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Including: Boreham, Broomfield, Danbury, Great Baddow, Maldon, South Woodham Ferrers, The Walthams and Writtle 10000 copies distributed monthly Issue Number 21: 19th June - 17th July 2015
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Dear readers
Summer must officially be here as it is festival month locally! 27th June we have Walthamstock, 30th June - 2nd July is the 3foot People Festival, Saturday 4th July is The Fling Festival, 10th, 11th and 12th is Brownstock and the Chelmsford Beer Festival runs from 7th July - 11th July in Admirals Park! Look out for our stages at The Fling and at Brownstock (in the Saloon Bar). With thanks to High Chelmer and Event, Sound and Light for the stage and sound for the Fling. Remember to check out our What’s On page which is possibly the most comprehensive in the city with gigs, shows and lots of other events. And see page 9 for a chance to win tickets for Aztec’s National Flower Show at Hylands Park. We have lots of new advertisers for you this month, look out for Chelmsford City Football Club who are advertising their Family Fun Day and The J’s Hospice talking about the Chelmsford Marathon and other up and coming events (page 28). Also Waterhouse Mercedes on page 5! Paul and Nick.
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Artwork 9th July Articles 3rd July
New Book Draws on Chelmsford Grandfather’s Dunkirk Escape Local born and educated author Steve Little, 65, has followed up his book about the glory years of Chelmsford City FC called Living The Claret Dream, with a novel that has a strong Chelmsford connection. Joining Forces is the fictional story of Frank, the village policeman from Broomfield, picking up life after serving in WW1, but tragedy soon strikes his family. Out of adversity an opportunity arises and he becomes an ace marksman for the police and later MI5. One of his assignments in the late 1920s is to assassinate Adolf Hitler and later as an MI5 agent infiltrating the British National Socialists led by Oswald Mosley. As WW2 approaches, Frank’s family life in the Chelmsford area reflects the often difficult times through the depression and Steve has drawn on the experiences of his grandparents and parents, who lived their whole lives in Chelmsford. In telling the latter part of Frank’s story when he is trapped in France in 1940, Steve directly draws on the experiences of his grandfather, Ted Little, a 44 year old reservist who was called up in 1939. Before his death in 1983 Ted told Steve what it was like to be strafed on those Dunkirk beaches with death a constant threat until the crew of the Southend Arcadian, a pleasure steamer from Shoeburyness, eventually picked up Ted and brought him home - this was the EIGHTH boat he had been taken on, having fallen out of, or been thrown and blown out of the other seven! Steve says: “Joining Forces, a sequel to my first novel More Than Just A Life, is a story of love, tragedy and espionage with a lead up to WW2 and those who have read it like the Chelmsford connection as part of its gripping story.” Note: copies of Joining Forces can be obtained through Waterstones in Chelmsford or by contacting Steve through his website: www.stevelittlebooks.com.
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Page 3
CT Fashion -
Lots of things say British Summer, like barbecues, summer weddings, rounders in the park, tennis (watching and playing), ice cream vans, deck chairs on British beaches and so on, but music festivals are now also becoming synonymous with British summers. It used to be that the only festival that most people had heard of was Glastonbury, but now, year after year, more festivals are appearing on the festival calendar and if you google ‘UK Summer Festivals 2015’, you will not believe how many there are, even in Chelmsford we have V Festival, The Fling and Brownstock.
Festival Fashion
Festival fashion doesn’t change too much year after year though - denim shorts, Hunter wellies, floral garlands, panama hats, playsuits and cowboy boots all have their place at most music festivals. Festival dressing has to be fashionable, comfortable and above all practical, because our weather is not always that predictable. We have to think of every eventuality, when putting our festival outfits together. So here’s a list to get you started.
General Tips • Print is good, as it hides any spillages. • Long socks: You do not want your socks disappearing inside your welly boots. • Wear something that’s easy to dance and move around in. • Think about natural fabrics, you’ll sweat more if you are wearing something synthetic. • Take enough clothes - if someone spills a pint of beer on you, you don’t want to spend the whole weekend sticky, in beer soaked clothes. The following outfits are from Topshop but you will find similar in all high street shops. Festival Buys
Festival Must Haves
Floral Paint Print Racer Top - £28.00.
Small Cross Body Bag: Essential, you do not want that bag swinging around when you are throwing some shapes. Make sure it is big enough for emergency toilet tissue, lipstick, hand sanitizer, sun cream and money.
MOTO Bleach Ripped Hayden Shorts £30.00.
Lightweight Waterproof Jacket: With hood preferably.
MOTO Fitted Western Shirt - £29.00.
Wellies, Dr Martens or Converse: Do not try to do the festivals in Birkenstocks, flip flops or thong sandals, even if it doesn’t rain and that’s not likely, it just feels better tackling those loos with your feet covered up. Dresses, Skirts, and Shorts: Make sure your outfits are not overly complicated. Dungarees, jumpsuits, playsuits maxi dresses and maxi skirts are all very well, but think about the practical element remember those loos again! Hat: Don’t forget to protect yourself from the sun, there may not be too much shade and make sure it’s a hat you are comfortable wearing all the time. Sunglasses: For two purposes - to shield you from the sun and to shield you from the horrible loos. Jumper or Sweatshirt: It gets cold at night. Boyfriend Shirt: Layering is really important, a vest with t-shirt on top, plus boyfriend shirt, plus jumper, plus jacket. PJs: if you are camping you’ll need something warm, so take PJs, a fleecy top and socks.
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is
Trim Insert Pinafore Overlay Sundress £36.00.
NYPD Hoodie by Tee & Cake - £35.00. Leather Tassel Crossbody Bag. - £40.00. Leather Pouch Belt - £32.00. Lexi Round Sunglasses - £16.00. Feather Straw Fedora - £25.00. Casual Padded Parka Jacket - £75.00. Dr. Martens Originals 1460 Boots - £105.00. Emma Smith is a style advisor and lives in Chelmsford. She offers personal shopping and wardrobe planning. Email her at: emma@emmasmith.co.uk. Website: www.emmasmith.co.uk. All photographs are from Primark.
See our stage lineups for The Fling and Brownstock on page 13. www.chelmsfordthecitytimes.co.uk
Reliable Local Handymen Retired police officers in Chelmsford are pioneers in an ambitious national network of highly vetted handymen launched by Blue Local Handymen.
Helping to combat the ongoing problem of cowboy builders and dodgy tradespeople, local retired police officers with a passion for home maintenance are taking up tools to provide peace of mind to the residents and businesses of Chelmsford. Typically, police officers retire after 30 years service and a huge number are still eager to continue playing an active and productive role in their communities. All of the handymen will have proved themselves capable and experienced in indoor and outdoor home maintenance works before joining the network and carry recent Enhanced CRB (criminal record) checks. Managing Director, Nick Orde-Powlett, hopes that the company’s rigorous selection process will bring security and peace of mind to people in Essex: “Our vetting process is second to none. All of our handymen are friendly retired police officers with many years working in the community under their belt - they understand people’s concerns and fears better than anyone else and they genuinely care.“
Whilst there are an enormous number of very capable, hard-working and honest tradespeople, sadly the unregulated and fragmented nature of the market allows for too many immoral rogues to operate under-the-radar.
EMOTIONAL OVEREATING SUPPORT GROUP
A free, non-judgemental and supportive group for those who comfort eat and binge eat. Meetings are held on the last Wednesday of the month, at 6.30pm in Chapter House, Cathedral grounds, CM1 1TY. For more info, please contact: eosg@b-eat.co.uk 0300 123 3355
Local Chelmsford handyman, Tony Coleridge, says: “I am finding that customers are appreciating a handyman service they can trust who will take on the larger jobs, but also smaller jobs which they have had difficulty in finding someone to do.” Local resident Mrs Clarke recently used the service: “I am very happy with the work that Tony did. We will definitely be using him again and I am passing this number on to friends.” More information can be found on the website, www.trustinblue.com and bookings can be made either by calling freephone 0800 255 0 255 or emailing, helpdesk@trustinblue.com.
www.chelmsfordthecitytimes.co.uk Page 5
Blues in the City and Music News
Well it has certainly been busy this last month and there is no let up for the coming month either, with us running stages at the Fling Festival on Saturday 4th July and at Brownstock running the Slippery Saddle Saloon stage from Friday 10th to Sunday 12th July (see the What’s On guide for full listings and times).
