took to be murmurs of appreciation, as time went the murmurs turned into a positive hum, the circumstances and my dulcet tones had sent 50% of the audience to sleep. That day ladies and gentleman I learnt humility and brevity and never give a talk after a good lunch with the heat turned up. Despite some of the situations I have related it still is one of fun parts of my job giving talks and informing about the Association and its work, we do not charge for this service so if you need a speaker just call 01793 496002, no talks about Blue Glass given.

Don’t bank on it

 
This is an actual letter that was sent to a bank by an 86 year old woman. The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in the Banks newsletter.

Dear Sir:
I am writing to thank you for bouncing my cheque with which I endeavoured to pay my plumber last month. By my calculations, three milliseconds must have elapsed between his presenting the cheque and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honour it.
I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my entire pension, an arrangement which, I admit, has been in place for only eight years.
You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account £30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank.
 
My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways. I noticed that whereas I personally answer your telephone calls and letters, but when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, overcharging, pre-recorded, faceless entity which your bank has become. From now on, I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person.
 
My mortgage and loan repayments will therefore and hereafter no longer be automatic, but will arrive at your bank, by cheque, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your bank whom you must nominate. Please be aware that it is an offence under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope. Please find attached an Application Contact which I require your chosen employee to complete. I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative.
 
Please note that all copies of his or her medical history must be countersigned by a Notary Public, and the mandatory details of his/her financial situation (income, debts, assets and liabilities) must be accompanied by documented proof. In due course, at MY convenience, I will issue your employee with a PIN number which he/she must quote in dealings with me. I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have modelled it on the number of button presses required of me to access my account balance on your phone bank service. As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. 
     

Continued in next Column

Easter Bunny Raffle

The Friends are holding an Easter Bunny raffle at the pool with; you’ve guessed it, a large bunny soft toy as one of the prizes. Squares are still available at 50p a shot but hurry there are only a few more days left. The draw with be on the evening of Thursday 5^th April. Let’s make it sell out that will help the Friends to continue supporting the pool.

Fund Raising Totals

The final totals for last years Swimathon and Swindon Half Marathon are now in and counted, if you still any more it will be most welcome. The Swimathon total was £4,804.20 with the Half Marathon total of £3,550.98. Providing we received a correctly completed Gift Aid from the sponsors, then a further £2,340.57 will be received from the Gift Aid scheme.

Congratulation to all those who participated and their sponsors, but don’t forget it all happens again this year, no dates yet, in our never-ending search for funding in order to keep the pool viable for the future.

Admission increases

As mentioned in the last newsletter the Pool Association had no option but to increase admission fees to off set the steep rise in energy prices. This was a two fold increase, the first happened on 1 January with the second phase coming into force on 1 April. The revised admission fees are:

Adults                       £4.00

5 – 16 yrs old             £3.50

Under 5s                   £3.00

Jacuzzi                     £4.00

Jacuzzi & Swim         £5.00

Swim pass X 10         £40.00

Swim pass X 20         £80.00

Further admission charges will now be reviewed annually with any increase being implemented in the April.

Pool Hygiene

This is a timely reminder of a very delicate problem of pool hygiene. The last serious case of fouling the pool water (albeit unintentionally) was back in 2003 when the pool had to be closed for 7 days to decontaminate the filters and the pool it’s self. Not only is it an unpleasant task for the staff but a serious loss of income plus the expense of replenishing the water and chemicals.

The Pool Association stress most strongly that if you are a carer/helper or pool user and you are aware of a tummy problem please give the pool a miss until the situation clears itself. Incontinent pads/nappies are not 100% safe in these situations.

Membership Card Draw

One hundred and twenty-seven names went into the hat and the lucky winner of the mini Christmas hamper was David Jones from Farringdon.  Remember, collect your membership card from the pigeon holes at the pool and you could be our next lucky winner. Many thanks for everyone’s support over the past year.

Odd descriptions

 You won’t find these in your dictionary:

Adult: A person who has stopped growing at both ends and is now growing in the middle

Cannibal: Someone who is fed up with people

Committee: A body that keeps minutes and wastes hours

Mosquito: An insect that makes you like flies better

Gossip: A person who will never tell a lie if the truth will do more damage

Easter opening times

Thursday      5^th  April      Normal Times  

Friday           6^th  April     Closed (Good Friday)

Saturday       7^th  April     Open  9.00am – 1.00pm

Sunday         8^th  April     Open  9.30am – 2.30pm

Monday        9^th  April     Closed (Easter Monday)

Tuesday      10^th  April     Normal Times

Christmas Bazaar

The hall has been booked for this years Christmas Bazaar and it’s on Saturday 24^th November at St Barnabas Church Hall Gorse Hill. We will again be looking for your excellent support in helping us to fill our stalls.

Notices will go up towards the end of September and again we want good White Elephant, Tombola and Raffle prizes, unused or part tried smellies, old videos/cassettes/records/CDs and not least those lovely cakes.

Please do NOT bring items into the pool until the notices go up as we have an acute storage problem at the pool. Another please, no clothes items or books for the Bazaar and nothing delivered to the hall on the morning of the Bazaar.

Remember that the Bazaar is on Saturday 25^th November at St Barnabas Church Hall Gorse Hill with doors opening at 10.00pm and finishing at 12.00.

Bonus Ball

Did you know that the Friends weekly Bonus Ball competition started in the second week of April 1998 and has run every Saturday since then, except for pool close down periods?

In that time you have wagered £10,263 (up until the end of January 07). That’s £5,131.50 towards the Friends projects and £5,131.50 has been won by pool users. Remember there are 49 numbers to choose from each week – but that would be boring if all number were sold every week – there would never be a Rollover. The biggest prize was the accumulation of three rollovers and a full house for the fourth week making £91 for the lucky winner.

Somebody queried recently that if they missed playing for a week and it was then a rollover could they participate in the rollover draw. The answer is yes. We hope you will continue to support this worthy game of chance, which has been able to help the pool purchase and maintain new equipment for all pool users’ benefit. Also a big thank you to pool staff for selling the numbers and Graham and Angela Compton for undertaking its weekly administration.

Wanted

Would you like to get involved or have a say on how your pool’s run, then why not join the Pool Committee.  The Hydrotherapy Pool as been operating very successfully for the past 28 years, this can be attributed to the dedication and hard work put in by the Pool Manager and his staff, but behind this team is the Pool Association committee.  The committee consists of four registered Trustees, Pool Manager and four members who are/were pool users.  We would like some new faces with new ideas that can take the pool forward into the future.  Come and join a fine team at the start of an exciting period of the pool’s development.

If you want to come more active in helping the pool and have a voice on how it is run, then asked the pool staff for more details. The committee meets once a quarter at the pool plus an AGM at Blunsdon House.

Don’t bank on it (cont'd)

Let me now level the playing field even further. When you call me, press buttons as follows:   IMMEDIATELY AFTER DIALLING, PRESS THE STAR (*) BUTTON FOR ENGLISH, then

1. To make an appointment to see me
2. To query a missing payment.
3. To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there.
4. To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping.
5. To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature.
6. To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home
7. To leave a message on my computer, a password to access my computer is required. Password will be communicated to you at a later date to that Authorized Contact mentioned earlier
8. To return to the main menu and to listen to options 1 through 7.
9. To make a general complaint or inquiry. The contact will then be put on hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service.

10. This is a second reminder to press* for English.
While this may, on occasion, involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will play for the duration of the call. Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an establishment fee to cover the setting up of this new arrangement.

 

May I wish you a happy, if ever so slightly less prosperous New Year?
Yours

Humble Client
(Remember: This was written by a 86 year old woman)

Essential Energy

Pool Association Trustees

Gas, electricity, oil and water are the essential energy components that the pool relies on for successful functioning.

Nobody has escaped the huge increases in energy costs during the past 12 months or in the pools case the last financial year. The pool suffered badly on all fronts in maintaining the standards required providing thermal water therapy, the pool water is heated to 33°c (92°f) and that comes at a price. The pools gas and electricity bill rose from £8,992 (2004/05) to £12,785 in the last financial year, an increase of 42%. The pool did not escape the rise in the price of oil. The chemicals used in the pool, and they are numerous, are largely petroleum based, this meant the price of chemicals rose from £4,925 (2004/05) to £9,782 a massive increase of 98%. The only bright spot on the horizon was the cost of our water. In the 2004/05 financial year our bill was £3,157, this year after prudent water management (pool only emptied once) our bill was £2,041, that’s a decrease of 35%. However, legislators of our environmental policies have seen fit to bring in new rules governing the water conditions of swimming pools. We now have to add 30 litres of water for every person entering the pool. Bearing in mind that this water starts off cold and untreated, therefore before it can be discharged into the pool additional energy and chemicals have to be used to meet optimum operating levels.

 The pools expenditure over income (not including fund raising and donations) has an annual deficit of over £30,000; this is made up by generous support from the Friends, pool users donations and sponsorship. Increased energy and administration costs have pushed this deficit to over £40,000 which cannot be raised though existing channels. The Pool Association Trustees after serious consideration of all avenues felt it was too much of a financial burden to continue to absorb these costs and therefore have no option but to increase the pool admission charge. The increase will be in two phases, first to assist in balancing the books for the current financial year, secondly to help stabilise our costs in the next year’s budget. Therefore future admission charges are:

Phase One                                               Phase Two

as from 1 January 2007                 as from 1 April 2007

Adults                £3.50                          £4.00

5-16yrs old          £3.00                          £3.50

Under 5s            £2.50                            £3.00

Jacuzzi               £3.50                           £4.00                

Jacuzzi & Swim    £4.50                          £5.00

Swim pass x 10     £35.00                       £40.00

Swim pass x 20     £70.00                       £80.00

 In order that the Pool Association can reflect future energy increases without resulting to ad hoc admission increases it has been agreed to adopt a more commercial approach. Therefore, the Pool Association reserves the right to undertake an annual price review prior to the start of each financial year. The Trustees make no apologies for increasing admission charges as the pool can only survive from a sound financial base.          

My Dad’s Garden

Anon

My old dad’s garden was a beautiful sight,

How well I remember, when just a wee mite.

There were rows of potatoes and leeks by the score,

Brussels and parsley and parsnips galore.

Spring onion and radish and celery too,

And pity the weed that poked its head through.

With hoe at the ready, Dad cleaned up the ground,

As he toiled on his garden with love the year round.

His dear friend the robin used to sit on his spade,

And wait for the worms and a meal ready made.

And old mother blackbird flew down in the spring,

Sure sign she had young, such a tame little thing.

A fine bed of onions was his true pride and joy,

Taking many a prize when I was a boy.

If I could only remember the tricks of the trade,

That he tried to teach me with his old polished spade.

It’s just not the same now Dad’s not around,

The fork’s going rusty for want of good ground.

Perhaps he’s still happy in Heaven’s own band,

Just tending his garden in God’s promised land

Swimathon

Paul Charlwood

Swimathon was again a most enjoyable day with 40 plus people taking part and some who could not make it on the day have done the swim since. A variety of swimmer’s, walkers, and those being towed took part. Chris Elias went bombing up and down the pool walking at a tremendous rate of knots and raised £350. A special mention in dispatches must go to Mervyn Skull who being a fairly new pool user was roped in complete with arm bands and performed manfully a combination of swimming, walking and synchronised drowning. After Mervyn came out we had to top the pool up, but he still had the biggest smile of the day as he achieved so much more than he ever anticipated, it won’t be long before the armbands are in the dustbin. As with the half marathon we will not have a final total till the end of December and will bring it to you in the next newsletter. Sponsored events are one of the main sources that help bring income into the pool and help us to continue to provide warm water facilities for people of all ages and backgrounds. Thanks must go to all those who took the time and trouble to join in, those who gave their hard earned money in sponsorship and help us to continue that service that has been in place for the last 27 years and is so vitally needed, your actions and help ensure it is there not only now but for the generations yet to come. The total to date as at 30th November is £2,256. I will let you know the final total in the next newsletter.

Au revoir

It is time to say farewell to some of our fellow pool users. Brimble Hill and Uplands schools that have been using the pool for many years have moved to the North Swindon Learning Campus in Red House Way. We wish them well with their new facilities.

Is your job safe?

