Need relief carer to support small team of carers working in a private home in Berwick St Leonards.
Training provided but experience of caring for stroke victims useful.
Must be able to drive
Please contact: [email protected]
Tel: 07974 226343
Qualified Sessional Counsellors/Therapists
Mosaic is seeking fully qualified counsellors/therapists as sessional workers in the East, North and West areas of Dorset. If you have experience of working with bereaved children, young people and their families and would like to be part of our friendly and supportive team, please contact us for further information and an application form.
Further details and an application form available from:
01258 837071,
[email protected] www.mosaicfamilysupport.org
Registered Charity: 1158138
SARGENT, Alan John
Alan John Sargent
Of Sherborne, formally of Holnest Lodge, passed away peacefully at Yeovil District Hospital 22nd April 2021, aged 88.
Loving husband to Peggy, devoted father to Paul, David & Lynda, doting Grandfather & Great Grandfather.
Family flowers only please, but if you wish to make a donation in lieu, please send a cheque made payable to Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance directly to Funeral Director C/O Stuart Foster Funeral Services Ltd, 27 Market Street, Yeovil, Somerset BA20 1HZ 01935 508971
The Random 19 – with Bestselling Author Sarah J. Naughton.
I’ll be honest – even though I’ve read two of her books, I had no idea that Sarah Naughton was a local until her Mum emailed me and told me so (*waves to Sarah’s Mum*). Thank goodness she did, because not only was Sarah brave enough to be the first subject of The Random 19, but it also gave me the excuse to buy her latest book The Festival…
Sarah Naughton’s first book was shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Award. She also writes bestselling psychological thrillers for adults and is published in eleven territories. Married with two teenage sons, Sarah divides her time between London and Dorset. She has yet to win a Nobel Prize, but did get a Highly Commended for her herb display in the Whitchurch Canonicorum produce show.
The Random 20
1. What’s your relationship with the Blackmore Vale (the area, not us!)?
I grew up in a tiny village on the Somerset/Dorset border, with a school, a post office and, latterly and excitingly, a video shop. Our house used to back onto fields and a pig farm. The whole estate smelled of it. My mum would get me up at night to see the badgers and hedgehogs who had wandered into our garden. There was only one other single parent family in the village so we would hang out a lot. The other mum had an open fire and we used to wheel a shopping trolley to the local wood at night to pilfer firewood.
Cut Mill was my favourite place in the world and even now, after it sadly burnt down, it’s my sons’ favourite too. They’re as afraid as I was of the legendary pike that lurks in the mill pond, who must be drawing his pension by now. As a non-sporty teenager there wasn’t much to do, so I would go on endless tramps around the lanes, dreaming of what my life would be like when I moved to the big city, which I did aged seventeen.
I scoffed at people who said I would miss the countryside. And then of course I did. A few years ago we bought a place an hour from my parents and I’ve missed it so much during lockdown.
2. What was the last song you sang out loud in your car?
The car playlist is strictly controlled by my teenage sons, so I tend only to sing in the kitchen when I’ve had a few ciders. The last one was I Need A Hero by Bonnie Tyler.
3. Last movie you watched? Would you recommend it?
It’s very hard for us all to agree on films. My eldest likes gross-out comedies, me and my youngest like supernatural horror, and my husband likes classic gangster movies. The compromise is never successful but I’m not going to slag the most recent one off as I admire all these indie filmmakers who are getting such a great platform on Amazon and Netflix.
4. It’s Friday night – you have the house to yourself. What will you do?
That doesn’t fill me with any excitement. Writing is a solitary occupation and I get more than enough time on my own.
Last time I had an evening to myself I sugar-soaped the kitchen.
5. If you were sent to an island for a year and could only bring three things, what would you bring (the island is already equipped with a magical power source, a phone and a laptop)?
A massive inflatable in the shape of a flamingo, a bottle of rum to go with the abundant supply of pineapples and coconuts, and Maggie O’Farrell’s entire back catalogue, as I realised, when I heard her on Desert Island Discs the other day, that I’ve never read anything by her.