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Blues in the City had a great night last month with the superb Bad Influence duo of Valerie Lee Hayes and Richard Hayes. They really excelled and have to be two of the very best. We (Jamie Williams, Kev (the rock) Warner and I) played a great set as a trio on the night as well. At the end of that week on Friday 15th May I received the sad news that the great BB King had passed away and was asked to talk about him on BBC Essex which I did and then after someone heard me, they suggested I put a tribute event on for BB King. So without a thought I said yes, but we needed to act quickly and gave myself two weeks to put it together.
Green and Eric Clapton. We also had John Verity, who used to play with Argent plus many other great players from across the south of England plus local stalwarts like Trev Turley, Glen Buck, Claire Hamlin, Jamie Williams and Paul Milligan. I must say a huge thank you to all the great musicians (sorry could not name you all) and to The Bassment and of course Round Tower for two great ales - BB King Tribute and The Thrill is Gone - and to all who came along to watch and help raise another £400 towards our festival with all the profits going to Remus Horse Sanctuary this year. Blues in the City has another night going on as I am writing this and then just after Brownstock, we have a great Wednesday night in store on the 15th July with the amazing Robin Bibi and Tony Martyn. These two guys are just stunning and if you have not seen them before, do not miss them this time and with Noel Gander of Cold Norton supporting, it is going to be a great night. There is so much more going on as well, with Walthamstock Festival on Sat 27th June and the Leigh Folk Festival at Leighon-Sea from 24th to 28th June. There is plenty to go and see. Just check out our What’s On guide to choose what you fancy. Keep supporting live music by going along to watch, listen and enjoy. By Nick Garner www.bluesinthecity.co.uk
Thanks to The Bassment for agreeing to host the event which took place on Sunday 31st May and ran from 4pm to 10.30pm without a hitch and 42 amazing musicians all wanting to be part of the event. I do not think there has ever been so much extraordinary talent in one place in the city in one day. We were very lucky to have John Altman on saxophone who actually played with BB King. He also played with Jimi Hendrix, Peter
Page 6
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Zee Germans: The Naked Truth by Simon Culleton I’ve finally found something that the Germans are not very good at. For the first time last year they have been pushed off the top and are now only the second most likely European nationality to sunbathe naked while on holiday. This will come as a shock to most Germans who normally take it as a given to come first in all that they attempt. The economy, car manufacture, football are all areas of domination, but on the nudity front they are sadly slipping. Is Germany, the country that I have grown to love and respect over the years, going to take begin pushed into second place lying down (quite literally on the beach)? Surely not. Knowing the Germans, there must be a law against this! The German nation, all 82 million of them, are renowned for having and following the rules, a stigma which is not completely unfounded and goes a long way to understanding their success. There are rules and laws for everything, even rules on how to follow the rules. There is a law against brewing beer with additives (only water, hops malt and yeast are allowed) and a law against fighting with pillows (it’s a passive weapon). You are not allowed to hang your washing out on Sundays or keep the ashes of a loved one in an urn in the house. You can be fined 50 euros for calling someone an arse. And it’s not just in society that the rules must be observed, it’s in the language as well. There are two different grammatical rules for speaking to someone - formal and informal, with an entirely different sentence formation that accompanies each structure. Speak informally to someone you don’t know and they may take offence. Speak informally to a policeman and you can be fined because, of course, it’s against the law. I find it impossible not to admire an orderly attitude to life; all that they have in German society seems to be accompanied with a law to control it and whatever is missing within German society they are very happy to invent. To my continuing envy, the Germans even have words in their vocabulary that simply do not exist in the English language. Blaumachen (to make blue) to feel horribly unmotivated from the moment you wake up or Kummerspeck (grief fat) a word that explains the weight gained from eating when sad. There is even a word for ‘Punch face’ - Backafeifangsicht, which is my favourite word in German and loosely translates as ‘a face that begs to be punched’. All these words are there to be used by the German people, just as long as they are used in the correct tense of the sentence. There are always rules to be observed... Except of course where nudity is concerned. On this front (the nude front), there are little or no rules at all and maybe the reason why the Germans have been pushed into second place is that most public swimming pools in Germany come with saunas where strangers of all ages and sexes sweat it out together, and the public shower areas are barely sectioned off, if at all. There is even a ‘familia zimmer’, (family changing room), where everyone strips off together, something I discovered by accident one red-faced Sunday morning. Germany’s whole attitude to the human form is far more relaxed. There are more nudist beaches in Germany than anywhere else in Europe (number one again) with naked fun-for-all-the-family activities taking place such as football, tennis and volleyball. I can only feel relieved that the Germans do not play rugby. And don’t get me started about their attitudes towards sex, because it’s enough to say that Germany is still the only country I’ve ever seem with Tesco-style shopping carts outside their sex shops. So it’s a wonder with all these rules that Germany doesn’t invent another one for compulsory beach nudity to help reclaim the title and beat the 29% of stripping holiday makers needed to knock Austria back into second place. Us Brits will have to be content with our modest 6% willing to bare all, although we can always blame it on the weather and at least we can console ourselves that in England we have the best humour in Europe. Yet be careful, the Germans do like to have a good joke as well - just as long as you tell it between five and quarter past and preferably naked. simon@limepad.com
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CT Gardening by Tom Cole
Climbing plants may be twining or self-clinging, or scandent, trailing or scrambling. They may be used for a variety of decorative and security purposes and may be deciduous or evergreen, flowering or grown for their foliage, annual or perennial. Climbers may also be used for ground cover and may need pegging down. Wall shrubs are either slightly tender woody plants that benefit from the shelter of a wall or fence, or shrubs which have a lax habit and therefore benefit from support. Climbers and wall shrubs offer another dimension to both horticultural and aesthetic planting opportunities in the garden. Self-Clinging or Twining Plants Plants capable of clinging do so by means of aerial roots, for example, Hedera helix, or by adhesive pads, like Parthenocissus quinquefolia, that attach themselves to suitable surfaces like walls, tree trunks or other solid surfaces and need only guidance and control of their overall size. Twining climbers twine stems (Lonicera spp.) tendrils (Passiflora spp.) or leaf petioles (Clematis spp.) and grow through and over supports such as trellis, wires or other plants.
Scandent, Scrambling and Trailing Plants These plants attach themselves loosely to their support, if at all, and generally have lax stems which must be tied to a support in order for them to ‘climb’, for example Jasminum nudiflorum, or they can be used to trail over slopes or the sides of walls like Bougainvillea spp. (suitable for a protected environment). Rambling rose stems use thorns to scramble over supports or other stems. Stems can be tied to supports using a variety of materials such as twine, raffia, or plastic, foam, rubber or metal ties and rings. Wall Shrubs Wall shrubs may be selfsupporting but suitable for growing vertically - like Pyracantha spp. - or have a
Summer is here don’t delay call today!
lax habit and benefit support such as Piptanthus nepalensis. Others may be slightly tender plants, like Garrya elliptica, therefore benefiting from the extra protection of a wall. Choice of Support The support required for climbers will depend on a combination of factors: Large or dense plants, such as climbing roses or wisteria, will need robust support such as heavy duty trellis or pergolas, large gauge wires or a large tree. For more delicate plants, such as Clematis alpina, lighter trellis, wires, plastic netting, metal or willow obelisks, pea sticks or shrubs are suitable. The choice of plants should be matched to conditions. The ultimate size of a plant should not be underestimated, for instance Rosa ‘Wedding Day’ can grow to over 7m, whereas there are many much smaller climbing roses. Clematis montana may be suitable for growing through a large, robust tree, but would smother the more delicate Sorbus hupehensis, for example. Growing a vigorous climber in a confined space will lead to the need for regular pruning to keep it within bounds, possibly at the expense of flowers, so ultimate size should be matched to the space available. Pruning requirements should also be considered when combining climbers, or growing climbers through shrubs. Ensure access is possible, particularly for vigorous plants such as wisteria that need regular pruning to produce good flower displays. Planting a Climber Container grown specimens can be planted throughout the year when conditions are suitable, but spring and autumn are probably best. Excavate a planting hole 30cm from the base of any wall or hedge to avoid the driest and possibly impoverished soil. Clematis should be planted deeply, 5cm below soil level to stimulate basal bud development. This encourages good general growth and the production of new shoots should the aerial parts of the plant be affected by clematis wilt. Firm the backfill in layers, ensuring there are no air pockets. Remove any canes that supported the plant in the pot and spread the stems out, tying them in to the permanent support. Water and mulch the surface to conserve moisture. Lastly, if you’re interested in expanding your skills or want to work in a career that covers environmental conservation or horticulture, landscaping, construction, green keeping and groundsmanship, why not pop along to one of our information events later this June? Our next one is Saturday 27th June between 10am - 2pm and you’ll be able to meet a range of staff to discuss options for this coming September. Good luck happy gardening! tips, Forandany gardening
contact Tom Cole, Head of Faculty for Land & Environment, Writtle College, Chelmsford, CM1 3RR by post (include SAE), or by email at: tom.cole@writtle.ac.uk.