Police in Dubbo, an outback town in Australia, interrogated a suspect by placing a metal colander on his head and connecting it with wires to a photocopier. The message “he’s lying” had already been placed in the copier. The police then pressed the copy button each time they thought the suspect wasn’t telling the truth. Believing the “lie detector” was working the suspect confessed.

 Life is tough – it’s even tougher if you’re stupid.

Funding Sources

While it is fresh in our minds, just where does the pools’ funding come from? It may be a surprise the large number of sources the pool relies on for its income but these must be put in perspective with the actual financial situation the pool is continually battling with. This situation is no different from any local charity in the UK, especially when that charity employs salaried staff; we are all after the same pot of gold to survive. Pool funding falls roughly into 5 categories:

1.   Admission Fees:

This source is the main area of pool income and to some extent is the only area that the pool has control over. This source also includes money received from the Swindon Education and Health authorities for services provided.

2.   Donations:

This is an area that relies on the donor’s unsolicited generosity and can fluctuate from year to year. Donations come from the general public as well as pool users, bequests, local companies, social clubs and other local organisations. The Friends of the Pool make regular donations for projects to buy new/replacement equipment

3.   Grants:

The Pool Association has to apply for all grants and these are solely for projects undertaken by the Association. Past grants have funded the recent car park extension, the new changing rooms and the new Jacuzzi. The main providers of grants received are the Lottery, Charitable Trusts and Foundations. Grants can not be used for domestic services and administration costs.

4.   Sponsorship:

This comes from events, not only hosted by the pool but numerous local clubs, pubs etc that hold sponsored events on our behalf. The two main sponsored events run by the pool are the annual Swimathon and a team of dedicated followers in marathons/fun runs.

5.   Other Sources:

These can be numerous but do not necessarily fall into the other categories. They include the gift aid scheme, interest from our bank accounts, pool sales (books/clothes) donated by pool users, raffles, collection boxes and clothes banks.

 Now that may sound a huge number of resources that the pool can obtain funding from but in reality it takes a tremendous amount of time and effort from the pool committee and staff (the pool does not employ a full time fund raiser) for, in some years, very little return. Careful and continuous

Winter Quiz

The Friends ninth winter quiz is ready to roll. By popular demand the quiz sheets will again be on sale at the pool from mid December, cost will be just £1 per sheet.  Closing date is Sunday 11th February 2007.  If you need quiz sheets earlier – i.e. going on holiday, WI meeting etc then please tell a member of the pool staff. The prize will again be £50 worth of gift vouchers from a leading store. This year’s quiz is about the Who, What, Where, Which and How’s of this world so if you like a good general knowledge quiz then this is the one for you. Ninety-three of the questions came from the same book, so remember the right book from the library will help get you there.

To make this years quiz the best yet we need your help. Don’t just buy one quiz sheet, buy two, three or even four and sell them to friends and family, even if they don’t like doing quiz’s their £1 will be very rewarding. Better still can you sell a quiz sheets at work, in your pub/club or would your local WI be interested.  If you can pick up the sheets from the pool, it will be much appreciated and help the Friends towards their next project target to support the pool.

What I am trying to say is we need your help more than ever to sell quiz sheets to boost the sales even higher for this quiz, last year we sold nearly 300 sheets lets make it over the 300 mark this year. Oh! - If you’re doing the quiz yourself, no cribbing from the Internet – it’s not always right, good luck.

Strange Language

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language, so can you read this right the first time?

The bandage was wound around the wound

The farm is used to produce produce

The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse

Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present

When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes

The insurance was invalid for the invalid

The buck does funny things when the does are present

Christmas Bazaar

What a horrendous morning, I am talking about the weather not the Bazaar, torrential rain hit Gorse Hill as we were starting to set up the hall. Some four inches of water had to be cleared from the entrance before we could think of opening the doors with a solid down pour continuing thought out the morning. How ever nearly 100 people braved the

elements to mark quite a memorable day, this enabled us to raise nearly £720 which was our second highest total to date. Again we went for quality and not quantity, with very little left when the doors closed. The Friends would like to thank all pool users their family and friends for their support in providing so much of our produce and in particular “The Sharks” for again providing the wonderful food hamper which certainly boosted our takings. Also a big thank you to every one who helped to set up and run the stalls.

A provisional date of Saturday 24th November as been booked for next years Bazaar, further information will appear on the Pool notice board and in the next Newsletter when details are finalised.

Membership Card Draw

Its that  time again for the Friends of the Hydrotherapy Pool annual membership card draw, as you are aware the membership cards are placed in the pigeonholes in the pool’s coffee lounge on membership renewal, unfortunately not all are collected. The draw will be made at the pool on Friday 22nd December with a prize for the winner. Those eligible to enter the draw will be all paid up members whose card is not in the pigeonholes on the Friday

Christmas Closedown 2006

Paul Charlwood

This year unlike the past the pool will be closed completely over the Christmas period to allow some essential maintenance work and alterations to existing pipe work to be carried out. The pool will close on the evening of 22nd December and re-open Tuesday 2nd January 2007. I would like to thank Peter Foster (Electrician) and Ken Cattell (Mechanical Services/Plumbing) for giving up part of their family Christmas so we can carry out this vital work so everyone can enjoy the pool in the future.

Half Marathon

Paul Charlwood

A special thank you to everyone who took part in these two (See Swimathon) recent fund raising events, you can see photos on the pool website at WWW.thamesdownhydrotherapypool.co.uk then go to the Events/Support page. At the half marathon/fun run we had a team of 40 runners that came in all shapes and sizes the youngest was Anthony Dew at 3 years old and my honour as a gentleman does not allow me to divulge the most senior (If I did she would kill me). It was a great day really well organised with really vocal crowds that cheered on all the participants and gave them a lift just when the energy levels were flagging. Harry’s team turned out in their smart T-shirts especially commissioned for the race had several teams within the team, we had W H Smith wonders, Cartus Striders, Cell Ops exs, Wendy’s Wonders and Go Eddie’s racers. Everybody got around their chosen course at various speeds to collect a medal and a goody bag at the end of the race. Nearly everyone waited to cheer in the rest of Harry’s Team as they finished. A special mention must go to Pat Broderick who has done many sponsored events for the pool and this time around raised £650. Sponsor money is still coming in from the event and at 30th November the current total to date is £1,321. I will let you know the final total in the next newsletter

Easter Bunnies

It’s quite a long way off but the Friends are planning an Easter orientated raffle for next April. Tickets will be on sale at the pool from mid March. For further details see the Friends notice board in the pools main entrance

Quiz Sponsor

 We are again looking for a sponsor for this years quiz, £50 or less towards the vouchers will help the Friends donate that little bit extra to the pool. If you can help or know a company/shop/person that would be willing to help a good cause, then ring Julie on 01793 539013, put a note in the Friends donation box at the pool or talk the pool staff.

Water Facts

Paul Charlwood

Here are a few icebreakers for your next cocktail party when you are stuck for something to talk about. The Hydrotherapy Pool contains 21,000 gallons of water. The water is filtered 24 hours a day 365 days a year. Every two hours the whole body of pool water passes through the filter, 12 times every 24 hours, 4,380 times a year. The water is monitored constantly for chlorine and pH content (We use the term pH in every day language do you know what it means? Potential Hydrogen) this is backed up for accuracy every 2 hours while the pool is open by pool staff. (That’s what we are doing when you see us taking bottles of water out of the pool & spa; we are not filling up the kettle) To keep everything clean and fresh both the pool & spa are backwashed (The natural flow is reversed to clean the filter out) and fresh water added to maintain water quality and user comfort. Every 7 days the water is given a microbiological test (To make sure there are no oggly booglies in the water); we also test the water for Totally Dissolved Solids (TDS) Calcium Harness, Total Alkalinity and perform a balanced water test. So next time you dip your toe in rest assured the mad scientists in the Office are making sure it is perfectly safe and of high quality for you.

And Finally

The Pool Trustees, Committee, Staff (Jan, Hannah, Eddie and Paul) and the Friends Committee would like to thank all of you for your support over the past year and to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

My work experience at

Thamesdown Hydrotherapy Pool.

By Catherine

On my first day of work experience, everyone welcomed me into the team, which helped a lot, as I was very nervous. I got shown around the work place and I was informed of all the safety procedures at the same time. So I knew what to do in different emergencies if they occur. I was then taught how to test the water using different tablets with different water types. Also I was given an insight, into what information is stored on the computer and how they insert the data and told about confidentiality and the Data Protection Act. I learnt how to work the cash register, as I had never touched a till before work experience. All the staff and the public made me fell very comfortable and very happy to be there. The best part of the day was when I swan with the Downs syndrome children and their parents or helpers. When they achieved something in the water it not only gave them a sense of happiness but everyone felt happy for that child.

On my second day, I was shown how to use the various hoists that transport people with movement problems around the building. I was used as an example on the hoist, which was an amazing experience, just to feel what it was like to rely on someone else. But also on how comfortable it was. Also that day I was more relaxed as I knew what was roughly coming for the day ahead. I did some more water tests but I did these more on my own rather than me watch someone do them. I enjoyed working with the members of staff and the public as there is never a dull or boring moment.

On my third day I was doing a water test but it went wrong as the tablets was not working, which showed me that there was still much to learn, so we left it until we had to do the next test. I was given the chance to be on the receiving end of therapy, I got asked if I would like to take part in an exercise class. So I jumped at the opportunity and I found out so much information about the therapy and the type of condition the people had.  They had such a sense of humour as a group; even with their condition some of them had jobs and families, which surprised me. And they never let their condition get them down during the exercises as they were all telling jokes and having such a wonderful time.

Overall I have learnt so much about the hydrotherapy pool, about what it does and so much more information. I have learnt more about the disabilities and what exercises they do to help. Also I have learnt a lot about myself. I want to help all ages with disabilities as a career. Also so I have learnt that work is not all about working hard but enjoying what you do.

Best Foot Forward

Paul Charlwood

How would you like to be part of Harry’s Team? Harry is the pool’s mascot; you know the yellow duck with a bandage & sling and the Long John Silver crutch under his wing! Well Harry is trying to put a team of Runners, Joggers and Power walkers together to take part in the Swindon Half Marathon, Multi Terrain run (4.3 miles) or The Two Mile Fun Run on Sunday 15^th October 2006.

We are hoping to put a large number of Runners (50 would be great) at the time of going to print we have 21 registered runners and promises of another 15 entries. The route for the Multi Terrain and the Fun Run are reasonably flat apart from the start (Look on the bright side it means the finish is down hill).

Entry forms have to be completed & returned by 22^nd September. All members of Harry’s Team will get a specially commissioned, very high quality T-shirt with their name or nickname printed on the front along with a car sticker, and of course a medal (When you finish not if) another race T-shirt and a goody bag.

Last year over 2,400 people took part; we had a team of 12 in and raised over £1,500 in sponsorship and Gift Aid. If you are interested in taking part you can obtain an information pack of everything you need from the pool in Jefferies Avenue or phone 01793 496002 and we can post a pack to you.

Why not arrange a visit to the pool and see what you will be helping, have a chat to the staff. Unfortunately this year Hannah Phillips who represented the pool staff is on holiday, we are unable to make one working model out of the rest of the staff, so Barbara Charlwood (Paul’s wife) will be representing the pool staff so when the sponsorship goes up in the lounge please support Barbara. If you can’t get involved yourself please make your work colleagues/family/friends aware of this event.

Your help can really make a difference.

Box Clever

Paul Charlwood

A valuable source of income to the pool over many years has been the good old collection box that can be seen in pubs, clubs, newsagents and peoples homes. Besides raising money it also helps to raise our profile in the community. Every year the boxes manage to raise between £500 and £600. We hope that pool users, their families and readers of this world renowned newsletter can “Adopt a Box”?

We want to expand the number of collection boxes already in the community by getting boxes into new sites with the person who places the box being responsible for its collection and return to the pool twice a year – more if necessary – where it will counted, receipted and a letter of thanks given. Can you help? If so contact the pool staff or ring 01793 496002 for more details.

As mentioned we already have a number of boxes dotted around Swindon and need someone to take over their collect twice a year. Interested then please contact Paul.

