Possum's Post Christmas 17

s ’ m u s s o P POST

Maureen Grady and Keri French with their unique outfits for International Month

Inside this issue: • Romeo & Juliet celebrations • International Month • Summer menu launches • Meet Tom and Margaret Possum Bourne Retirement Village Christmas Newsletter 2017

Possum’s Post

Possum’s Post

Greetings from Philip...

Hello and welcome to our Christmas newsletter and the last of the year!

It is hard to believe that the village and care centre have been open for over a year now. Our second apartment block and townhouses at the rear of the village are on track to open. This means we only have one more stage to complete next year.

The village is looking a treat, the gardens are in full bloom and residents are settling into village life. We now have more parking available and there is also a second entrance into the village from Twomey Drive.

Our village staff have been quite busy as you will see in this newsletter. We still have

more activities and events coming in the last months of the year so keep an eye on your calendars.

Romeo & Juliet Village ball

After such a lousy winter, we are looking forward to a sunny and hot summer. There is plenty of great outdoor seating at our café, so stop by and grab a coffee and a treat.

I wish you a merry festive season and all the best for the year ahead.

Kind regards,

Philip Hanson Village Manager

ks

Residents disguised in their fabulous mas

To celebrate the Royal New Zealand Ballet and Ryman Healthcare’s season of Romeo & Juliet, our village decided to hold a masquerade ball. Prior to the ball, the Drapers dance company performed a piece of Romeo & Juliet for more than a hundred residents attending. Everyone was decked out in their best outfits with some truly amazing and creative masks.

Lisa Lorrell performed for us and we loved dancing to her stunning voice.

The kitchen worked hard to create a sumptuous dinner. Thank you to everyone who attended, we hope you had a fantastic time.

Charity partner announced In June, Alzheimer’s NZ was announced as Ryman’s charity partner for the year. Ngaire Dixon, chair of Alzheimer’s New Zealand, was delighted with the announcement as dementia and Alzheimers will become more of an issue in the future. There were more than 62,000 New Zealanders with dementia

in 2016, and the this is forecast to grow to 170,212 people by 2050. Ryman villages include 710 dementia beds and demand for care is growing.

Every dollar raised for Alzheimer’s New Zealand at our villages this year will be matched dollar for dollar by Ryman Healthcare.

Philip Hanson Village Manager Ph: 09 238 0370

Michelle Garland Sales Advisor Ph: 09 238 0808

Call Philip for general enquiries, or any information about resthome, hospital and dementia care.

Talk to Michelle about retirement living options and availabilities in the village.

Lisle Farm Drive, Pukekohe • www.possumbournevillage.co.nz

Raising a glass to a wonderful ball

Village Manager Phillip Hanson and Sue Horan

Residents Bruce and Kay Wiseman

Possum’s Post

Possum’s Post

Summer menu launched!

Our Delicious menus have taken our villages by storm since the launch in February this year. The much-anticipated summer menus will combine age-old favourites along with a few new additions, such as the inclusion of couscous.

Hospitality manager Andrew Gibson said that the team concentrated on refining the menus for this edition.

“We’re building on the success of our previous menus by refining the recipes.

We know what works now and we’ll build from there. But we also included a few new dishes.”

Among these new dishes are chefs Paul Kuronic and Steve Iraia’s crab cake dishes.

Paul and Steve both won silver at the New Zealand Hospitality Championships earlier this year, and residents will now get a taste of their creations.

V i l l a g e b all Our village was lucky to hold not one but two balls. In May, we had a village-wide ball, and more than 180 residents attended.

The village centre looked spectacular and almost everyone was on the dancefloor swaying to the beautiful voice of Lisa Lorrell.

It was such a great evening and we will definitely need to do it again!

Adéle Jacobs and Russell Stevens

And the best new dish on the menu?

“Definitely the brisket!”

Andrew enthused.

The summer menus will be rolled out in October.

Annaleise Hill and Ev Otto

Christmas tree cookies

Ballgoers John and Cath

Robinson

Makes approx 10 trees Ingredients: • 2 cups flour • ½ tsp baking soda • 1 tbsp ground ginger • 1 cup (220g) firmly packed soft brown sugar • 150g butter

• 1 egg • Cookie cutter, one shape varying sizes Royal icing sugar: • 2 egg whites • 2 cups icing sugar • 2 tsp vanilla extract

Method: 1. Preheat oven to 180°C. 2. Sift flour, baking soda and ground ginger together in a bowl. Add butter.

3. In a separate bowl beat the egg and sugar until light and fluffy.

4. Mix everything together. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

5. Roll out on a lightly floured surface and cut out the shapes.

6. Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden.

Keep an eye on the smaller cookies so that they don’t burn.