Page 8 www.chelmsfordthecitytimes.co.uk
Hylands House to Bloom with New Floral Show Hylands House will be awash with vibrant colours next month when it is filled with inspirational floral displays for the first National Flower Show.
Between 17-19 July, the stunning Grade II listed property in Chelmsford, Essex, will feature sensational arrangements in its Grand Pavilion, Banqueting, Drawing and Terrace rooms, as 20 of the UK’s finest nurseries compete head-to-head to secure a coveted Gold award. Outside, Hylands’ beautifully manicured lawns will feature over 150 exhibitors offering a treasure trove of quality plants and shrubs as well as the latest gardening products and gadgets at special event prices. Matt Upson, Director of Aztec Events who also organise the Blenheim Palace Flower Show, said: “We’re delighted to be launching and adding this new show to our event calendar. Hylands House is spectacular and we thought its stunning rooms offer a unique opportunity to showcase and celebrate the talent of the UK’s gardening industry.” If you’re planning a garden makeover, the National Flower Show will be brimming with local garden designers, paving and tree specialists, to help create your own personal haven. Experts, including the much-loved garden designer, journalist and television personality Joe Swift, will be on hand sharing their knowledge and top tips in the dedicated Gardening Theatre. And if you can’t get your oleanders or bottlebrush to flower, or don’t know how or when to prune them, don’t miss the chance to meet the show’s flowering shrub expert Paul Johnson. With more than 40 years experience and a wealth of knowledge on any shrub - especially the rare and unusual - Paul will answer any questions you may have.
Ent com er ou r pet to w ition tick in ets
Elsewhere the Craft and Gift Pavilion will be packed with hand-made jewellery, hand-made cards, shabby chic furniture, ladies fashion, botanical products and candles. It’s the perfect place to peruse the stands and pick up unique gifts for yourself or your loved ones. There will also be a local craft market dedicated to local budding artists, craftsmen and designers. You will see beautiful handcrafted jewellery, metalwork and artwork all from the Chelmsford region. For more information or to book tickets to the show, visit www.aztecevents.co.uk. Competition - 5 Pairs of Tickets to Be Won! To win a pair of tickets for this event please answer the following question: Which other flower show do Aztec Events organise? A: Chelsea Flower Show B: Blenheim Palace Flower Show C: Hyde Hall Garden Show Please email your answer along with a contact number to: competition@itsyourmedia.co.uk.
Closing date is 5th July 2015. Winners will have 5 days to contact us, otherwise the draw will be retaken. Entrants will be added to our mailing list for the online magazine unless ‘opt out’ is stated in the email.
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Page 9
There’s inevitability about the onset of summer. You can’t escape it. Along with seasonally adjusting the clock, many of us also adjust our cooking habits from the safe controllable indoor environment of our kitchens to the random, unmanageable and disorderly riot of cooking outdoors. It is largely unknown, but the arrival of temperatures in double figures turns on a hidden switch inside every man’s hippocampus causing us to break out the barbecue, sandblast an entire herds-worth of cow grease from the grill to ultimately fire out cremated bangers like chargrilled bullets of campylobacter to our friends and family. The trick is to confidently assure your guests that sausages ought to be a little pink on the inside and chicken is at its best when served medium rare. Repeat after me: “It’s not burnt, it’s caramelised.” I love barbecue cooking - and by barbecues I mean charcoal braziers. If you own a gas grill the size of an Aga with six additional ring burners, plate warmers and a chic cavity for proving the dough for your garlic, rosemary and sun blushed tomato foccacia, then that’s not barbecuing. We call that ‘cooking’. I appreciate from your emails that many of you are reluctant to use coals because they require you to actually pay attention. Although, if you’re using a disposable monstrosity, this won’t be a problem as you’re more likely to burn food using a hairdryer. With this in mind I have compiled a few tips to help you move away from burgers and bangers and stand masculine and bare chested over your grills, confidently releasing your inner master chef. To help me do this, I sought help from a man who makes a living cooking some of the best food in the city
CT Cooking by John Jacobs
sweetcorn which grill really well. A simple Greek salad can be a real centrepiece. Be prepared. Light the barbecue before your guests arrive. Good coals can take up to half an hour to reach optimum heat. Prepare your skewers and marinades the night before and take them out of the fridge at least an hour before cooking. And when you’re at the grill, make sure you stay there. If you let someone else take over, make sure they know how long the food has been cooking. Marinate. Once you’ve got your well chosen quality meat, take taste and texture to the next level by marinating the meat overnight. As well as adding flavour, it will tenderise the meat. At Zorbas, our chicken and pork skewers are basted with olive oil, seasoned with sea salt, black pepper and oregano. I continue to baste as they cook, turning occasionally to prevent burning. Lastly, let it rest. Meat needs time to absorb its juices after cooking. The difference between a beautifully pink medium rare juicy rib of beef and a rubber tyre could simply be twenty minutes resting.
over charcoal, grill chef Anestis Malenezos from our friends at Zorba the Greek. And, in the interests of research, I ate lots of Greek food. Anestis’ Top Tips Keep it Simple. Use simple but
good quality ingredients. Go to a butcher to buy your meat. Their reputation is dependent on quality and they will willingly guide you with cooking times and techniques. Summer is also the perfect season for fruit and veg; try using courgettes and
I hope this gives a little more confidence to try something different this summer. As always, thank you for your emails and tweets and my thanks to Anestis and the good folk of Zorbas for their help. If you want to, send your bbq ideas and photos to cctfood@gmail.com we may be able to feature them in coming editions. If you want to sample Anestis’ fine cooking, Zorba the Greek is on Viaduct Road just off Duke Street. You can find menu details and upcoming offers on their website: www. zorbathegreek.co.uk. Have a great summer everyone.
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Summer Beer Festival by Simon Tippler of roundtowerbrewery.co.uk By the time you read this, we will be nearly ready for this year’s main beer festival in the city. Once again we will have our own bar dedicated to Round Tower beers, so come along and say hello. We will have plenty of The 40th, a 4% golden beer, brewed to help celebrate the 40th anniversary of Chelmsford and Mid Essex CAMRA branches. Another exciting beer to look out for will be our dry hopped beer. In order to showcase a range of hops, we will be taking one of our beers and dry hopping each cask with different hops. The same beer will taste different as the festival progresses depending on the hops in that particular cask. Also there will be some oak-aged versions of Slipstream. We have been experimenting with French oak and also an old sherry cask which has given a richer flavour to an otherwise fantastic beer. Also look out for #100, the Imperial Stout that we brewed to celebrate our hundredth batch. The grain we’ve used is similar to that of our standard 4.3% stout, but by changing the proportions we’ve made a more deeply flavoured, richer and stronger beer. It was a very limited batch and we will only have one cask available at the festival, so when it’s gone, it’s gone. So, come along to the summer festival in Admirals Park from 7th - 11th July and enjoy some great beer from us, the other Essex brewers and various breweries around the country. If that’s not for you, then there is plenty to choose from at the cider bar and also at the Belgian bar. Oh and there are always soft drink available.