Newsletter

Although the Friends took over responsibly10 years ago for the pools newsletter “In at the Deep End”, the pool itself had been producing it for nearly a further ten years prior to that – it’s been around a while.

During this time a distribution network has been established for individual/companies who have supported the pool in some way during this period. At a recent meeting where several recipients of the Newsletter were present it was felt that although interesting there was too much emphasis on fund raising. The Pool Association and the editor do not deny this basis but as it is the only outward voice of a local charity that can not rely on word of mouth – no matter how good it is – for the continuous fund raising that has to be undertaken in support of the pool.

If any reader, and there are some 300+ each issue, has a contribution (good or critical) on how we could improve the Newsletter/obtaining funds then please make the pool manager aware of any perceived problem/ideas.

GET IN THE SWIM (PLEASE)

 Paul Charlwood

Just when you thought it was safe to read on and all that sponsorship stuff had finished you get the double whammy. For those of us who are not built for speed but still want to contribute to the long-term future of the pool and the work it does to benefit the whole community there is always Swimathon.

On Saturday 4th November 2006 between 9-00am & 2-00pm staff at the pool have organised the annual sponsored swim; they hope this years will be the biggest and best yet. (No madam this is not an advertisement for the DFS sale which finishes Saturday)

We are inviting pool user’s their family and friends, local Companies, Clubs and Groups to join in as individuals or in teams of three or more to take part in the event. The pool will be divided into three lanes and individuals and teams can book a lane for a 20 minute session get themselves sponsored and see how many lengths they can achieve in 20 minutes. You don't even have to be able to swim, you can use armbands, rings, floats, walk, canoe, skateboards anything you want (Sorry no livestock the deep end is only 4ft 6"). We have had people walking as far as they can in the pool in their time, children being towed, Grandma, Mum and granddaughter (The original generation game).  Age is no barrier

It is chances for family/inter-departmental rivalry to be settled. Can the Smiths out perform the Jones? Can the warehouse achieve more than the personnel department? Can workers out perform management? (Known as Scargill’s revenge)

You can have fun and help; your efforts can make a difference. Interested?

All entrants receive a certificate. The pool is dependent and survives on the goodwill of its customers and their families and the business community of Swindon and District; it is your efforts that have helped to make the pool what it is today, a facility unrivalled in the country that is the envy of many others. We look forward to hearing from you. Further details can be obtained from Paul or Jan at the pool on 01793 496002. If you are unable to take part could you take a sponsor form to work for another person? Could you sponsor a member of the pool staff who is taking part?

PS. Can anyone explain how Ladies manage to keep their hair dry after a 30-minute swim without a strand of hair out of place? Please send answers to this mystery on the back of used £50 notes c/o Paul at the pool. Winner gets a complete set of back issues of “In at the Deep End” posted from the Cayman Islands.

Winter Quiz

The Friends tenth winter quiz is almost ready to roll. Quiz sheets will be on sale at the pool from Saturday 16th December, cost will be just £1 per sheet.  Closing date is Sunday 11th February 2007.  The prize will again be £50 worth of gift vouchers from a leading store. We will be looking again for a sponsor for the quiz, if you can help or know a company/shop/person that would be willing to help a good cause, then ring us on 01793 539013, put a note in the Friends donation box at the pool or talk the pool staff. The final subject for this years quiz is still in the hands of the setter but believe a couple of choices are in the offering.

To make this years quiz the best yet we need your help. Don’t just buy one quiz sheet, buy two, three or even four and sell them to friends and family, even if they don’t like doing quiz’s their £1 will be very rewarding. Better still can you sell a quiz sheets at work, in your pub/club or would your local WI be interested.  If you can pick up the sheets from the pool, it will be much appreciated and help the Friends towards their next project target to support the pool.

What I am trying to say is we need your help more than ever to sell quiz sheets to boost the sales even higher for this quiz, last year we sold over 270 sheets lets make it 300 this year. Oh! - If you’re doing the quiz yourself, no cribbing from the Internet – it’s not always right, good luck.

Gift Aid

Ken Hislop

I appreciate that this subject was mentioned in the last Newsletter but its coming to that time of the year, Swindon marathon and Swimathon, when a great number of people will be sponsoring different events for the pool and it is essential that we get it right. So please bear with me as I jump upon my high horse.

As you are probably aware, the Government operates a scheme whereby Charities are able to claim a grant of 28% on donations received from any person paying income tax.

Obviously there are procedures to which the charity organisation must adhere, to prevent fraud. I act as the “authorised officer” for the pool in seeking to maximise the monies we can claim.

Over the last 3 years we have received about £2,000 per year – a sum which meets a small part of our running costs. This sum could be larger if only I could persuade all our donors to stick to the simple gift aid rules. Give me your name, home address and post code. All very simple and it won’t cost you anything except the effort of writing.

Of course only tax payers give us the opportunity to claim the extra 28p in the £. If you are still a student at school, ask your dad if he would allow you to make the donation in his name – you never know he might even give you another quid to add to your donation and the pool would benefit even more. But do stress it won’t involve him in any more action; it will NOT effect his tax code in any way.

 This must be the only thing we get from the government free of charge; so let’s not miss out. Many thanks for your anticipated support.

Support

The Friends are now into their tenth year of raising funds in support of pool projects. In that time we have raised over £70,000; that’s not bad going with an average of £7,000 for every year but there’s still plenty of work to be done. However to ensure that this good work can continue the Friends have three vacancies on their committee so o if anyone would like to come and join a good cause, you don’t have to be a pool user, then again contact Mike or Julie on 01793 539013 and we can talk you though our involvement with the pool and how you can help

Annual General Meetings

Both the Hydrotherapy Pool Association (THPA) and the Friends of the Hydrotherapy Pool (FTHP) Annual General Meeting’s for the financial year 2005/06 are with us again:

The Friends (FTHP) have not yet set a date for their AGM but are looking at late September or early October. When the date is finalised notices will be displayed at the pool.

The Thamesdown Hydrotherapy Pool Association (THPA) meeting is on Tuesday 3rd October at the Blunsdon House Hotel, 7.30pm for an 8.00pm start. Again all are welcome to come along.

BBQ Etiquette

 After the long cold months of winter we are finally into summer and the BBQ season. Therefore it is important to refresh your memory on the etiquette of this sublime method of outdoor cooking, as it’s the only type of cooking a real man will do, probably because there is an element of danger involved. When a man volunteers to do the BBQ the following chain of events are put into motion.

 1.   The woman buys all the food.

2.   The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables and makes the dessert.

3.   The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils, sauces etc and takes it out to the man who is lounging beside the  

      BBQ – beer in hand.

      Here comes the important part

4.   The man places the meat on the BBQ.

5.   The woman goes inside to organise the plates and cutlery.

6.   The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is burning. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beer while he deals with the situation on the BBQ.

      Important again

7.   The man takes the meat off the BBQ and hands it to the woman.

8.   The woman prepares the plates with the meat, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces and brings them to the table.

9.   After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes.

      And most important of all

10.  Everyone praises the man and thanks him for his cooking efforts.

11.  The man asks the woman how she enjoyed “her night off”, and seeing her annoyed  reaction concludes that there’s just no pleasing some woman.

Think your having a Bad Day

(True Story)

Fire authorities in California found a corpse in a burned-out section of forest while assessing the damage done by a forest fire. The deceased male was dressed in a full wet suit, complete with scuba tanks on his back, flippers and face mask.

A post-mortem revealed that the man died not from burns, but from massive internal injuries. Dental records provided a positive ID, Investigators then set about to determine how a fully clothed diver ended up in the middle of a forest fire.

It was revealed that on the day of the fire, the man went diving off the coast some 20 miles from the forest fire. Fire fighters seeking to control the fire as quickly as possible called in a fleet of helicopters with very large dip buckets. Water was dipped from the ocean and emptied at the site of the fire.

You’ve guessed it. One minute our diver was making like Flipper in the Pacific, the next, he was doing the breast stroke in a fire dip bucket 300 feet in the air. Some days it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed.

Christmas Bazaar

 It will be upon us very shortly and we will be looking for your excellent support in helping us to fill our stalls. Again this year we want good White Elephant, Tombola and Raffle prizes, unused or part tried smellies, old videos/cassettes/records/CDs/DVDs and not least those lovely cakes.

 If you have any of these items (no cakes yet – these can be left at the pool a few days prior to the event) please watch the pool notice boards for dates to bring them to the pool or ring 01793 539013 to arrange collection. Please do not clutter up the pools limited storage space until asked.

Another please, no clothes items and nothing delivered to the hall on the morning of the Bazaar.

The main thing to remember is that the Bazaar is on Saturday 25th November at St Barnabas Church Hall Gorse Hill with doors opening at 10.00pm and finishing at 12.00.

Friends Projects

The Friends, with your support, were able to achieve their fund raising projects for 2005/06 and donated £2,215 to the Pool Association. The Friends have now agreed on several projects for 2006/07, these are-

1.  Turntable and extra track fitted to the Jacuzzi room overhead hoist to allow staff and/or carers to enter/exit patients from the side of the hot tub without getting in themselves. Approx cost £700.

2.  The existing Jacuzzi room patients chair is too large to be used in conjunction with the overhead hoist. A new chair is being made. Approx cost £450.

3.  The main circulation pump that the Friends brought a few years ago as a stand by and proved its worth on 3 occasions when the existing pump broke down has now become the permanent pump as the old one has given up the ghost. A new pump to act as back up will cost approximately £1,500.

4.  Purchase new CDs for the pools music centre.

I am sure other items will be added as the year progresses but that’s what we are here for. Many thanks for your support over the past year.

The Big Jump

As mentioned in the last two Newsletters a sponsored parachute jump was being organised for this autumn. Unfortunately the local company sponsoring/organising the event has recently been taken over by an EU company who are unwilling to commit themselves at this stage. As the opportunity to hold the event is open for most months of the year it is hoped a spring jump is in the air. The Pool/Newsletter will keep out advised on the further developments

Two Glasses of Wine

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day is not enough, just remember the jam jar and the two glasses of wine.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had several items on his desk. Without saying a word he picked up a very large jam jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the class if the jar was full – they agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of small pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly and the pebbles rolled into the open spaces between the golf balls. Is it full now he asked – they all agreed it was?

The professor next picked up a box of fine sand and poured it into the jar and gently tapping it until the sand filled all the spaces between the pebbles and the golf balls. Again he asked the students if it was full – they unanimously agreed it was.

The professor then produced two glasses of wine and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling all the empty space between the sand.

Now said the professor I want you to recognise that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things like your husband/wife/partner, your family, your friends, your religion, and your favourite passions – things that if everything else was lost and only they remained your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things in life that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else – the small stuff in life. If you put the sand into the jar first there would be no room for all the pebbles or golf balls. The same goes for your life; if you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you would never have room for things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness – play with your children, make time to look after your and the family’s health, take your partner out to dinner, go on holiday. There will always be time to clean the house or fix the leaking tap. Take great care of the golf balls first as the things that really matter – set your priorities. The rest is just sand.

A quarterly Newsletter produced and edited by The Friends for the Hydrotherapy Pool.

Issue No. 41 : April 2006 Thamesdown Hydrotherapy Pool Association Reg. Charity No. 267687

Annual MOT

By Paul Charlwood

Every 5-7 years we have to change the sand that is in the pool’s main filter as it be comes compacted and the lateral distributions pipes get broken effecting the efficiency of the filter and if left will ultimately effect water quality. The filter runs 365 days a year and 24 hours a day and is vital to the cleanliness of the pool water it contains 2 tons of washed Bedfordshire sand which has to be taken out of the filter then the filter re-charged after it is thoroughly cleaned and all the internal pipe work checked.

To let us carry out this work we have to close down the pool from Monday 22nd May -Tuesday 30th May.

 We will also be doing several other important pieces of work in the pool plant area and some plumbing and electrical work within the main building. So rather than having a nice break we will busier than ever. We are sorry for any inconvenience that the close down might cause, but in the long term it will enable us to improve the standards of service you have come to expect.

Well that’s it for now but if you know anyone who wants to buy some 2 tons of second-hand seven year old sand just give me a buzz or we might put it on   Ebay.

