Eastleigh Borough and Romsey Mencap Society

Staying home and keeping safe 

We have been listening very carefully to all of the information from the Prime Minister and his team, which helps us to understand how to keep our members, staff and volunteers safe, while Doctors, Nurses and healthcare workers take care of the people who are unwell with the Covid-19 Coronavirus. The most recent update from the Prime Minister told us that we all need to continue to stay at home. This means that all of our groups will stay closed, for now.

I feel sad that we are not able to see each other, but we know that it is very important for us to stay safe and to make sure that we all feel well when we do see each other again. We will keep updating you every month in the Newsflash, or sooner if we have an important update to share. We are still here for you and can be contacted by telephone or email if you need us, or you want to ask any questions about this update.

To get in touch via email, you can use my new email address gina.rouse@ebrmencap.org.uk (Gina Rouse is my new last name – I got married a few weeks ago!)   Stay safe and keep washing your hands!

Zoom Chats

Just because we can’t be together, doesn’t mean we can’t see each other!

We would like to make group chats available to our members, using a secure Zoom meeting. We would set a regular meeting time for each of our groups to get together virtually, once a week or fortnight. Zoom can be accessed from any PC, laptop, tablet or phone with an internet connection and it is very easy to set up and use, with minimal help. We will provide a meeting ID, with a password that will not be shared outside of the group that is invited to join in. Full instructions will be provided.

Please send an email to gina.rouse@ebrmencap.org.uk if you would like to join in or receive some more information.

Did you recognise Stevan and Katherine examining the inside of the chimney at Gods House Tower in March this year?

Katherine’s sunshine coat is a real give away but to recognise Stevan was very clever, it could have been anyone!

The winner is WILL W. Well done, Will!

Friday Night is Quiz Night – 7.45pm

There is a weekly quiz online each week which you might like to join. It is called Cliff’s Chase (complied by Pauline’s husband, Cliff). There are 21 questions and the whole event lasts about half an hour.

Here is the link, register in advance and log in at 7.35pm for the count down to the start of the quiz. Good luck!

https://myQuiz.org/i/214553

If you receive a paper copy of the newsletter that comes through the post, make sure you keep the special envelope. It is one that commemorates the effort of Capt Tom Moore, who set out to raise £1,000 for NHS charities by walking up and down his garden but raised over £28 million.

It was his one hundredth birthday on Thursday, April 30 and the Post Office has commemorated his effort with this special post mark for use this week only. This is a good souvenir of this strange time. Who knows, one day it may be valuable!

Titanic Story
Andy Skinner, the education officer at Sea City Museum, who has hosted many visits for us, has recorded a guided tour of the museum with lots of additional stories that we might not know. This could be of interest if you like Titanic stories. There are also some colouring sheets if you have a printer at home, as well as an online quiz and a crossword.

https://seacitymuseum.co.uk/online-activities

Other local and national museums and galleries are also offering different activities to keep people involved, have a look around their websites.

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• Talking to friends on the phone
• Face timing your family
• Using facebook 
• Write letters to friends and post them

Pilates

It is important to get some gently exercise – 15 minutes of guided Pilates each day can be found on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/thejoyfulmovementlife/

(If you go out, try to avoid close contact with other people)

Try to do something active at least once a day, or more…

• Start a short daily keep- fit routine, you can do at home. Some stretches, bends, etc. Maybe do some home made circuits, use tins of beans as weights
• Work out a dance routine you can do everyday to a favourite piece of music 
• Cycling around the block or to the park and back

• Gardening. Digging, planting, watering and weeding can all provide good exercise.
• Yoga
• Walking – walking with purpose. Not dawdling along but walking briskly, decide where you are going and move swiftly along to that place, swinging your arms and being energetic. Then walk back, time each way, see if you can walk faster. 
• Nature walk – if there is a park near your home, walk there every few days and see what is changing. Are there bulbs coming up?

• Playing on the Wii – particularly any sport or exercise
• Spring cleaning your room
• Spring cleaning your house
• Decorating your room (house) 

Plan to have an entry in our Art Competition 

All entries welcome

My house, my garden 
Entries on a postcard to show what you do in your house or garden, how your house or garden looks, or produce a picture of the place where you would like to live. This is a perfect activity for lockdown.

We are looking for brilliant original artwork, all postcards submitted will be displayed at the Flagship Art  Exhibition in the autumn.  There will be prizes.

• Painting by numbers in a book or on your tablet
• Colouring in an adult colouring book
• Keeping a diary of all the things you did while staying at home
• Learn a poem off by heart
• Wordsearches
• Dot to dot puzzles

• Knitting
• Making Easter Cards
• Crocheting
• Painting
• Sketching
• Drawing a self portrait using a mirror or photograph

• Making a scrap book of the last year, or a recent holiday 
• Making models with lego
• Doing jigsaw puzzles easy ones first, then the really hard ones!
• Baking
• Planning new meals and making them
• Making craft kits – cross stitch
• Making models – planes, ships etc
• Learning to do origami

• Sorting out all the pictures on your phone, deleting the terrible ones!
• Decluttering your room – do you need this? Do you still like it? Make decisions!
• Sorting out your spring clothes, summer clothes…! Does it still fit? Am I still comfortable in this?

• Listening to music
• Choose your Desert Island Discs – your favourite 8 songs. Think why they are important to you and how you would talk about them if asked
• Play games on your phone
• Listening to audio books

• Listening to stories and plays on the radio
• Bird watching from your window – can you identify the birds?
• Counting the birds that come to your feeder, recording what you see.