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What’s On In Chelmsford June Friday 19th Asylum - The Crazen Braves + Young and the Blue Anglia Ruskin - Memories, Melodies and Mandolins - 8pm Bassment - Shakster Records/Rubber Soul presents: Tom Hingley (INSPIRAL CARPETS) + The White Gospel + Simon Land + Wayne Tinsley Chelmsford Cathedral lunchtime concert - Cathedral School Essex v Glamorgan - Natwest T20 Blast Fleece - Red Leaf Med Fusion - Soul Sax Saturday 20th Asylum - Trash Monroe + Ethereal Fire + Black Diamond + Contactmelvin? Bassment - The Franklys + Vendettas + Little Donkey Chelmsford Museum - World of Wallace Civic Theatre - Stage Door Fleece - Live Music 2.30 - 6.30pm in the garden, 10pm - The Rising Little Waltham Open Gardens Med Fusion - Jazz With John and Dom Sandford Lock - Summer Solstice Star & Garter - The Blues Spiders Waltham Singers Summer Concert - Great Waltham Church Sunday 21st Blackwater Country Sow Chelmsford City FC - Bingo Civic Theatre - Stage Door Hylands - Summer Solstice Art in the Courtyard Hyde Hall - Father’s Day Little Waltham Open Gardens Marsh Farm - Motorfest Writtle Gardens Open Day Monday 22nd Civic - That’ll Be the Day Tuesday 23rd Cramphorn - The Theory of Everything (12A) Wednesday 24th Asylum - Comedy Night Bassment - Ethno Jam - Latin | Jazz | Folk | Fusion Cramphorn - Lunchtime concert Cramphorn - The Theory of Everything (12A) Hylands - Nordic Walk Thursday 25th Asylum - Tamara Anderson & Henry Lawes + Naomi Omuoreh + Connar Ridd + Roison O’Hagan Bassment - Club Static presents The Drink + special guests Cramphorn - Ed Gamble - Gambletron 5000 Fleece - Quiz night John Seeley’s Summer Concert, St Michael and All Angels Church, 62 Leigh Road, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, SS9 1LF Friday 26th Asylum - Tirade + Failing to Fly + Radio is Dead Bassment - Invasion Of The Boogie Snatchers Page 12
Friday 26th (cont.) Chelmsford Cathedral - 12.30 - 1.15pm Choir of Christchurch Cathedral, New Zealand Cramphorn - Paddington (PG) Fleece - Voodoo Child Star & Garter - The Kopy Katz Saturday 27th Asylum - The Vibrators + Nervosa Bassment - Free entry & 1/2 Price drinks TIL’ MIDNIGHT with DJs Irie Firat + JP & RO Blooming Felt Open Day - See page 24 Civic - These Days Fleece - Live Music 2.30 - 6.30pm in the garden, 10pm - Sax on Fire East Hanningfield Annual Fete Hyde Hall - Garden party Hylands House - Heavy Horse Experience Day Sandon Village Hall - A Night of Magic Star & Garter - The Hit Parade Walthamstock Festival Sunday 28th Chelmsford City FC - Bingo Hyde Hall - Garden party Tyrrells School - Go Bonkers Inflatable Day - 11 - 3pm Tuesday 30th 3foot People Festival - Hylands Park - SOLD OUT Cramphorn - Finding Vivian Maier (12A) July Wednesday 1st 3foot People Festival - Hylands Park - SOLD OUT Asylum - Kill The Freak + Hedra Admiral J McHardy - Chelmsford Book Club Bassment - Jazz Funk with the Hearn Brothers Cramphorn - Lunchtime concert Cramphorn - The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (PG) Hyde Hall - Little Acorns Gardening Club Thursday 2nd 3foot People Festival - Hylands Park - SOLD OUT Bassment - Bassment Blues Jam Cramphorn - The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (PG) Fleece - Quiz night Red Lion Inn - The Comedy Club Friday 3rd Asylum - Shakey’s Sessions - Serrata + Stan Blade Bassment - Brownstock Pre Party! Chelmsford Cathedral – 12.30 - 1.15pm Capella Musicale Corradiana, Italy Fleece - Expose Saturday 4th Asylum - Kaine + Kill the Freak + Osmium Guilotine Bassment - Mothers Jam presents Kurtze + The Horse Heads + The Quickfires + Moon Balloon Danbury Farmers Market - 9.30 - 12.30pm Fleece - Live Music from 2.30pm, 10pm - 6 String Makeover Fling Festival - Hylands Park
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Saturday 4th (cont.) Friday 17th (cont.) Hyde Hall - Jazz Evening with Wickford Rotary Club Civic - Les Misérables - School Edition Jack & Jills Childrens Festival - Broomfield Community Cente Cramphorn - Larry Berkovitz and Zak Barrett Star & Garter - Storm Fleece - Charlie’s Aunt 10pm Sunday 5th Hylands House - The National Flower Show 2015 John Seeley’s Jazz and Saxophone Group - Castle Point Show, Saturday 18th Waterside Farm Show Ground, Somnes Avenue, Canvey Island, Asylum - The Offspin + Blinked 182 Chelmsford City FC - Bingo Bassment - Late Night B-Side Disco Chelsmford City FC - Antiques Fair - 9.30 - 4pm City Centre - Acrobatic day Woolpack - GC’s Jazz Club - Tim Huskisson + Simon Hurley Trio Civic - Les Misérables - School Edition Tuesday 7th Cramphorn - Larry Berkovitz and Zak Barrett - Sizzling Admirals Park - Chelmsford Beer Festival Summer Jazz Special Civic - Shades of the Season - Weston School of Dance Fleece - Music in the garden 2.30 - 6.30pm, 10pm - Circa Ideas Hub - Historical Walk of Moulsham Street Fall Wednesday 8th Hyde Hall - Cactus and Succulent Show Admirals Park - Chelmsford Beer Festival Hylands House - The National Flower Show 2015 Bassment - Bassment Unplugged with Alex Fox & Friends Keene Hall - Wine & Wisdom Quiz evening Civic - Shades of the Season - Weston School of Dance Star & Garter - Rewind Hylands - Nordic Walk Sunday 19th Thursday 9th Chelmsford City FC - Bingo Admirals Park - Chelmsford Beer Festival Civic - 40 Years On - Essex Dance Theatre Annual Showcase Bassment - Acoustic Underground Hyde Hall - Cactus and Succulent Show Civic - Shades of the Season - Weston School of Dance Hylands House - The National Flower Show 2015 Friday 10th Admirals Park - Chelmsford Beer Festival Ayslum - Three Mothers + Slutdrop + Yak Attack Saturday 4th July 2015 Bassment - We3 (unique vocal trio!) + Late Night B-Side Disco 12.30 - 2.30pm - Blues Jam Brownstock Festival 2.45 - 3.15pm - Arcaves Civic - Shades of the Season - Weston School of Dance 3.30 - 4.15pm - Happnin’ Boy & Mike Rasmussen Fleece - Break For Cover 4.30 - 5.15pm - Penguin Party Saturday 11th 5.30 - 6.15pm - Sound Mirrors Admirals Park - Chelmsford Beer Festival 6.30 - 7.15pm - Papa Shango Asylum - Penny Royal + Under the Abstract + Redwood + War 7.30 - 8.30pm - Rostock Waves 8.45 - 9.45pm - The Blues Spiders Bassment - Late Night B-Side Disco 10 - 11.pm - Pie Face Brownstock Festival Civic - Shades of the Season - Weston School of Dance Fleece - Music 2.30 - 6.30pm in the garden, 10pm - Repertoire Dogs Star & Garter - Monkies Wedding Friday 10th: 6pm to 12am Sunday 12th 6 - 6.45pm - Dave Ferra Brownstock Festival 7 - 8pm - Hokum Boys Central Park - Essex Pride 8.30 - 10pm - Rostock Cramphorn - William Tell 10.30pm - midnight - Penguin Party Chelmsford City FC - Bingo Saturday 11th: 12pm - 12am Hylands Park - Race for Life 2015 12 - 1pm - Dave Sharpe Monday 13th 1.15 - 2.45pm - Dave Jackson Band Cramphorn - Blade Runner: The Final Cut (15) 3 - 4pm - Happnin’ Boy & Mike Rasmussen Wednesday 15th 4.30 - 6.00pm - Jamie Williams & the Roots Collective Asylum - Silenced by Shadows + Outright Resistance + Scar City 6.30 - 8.00pm - Blues Spiders Bassment - Blues In The City - Robin Bibi & Tony Marten + Noel 8.30 - 10pm - Mississippi Mac and the Cottonmouth Kings Gander (Cold Norton) 10.30pm - midnight - Roy Mette band Civic - Les Misérables - School Edition Sunday 12th: 12am to 11pm Cramphorn - Lunchtime concert 12 - 1.30pm - Blues Consortium Hylands - Nordic Walk 1.45 to 3pm - Red Butler Thursday 16th 3.30 - 5pm - Delta Ladies Bassment - LIVE: Indie Rock! 5.30 - 7pm - Joel Fisk & the Breakdown Civic - Les Misérables - School Edition 7.30 - 9.00pm - Steve Morrison Band with Alan Glen Cramphorn - Suite Française (15) 9.30 - 11pm - Pie Face Fleece - Quiz night Please note, all events are subject to change. Please visit the relevant websites or Ideas Hub - City centre historical walk Facebook pages for more details. Please send us your events for the next edition Friday 17th (for events between 17th July and 16th August to: editorial@itsyourmedia.co.uk. Bassment - Scarlet Echo & Friends
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Chelmsford Beekeepers by Darren Lerigo, www.modernmint.co.uk Today we left behind our work at the Modern Mint Shop based in Chelmsford, to interview the lovely Brian from Chelmsford Beekeepers. How people treat the garden, the wild and the landscape as a whole is a theme very close to our hearts here at Modern Mint and so to meet someone who is working everyday with the animals who help us pollinate the food we eat was incredibly interesting. We did this interview in Brian’s pretty garden full of flowering plants and as we chatted, he pointed out how the bees were zipping up and down the length of the garden from hive to pond to collect water. Later we even got to put on a suit and inspect the busy hives close up. The sound of buzzing was incredible, you got a sense that beekeeping could almost be an art form. I asked Brian what made a good beekeeper… “The best beekeepers are ladies - because they are strong-willed but patient and good. They don’t kill a bee! When people start out they can be nervous, because 60,000 bees are intimidating, but we see them change, you really do change as you work with bees… you must learn to be gentle, but strong. “It is best to be the opposite to their natural predator the bear - so no banging and crashing…” How did you start as a beekeeper? “I got to 50 and wanted to do a few things in life, one was keeping bees. I got a book and started reading, then about halfway through I was hooked. I then went and bought my first set of bees in November. Not good… you should really get them in spring… “I then joined Chelmsford beekeepers, went on a theory course and a practical course… at one point I ended up with 12 hives!” And how many now? “I have 4 now, here in the garden.” You can learn a lot by joining Chelmsford beekeepers? “Yes, absolutely. We meet the third Monday of each month at The Link, Methodist Church on Rainsford Road from 7.30pm and each evening may focus on something different - perhaps the meeting may focus on anaphylactic shock, or bee diseases, or hive inspection, but we also offer courses for people as some may just want a taster to see if they are interested, or perhaps they might want to further their skills with training. People can just come along,” What kind of people are part of Chelmsford
Beekeepers?