Weddings and Celebrations

By Paul Charlwood

The last three months have passed in a whirl of activity and the next three months promise to be as busy! I have been asked by Mr & Mrs Aleti (Hannah & Enver) to thank everybody who helped to make their wedding day so special and for all the wonderful presents they received from pool users and staff. The wedding reception was at the Hilton Hotel attended by all members of the pool staff. The weather was perfect for their big day with a lovely blue sky albeit being just above freezing. Their carriage to the hotel was a pony and trap, reminiscence of Wells Fargo but it almost beat some of the guest’s petrol driven carriages to the hotel

Edwina has also just celebrated a special day, her birthday (I am too much of gentleman to mention which one but suffice to say it comes between 49 – 51) Edwina, Hannah and a few friends painted the town red or maybe technicoloured later and went clubbing, a few people are still getting over it, and I have seen the pictures (talk about lock up your daughters). Edwina would like to thank everyone for the cards and presents; she was overwhelmed with everyone’s generosity.

Hot Spa

By Paul Charlwood

As you will have read the Hot Spa was officially opened and has been running very successfully (If you have not tried it yet give yourself a real treat). Already we are looking to improve on the access in the spa and during the May shut down we will be adding a special ceiling mounted hoist (as used in the changing rooms) thanks to the generosity of a local company who have sponsored the project. This will make for easier entry for those users who have mobility issues and will be much easier to operate for helpers and staff.

Garden of Remembrance

By Paul Charlwood

On a personal note, the garden of remembrance is now complete and will shortly have a garden bench added thanks to a generous donation from a pool user - we would like another bench to balance (Feng Shui it) out the garden, so if there is a kind person/company out there, we’re awaiting your call. The first of the remembrance plaques (see separate article) will soon be added to the central planter and with the better weather just around the corner (PLEASE) it will be nice to have somewhere quiet to go and sit with your own thoughts, I think Andy Garrett the designer/contractor has done a great job.

Is your job safe? – 1

Recently I went into one of these fast food restaurants and saw on the menu that you could have an order of 6, 9 or 12 Chicken Nuggets. I asked for a half dozen nuggets.

 “We don’t sell half a dozen nuggets” said the teenager at the counter. “You don’t” I replied. “No we only have six, nine or twelve nuggets” was the reply.

“So I can’t order half dozen nuggets, but I can order six?”

“That’s right.” So I shook my head and ordered six nuggets.

The sad passing of Common Sense

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing when to come in out the rain, why the early bird gets the worms, life isn’t always fair and maybe that’s not his fault.

Common Sense lived by simple sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a six year old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job they failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. In decline even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer Panadol, sun lotion or a sticky plaster to a student; but, could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses and criminals received better treatment than their victims. He took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar can sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live after a woman failed to realise that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap and was promptly awarded a huge settlement. He was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust, his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason.

He is survived by three stepbrothers; I Know My Right, Someone Else is to Blame and I’m A Victim. Not many attended his funeral because so few realised he was gone.

Will common sense ever prevail again?

Gift Aid

The Pool has been participating in the Gift Aid scheme for nearly 4 years and in that time has received over £4,000 back from the scheme. Sounds good but there is paper work involved and this is where problems have been brought to our attention when the last application submitted by the pool was returned without being honoured.

People taking part in sponsored events have to state their name, address and post code on the sponsor forms. If two people from the same address are completing the form, both must fill in these details. “Ditto or as above” will have the whole form (could have 20/30names on it) rejected by Gift Aid. The same conditions apply to a company’s sponsor form, it’s your name, address and post code not the company’s that will be accepted. In the past these omissions were overlooked but the rules governing Gift Aid have now been tightened.

Remember for every pound we raise/have donated from individuals the tax man will refund us with 28p providing you pay tax.

Thanks again for your support.

Easter Closed times

Thursday      13th  April    Normal Times  

Friday          14th  April     Closed (Good Friday)

Saturday      15th  April     Closed

Sunday        16th  April     Closed

Monday       17th  April    Closed (Easter Monday)

Tuesday       18th  April     Normal Times

Car Boot Sale

In the last Newsletter we mentioned the Friends were considering holding a Car Boot in the pool’s extended car park on one of the May Bank Holidays. Unfortunately we met several problems, mainly no parking space available for visitors plus no volunteers came forward with car boot experience to assist, and therefore the event has been put on the back burner until conditions are more favourable.

Powers of Attorney

This is intended as a guide – always seek professional legal advice in such matters

Power of Attorney

Sadly, there may come a time when a person is no longer able to fully manage their own affairs and, in such cases, he or she, then known as the ‘donor’, may appoint an attorney giving Power of Attorney to that person to act on the donor’s behalf and in their name. The Power of Attorney (unlike Enduring Powers of Attorney) becomes invalid once the donor is no longer able to understand their own affairs.

Enduring Powers of Attorney

In anticipation of infirmity or extreme old age, a donor may appoint an attorney but can retain control of their own affairs when Enduring Powers of Attorney are given by specifying at the time the documents are drawn up, exactly what the circumstances must be under which the Enduring Powers of Attorney can be exercised; for example, only when the donor becomes incapable of managing their own affairs due to mental or physical illness.

Jacuzzi Official Opening

I am (Ed) getting told off for calling it a Jacuzzi again; Hot Tub/Spa is the correct definition. For the record Jacuzzi is a trade name a bit like the vacuum clearer being called a Hoover!! Now that’s out of the way let the ceremony begin. The official opening was a grand event carried out by the High Sheriff of Wiltshire, David Margesson MBE JP DL, in all his ceremonial finery which made a splendid sight. After a conducted tour of the facilities he had to be persuaded by the Pool Chairman to use the scissors provided rather than his ceremonial sword to cut the ribbon.

Also present were the Committee members from the Federation of Master Builders (South West Division), and their wives, Charitable Trust who donated the bulk of the funding for the new Hot Tub. Good media coverage was given by the local paper, radio and BBC TV South West.

It is very reassuring for the Pool Association were able to raise the funds (£58,000+), plan the project, purchase and installation of the equipment and have it up and running within 12 mouths

Music Centre

For those of you with acute hearing you will have detected that the pool has a new music centre providing gentle and sociable background music to accompany your exercising. The life expectance of these machines at the pool, continually playing in high humidity, is not very long. Its predecessor lasted over 3 years so let’s hope this one can do as well. The equipment was donated by the Friends of the Hydrotherapy Pool

Car Stickers

At last an order as been placed with a local printer. It is hope to have them on sale by Easter and they will cost £1 each. Please help the friends support the pool by buying a sticker and displaying it.

Anniversary Appeal

Yes it’s still going and going strong with some excellent support from local companies, individuals and a few national Charitable Trusts/Foundations we were able to achieve our annual appeal target of £50,000. Our fourth year of the appeal starts in April and is envisaged as our hardest challenge yet to meet the target.

Remember all the money raised from the anniversary appeal is ploughed straight back into improving the conditions of the pool – replacing worm out machinery and upgrading other items of equipment – plus ensuring we are able to maintain adequate (as agreed and regulated by the Charity Commission) emergency and contingency funds. The Pool Associations initial pledge for setting up the anniversary appeal was to ensure that the next generation of pool user will still be receiving beneficial hydrotherapy treatment in 25 years time and that still remain our aim to day.

Many thanks for your past, present and hopefully future support.

Gob Smacked

I am gob smacked, normally a man of many eloquent phases, was the only description he could think of, when he was hoisted into a surprise presentation. So said our very own pool manager Paul Charlwood when the High Sheriff of Wiltshire, David Margesson, presented him with a prestigious certificate that he is allowed to award during his year in office to people he considers has given outstanding service to the community.

The High Sheriff went on to say that he was very impressed by the little gem tucked away in Stratton St Margaret, that’s the pool not Paul, and the service it provided. He felt that the 27 years dedicated service Paul had given the community in helping over 36,000 patients a year merited being recognised. This was only the sixth and probably the last certificate the High Sheriff would award during his term of office.

The citation reads:

The High Sheriff of Wiltshire gives this award to Paul Charlwood “In recognition of great and valuable service to the community”.

“The award also recognises the appreciation of residents and people of the said High Sheriff’s County for activity and in contribution to enhancing the life of the community”.

The Pool Association Trustees and Committee wish to add their appreciation for Paul’s services to the pool and its customers.

Christmas Membership Draw

Just over 100 members names went into the hat at Christmas and the lucky winner of the tin of Rose’s sweets was Tracy Warren. Don’t forget to take your membership card out of the box in the coffee lounge so you could win the next draw. Many thanks for your support.

Christmas Bazaar

This years Friends Christmas Bazaar will be held on Saturday 25th November at St Barnabas Church Hall Gorse Hill. We will again be looking for your excellent support in helping us to fill our stalls. This year we want good White Elephant, Tombola and Raffle prizes, unused or part tried smellies, old videos/cassettes/records/CDs and not least those lovely cakes.

Please do NOT bring items into the pool until the notices go up as we have an acute storage problem at the pool. Another please, no clothes items or books and nothing delivered to the hall on the morning of the Bazaar.

Remember that the Bazaar is on Saturday 25th November at St Barnabas Church Hall Gorse Hill with doors opening at 10.00pm and finishing at 12.00. The Friends urgently needs helpers with the run up and during the Bazaar, if you can help please call Julie Baxter as soon as possible on 01793 539013 or leave a message in the Friends Box so that forward planning can begin.

Remembrance Plaques

If you would like a loved one, friend, associate or colleague to be remembered the pool can arrange for an engraved plaque to be made and placed in our new Remembrance Garden. The plaque is made of brass and is approximately 14.8cm x 4.5cm in size and you can have up to a maximum, of 30 letters in no more than three lines. The plaque will cost £30.00 including fitting. For further information and an application form can be obtained from a member of the pool staff.

Winter Quiz

Well it’s all done and dusted and judging from the many thoughtful comments we received you all found it most enjoyable with 20 people getting over 90 correct answers. This year we managed to get over 380 quiz sheets in circulation of which 265 were turned into funds. The Friends were able to secure half the sponsorship this year thanks to an anonymous donor. We received an excellent return of 52 completed quiz sheets – it must have been too easy – no, joking apart there will have been considerable research done to find some of the answers.

The winner, who had been in the top 10 runners up on fore previous occasions, was Ron Alderton, from Rodbourne, with 96 correct answers – well done Ron and to all the other participants and the quiz sheet sellers, in particular the pool staff who sold 103 sheets. No tie break was required as Ron was a clear winner by one point. Interestingly the six or so hard questions in the quiz were all answered correctly by the winner and most of the runners up. The Reader’s Digest – The World of Nature was used to set around 90 of the

questions.

The Big Jump

How high can you jump?, if you would like to put it to the test and help raise funds for the pool – remember the pool is now in its 4th year of its anniversary appeal – then we may have the very thing for you.

Two volunteers have come forward and propose a sponsored parachute jump in support of the pool. Details have yet to be finalised but you will be able to jump in tandem with an instructor or be really daring and jump by yourself. You would have to pay for your training (around £200) that would amount to 1 hour for a tandem jump and one day for a solo jump.

If this is not your cup of tea then how about sponsoring these two brave young ladies plus any other volunteers. More details as the event develops which will happen during August/September at South Cerney. Only one restriction you must less than 14½ stone, sorry Paul not this time you’ll have to make do with the Swimathon.  Any one interested please contact the pool on 01793 496002.

Is your job safe? – 2

Some years ago we had a new junior typist who was none too swift. One day she was typing and turned to a secretary and said, “I’m almost out of typing paper, what do I do”

“Just use the copier machine paper”, the secretary told her. With that the junior took her last remaining blank piece of paper, put it on the photocopier and proceeded to make five “blank” copies

And Finally Eddie’s Knee

Never a truer word spoken in jest. Eddie recently went into GWH for routine keyhole surgery to clean up her knee. Unfortunately the knee damage was worst than originally thought and it looks like a partial knee replacement may be required plus a considerable time convalescing. Best of luck Eddie and keep smiling and we look forward to seeing you back in the near future. I trust this was not a result of your birthday night out!!!

A quarterly Newsletter produced and edited by The Friends for the Hydrotherapy Pool.