7. Remove from oven and cool on baking rack.

8. Assemble the tree by using a bit of icing sugar between the layers.

Royal icing sugar: Beat egg whites in clean, large bowl with mixer at high speed until foamy. Gradually add sugar and vanilla extract. Beat at high speed until thickened.

Cashin Scholarship open for entries Fozia Tasheem has no doubt that winning the first Cashin Scholarship changed the course of her life.

Fozia was studying accounting and information systems at Victoria University and funding her studies was a struggle.

Fozia’s mum, Hushn Bano, was working at Malvina Major as a housekeeper, and Fozia took a part time job there.

“I did everything I could at the village to get extra shifts.’’

In 2011, she applied for the first Cashin Scholarship and it could not have come at a better time.

Now 25, Fozia has just been promoted to a co-ordinator’s role at Datacom in Wellington, so her career is on the up.

The 2018 Cashin Scholarship is now open.

Ryman staff and family members undertaking tertiary study in 2018 can apply. Entries close November 24.

For more details contact David King at: david.king@rymanhealthcare.com

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Possum’s Post

Possum’s Post

Club for our Happy Hour. It has been interesting to see the village grow to what it is today.

We really enjoy getting involved in all the activities, shows, presentations and fine dining that is available to us. You could be busy every hour of every day if you were so inclined.

Elvis is in the house

brated On the 4th of July, our village cele with a Day the United States’ Independence ) visited the special show. Elvis (Brendon Chase out for village and over 170 residents turned him sing the event. Everyone loved hearing and dance. What a great afternoon.

Resident Brittney Ross was delighted to finally meet Elvis

International Month

For International Month , our residents and staff decided to dress up in their native dress.

This resulted in colourfu l costumes from 12 different cultures. Re sidents were also treated to a Kapa Haka during happy hour.

Our staff in their tradit

ional outfits

I grew up in Auckland and after school I started to work. My career has been diverse and I have worked in refrigeration, engineering, and facilities maintenance, which seems to be a good fit for our village.

Our village is continually growing which keeps me very busy every day.

I have enjoyed various employment opportunities in my working life and have always been a customer focused person and I have ability to get along with everyone.

I enjoyed motorcycling up till earlier this year when I realised that my youthful

Hello, our names are Tom and Margaret Jones.

Tom was raised in Pukekohe, while Margaret was raised in Wairarapa.

November this year marks our two-year anniversary at the wonderful Possum Bourne village.

We were part of the first group of residents who moved into the village and at that time, there were no facilities here. On Thursday afternoons, we were usually taken by bus to the Cosmopolitan

Introducing Greg Hello, my name is Greg Lapwood and I am the maintenance man for Possum Bourne village. I started working at the village in May this year.

garet r a M & Meet Tom

enthusiasm and outright horsepower wouldn’t make a good mix in the future as I get older. So instead of that I invested in a safer option – a boat. boat I enjoy my time with my family and they seem to keep me occupied with tasks even though at times I feel like a quiet beer would be a better option.

My favourite thing about working at Possum Bourne is the interaction with the residents. They are a fantastic bunch. The most challenging thing is the maintenance work and making sure the village is shipshape.

Pink Ribbon breakfast During October, to show our support for the thousands of women affected by breast and gynaecological cancers, we held a Pink Ribbon breakfast.

Independent and serviced apartment residents joined in by wearing their best shade of pink (and even some red) and had a lovely time chatting and socialising. Our kitchen did a wonderful job of creating a sumptuous continental breakfast and everyone enjoyed a glass of bubbly.

We hope that everyone enjoyed the day and we look forward to hosting another one next year.

We have been married for over 52 years and have a daughter and a son. We are also blessed with three grandchildren.

We enjoy travelling and have been to Fiji, Australia, Bali and more recently we were on a cruise to Singapore.

Tom had his own building company located in Pukekohe. He said that he would not want to go anywhere else and therefore, we were extremely happy to have Ryman come and establish a village here in Pukekohe.

Another blessing for us is that our family still lives locally and so it was not a stressful move at all.

Possum Bourne residents are really friendly and the staff are most obliging.

Our favourite things are all the activities and events made available to us. We are happy to spend the rest of our lives here in comfort and security.

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Possum’s Post The Men’s Club members with artist Terry Scott (holding the sculpture)

A look at turning timber Recently members of our Men’s Club visited the well-known woodturner, Terry Scott.

Terry was bitten by the woodturning bug after an encounter with an elderly man who wanted to use Terry’s firewood to make turning timber.

This chance encounter led to a guild meeting and his addiction to woodturning was born.

Terry started out making conventional pieces before experimenting with colour and texture.

Terry has taken part in exhibitions and the Taranaki WoodCraft Festival. His work is very popular, especially among our own residents.

It was fantastic to hear this great artist speak about his work. We will definitely visit his workshop again!

s t n e v E g n i Upcom iety show r a v is r a P n Coli Max Cryer Quilt Expo Craft fair