bestofchelmsford
“When I joined 9 years ago there were maybe 30 people. Now there are around 140. Beekeeping has become so popular and we have seen a rise in interest in bees because of the television coverage.
What is thebestof Chelmsford? The answer is we’re more than we may seem. At one level we’re here to promote and support the best local businesses, not just in Chelmsford city but the surrounding areas as well. We want to get our businesses noticed - and more importantly used. We strongly believe in ‘buy local’. It means that more of the pounds you spend in our local area remain locally. This helps our local economy and employment prospects and encourages new businesses and helps to retain existing ones. We’re not a web directory with endless lists, we only wish to work with a limited number of each business type. We know all our members personally.
“The age range has changed significantly too - it is no longer mostly people over 60 who have been beekeeping a long time, now the age group has dropped and there are lots of men and women in their 30s who are doctors, lawyers, nurses, accountants, people who are doing it for all sorts of reasons… “There is also far more to it than they thought when they first joined, it is not just looking after bees - there is the produce, making the hives, marketing the honey, selling to the public, making use of the wax…” The social side? “The social side too, of course! It is easier if there is two of you to look after your hives, because you have to check them once a week between April and September and with two of you it means you can take a holiday during the summer…” Is Chelmsford a good place for bees? “There is good foraging near Chelmsford for bees, lots of gardens and farmland. But at the golf course there is nothing. There is also a June gap, when the rape has gone and the pollen levels dip.” This happens in floristry too - local flowers are at a low in June, so biennials like foxgloves can play a major role in a British bouquet and funnily enough, is a plant bees love! “We also try and associate with the council, so that they don’t mow the verges all the time.” What advice can Chelmsford Beekeepers give anyone who wants to help bees? “Don’t use insecticides, plant as many beefriendly plants as you can - some great plants are helenium (also known as sneezeweed) echium and monarda. Become a beekeeper and buy local honey.” Simple ideas to put into practise and what could be better than waking up each day to a slice of toast with lashings of butter and honey? For more information on Chelmsford Beekeepers visit their website: www. chelmsfordbeekeepers.com.
That’s the business side of things. We are also a community hub working with organisations which are important to local people. We want to make people aware of the great things that volunteers do on behalf of their charities and societies which make a difference to the lives of local people. We also want everyone to know what’s happening in our area, from boot fairs to sewing circles, our events pages are packed with details. These pages are free to post events on, so if you’ve got something happening get in touch with us. We can help. The bestofChelmsford - there’s more to us than you think. Call us on 01245 701020 or email us at: chelmsford@thebestof.co.uk.
Bumblebees and Beauty - a Career Reinvention Hair, makeup, inspirational women and bumblebees are the theme of my interview this month! I had the pleasure of chatting to the delightful Michelle Lacey of Bumblebee Bridal a hair and makeup artist specialising in bridal makeup.
Michelle’s business has gone from strength to strength since she launched it as a full time enterprise last July. She is clearly very talented at what she does and you only have to take a look at the gorgeous pictures on her website to see that. The women featured look absolutely stunning. A real testament to her skill are also the industry awards she has been recognised at. Michelle was a finalist in both the 2014 Essex Wedding Awards and the 2015 Wedding Industry Awards - an amazing achievement.
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What struck me when chatting to Michelle about her business was how much she credited others with helping her on the path to success. She was full of praise for a number of inspirational women who have influenced and helped her. The first woman is someone I had never heard of (but it turns out she is super famous after a quick internet search!) called Mary Kay Ash. “Mary Kay Ash came from Texas. She started her own business in the 1960s as a direct result of the sexist society she was working in. she was a single mum in her 40s on half the wage of a man. She wrote a business plan intending to sell it and but then decided to use it herself, despite facing significant opposition. Her whole business plan was about empowering women. Her dream was to inspire women to transform their lives and in doing so, help other women achieve success. Mary Kay has now been voted the number one business woman of all time in America and her cosmetics company remains a phenomenally successful global enterprise. I read her autobiography and this really fuelled me and filled me with determination and excitement to start my own business.” Michelle explained: “One of Mary Kay’s key principles was ‘what you put into the lives of others will surely come back to you’. Therefore treat people how you would like to be treated yourself. This is something that I really believe in. I think we all need someone to help guide us and reading Mary Kay’s powerful story has helped not only influence me, but also guide me when things got hard, or I didn’t know what to do in a situation. Her books have great business advice in them, not only from the perspective of brilliant business mind, but from the prospective of a mother and a wife. She really understood what it was to be a woman business owner.” Michelle believed in it so much she brought into the Mary Kay cosmetics franchise which created the foundations of her makeup business. She even used one of Mary Kay’s business symbols to help with the name of her business - Bumblebee Bridal. Mary Kay was of the opinion that if you tell someone something enough times they will believe it, good or bad. A bumblebee should not be able to fly because of its round body shape and small wings. However, no-one has ever told a bumblebee this so it continues to fly quite happily! Michelle loved this positivity and wanted to inject it into her own company so she adopted the bumblebee as her name and logo. Michelle has been working quietly to build up her skills and business for the past 6 years, but it took the birth of her son Austin in 2013 to push her to make it a full-time enterprise. “I have always been good at makeup. It was always
me that did all my friends makeup when we were going out. Then in 2009 one of my best friends got married and asked me to do her makeup and all the bridesmaids and her mum! I had to do 7 people in 2 hours and I loved it - it was such an honour to be asked.” Michelle realised this was something she really could do as a career. With the huge support of her husband and friends, she trained and started part time, working around her existing career. “I built a website, did some weddings and lots of trials and everyone was very happy. This really confirmed for me that I COULD do this.” At this point, Michelle was working full time in advertising in London which was extremely full-on. She was working incredibly long days and having to meet huge targets. “When I was 25 it was so much fun, I loved the buzz of working in London, but I knew I did not want to do it forever.” Going on maternity leave after having her son in 2013 proved to be the turning point in the reinvention of her career. Instead of going out to lunch with other mums, she concentrated on improving her website, building a portfolio and gaining experience. She could not go back to her previous career because her priorities had changed - her family had to come first, so she concentrated on building up a viable business instead.