Issue No. 40 : December 2005 Thamesdown Hydrotherapy Pool Association Reg. Charity No. 267687

25 Going strong

Many years ago a young man with a keen eye for motor bikes and not adverse to pulling his mighty weight at being anchor in a tug-of-war team approached the Hydrotherapy Pool for a job. A few months later a spiritedly young lady with an addiction for netball trod the same path. They were both successful and to day they are still with us. Yes you’ve guessed it; both Paul Charlwood (Pool Manager) and Jan Platt (Assistant Manager) are celebrating 25 years of dedicated service to the pool and its customers.

Their enthusiasm is still strong and I am sure they can relate many stories, some humorous and others they care not to repeat, but a lot of water has passed through the filters in this time and they both remain as assets to the pool that have maintained stability in the functioning of the hydrotherapy facility.

To mark this mile stone Eddie and Hannah (hard pressed pool staff) have been covertly organising a collection over the past six months and a sizeable sum has been accrued – many thank to all who have contributed. At a recent dinner at a local gastropub hosted by the Pool Trustees, Peter Jones the Association chairman presented Paul and Jan with a cheque (each) to mark the occasion.

Our hearty congratulation to them both and trust there’s a few more years left in them yet.

Where did that come from?

Century’s ago England was running out of places to bury people. So they dug up the coffins and would take the bones to a ‘bone house’ and then reuse the grave. When reopening the coffins they found that around 1 in 25 had scratch marks on the inside and they realised they had been burying some people alive. So they tied a string on the wrist of the corpse and lead through a hole in the coffin lid up through the ground and tied to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night – known as the “graveyard shift” – to listen for the bell; thus someone could be “saved by the bell” or was considered as a “dead ringer”.

Car Park Extension

Those of you who have visited the pool recently will have seen the wide open spaces created by the extension to the car park – vehicle parking and turning should not be a problem in the foreseeable future. The security fence and lighting are all in place and by the spring the surrounding bund will be looking like a well trimmed grass mound rather than an untidy pile of earth.

Open Garden

On behalf of the Pool Association we would thank Mrs Morrison of Shrivenham for opening her garden in support of the pool. The weather kept fine which allowed one to browse the plants and a very fine and unusual stall selling seeds. A lot of effort went into hosting the event which raised over £211.

Now is the time to consider – plenty of space to plan before summer is upon us - opening your garden as a way of supporting the pool. Anyone interested please have a word with Paul at the pool.

Now a Song

Sung to the tune of “My Favourite Things”

The Joys of Ageing

Maalox and nose drops and needles for knitting,

Walkers and handrails and new dental fittings,

Bundles of magazines all tied up in string,

These are a few of my favourite things.

Cadillac’s and cataracts, hearing aids and glasses,

Polident and Fixodent and false teeth in glasses,

Pacemakers and golf carts and porches with swings,

These are a few of my favourite things.

Hot tea and crumpets and corn pads for bunions,

No spicy hot food or that cooked with onions,

Bathrobes and heat pads and hot meals they bring,

These are a few of my favourite things.

Back pains, confused brains, and no fear of sinnin’,

Thin bones and fractures and hair that is thinnin’,

And we won’t mention our short shakinnin’ frames,

When we remember a few of our favourite things.

Acknowledgement

In the April 2005 issue of the Newsletter we published the poem ‘The Computer’s Swallowed Grandma’. We have been asked to point out that the author, Valerie Waite from Derbyshire, first had the poem published in the Daily Mail on 2 July 2004 and we apologise for any infringement on our behalf.

Anniversary Appeal

We are coming to the end of the second year of the pools 25^th Anniversary Appeal with the target of £50,000 well in sight, but complacency is not a virtue and much hard work in fund raising must continue. Year three of the five year appeal will be even harder with years four and five are mind blowing just thinking about them but we will endeavour, for the long term future of the Hydrotherapy Pool, to achieve our goal.

Membership Card Draw

Its that  time again for the Friends of the Hydrotherapy Pool annual membership card draw, as you are aware the membership cards are placed in the pigeonholes in the pool’s coffee lounge on membership renewal, unfortunately not all are collected. The draw will be made at the pool on Friday 23rd December with a prize for the winner. Those eligible to enter the draw will be all paid up members whose card is not in the pigeonholes on the Friday

Christmas & New Year

Opening/Closing times

Friday          23rd   December   Normal Times

Saturday      24th   December   Closed

Sunday        25th   December   Closed

Monday       26th   December   Closed

Tuesday       27th   December   Closed

Wednesday  28th   December  10.00am – 8.00pm

Thursday     29th   December   10.00am – 8.00pm

Friday         30th   December    Closed

Saturday     31st    December    Closed

Sunday         1st    January        Closed

Monday        2nd   January        Closed

Tuesday       3rd    January        Normal Times

Textile Banks

Less we forget

Think Textile Banks!!! The textile banks are run by the council and the pool benefits from the disposal of the items you deposit in the banks. The banks are dotted around the town at all the re-cycling points and are a good source of income for the pool. It’s that time of the year when we all start to clear out the bits and pieces we have been meaning to get rid of, so if its clothes or old bedding please pop them into your nearest textile bank or to ensure that we get maximum benefit by using the one at the pool on your next visit. On the same theme perhaps you know a group or organisation that is having a jumble sale and does not know what to do with the unsold clothes, suggest they use a textile bank rather than a visit to Darby Close. All items in the banks are sorted and graded, some are then sent to third world countries in Eastern Europe and Africa, so the brilliant scheme benefits everyone. One item that is most valued in these situations is shoes, so again “Don’t bin them, bank them”.

Remember the pool has its own textile bank that rewards us with 100% of the disposal price – which as recently risen in price by over £10 a ton.

Christmas Bazaar

Over 100 people came though the door on a bitterly cold morning, which enabled us to raise over £650 which was down on the previous year but again we went for quality and not quantity plus we had competition from another Bazaar in the area. Anyway very little was left when the doors closed, in fact most stalls had sold out long before the finish. The Friends would like to thank all pool users their family and friends for their support in providing so much of our produce and in particular “The Sharks” for again providing the wonderful food hampers which certainly boosted our takings.

No provisional date as been booked for the next Bazaar as the Friends are considering another event for next year – see Car Boot item. Further information will appear on the Pool notice board and in the next Newsletter when details are finalised.

Winter Quiz

The Friends ninth winter quiz is ready to roll. By popular demand the quiz sheets will again be on sale at the pool from mid December, cost will be just £1 per sheet.  Closing date is Sunday 12th February 2006.  If you need quiz sheets earlier – i.e. going on holiday, WI meeting etc then please tell a member of the pool staff. The prize will again be £50 worth of gift vouchers from a leading store. We are looking for a sponsor for this years quiz although a sponsor for half the prize has come forward. If you can help or know a company /shop/person that would be willing to help a good cause, then ring us on 01793 539013, put a note in the Friends donation box at the pool or talk the pool staff. This year’s quiz is about all creatures’ great and small, so if you know what is the only animal that can see to its rear without turning its head you’re well set for the rest of the quiz. Oh by the way that’s not one of the questions and the answers a rabbit. Remember the right book from the library will help get you there.

To make this years quiz the best yet we need your help. Don’t just buy one quiz sheet, buy two, three or even four and sell them to friends and family, even if they don’t like doing quiz’s their £1 will be very rewarding. Better still can you sell a quiz sheets at work, in your pub/club or would your local WI be interested.  If you can pick up the sheets from the pool, it will be much appreciated and help the Friends towards their next project target to support the pool.

What I am trying to say is we need your help more than ever to sell quiz sheets to boost the sales even higher for this quiz, last year we sold nearly 300 sheets lets make it over the 300 mark this year. Oh! - If you’re doing the quiz yourself, no cribbing from the Internet – it’s not always right, good luck.

Friends Donation

The Friends made a donation of £2,149.57 to the Pool Association in September for the upgrading of the shower system in the original Ladies changing room.

At the request of several pool users the Friends have produced a leaflet explaining their pedigree and on the reverse side setting out all the donations made to the pool since their formulation in 1997. It makes interesting reading that will open a few eyes on how our money (yours donations) has been spent. This is a double edged sword, they will be circulated in the New Year and it is hoped will bring in some new members to the Friends with the aim of raising more funds.

Where did that come from?

Century’s ago pork was a luxury, which made people something special when they could get it. When visitors came, they would hang up their bacon to show it off. It was considered a sign of wealth that a man “could bring home the bacon” They would cut some meat for their guests but they would sit and “chew the fat”.

Car Stickers

One of the first things the Friends did in 1997 was to have some ‘Harry Duck’ car stickers printed. We were lucky enough to find a sponsor for the job so every sticker sold was profit. The last of this batch was sold some three years ago and since then we have been unable to find a specialised printer to replenish our stocks – the original printer had moved on.

We have now found a printer to take on the job but inverted printing with an adhesive property does not come cheap so this new batch of stickers will be on sale at the pool from early in the New Year at £1 each.

Age Testing

This test was developed by a prominent University to help determine the eye retention ability as one gets older.

Take your time and see if you can read each line aloud without a mistake. It was considered that the average person over 50 years would have difficult in doing so.

1.   This is this cat

2.   This is is cat

3.   This is how cat

4.   This is to cat

5.   This is keep cat

6.   This is an cat

7.   This is old cat

8.   This is person cat

9.   This is busy cat

10. This is for cat

11. This is forty cat

12. This is seconds cat

Now go back to the beginning and read the third word in each line from the top down.

And Finally

The Pool Trustees, Committee, Staff (Jan, Hannah, Eddie and Paul) and the Friends Committee would like to thank all of you for your support over the past year and to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Water Plants go Jogging

By Paul Charlwood

Chapter 1

The title does not make sense, you will be even more confused by the time I finish! I know I am and it’s me writing this? Cast your mind back to Sunday October 17th a lovely warm day when 14 intrepid souls ran around the highways and byways of Swindon representing the pool and raising money by participating in the Swindon half marathon and fun runs. I counted them all out and counted them back in, everyone made it around their chosen course, Hannah galloped around the fun run course in 17 minutes (I told her cutting down to 15 Bacardi Breezers a day would pay dividends). She was closely followed by Lisa, Sally, Barbs, Sue, Jan and Laura Bird. Next it was the turn of the Multi Terrain runners Simon, Gemma & Kev they had a trot around Coate Water. In the distance someone reported a skeleton was approaching, no they had not gone mad and overdosed on Lucozade Isotonic drink, and it was Paul Tollafield completing the half marathon in his fancy dress outfit. I know Paul was quite de-hydrated as it was such a warm day and was a bit under the weather for a couple of days but well done Paul. Quite a few runners suffered from the heat so some of the times that “Harry’s Team” achieved were very respectable. Jo, Don & Marion came in very close together on the half marathon a great effort by everyone who took part. You have to remember it’s not just the event it is also all the hours of training leading up to the day. So far the magnificent 14 have managed to raise over £1,250 with a little more still to come in, then we will be able to claim Gift Aid on all their efforts. I got some funny looks when I asked them to sign up for next year, its amazing how many Anglo Saxon ways there are of telling someone to go forth! Seriously everyone had a great day at a really well organised event and most of them will be back again next year, will you join them?

Chapter 2

The Swimathon (see the water connection) took place on the 19th November and again it was a really fun day, although down in numbers on last year we were high in quality (I was told to say that or the kidnappers of Albert my garden gnome will do unspeakable things to him). We had 47 participants on the day and several who couldn’t make the Saturday doing their swims/walks before or after the main event. As we always tell you it is not an Olympic event but some people achieved personal bests, Master William Sharp completed 35 jump ins while Mum & Dad done the lengths, and we had a dodgy Lady Boy from Chiseldon, (Don’t give up the day job). Thanks to everyone who took part, also the counters and the staff. Early indications would suggest that we might raise about £3,000 - £3,500 plus gift aid, a lot of money still has to come in but we will update you in the next newsletter.

Chapter 3

Now for the plants, over the next few weeks you may spot work being carried out in the far corner of the new car park. At long last we are able to start work on the garden of remembrance in memory of the friends that the pool has lost over the years. We hope to produce a quite corner for contemplation that you can sit in with your thoughts remembering good times and loved ones away from the hurly burly of every day life. I am sure Andy Garrett’s imaginative design and planting scheme will be in keeping with what we are trying to achieve. If funds allow we hope to provide a couple of benches and an entrance arch. Planting will not start until March/April giving the plants a fighting chance to establish before their first winter. I look forward to the official opening in 2006; I know I speak for many users that this will be a special place like the people it is designed to honour. If you wish to contribute or would like further information please contact me at the pool. Well that’s it for now may I wish you all a very Happy Christmas & Prosperous New Year and look forward to seeing you all in 2006.