6. What would you like to tell 15yr old you?
Everything will be alright.
7. Most embarrassing moment of your teen years?
Uh uh. No way. I’ve spent years trying to forget that stuff and reinvent myself as Successful Writer. You’ll have to ask the people I went to school with.
8. Who’s your celebrity crush?
It gets harder as you age, not to feel ashamed of yourself for fancying the same type you fancied as a teenager, ie men in their twenties, so I’ll just pretend to like Daniel Craig, like every other forty-something woman (actually it’s Iwan Rheon).
9. What book did you read last year that stayed with you?
Three Women by Lisa Taddeo. It uses the experiences of three different women to explore female desire and sexuality: which sounds really worthy, but isn’t. I recommend it for women of any age – I guarantee you will relate to it – and to men who want to understand women better.
10. What was the last gift you gave someone?
As a Father’s Day present for my dad I’ve just bought a framed woodcut of a Dore etching from The Ancient Mariner. It is loaded with meaning that he and I will get. Hopefully he’ll laugh.
11. What shop can you not pass without going in?
Peter Jones in Sloane Square. I’m with John Betjemen: nothing unpleasant could possibly happen there. I’ve written all my books in the café on the 6th floor. In fact I went into labour there too, which I think should entitle my son to free scones for life.
12. Favourite quote? Movie, book or inspirational – we won’t judge.
I had a boyfriend who used to say this to me if I was sad:
‘All shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.’
It’s by the English mystic, Julian of Norwich, and I used to think it was a bit earnest, but it has stayed with me over the years.
I also like ‘Suck my fat one’ from Stand By Me.
13. Write the review for your latest book that you wish someone would leave on Amazon for you.
“Sarah Naughton’s recent Nobel Prize for literature was highly deserved, as was the seven figure advance this book received. Five stars ★★★★★”
14. What was the last gift you received?
A friend with her own teenage boys, predicting my Mothers Day might not be as replete with thoughtful gifts and pampering as everyone else’s on social media (#blessed), sent me a bottle of gin. Best Mothers Day ever.
15. A penguin just walked in the door wearing a panama hat. Why is he here?
To give me my Nobel prize and my million pound cheque.
16. Your top three most-visited favourite websites (excluding social media!)?
Like most writers my internet history is both random and sinister.
The last thing I Googled was How to Destroy Bones and the one before that was about autoerotic asphyxiation.
The only website I visit with any regularity is BBC Sounds, as sometimes it’s the only thing that will quieten my racing thoughts enough to sleep. My favourite section is Horror and Supernatural, but I do love a good In Our Time, especially about science. That sends me off in a nanosecond.
17. What in life is frankly a mystery to you?
How people feel very strongly about trivial things (eg. Megan and Harry) and ignore huge issues like political corruption and cronyism. We laugh along when they joke about it on Have I Got News for You and then promptly forget about it, so those in power get away scot free. You don’t beat the system by laughing at it, you just make life easier for the political elite. They’d rather be chuckled at than made accountable.
18. Chip Shop Chips or Homebaked Cake?
It would be sadistic to make me choose.
19. Favourite crisp flavour?
My relationship with crisps has been a troubled one. I used to love Smoky Bacon flavour, but after I got chicken pox they never tasted the same again. After that it was Wotsits, but I had to eat forty packets of them to save up for a Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles watch. I can’t even look at someone eating them now.
20. The best biscuit?
Biscuits are a scandalous waste of calories that you could spend on cake.
Sarah’s latest book The Festival is out TODAY – stocked in all good bookshops (and heinous internet giants too, obviously), you can support your local bookseller by ordering it from Winstones of Sherborne here.
Read our review of Sarah J. Naughton’s The Festival here.
Housekeeping Staff Required | Plumber Manor
Housekeeping Staff required for Plumber manor Hotel Sturminster Newton
Weekends 8am – 1pm
Minimum 4 shifts per month, Saturdays and or sundays – more shifts are available
Start date after 17th May 2021
Contact [email protected] or ring 01258 472507
Sewards Furniture & Blinds Gillingham
Sewards Furniture and Blinds in Gillingham have a full time vacancy available.