This is what led Michelle to meet the next two women who proved an inspiration to her and helped her along the way. “I met the most bubbly and sweet photographer at a wedding fair a few years ago - Elizabeth Lois Photography. She is a wedding photographer but also has a boudoir studio. Lizzie has an incredible ability to capture an inner beauty in people on camera. She got in touch and asked me if I was interested in doing hair and makeup for a model shoot and I jumped at the chance. It turned out we worked brilliantly together and we transformed women inside and out. They would come in all shy and quiet, but after a pamper session with me and a very energetic and fun day in front of the camera with Lizzie (I would often stay to help style our ladies or hold a reflector), they left feeling empowered. It wasn’t unusual for one of our ladies to cry because they felt so different about themselves and realised how beautiful they really are. Lizzie came along at a time when I really needed a boost and I think I did the same for Lizzie.” As a thank you, Lizzie paid for Michelle to go on a hair course and this put her in touch with another incredible girl Lisa Alger of Essex Wedding Beauty Training School. “She totally took me under her wing she was not at all competitive, but supportive instead. She explained how she had built her business and I took all her knowledge on
board.” Lisa encouraged Michelle to enter the Essex Wedding Awards and Essex Industry Awards and to Michelle’s great pleasure, she was a finalist in both. While at the Essex Wedding Awards, she met some other wonderful women (she met one in the toilet!) who invited her to join their networking events and idea sessions. “It was amazing to find these role models. We share advice on products, share clients and pass along business. It is wonderful to have support from each other. I truly believe if you share and are generous it comes back to you. It is fantastic to be surrounded by these amazing women - I am not doing it on my own.” Michelle has rapidly built up her client base, starting with friends and word of mouth and then people finding her through her website and social media. She now has 78 weddings booked for this year - a really amazing achievement and a testament to her talent and how seriously she takes her role. Michelle sees her part in the wedding as a real honour: “That woman has picked ME to make her beautiful on her wedding day. I am very blessed to be part of it. It’s so much more than make-up and hair though, I’m often an extra pair of hands on the wedding morning. It’s my job to get them all ready on time so that often means getting brides into dresses but also being the calming influence when things have gone wrong such as once applying hair serum to feet to get them into tight shoes and I have even removed a splinter from a bridesmaid’s toe!” Michelle is clearly very passionate about what she does and I asked her to explain why: “Make-up is not just about how it makes you look, it is about how it makes you feel. If a woman feels beautiful she will look beautiful. It’s an empowering feeling to help someone create the image of how they want to look on their wedding day so they feel beautiful and confident.” Interviewing Michelle was very thought provoking. She has proved herself to be a successful businesswoman and gifted hair and make-up artist, yet she is very humble. Michelle is adamant that she would not be where she is now without the support and generosity of many others and to me, that is a very wonderful thing. We all need to be inspired and in turn I am sure Michelle will enthuse many others. Michelle says: “If I can do it, so can anyone! Just go for it!” Michelle is now planning to start teaching her own makeup lessons and begin writing a blog watch this space! If you would like to contact Michelle or check out her work, please visit her website, www.bumblebeebridal.co.uk and find her on Facebook at: www.facebook. com/bumblebeebridal. If you are a woman who has reinvented her career and would like to be featured in my column, please get in touch at: linda@ bunintheovenbirthing.co.uk.
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Success Is in the Bag for Chelmsford’s Fundraising Slimmers They are used to losing hundreds of pounds but now bighearted slimmers in Chelmsford have turned their attention to raising them. Members of the 17 Slimming World groups have collected over 200 bags of clothes they’ve successfully slimmed out of to raise money for Cancer Research UK as part of the national fundraising campaign: the Big Slimming World Clothes Throw. All of the 9 consultants who run groups in the city have encouraged members, their friends and families in to collect the clothes, shoes and accessories they no longer need to generate stock for the Cancer Research shop in Moulsham Street. One of the consultants, Victoria Darnell says: “This year’s Big Slimming World Clothes Throw event has been a fantastic success and I was overwhelmed by the amount of bags my members managed to collect for Cancer Research UK - they really are amazing! It was a fantastic atmosphere in group and it was so rewarding to raise such a phenomenal amount of stock for such an incredible cause. It’s not just members of the group who have cleared out their wardrobes, we’ve had great support from the whole community. I’m still buzzing from all the donations we’ve had! “Because my members are so sure they’ll never need their big clothes again, when I told them about the Big Slimming World Clothes Throw, they couldn’t wait to bag them up and donate them to charity. Members of our groups lose hundreds of stones a month between them simply by making small changes to the way they shop, cook and eat and by becoming more active. But the best thing about our groups is the support members give to each other, spurring each other along and sharing recipes and tips every week. “The Clothes Throw is a perfect opportunity for all of us to celebrate our success, inspire other people and raise money for charity at
Photo: Slimming World consultants (from left to right: Angie, Amanda, Jennifer, Lucy, Glynn, Samantha, front: Victoria) delivering some of the donated bags to the Cancer Research shop on Moulsham Street. the same time. There is also a more serious side to our support for Cancer Research UK however: One in two people are diagnosed with some form of cancer during their lifetime and being overweight can increase the chance of developing the disease. It is vital we spread the message that healthy eating, being physically active and losing weight by adopting healthy habits all help reduce the risk of developing cancer.” The clothes collected by Slimming World will be donated to Cancer Research UK shops across the country, with an estimated £6,000 being raised for the charity from the bags donated by the Chelmsford slimmers. Last year slimmers collected close to £1million worth of stock and they’re hoping to beat that total this year. All profits go to support the charity’s life saving work to help beat cancer sooner. Amy Baker, a member who has lost over 4st in 6 months and dropped from a dress size 20 to 14, says: “It felt so liberating to get rid of all my old clothes and I actually enjoyed bagging them up and saying goodbye - it felt like I was saying goodbye to the old me! Now I’ve lost weight I absolutely love shopping for clothes, something I always avoided before. Thanks to Victoria and Slimming World, I know I’m never going to see that size again and am confident that I will reach my target weight and be replacing my size 14s with 12s or even 10s very soon. I feel so much fitter and I’m healthier than ever. It’s great to know that the money raised from my donated items will go towards research to find better ways to treat cancer.” This year the Big Slimming World Clothes Throw was also supported by parcel collection service, Doddle, who have stores in and around selected train stations across the UK. Doddle stores served as quick drop-off points for consultants to donate their members’ clothes to Cancer Research UK. Anyone who’d like to lose weight and join Slimming World visit www. slimmingworld.com, or call Emma Lodge on 07887 692906 or 01245 464940 for details of the local groups.
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Follow, Like, Share, Help Are you up to date with what’s happened where you live? Can you help share our appeals to help find missing people and solve crime? More than 170,000 people following Essex Police on social media already are. Officers and members of staff launched our Follow Like Share Help campaign in town centres county-wide to encourage residents to do the same. The final day of the busy campaign found them in The Meadows Shopping Centre, Chelmsford, where they explained to shoppers how Essex Police use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to tell you about the work our officers are doing in communities to solve and reduce crime. We also ask for your help to be the eyes and ears of our county and keep a look out for vulnerable missing people, pass on information about crimes you may have witnessed, help us identify suspected criminals caught on camera and tell us about the whereabouts of wanted people. For instance, our Facebook followers helped find a vulnerable elderly man who had gone missing from his home in the Tendring area. A trio of local residents who had seen our appeal felt they had to help officers and began searching. They found the man, confused and cold, having fallen into a ditch. He was taken to hospital and later reunited with his family. CCTV footage of a man wanted in connection with a dog attack was published on our YouTube channel and shared to our social media channels. A member of the public recognised the man and as a result he was arrested, charged and jailed. A man suspected of assault was also identified and arrested as a result of one of our social media followers identifying him from CCTV footage. The man was later charged with GBH and sentenced to four years imprisonment. Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh said: “Social media really works. It’s all about two-way communication. It’s a great medium which gives us the opportunity to talk about the fantastic work my staff and officers do on the behalf of the people of Essex day in day out, but it’s also about engaging with our communities and ensuring we listen to what they have to tell us.”
How you can help? To support our Follow Like Share Help campaign, you can: Like us on Facebook - www.facebook.com/essexpoliceuk Follow us on Twitter - www. twitter.com/essexpoliceuk Follow us on Instagram - www. instagram.com/essexpoliceuk Watch our videos on YouTube - www.youtube.com/user/ essexpoliceuk You can find details about all of our social media channels on the social media page of our website. You can also follow our campaign on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram with the hashtag #FollowLikeShare.