Phew that was a marathon in itself.

A quarterly Newsletter produced and edited by The Friends for the Hydrotherapy Pool

Issue No. 39 : August 2005 Thamesdown Hydrotherapy Pool Association Reg. Charity No. 267687

Anniversary Appeal

Update

Time fly’s – it seems ages since we launched the 25^th Anniversary Appeal, but in reality it’s just over 12 months ago. The hardest problem now for the Pool Association and staff is to keep the momentum going for another 4 years. However we are well into the swing for the second years fund raising. It kicked off with a generous donation of £20,000 from the Ladies of Stratton WI who had recently sold their Hall and adjoining grounds, with the Pool as one of five lucky local recipients. It is amazing – bearing in mind there are nearly 200 other charities in Swindon all after the same pot of gold – the support the Pool Association are receiving from local companies, clubs, organisation and individuals, all of whom are combining to make our second year’s target of £50,000 achievable.

Lottery Grant

As reported in the last issue the Pool Association had applied to the Big Lottery Fund for a grant to carry out the work to extend the car parking/vehicle turning area, together with associated security fencing, lighting etc.

Well lighting does strike in the same place twice and at the end of May, right on cue, we were awarded our second grant for £28,877, which was the amount we requested. See separate article on how and when the money will be spend.

Car Park Extension

Thanks to the Big Lottery Fund grant we are now ready to turn our project into reality. Those of you who have visited the pool in the last few days will have noticed the security fence is on the move to its new boundary line location. This will be completed, along with the ground work and additional security lighting etc in early September with the new car park surfacing work due to start in the third week of the month. If everything goes to plan it will be operational by October.

London Marathon

Update

You may remember back in April that two hardy souls undertook the gruelling London Marathon on our behalf? They were Marion Bird and Phil Sambrooke who both completed the course and said that it was an incredible event to take part in and the support that you got from the crowds was amazing. All the sponsor money is now in and between Marion, Phil, pool users, colleagues and friends who sponsored them; an amazing £2,440 was raised with some more still to come from our Gift Aid claim. We hope to arrange an official cheque handover shortly and to get the press involved. If you feel inspired by Marion or Phil or a full marathon is a bit too far, or you have just started running but you want a challenge? Why not take part in the Swindon Half Marathon?

19^th November

Did you know that this date is very special for many people and events like in?

1620: The day the Pilgrim Fathers’ ship, The Mayflower, arrived off Cape Cod Massachusetts.

AD60: Emperor Nero took part in the Olympics on this day – He won every event he entered!

1980: The name of the new Commissioner of Education who took office this day in the Virgin Islands was Mr A Moron

1973: Pele scored his 1,000^th goal

2005: On this day The Thamesdown Hydrotherapy Pool is??? – read on

Swimathon 2005

Paul Charlwood

You might like to know the Saturday 19^th November 2005 is the date for this year’s Swimathon.

As ever we need to raise as much money as possible to help keep providing the invaluable service that serves all the community. This is where you all come into the picture, as the Swimathon would not be possible without the participation of the pool users, their families, friends and neighbours. This year we are trying again to get employees for local companies involved on the day or if a company has enough interest a separate Saturday or Sunday afternoon can be arranged. This will allow their families and friends to get involved with inter departmental rivalries can be settled. For the faint-hearted managers, lifeguards will be on duty. If this strikes a chord with you just phone me, Paul; Charlwood on 01793 496002 for a chat and to see how you can have some fun, raise the company profile and help others.

As usual on the day (Commercial Break – Swimathon Saturday 19^th November) pool users and friends in fact anybody is welcome to reserve a lane for twenty minutes (three lanes available in each 20 minute slot) to swim, walk, hop or handstand as far as you can. Please remember that this is not an Olympic event, many people who take part can just about swim or use armbands or swim rings, some do it as a family relay and have as many as 5 in a lane sharing the relay. Last years event raised £10,313 this in part was due to the Gift Aid scheme. It is so important that if someone pays income tax and sponsors a swimmer we can claim an extra 28p for every £1 pledged. More importantly the sponsor form must show that persons name, address and post code otherwise we cannot claim Gift Aid, so watch out for sponsor forms and notices at the pool in late August/early September. If you cannot make it on the day we can always arrange another time and day to suit you. This is the pools single largest fund raising event of the year, with your help we can ensure that this valuable resource is there not only for today’s users but for those generations yet to come. Please show you care and com e and join in.

Pool Manager –on his soapbox at Hydrotherapy Pool, Swindon, for the hamster breeders monthly.

Helpdesk

Something to make you feel better about your computer know-how, after reading this you may feel like a computer genius.

Helpdesk: What kind of computer do you have?

Customer: A white one.

Helpdesk: Now hit F8. Customer: It’s still not working

Helpdesk: What did you do exactly? Customer: I hit the F key 8 times.

Customer: I have problems printing in red. Helpdesk: Do you have a colour printer

Customer: No

Customer: I can’t print. Helpdesk: Would you click on start for me and….

Customer: Listen pal; don’t start getting technical with me, I am not Bill Gates.

Helpdesk: Click on the ‘my computer’ icon on the left of the screen.

Customer: Your left or mine?

Swindon Half Marathon/Fun Run

Here’s your chance to start getting yourself in shape for next years London Marathon. You have a choice of three events or make a pig of yourself and go for all of them followed by a fleeting visit to A & E.

1.  The Half Marathon (13 miles 200 yds)

2.  The Multi Terrain Run (4.3 miles)

3.  The Fun Run (2 miles)

Sunday 16^TH October 2005 is the date to get in training for and at the same time you can help the Hydrotherapy Pool by being sponsored to take part in one of these events. You can get more details online with entry forms at:

http://www.swindonhalfmarathon.co.uk/

If you would like to visit the pool and pick up a sponsor form and race entry form then look around one of “SWINDON’S best kept secrets” just contact the pool staff on 01793 496002 to arrange a visit or chat with staff for more details or check out our website:

www.thamesdownhydrotherapypool.com

YOUR HELP CAN MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE

Annual General Meetings

(AGM)

Both the Hydrotherapy Pool Association (THPA) and the Friends of the Hydrotherapy Pool (FTHP) Annual General Meeting’s for the financial year 2004/05 are with us again:

The Friends (FTHP) meeting is on Monday 26th September at the St Barnabas Church Hall (small hall at the rear of the main building), Gorse Hill. The meeting will start at 7.00pm and all members and non-members are welcome so please come along and help the Friends to support the pool. An agenda for the meeting will be displayed at the pool shortly.

The Thamesdown Hydrotherapy Pool Association (THPA) meeting is on Tuesday 4th October at the Blunsdon House Hotel, 7.30pm for an 8.00pm start. It is hoped the Mayor will be in attendance and again all are welcome to come along and support the pool.

Current hard copies of "In at the deep end" can be obtained via the Hydrotherapy Pool Office.

The Final Word on Fat

For those of us who watch what we eat, here’s a final word on nutrition and health. It’s a relief to know the truth, after all those conflicting medical studies:

1.  The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans, British or Canadians.

2.  The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans, British or Canadians.

3.  The Japanese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans, British or Canadians.

4.  The Italians drink large amount of red wine and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans, British or Canadians.

5.  The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans, British or Canadians.

6.  Ukrainians drink a lot of vodka, eat lots of fatty meats, cabbage rolls and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Americans, British or Canadians.

Conclusion: Eat and drink what you like, it’s speaking English that apparently kills you.

Memorial Garden

You may recall the newsletter article entitled “Paul’s Project” back in December 2002, yes it was that long ago that the idea of having a memorial Garden at the Pool took off. In a very short time, with generous donations from two national companies with Head Offices based in Swindon, we had the funds available to start the project. Then unfortunately the series of break ins at the pool put everything on the back burner. At about the same time Swindon Council were receptive to our enquires about leasing an additional plot of adjacent land. One thing then lead to another and the pool Committee agreed a Memorial Garden would be better sited on the new area we hoped to acquire rather than just inside the main gate. So here we are, we have the land, the funds are still in the bank, a new layout is being prepared with work scheduled to start in November. We look forward to it.

Winter Quiz

The Friends ninth winter quiz number is almost ready to roll. Quiz sheets will be on sale at the pool from Saturday 17^th December, cost will be just £1 per sheet.  Closing date is Sunday 12th February 2006.  The prize will again be £50 worth of gift vouchers from a leading store. We are looking for a sponsor for the quiz, if you can help or know a company/shop/person that would be willing to help a good cause, then ring us on 01793 539013, put a note in the Friends donation box at the pool or talk the pool staff. This year’s quiz is about all creatures’ great and small, some of which may not be too familiar, but not necessarily hard. The right book from the library will get you there.

To make this years quiz the best yet we need your help. Don’t just buy one quiz sheet, buy two, three or even four and sell them to friends and family, even if they don’t like doing quiz’s their £1 will be very rewarding. Better still can you sell a quiz sheets at work, in your pub/club or would your local WI be interested.  If you can pick up the sheets from the pool, it will be much appreciated and help the Friends towards their next project target to support the pool.

What I am trying to say is we need your help more than ever to sell quiz sheets to boost the sales even higher for this quiz, last year we sold over 250 sheets lets make it 300 this year. Oh! - If you’re doing the quiz yourself, no cribbing from the Internet – it’s not always right, good luck.

Christmas Bazaar

It will be upon us very shortly and we will be again looking for your excellent support in helping us to fill our stalls. Again this year we want good White Elephant, Tombola and Raffle prizes, unused or part tried smellies, old videos/cassettes/records/CDs and not least those lovely cakes.

 If you have any of these items (no cakes yet – these can be left at the pool a few days prior to the event) please watch the pool notice boards for dates to bring them to the pool or ring 01793 539013 to arrange collection. Please do not clutter up the pools limited storage space until asked.

Another please, no clothes items and nothing delivered to the hall on the morning of the Bazaar.

The main thing to remember is that the Bazaar is on Saturday 26^th November at St Barnabas Church Hall Gorse Hill with doors opening at 10.00pm and finishing at 12.00. If you would like to help please call Julie on 01793 539013 or leave a message in the Friends box or contact a member of pool staff.

Editor’s Lament

The Editor sat morose in his chair,

he stared into space with a look of despair.

The days and nights passed, as days and nights do,

but no articles came from you, and you, and you!

He’d welcome most subjects with arms open wide,

tho’ obviously – Porno – is put to one side.

Favourites are stories of the pool, without any doubt,

there are many of these to write something about.

Poor Editor murmurs, Dear God hear my plea,

and grant me a story so this may succeed.

As reward for my worries and response to my prayer,

please conjure up a story from out of thin air.

If no answer or help is forthcoming to me,

perhaps to Old Nick I’ll proffer a plea.

Or finally say Goodbye to this region,

and rush to enlist in the French Foreign Legion.

A quarterly Newsletter produced and edited by The Friends for the Hydrotherapy Pool

Issue No. 38 : April 2005 Thamesdown Hydrotherapy Pool Association Reg. Charity No. 267687

Anniversary Appeal

How’s it going?

In our article in the last issue of the Newsletter the pool set out its aspirations for the 25th Anniversary

Appeal at its launch back in July last year, the Association Chairman said our target, spread over a five year period, was £250,000.

Although some of the money raised would go towards the pools domestic services and general running costs the overall aim of the appeal was to replace ageing machinery and equipment, most of which is now over 25 years old but also to move with the times and invest in new items of equipment that would allow the pool to continue to provide up-to-date facilities in the future.

A wish list of some 30 projects was drawn up and given priorities for the need to replace or purchase and the canvassing began.

Thanks to the generosity of 10 Charitable Trusts/Foundations, numerous local companies and many individuals we have achieved our first year’s target of £50,000. In addition and as a fantastic bonus to the appeal, 2 other Charitable Trusts (see separate article) and the Friends of the Pool agreed to provide funding to replace the old Jacuzzi system, this alone is worth over £50,000 including VAT.