Role to include delivering furniture measuring and fitting blinds.
Please email: [email protected] with your CV.
Male Live in Carer Required
Job share, two weeks on, two weeks off.
Based DT9 Area
Must have skills in Alzheimer care.
Please contact – 07956 137061
Volunteer Coordinator Required | The Balsam Centre
The Balsam Centre require a Volunteer Coordinator
We are looking for an enthusiastic Volunteer Coordinator to recruit, manage and support our volunteers. If you like meeting and working with people, have experience of the voluntary sector, and enjoy being creative this is an exciting job opportunity.
From walk leaders to befrienders, trustees to babysitters, art teachers, sewing instructors, men’s shed woodworkers, toddler groups, breast feeding supporters, cooks, gardeners, peer supporters and youth workers. These are just some of the activities currently carried out by our fantastic team of 122 volunteers.
The role is part time 22.5 hours per week
Salary £25,000 pro rata
Please see our website page https://balsamcentre.org.uk/jobs.html for full details and application form
Closing date for applications is 5pm 17th May 2021
Interviews w/c 24th May 2021
Tiptoeing to a resumption ofservices | Simon Hoare MP
Covid has had impacts on so many elements of our lives. They have been in place for so long that sometimes it is quite hard to remember how things were before this killer hit our shores.
I don’t know about you but when I see a TV programme showing people in a bar or a big family reunion I look at them as if of something from a bygone era. But that’s pessimistic and a new normal will resume,
incrementally and step by step.
It’s been great to see our schools open to all of our young people. A Herculean Task has been delivered in all of our high schools with the lateral flow testing of all of their consenting pupils on three occasions over two weeks. Having had the immense good fortune to be able to help out in both Gillingham and Blandford High Schools I have seen at first hand the school and volunteer effort to get this job done. We all did so in the knowledge that we were helping our communities to stay safe and to get people back into the actual classroom.
Delivery of non Covid healthcare has, by force of circumstance, interrupted the flow of wider healthcare
needs. As the NHS has been saved from being overwhelmed, managers and clinicians have been turning their attention to tackling the backlog. Orthopaedics is one area where too many people have been left in pain. I realise how fortunate I was to have a hip replacement just 10 days before Lockdown
One. I know the debilitating pain of arthritis, so there’s much to be done to address those still waiting. The same is true, but to a lower volume, with oncology services. We were making such good progress with early diagnosis and survival rates, we cannot afford to slip back.
The other week I chaired a meeting with Health Minister Ed Argar and the chairs of a number of All Party Parliamentary Groups (I chair Multiple Sclerosis and I was joined by the chairs of Parkinsons, Acquired Brain Injury and Motor Neurone Disease) to make the case for a neurological services roadmap post Covid.
We were really encouraged not only with the seriousness with which the Minister took the issue but the work in hand to ensure effective catch-up can be delivered. There are significant personal health and longer term financial costs in not doing so and these need to be avoided.
At an earlier Round Table of the same APPGS we heard from patients with the various conditions. They were at pains to urge that the lessons learned during Covid of how to deliver healthcare should not be lost.
The lead example was the use of technology.
Many patients have been receiving therapies and support digitally, removing the need for travel to
a healthcare setting, journeys which can often be painful and arduous depending upon the condition.
The Minister took the point, and while none of us are advocating that IT can replace every one-to-one with a doctor or nurse, it can play a part. It’s often easier for the patient, and more patients can be seen due to efficiencies.
With greater emphasis on ending the digital ‘not-spots’ in our rural areas, and where distance to hospital and the shortage of public transport presents difficulties to some of our most vulnerable, we can and should embrace new ways of ensuring getting the care to those who need it.
In closing may I wish you and your family a very happy, safe and peaceful Easter. The cycle of new Spring life and the Resurrection story should give us all the hope and optimism we need following these more than challenging months.
by Simon Hoare MP