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CT History
Punk in Chelmsford by Stepen Norris
Chelmsford was quite a centre for punk activity. Seven months after the trouble outside the Chancellor Hall there was a serious clash between punks and skinheads in Anchor Street, where the latter were squatting in two houses. Grayson Perry, later to be Chelmsford’s Turner Prize winner, said: “Chelmsford was quite a hot bed of punk. I ripped the sleeves of a grey school shirt then stencilled ‘HATE’ all over it with a home-made stencil. I bought plastic sandals, wore the school blazer and put vaseline in my hair. My piece de resistance was from a bag of horse tacks. It was a huge dog collar with whopping great horse studs, very brutal looking that I wore round my neck very proudly.” The great metal chain links used to smack him in the teeth when he danced and Bob Geldof hauled him onto the stage when The Boomtown Rats played the Chancellor Hall. Chelmsford’s thriving punk scene resulted in several well known local bands such as Anorexia and Nasty Habits. Besides the Chancellor Hall, gigs were played at Deejay’s, the only nightclub at the time, plus The Odeon, the Y Club and the Prince of Orange (now O’Connors). The Chancellor Hall booked some of the biggest punk acts including the Clash and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The former caused problems when there was a violent skirmish between punk rockers and teddy boys. A punk festival at the Chelmsford City football ground was a disaster when only 1,500 fans turned up after The Clash didn’t materialise, The Jam pulled out a week before the event and The Damned refused to play after it became obvious they weren’t going to get paid. Bands that did turn up included Eddie and the Hot Rods, Chelsea, Slaughter and the Dogs and the reggae band Aswad. John Peel was the compere and he had bottles and cans thrown at him for his trouble. “Fans pelt the stage as punk show flops” reported the Weekly News. The promoter, Bob Mardon, lost £14,000. It was a sorry end to what was the first, and probably the only punk festival in the county.
The Comedy Club The Comedy Club Chelmsford returns to The Lion House function suite at the Lion Inn, Boreham on Thursday 2nd July.
The MC for this show, the irresistibly amiable John Ryan, uses his acerbic wit and seemingly encyclopaedic knowledge of the world around him to keep any audience on their toes. His East End Irish upbringing gives him the rare ability to connect with people from diverse backgrounds. No stranger to either the strange or the norm, he will put an amusing spin on any subject matter going. Opening the evening we welcome Matt Rees, who featured on the BBC Three comedy, Marathon. Multi-award winning comedian and Chortle Best Newcomer nominee 2012, Matt Rees has generated a huge buzz on the circuit over the past couple of years with his unique brand of well-crafted gags and acerbic delivery earning him high praise from audiences and critics alike. To close proceedings Mike Gunn will take to stage. Mike is one of the most recognisable names in world of comedy, both through his deadpan character, but also the fact that he is one of the funniest men going. A misspent youth and a series of grim jobs, including one as an undertaker, cultivated his ‘dry as a bone’ but rib-achingly funny outlook on life. Mike has worked with some of the biggest names like Jo Brand and Alan Davies, as well as reaching cult status in almost every land known to man. Television appearances include Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow (series two), Al Murray’s sit-com Time Gentlemen Please and Harry Hill’s TV Burp. He has also been a regular contributor for The Guardian. He has written for The 11 O’Clock Show and even Match of the Day. Tickets are £14 and available from www.thecomedyclub.co.uk or by calling 0203 3761 112. The show starts at 9pm.
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Chelmsford Beer and Cider Festival 7th -11th July Come and join in the fun in Admirals Park, which will become the biggest beer garden in Essex as the Chelmsford and mid-Essex branch of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, celebrate their 40th anniversary. See the festival advert for details, or visit www.cbcf.info for more information. Sup the special 40 Year Beers made by Essex Breweries Bishop Nick, Colchester, Round Tower and Wibblers. Look out for the 40 Year logo for these and several ruby beers for the branch’s ruby anniversary. Of course, there will be a full range of beer styles from golden ales to stout from all over the UK on offer with a choice of 300 over the course of the festival. Cox-A-Ruby-Do! Get some cox in you! The CME40 cider has been produced in conjunction with Bertie’s Cider Company made from cox apples and matured in a red wine barrel to tantalise your taste buds. With over 100 to choose from at the cider bar, including many CAMRA award winners, you will be spoiled for choice. So expect the unexpected! Podge’s International Beer Bar will have the usual range of Belgian beer, as well as examples from Norway as a special feature. Brewery bars this year include Bishop Nick, Brentwood, Felstar, Wibblers and Woodforde’s so you may meet the brewers who will be showcasing their range of beers. Tutored tasting sessions will have the expert advice from writers Roger Protz, Des de Moor and Mellissa Cole, as well as historian and author Siobhan McGinn. Book your place to learn more about the wonders of real ale including beer matured in oak casks as it would have been up until the 1980s. There will be a wide choice of food available from around the world, so you can choose something different all day every day of the festival. Wine from the Felstar Vineyard in Felsted will be sold at the
Felstar Brewery Bar. Charity partners this year are Peaceful Place and CHESS. Peaceful Place is a local support organisation for those with young onset dementia. CHESS is Chelmsford’s homeless persons support organisation. Both charities will be raising their profile and fund raising throughout festival week. We are proud to support their work and all donations will be shared equally between them so please give generously. Prizes for the Real Ale and Cider Trails are to be collected from the 40 Years Stand next to the Felstar Brewery bar at the end of the beer bars. So if you did the 40 Year Pub Trail campaign, come and get your commemorative shirt, Good Beer Guide, pen, beer, cider, festival entry, souvenir glass. Cheers for 40 Years display boards will be spread around the site showing the history of the Chelmsford and mid-Essex CAMRA, including the festivals, campaigning and the Ale and Hearty Exhibition. Check out the glasses from the 54 festivals and see which ones are missing from your collection. 6 boards tell different parts of the story so enjoy reading them and come and chat at the 40 Years stand if you have more photos or memorabilia to share at our party in October. Entertainment from a wide variety of acts will give a fantastic range from barbershop harmonies, to rock, pop, folk and even Celtic music. Surely there is something for everyone! So come join the PARTY IN THE PARK! The Family Fun Day on Saturday will have all the fun of the fair with unlimited rides on the kids fun fair for a £5 wristband, face painting, ice cream and free soft drinks all day. By Claire Irons - Publicity Officer Chelmsford and mid-Essex -CAMRA and CME40 Coordinator.
Star & Garter Opening Hours Sun -Thurs 12pm-11pm Fri - Sat- 12pm-12am
sun trap beer garden
Live music every weekend Happy Hours Mon-Fri 5-8pm
Sambuca & Sourz shots £1 All Draughts £3 per pint All Wines only £10 a bottle
All Alcopops/Bottle of Becks 2 for £5 All bottled Ciders £3.30
---------------------------------------A free shot of Sourz or Sambuca with this voucher One voucher per person. Terms Apply. For many more events and --------------------------------places to go, check our What’s On guide on pages 12 and 13.
159 Moulsham Street, Chelmsford CM2 0LD 01245 600009
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Hypnotherapy by Jenny Hartill Last time we looked at helping you store memories for an event such as an exam. Today i’m going to take you through a form of self hypnosis step by step where you can go into the library of your mind and with practice, retrieve any positive memories you would like to…. The first step is to relax yourself. Make sure you are comfortable, at ‘hypno-school’ (technically it was a college where I studied and qualified as a hypnotherapist but hypno-school sounds cooler and is easier to type!) we were always told: ‘The image of the client laying down on a chaise longue is a myth because you don’t want your client to fall asleep during hypnosis.’ As much as I see my tutor’s point, you know what? If you wanna lie down guys, go for it. Enjoy yourself. The more relaxed the better and frankly, if you fall asleep you probably needed the nap! There’s nothing wrong with falling asleep, you won’t hypnotise yourself into oblivion, just possibly into the land of nod. Now then, once you are suitably relaxed you can perform your very own PMR - Progressive Muscle Relaxation. Start from the top of your head and then imagine the muscles relaxing, you can even say to yourself in your mind ‘the muscles in my head are relaxing’, and then move down your body relaxing each muscle group, so for example neck, shoulders, arms, chest, back, hips, legs, feet, toes and you can reaffirm each muscle group is relaxing by saying it in your head if you like. Okey dokey folks, now we move onto the important bit - the Deepener. This is the bit where you actually hypnotise yourself. Imagine a flight of stairs and count backwards from 10 as you go down the stairs - one number for each stair. By the time you get to 0 you should be in a light trance. Next, as we are going to explore your very own library of memories. Imagine you are stood outside the library. Imagine what this looks
like, the architecture, the colours, then imagine inside the library - is the library carpeted, are there any stairs etc? Remind yourself that everything you have known and experienced that has been stored by your brain is in this library. Once you have the image of the library firmly in your mind, you can enter your library. Now we need to help organise your mind, we do this by going through some of the books in the library. Firstly though we need to go through the topics, your books will be arranged by topic but the topics are all up to you. perhaps the topic is an age group, or perhaps certain experiences or certain people. If you have a particular subject in mind, think about it and then go to the section with the books all about that topic. Pick out a book, go through it and recall all the information in your mind. Once you have done this, replace the book back where you found it. You can now start to recall old memories at will, remind yourself you are in a relaxed state and give yourself the permission to recall these old memories. Remind yourself you feel calmer and more relaxed and that you can recall your old memories. You can also give yourself suggestions, for example, ‘I can remember everything I wish to…’ Try to think about positive memories and concentrate on this positive energy. If you are trying to remember something bad because you believe you have suppressed something, there is likely a very good reason you have suppressed the memory and it is best to seek help from a qualified therapist that can help you deal with anything that may pop up. Self hypnosis is not recommended for those trying to remember negative suppressed memories. Once you have remembered everything you wish to and want to come out of trance, simply count slowly from 1 to 5 and keep your thoughts fresh and positive. For more information on hypnosis or counselling, you can go to my website: www.counsellinginchelmsford.co.uk.