So an excellent start to the Anniversary Appeal but the hard work is now beginning by keeping the momentum going for another four years. It’s a challenge we must take up to ensure that the pool facilities are available for the next generation and beyond. With your support it’s a challenge the Pool Association is confident of winning.

London Marathon

You will remember from the last issue the Pool had submitted 27 names for the London Marathon. As their 25th anniversary coincided with ours we played on this theme and were optimistic of getting a good return. Bah!!! we were allocated one lone runner, but what a runner and a keen supported of the pool – see her story next. In the meantime we offer our thanks and commiserations to the unlucky 26 but your turn will surely come – how about the Swindon half marathon then?

However, not all is lost!!! Phil Sambrooke, a member of Swindon Harriers and not one of our original 27, has kindly offered to run in aid of the pool. Phil is a seasoned marathon runner with numerous races to his credit, but for our credit he needs your support with sponsorship to make this a memorable run.

Marion Bird - Marathon Runner

Marion Bird is the pool’s lone representative from the original 27 in the London Marathon, here is her story and a quest for sponsorship.

At the beginning of December I was amazed to receive my running number for the London Marathon – 15620. Like the rest of the country I have always enjoyed watching the Marathon on television and thought I’d like to have a go – then another year would pass before I would think again. So when Paul suggested a team for this year’s run to celebrate the pool’s 25th birthday I took myself off to JJBs for an application form and dusted off my old running shoes, unused for nearly ten years and hit the road.

I have been taking my daughter, Laura, to the hydrotherapy pool almost weekly for 17½ years, since she was 6 months old. Laura was born with microcephaly and as a result is severely disabled. The warm water of the pool has enabled her to relax and has helped her limbs and body stay straight. Laura loves her visits to the pool and since the extension was built also enjoys her ride in the slings on the overhead rail system.

So to keep the dream going look out for my number, 15620, on Sunday 17th April.

If you can take a sponsor form and support Marion and Phil to help the pool by getting sponsorship for them, then please pick up a form from the pool office or phone Paul or Jan on 01793 496002 or email

info@thamesdownhydrotherapypool.com

Words that Women use 2

GO AHEAD (With raised eyebrows)

This is a dare. One that will result in a woman getting upset over “Nothing” and will end with the word “Fine”.

GO AHEAD (Normal eyebrows)

This means “I give up” do what you want because I don’t care. You will then get “Go Ahead with raised eyebrows” in just a few minutes followed by “Nothing” and “Fine” and she will talk to you in about “Five Minutes” when she cools off.

JUST GO AHEAD

At some point in the near future you are going to be in some mighty big trouble.

Join the Friends

Membership of the Friends is a regular subject aired in the Newsletter that’s because it is an important factor that helps the pool to continue to be able to provide up to date facilities. Remember the Friends only raise money to support specific projects for replacing or purchasing new items of equipment that is beneficial to all pool users. Without your support in the past the Friends would never have been able to raise funds to purchase:

Seat backs in the old changing rooms

The pool heat retention blanket

Static pool side hoist

Mobile hoist

Wheelchairs

Patient changing table in the original gents changing room

Overhead patient movement system

All equipment in the new changing rooms

Machinery pumps; and most recently money towards the new Jacuzzi system. Our current project is to replace the hot water system to the showers in the original ladies changing room which will cost just under £2,000 making a grand total of over £67,000 donated.

To enable the friends to continue with this level of support we need membership in order to show Charitable Trusts/local companies/individuals that we are not just a one man band but an organisation that has the support of pool users and their families. We want your membership, application forms are available from the pool.

Christmas Membership Draw

Just over 100 members names went into the hat at Christmas and the lucky winner of the box of chocolates was Patrick Foreman. Don’t forget to take your membership card out of the box in the coffee lounge so you could win the next draw. Many thanks for your support.

Words that Women use 3

That’s OK

This is one of the most dangerous statements that a woman can make to a man. “That’s OK” means that she wants to think long and had before paying you back for whatever it is that you have done. “That’s OK is often used with the word “Fine” and in conjunction with a “Raised Eyebrow”.

Please Do

This is not a statement, it is an offer. A woman is giving you the chance to come up with whatever excuse or reason you have for doing whatever it is that you have done. You have a fair chance with the truth, so be careful and you shouldn’t get a “That’s OK”.

Equal Opportunities Policy Statement

Periodically the Thamesdown Hydrotherapy Pool Association (THPA) reviews the statutory polices it is obliged to up hold. The THPA, in some instances, can not maintain these conditions satisfactory without the consideration of pool users and therefore would appreciate the assistance of all concerned.

The Statement

The THPA will always strive to be an equal opportunity organisation.

The aim of the Association is to ensure that no employee, volunteer, user or potential user receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of gender, disability, age, race, marital status, religion, colour, nationality or ethnic or national origin, or because they are gay or lesbian, nor is disadvantaged by conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be justifiable.

Aims of the Policy

This policy aims to challenge discrimination in all areas of our organisation.  We aim to ensure that THPA reflects and meets the needs of all pool users and local communities and incorporate equal opportunities into all areas of our work.

Statement of Intent

The organisation recognises that certain groups and individuals in our society are discriminated against because of their gender, disability, age, race, marital status, religion, colour, nationality or ethnic or national origin, or because they are gay or lesbian, nor is disadvantaged by conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be justifiable.

Accordingly we are strongly committed to positive action to remove and counter discrimination in all aspects of our work, in our practice as employers, in the way we work with other organisations and in our work with pool users.

Implementation ~ Pool Users/User Groups and Delivery of Service

Equal opportunities will be considered in all aspects of the service that THPA provides.  This will be reviewed and monitored for effectiveness.

Language and behaviour designed to be offensive to any of the groups outlined in this statement is considered unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

Words that Women use 4

Thanks

A woman is thanking you. Don’t faint. Just say you’re welcome.

Thanks a Lot

This is much different from “Thanks”. A woman will say “Thanks a Lot” when she is really ticking you off. It signifies that you have offended her in some callous way. Be careful not to ask what is wrong as she will only tell you “Nothing”.

Have you noticed?

A quarterly Newsletter produced & edited by The Friends for the Hydrotherapy Pool

Issue N. 37: November  2004

25th Anniversary Appeal Launch

Following the earlier postponement of the initial launch the evening venue of 22 July was a successful event. Although the numbers attending were less than we had anticipated the quality was not lacking and we would wish to extend our thanks to those who gave up their time to come along and support the pools appeal.

The Pool Association was able to establish a rapport and develop some very useful and positive contacts with those present and hope that in time these will generate into further support for our appeal. As our chairman, Peter Jones, pointed out in his introduction that although our appeal target was £250,000 that was spread over a 5 year period. If we should raise that amount in the first year it would be great but realistically spread over 5 years would be equally rewarding for the Association. He also stressed that while financial support is our primary aim, services in kind e.g. undertaking the whole or part of a project, would be just as beneficial as we have some 30 projects – equipment replacement etc – over the next five years.

We cannot finish without thanking Nationwide, in particular Michelle Leighton and Jean Trace, for organising the event, providing the venue and for looking after us so well.

Get your hand off my woggle?

Paul Charlwood

That cry will be heard around the Hydrotherapy Pool on Saturday 20th November as all the usual suspects take to the water for Swimathon 2004. In case you are wondering a woggle is a long tube float used as a swimming aid, we tried the other variety worn by the scouts but they didn’t seem to work as well. We have about 20 places left as we go to press (well photocopier actually) if you would like to join in and be part of this special day.

On the day (Saturday November 20th in case you missed it first time) we will have roped off three lanes in the pool and pool users, their family, friends and pool supporters and in extreme cases readers of this high quality periodical swim, walk, stilt walk, paddle, kayak up and down the pool for twenty minutes and see how many lengths they achieve in the process whilst getting themselves sponsored for their heroic efforts. Now you don’t have to be an Olympic swimmer to take part, in fact many of the participants taking part are non-swimmers and will have so many swimming aids on they look like passengers on the maiden voyage of the Titanic. Mums, Dads and kids will be sharing a lane and doing it as a relay. One notable participant amongst all our superstars is a young man who you may have read about in the Evening Advertiser, Mick McCann who is making a great recovery after a very serious car accident. Mick uses the pool as part of his rehabilitation work and was only too pleased to join in and raise some money for the pool. This event is so important to the pool it is the largest single in-house fundraising event that we do, as this is our special 25th anniversary year we want to make it the best ever. Imagine if every company that receives this newsletter put one swimmer forward to represent their company think what could be achieved? Perhaps during our special year your company would like to get involved with its own sponsored swim? Maybe your organisation is trying to fund raise and would like to do a 50/50 swim.

IF YOU CAN HELP AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE, PLEASE PHONE 01793 496002 and talk to Paul Charlwood the Pool Manager.

Coffee Morning/Open Garden

Maggie Bird

The Friends of the Hydrotherapy Pool held their third Open Garden/Coffee Morning on Wednesday 14th July at 5 Tithe Barn Crescent. The weather could have been better with rain threatening and not a very friendly wind but 95 hardy soles braved the elements enjoyed meandering around the garden.

We would like to thank all pool users who kindly supported this very successful morning and not forgetting Julie and Mike Baxter who allowed us to use their beautiful garden with over 250 varieties of fuchsia on display.  

The Bring & Buy stall, Tombola, raffle, plant sales and competitions were well supported and we raised £639.76. Well done to all our helpers.

Kids stuff!

If you need a smile then read through these Children's Science Exam Answers. They are supposed to be real answers given by children. But who knows? - or cares, come to that

Q:  Name the four seasons.
A:  Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.

Q:  Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink.
A:  Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists from the water.
 

Q:  What are steroids?
A:  Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs.
 

Q:  Name a major disease associated with cigarettes.
A:  Premature death.

Wanted

Would you like to get involved and have a say on how your pool is run, then why not join the Pool Committee.  The Hydrotherapy Pool as been operating very successfully for the past 25 years, this can be attributed to the dedication and hard work put in by the Pool Manager and his staff, but behind this team is the Pool Association committee.  The committee consists of the six registered Trustees; the Pool Manager and committee members who are or were pool users.  New faces with new ideas are needed to take the pool forward into the future. Come and join a dedicated team who care for the pool and its users at the start of an exciting period of the pool’s development.

If you want to become more active in helping the pool and have a voice on how it is run, then asked the Pool Manager or staff for more details. The committee meets once a quarter at the pool plus an AGM at Blunsdon House. Please consider giving the pool a small mount of your time which will be beneficial to the organisation and its future.

Remember you do not necessarily have to be a pool user to serve on the committee; it is your commitment we are after so if you are reading this article and are interested then please phone Paul Charlwood on 01793 496002.

Winter Quiz

The Friends winter quiz number eight is ready to roll. By popular demand the quiz sheets will again be on sale at the pool from Saturday 18th December, cost will be just £1 per sheet.  Closing date is Sunday 13th February 2005.  The prize will again be £50 worth of gift vouchers from a leading store.

We are looking for a sponsor for the quiz. If you can help or know a company/shop/person that would be willing to help a good cause, then ring us on 01793 539013, put a note in the Friends donation box at the pool or talk the pool staff. This year’s quiz is about the features/people/things associated with the British coast line, rivers, lakes, water way etc. which may not be too familiar, but not necessarily hard. The right book from the library will get you there.

To make this years quiz the best yet we need your help. Don’t just buy one quiz sheet, buy two, three or even four and sell them to friends and family, even if they don’t like doing quiz’s their £1 will be very rewarding. Better still can you sell a quiz sheets at work, in your pub/club or would your local WI be interested.  If you can pick up the sheets from the pool, it will be much appreciated and help the Friends towards their next project target to support the pool.

What I am trying to say is we need your help more than ever to sell quiz sheets to boost the sales even higher for this quiz, last year we sold over 250 sheets lets make it 300 this year. Oh! - If you’re doing the quiz yourself, no cribbing from the Internet – it’s not always right, good luck.

Evening Advertiser

Following a very informative visit to the pool in October by the Editor and the Managing Director of Newsquest, I think it is safe to say that both sides benefited from the visit. The Adver is now prepared to issue, up to an eight page supplement covering the pools anniversary and its 25 year history.

