Pa ent Liaison Commi ee

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Everyone at the Surgery and the Pa ent Liaison Commi ee wishes you all a very Happy New Year and may it be a much be er one than this passing one!

Flu and the Village Hall

We would like to say a huge thank you to the Village Hall for le ng us run the Flu Clinics there. We do s ll have vaccines at the Surgery so please, if you have not had yours, contact the Surgery.

The Surgery/Prescrip ons

I want to impress on all pa ents that the Surgery is business as usual. If you are unwell or due smears, child immunisa ons, blood tests, or blood pressure checks etc., please call the Surgery to make your appointment. Could we also ask that you give at least five working days for your repeat prescrip ons? When you do visit the Surgery for appointments or to pick up your prescrip ons, please wear your masks. We all know life is strange, but we have to keep each other safe

COVID Vaccina ons and Boosters

Please keep an eye on our website and our Facebook page for all updates.

Un l then please follow the rules and stay safe!

George Gordon Harepath Farm Burbage George.gordon@lkl-services.co.uk

27th Annual Burbage Christmas Tree Sale & Christmas Market

On Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th December Burbage ran its 27th Christmas tree sale. Thank you to everybody who ran and bought trees to support our village Christmas tree sale, it was another success.

Allan Masey and his team of village hall volunteers organised the car parking and came through brilliantly with minimal ground marks despite the soggy ground. Thank you to all the village hall team that ran the parking.

This year funds have been shared by All Saints church with Burbage School, Burbage Village Hall, Burbage Scouts and Burbage Doctors' Surgery to reflect the team of volunteers from our community that run the event.

We were delighted to have the ongoing support of So Op ons Water So eners Ltd as our generous event sponsors. This business is owned and run by Simon and Ali Neate, a Burbage family and I would urge you to put your water so ener business and salt refills in their direc on. Their support covered the direct costs of running the event which makes a big difference.

Se ng up went smoothly un l we hooked up the special Wi-Fi on Friday tea - me to cover the Church green and Christmas market. Panic ensued as we realised the only person who knew the password had emigrated to Canada! A stressful period ensued of trying different unsuccessful technical solu ons. 15-year-old Archie Butler meanwhile sat down and pa ently guessed passwords; a er half an hour he guessed the correct combina on, allowing all the electronic payment systems to work, to my great relief!

Special men on to Glenda Pearce for coping with my chaos and handling all the emails and other ma ers. Glenda manages the all-important rota of volunteers and worked wonders in finding people for all our slots; there would be no event without Glenda and the rota of helpers.

Giselle runs the Christmas Market, and visitors were kind enough to say how high the quality of stalls and gi s on offer were; we were compared favourably with numerous larger Christmas markets. On top of that, Giselle asked her Military Wives Choir to come and perform on Saturday and they excellent as always and hugely appreciated.

Live music became a bigger and be er feature and this year: We had performances from the Pewsey Belles, Burbage Primary School Choir, The BlueBelles, The Military Wives Choir, and the Phoenix Brass band. It was a fantas c effort and really gave a lovely Christmassy atmosphere.

Well done to the team in the Church who ran the free face pain ng and cra ac vi es for kids - a brilliant effort which was really busy on Saturday. The marvellous team in the kitchen kept us all fed and watered with delicious homemade cakes and refreshments. The main cake stall was as popular and successful as ever, thanks to Helen Colling and everyone who baked and ran this area of our ac vi es.

David Butler did a great job of managing our banners, electronic payments, social media and countless other issues. Burbage Scouts herded our super cute Reindeer expertly and found them all good homes by Saturday a ernoon. A larger herd is coming next year!

We made a list detailing what went right and wrong, and had some ideas how to do the next event be er, at the Helper’s Drinks Party on Monday 6th. Chris Gray had prepared a set of accounts for the event - in under 24 hours - so we knew the financial results for the weekend.

Ul mately the event and the funds it raised for Burbage depend on the support of our community and willingness of volunteers to help. Whatever your talent, we can use it. We need cake bakers, table decora on and foliage makers, night watchmen, drivers, tree carriers, iPad operators, car parking crew, and a kitchen team. Please get involved in con nuing our village tradi on and help fund All Saints Church and other charitable causes in Burbage.

The 28th Burbage Sale will be on 3rd and 4th of December 2022. We are already planning it and we look forward to welcoming you then!