The size of the supplement is dependant upon advertising revenue. To allow the pool to receive maximum benefit from the issue we urgently need a company to sponsor the supplement, not only would you sponsor us but you would also get a full page advertisement for your company. How about some publicity them!

Find out more from the Editor, Mark Waldron on 01793 501806 or email editor@newswilts.co.uk

London Marathon Update

Well, applications for the Marathon are now closed. We have had 27 people come forward and say they want to run on behalf of the pool in 2005. The next stage is to see how many places we have been awarded when the ballot takes place in December, that’s when we will know how many have made “Harry the Ducks Team”.

Membership of the Friends

August is the Friends high point for membership renewals but sadly at this years AGM it was reported that membership had fell to its lowest point in seven years. With this sharp decline in membership this year it now stands at 130 (as at 31.7.04) paid up members. This is a decrease of 45 members on the previous year although we have had 19 new members during the year; it means that 65 existing members did not renew their annual subscription.

Now is the time to reflect - is your membership worth it, does it achieve anything?  The answer to both is yes.  If it had not for your membership the Friends would have had great difficulty in persuading Charitable Trust’s and Companies to part with their money.  When approaching these organisations; one of the first questions they ask is about membership numbers, how many people support you.  In addition membership fees are a regular source of income for the Friends. Your £3 fee for individuals/£10 for groups and companies is a small amount to show your support to the pool.

Please renew your membership and encourage your friends and family to join (you don’t have to use the pool to join the Friends) and together we can go from strength to strength.

Application forms are available at the Pool.

Jan, Hannah, Edwina and Paul would like to wish all pool users a Happy Christmas and Prosperous New Year

Membership Card Draw

Its that time again for the Friends of the Hydrotherapy Pool annual membership card draw, as you are aware the membership cards are placed in the pigeonholes in the pool’s coffee lounge on membership renewal, unfortunately not all are collected. The draw will be made at the pool on Thursday 23rd December with a mystery gift box as the prize.

Those eligible to enter the draw will be all paid up members whose card is not in the pigeonholes on the Thursday.

The Appeal so far

In conjunction with the anniversary appeal the pool has identified some 30 projects – equipment replacement, up grading etc – that are needed to be undertaken in the next ten years. Top of the list was replacing the existing boundary fence, replacement of the complete Jacuzzi system and by far the most costly, the retiling of the pool itself. The fencing was however forced upon us quicker than anticipated by the recent vandalism at the pool.

In the Associations appeal we have predominantly requested funding for contingencies, domestic and administrative needs; however specific projects have been provided on request. To date the appeal has raised over £22,000 with a further £10,000 promised towards the Jacuzzi project. The total cost of this project has now been quoted as £30,700, it is therefore hoped to be able to move this project along that an order for the equipment can placed before Christmas. We still have a long way to go to meet our appeal targets but the initial response is very encouraging.

In the last Newsletter it was promised to identify the sources of our funding but a number of donors have requested to remain anonymous, so rather than offend no names, unless requested, will be published. However all donors will appear on the donation “hall of fame” board at the pool.

More Kids stuff!

Q:  How can you delay milk turning sour?
A:  Keep it in the cow?

Q:  What happens to your body as you age?
A:  When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental.

Q:  What does the word "benign" mean?'
A:  Benign is what you will be after you are eight.

Q:  How are the main parts of the body categorized? e.g. abdomen.
A:  The body is consisted into three parts – the brainium, the borax and the abdominal cavity. The brainium contains the brain; the borax contains the heart and lungs, and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels, A, E, I, O, and U.

Q:  What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty?
A:  He says good-bye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery

Q:  How is dew formed?
A:  The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire.

Q:  What is the fibula?
A:  A small lie.

Q:  What does "varicose" mean?
A:  Nearby.

Missed the Swimathon?

If you are away, frightened to perform in public or just forget the date, then a private Swimathon can be arranged just for you. This is your chance for family or interdepartmental rivalry to be settled. Can the Smiths out perform the Jones? Can the warehouse achieve more lengths than the personnel department?  Can workers out perform management? You can have fun and help to make this bigger Swimathon than last year, your efforts can make a difference. Interested? 

We look forward to hearing from you, for more details contact Paul Charlwood at the pool on 01793 496002. If you are unable to take part could you sponsor a current participant or take a sponsor form to work for sponsorship of any person taking part? You could sponsor a member of the pool staff who is taking part?

Friends Donation

The Friends have been raising money towards the Jacuzzi project and have now donated £1,000 for the project with a further review early next year when the funding situation for the project will be finalised.

We wish to thank all our members for your support and are now looking further ahead at the other projects in the pipeline. This brings the Friends total donations to the Pool Association over the last 7 years to over £65,000.

And Finally

The Pool Trustees, Committee, Staff and the Friends Committee would like to thank all of you for your support over the past year and to wish you all a very

Merry Christmas and a

Happy & Prosperous New Year

A quarterly Newsletter produced & edited by The Friends for the Hydrotherapy Pool

Issue N. 36: June 2004

Anniversary Appeal Launch

To mark the Pool’s 25th Anniversary it was planned for the Mayor of Swindon Councillor Derek Benfield launch an appeal with a little drink and nibble in the Mayor’s parlour on 12th May. However no matter how well you plan and organise to ensure adequate lead times etc, sometimes things go haywire. This was one of them. Due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control the event had to be postponed.

Our thanks to the Mayor and his mayor's staff for the venue and their help in setting the ball rolling. We hope that we can still count on Derek as a friend, a keen pool supporter and wish him and his wife Pam a long and happy retirement.

25th Anniversary Appeal Launch Mk II

Not all is lost, a few days maybe, but hopefully not the good will and support our anniversary year has generated so far. The new launch date is Thursday 22 July and the event will be hosted by the Nationwide Building Society at their Head office in Pipers Way.

The itinerary for the launch is not yet fully finalised but it is provisionally planned for an evening event starting at 6.30pm with an 8.30 finish. The Chairman of the Hydrotherapy Pool Association, Peter Jones, will give a short presentation covering what the pool is all about and an introduction to our Anniversary Appeal. This will be followed by a video of the pools achievements.

The launch is to get local businesses interested and involved in our appeal and for their support in the future. Attendance will be by invitation only and guests will be able to meet the Pool Trustees Committee and a few pool users too relate their hydro experiences.

Food and drinks will be available during the evening courtesy of Nationwide, so if you have an invitation please make it a date and join us for the evening.

Coffee Morning/Open Garden

After the success of the event two years ago the Friends of the Hydrotherapy Pool are holding another Open Garden/Coffee Morning on Wednesday 14 July at 5 Tithe Barn Crescent. This is the first road on the left after the old PMH site; the No. 10 bus service still operates every 30 minutes to the end of Okus Road.

Over 200 varieties of Fuchsia on display and it has been suggested that in stead of guessing the number of Fuchsias on show we ought to have a competition to find the weed!!! –Yes and you could well find one Ed.

This year we have plant sales as well as a Bring & Buy stall, Tombola, raffle and other competitions. The garden will be open from 11.00am to 3.00pm; included in the entrance fee of £1.50 you will get a cup of Tea/Coffee and a biscuit.

Textile Banks - Less we forget

Think Textile Banks!!! The textile banks are run by the council and the pool benefits from the disposal of the items you deposit in the banks. The banks are dotted around the town at all the re-cycling points and are a good source of income for the pool. It’s that time of the year when we all start to clear out the bits and pieces we have been meaning to get rid of, so if its clothes or old bedding please pop them into your nearest textile bank or to ensure that we get maximum benefit use the one at the pool on your next visit. On the same theme perhaps you know a group or organisation that is having a jumble sale and does not know what to do with the leftovers. Suggest they use a textile bank rather than a visit to Barnfield. All items in the banks are sorted and graded, some are then sent to third world countries in Eastern Europe and Africa, so the brilliant scheme benefits everyone. One item that is most valued in these situations is shoes, so again “Don’t bin them, bank them”.

The Pools new Web Site

No not a spider’s web it’s the Internet variety. Thanks to the time, patients and skill of pool user Eric Smith we have a new presence on the World Wide Web.

You can find us at:

http://www.thamesdownhydrotherapypool.com

and you can e-mail us at:

info@thamesdownhydrotherapypool.com

Included on the pages is the ability to download and print referral forms, membership applications for The Friends of the Pool and lots of other handy information such as times, prices and forthcoming events.

This is just phase one of the project so keep visiting the site on a regular basis to find out how it is developing.

The Appeal - so far

 Although the Appeal year has not yet officially started we have not, nor can not, wait until then to start raising money. You cannot say to someone, with a big fat cheque in their hand, come back at the end of July, it has to be thank you very much now can you help us with……..

So as at the 1st June we have raised £5,321. A breakdown of the donations/sponsorship will be in the next newsletter. Remember the appeal runs until July 2005 so you have plenty of time to get something together to raise funds so that we can have a good crack at our target of £250,000.

One event in the pipe line that will need your support is to sponsor a runner in next years London Marathon. Discussions are underway with a seasoned marathon runner to run the event on the Pools behalf.

Box Clever

A valuable source of income to the pool over many years has always been the good old collection can that can be seen in pubs, clubs, newsagents and even your or a friends home. Besides raising money it also helps to raise our profile in the community. Every year the collection cans manage to raise £500 -£600. 

As part of the Silver Anniversary appeal we have just taken delivery of one hundred new collection boxes. We hope that pool users, their families and readers of this world-renowned newsletter can “Adopt a Box”? We want to expand the number of collection boxes already in the community by getting them placed in new sites with the person who places the box being responsible for its collection and return to the pool twice a year (More often if necessary) where it will counted, a receipt issued and a letter of thanks given.

Can you help? If so contact the pool staff or ring 01793 496002 for more details.

Christmas Bazaar

I know Christmas is still a long off but if you don’t plan this far ahead you don’t get a hall. The date for this years Bazaar is Saturday 27 November, again at St Barnabas Church Hall Gorse Hill. See the Pool notice boards for details from September onwards.

Are you in for the Swim?

 As sure as one of Shane Warne’s Gogglies will get you (Antipodean leg spin bowler madam, and a type of delivery he bowls). As sure as Hannah Phillips (pool assistant) saying, “No thank you I won’t have an alcoholic drink” on a night out, the time has come for Swimathon 2004. As dedicated readers will know this is the pool’s annual large fund raising event and for our 25th anniversary edition let’s make this year the biggest and best yet. We ask customers, their families, friends and pool supporters to help us raise money for a worthy cause that brings so much relief to the young and old alike. For the Swimathon you can swim with or without aids, walk, hop, skip, jump or do anything that is legal for 20 minutes in a roped off lane and getting themselves sponsored to do it in the process. Make sure you put your names down (when the lane notices go up) early to ensure you get the time slot the suits you best so if you fancy having some fun and get a certificate of participation just contact any member of the pool staff or ring 01793 496002 for more details. If you can’t take part why not sponsor the staff taking part, you could just come along and support everyone on the day. We also need help to count the lengths the swimmers achieve, again contact pool staff for more details. Every year we (The Staff) try to think of more and more outrageous (very silly) ways of doing our own swim, in the past it has been done on a scooter, mountain bike, three legged, handstands, in a wheelchair and underwater. This year we are contemplating doing something imaginative with supermarket trolleys, all will be revealed later.

The date!!! Not yet finalised but Saturday 20th November has been penned in the diary.

Can you help?

If you are young, good looking or just a “grey mop” with time on your hands and are prepared to spare a small amount of your time helping the pool and its users, then come and join our pool committee. We asked this question in the last newsletter and your response has been commendable but we are still looking for that new committee member. The kind of help we are looking for is not to get physically involved in the therapy sessions but to assist in fund raising/sponsored events during our anniversary appeal and have a say on how it all works. If you like what you’re doing you would be welcome to stay with us – you do not have to be a pool user to join the committee.

If you are interested come along and have a look at the pool and talk to the staff, you will be surprised at what a little gem the Hydrotherapy Pool is, offering some of the most modern disabled handling equipment in the UK.

Think it over and give the pool manager Paul Charlwood a call on Swindon 496002.

Copyright © 2004 Thamesdown Hydrotherapy Pool
Last modified: 08/02/2010