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Making Time for the Important Stuff by Keith Porter
As well as being the greatest personal trainer on earth, I’m also an amazingly talented musician. Oh and I’m also swoon-inducingly good looking, have a full head of hair and am guaranteed to lie when writing about myself in any way. Okay, so maybe some of that wasn’t true, but I am indeed a musician in a local country group called The Skylight Crowd. Being in a new band is actually
a ton of hard work at first. You need to find time to rehearse, create a website, have some photos done, get some gigs, manage your social media presence, and write songs as well as practice. The thing is, in just over two months, we’ve pretty much done all of it.
Now, I was already pretty busy before me and my pal Jim decided to start a country band, but here’s the thing: If you want something bad enough, you make time.
don’t have the time. Well, you do. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s hard sometimes - with multiple jobs, a young son, and a whole host of other responsibilities, I certainly don’t train every day, and sometimes I only manage once a week (if it is once, I always do heavy squats). But I can’t help but notice that a lot of the people who say they don’t have time for exercise also know a lot about Eastenders and Britain’s Got Talent, which makes it a matter of priorities, rather than time.
As you’d probably expect, I talk to a lot of people about health and fitness, and a consistent message I hear is that people
Pretty much all of us have time during the week where we get to choose our activities. That might be to watch some TV, go to the
cinema, have a few drinks in the bar or go out for lunch. Or, it could be to workout. Now, I’m not saying that the social things are unimportant. What I am saying is that by shifting your priorities slightly, you could find time once a week, every week, for a short, effective workout. If you wanted to improve the chance of that workout being a success, you’d make it the same time every week so it becomes routine. If you wanted to improve the chance of success even more, you’d rope a buddy in to do it with you. And if it’s a dog called Matisse, all the better.
How Much Would You Like to Feel Better Than You Do? By Kellie Jones
After nearly a month of me-time in Australia, I realise that we can exist every day in a state of ‘okayness’ and not ever get a chance to know how it feels to truly feel peaceful, serene and healthy. So yes, I realise I was blessed to be gifted 3 weeks off by my wonderful parents, they obviously knew better than me just how much I needed it. So what happens when I return to home, work and normality? Well I pledged at the beginning of this year to be the evidence and I will certainly do my human best to keep up the self-love and care that I have gradually and realistically set in place during the past few months. The 3 weeks off have just accelerated the desire to feel better on a continuous basis and so here goes to working out ways of doing just that, so that we can share the love with you all. Last month I shared my research with you on how to avoid jetlag and hey, it works! In fact I am writing this on the last leg of the 23 hour flight back to London from Sydney, drinking my water
with added electrolytes. On the way out I still suffered with slightly puffy feet, so I’ve upped my fluid intake which helps with the plan of getting up and moving - to the loos frequently! It seems the best tip I received was to set my watch to the time zone of where I’m travelling to (well actually I used the world clock on my iPad) and act accordingly. I’ve managed that with food, but not so much with sleep. I paid for extra leg room, (ha ha yes I know I’m only 5ft nothing), this has enabled me to keep my feet up, stretch out, get up and walk about easily. Oh and I started the yoga movement in Singapore airport! It seems people are just a little shy about doing some gentle exercise in an airport until someone gets brave enough to start it off and then all the secret yogis come out of the closet. I just figured I’d rather feel better than worry what I look like pulling strange shapes in the departure lounge.
vegetarian food even though I’m not a veggie, just because you get more fruit and less salty carbs. Seriously, there are minimal to no green foods on the plane, so a bag of spinach might be a good plan next time to avoid getting acidity. Drinks-wise, I managed to find some coconut water in the airport cafes and on my return I’ve tried out the new 1 Above flight drink where you literally can buy enough hydration for the length of your journey. This also helped with the exercise, as I had to keep getting up to get my water bottle filled, which the cabin crew were happy to do for me. I have bought enough to have some when I get home too and guess what, no puffy feet!
about my 3 week self-made retreat in Oz and how I’m managing to keep it up when I’m back on UK soil.
So next month I’ll tell you all
www.hummingbirdpilates.co.uk
In the meantime, check out this month’s workshops which are definitely all about the girls, but just so you guys don’t miss out, you can check out the benefits that meditation can bring everyone of us. Don’t put it off any longer, get your own selflove and care plan underway... you can find all info at either www.hummingbirdpilates. co.uk, where you can sign up for our newsletter, or like our Facebook page: Hummingbird Pilates & Yoga.
The other good thing I did was take my own healthy snacks onboard, with a supply of roasted pumpkin seed munchies, raw fruit bars, nuts and a little organic raw chocolate. The only airplane food I consumed was the fruit and veg. In fact, on my return journey I preordered
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Pilates, Yoga, Meditation Book your space online or call: Small Classes & 1-2-1’s www.hummingbirdpilates.co.uk Inspirational Teachers 01245 422556 Friendly, Community Vibe Reeds Farm Estate, Writtle, CM1 2ST
Offer valid until 31st July 2015
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Fairtrade by Sarah from Blooming Felt If you’re of a certain age and have lived in Chelmsford virtually all your life, you might remember Clarkes, the stationers - they had the most amazing shop at the end of High Chelmer (I think it’s a charity shop now). Upstairs was stuffed to the gills with pens, pencils, paints, paintbrushes, glues, sketching pads, scrapbooks, coloured card and paper, craft kits and the most fantastic range of colouring books and posters. I used to spend hours in that shop, picking and choosing the best designs and trying to decide whether to use pens or pencils with which to complete my poster. Then I grew up. Suddenly, I was of an age where it wasn’t cool to do stuff like that anymore. But times have changed!! Colouring is suddenly cool again, and not just for kids either. Research has shown that spending time colouring lowers stress levels and because of this, numerous ‘colouring books for grown-ups’ have started hitting the bookshelves. Of course, grown-up colouring books are slightly different to kids colouring books - they don’t feature things like fire engines or horses, but they do contain lots of patterns and sometimes, hidden pictures within those patterns. Some of the books contain beautiful drawings of insects, requiring some thought as to the best medium and colours to use in order that you can do the picture justice. Others contain drawings of animals, some feature
swirly patterns that almost make you dizzy if you look at them for too long. There are books featuring beautiful flowers, Art Deco patterns, dream homes, tattoos, dressed up animals (although why anyone dresses their animals up, I just don’t know) - the list goes on. Just google ‘colouring books for grown-ups’, look on Amazon or wander into Waterstones or The Works - there are colouring books everywhere at the moment. Or, if you don’t want to go to the expense of buying a full book, there are literally millions of free colouring pages that you can download from the internet. So, if you’re feeling a little bit stressed and need some down time, you really should get yourself a colouring book and some nice pens or pencils. You’ll feel better - I guarantee it. Oh, and while I think of it, Blooming Felt has an open day on Saturday 27th June at their Shedquarters in Danbury. Visit us between 10.30am and 2.00pm. Sadly, we won’t be doing any colouring-in but you can try creating a needle-felted design onto a Kindle case - no need to book, just drop in - £10 per person. See our website for more details: www.bloomingfelt.co.uk. Sarah x
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CT Wildlife Corner by nick Green It is late spring and wonderful to see the trees in full leaf and so many flowering plants in full bloom. May, like April, has proved to be rather cool with few days registering 20 degrees celcius, which insects really need to become active, particularly bees. I have not recorded many butterflies, but the list includes species like brimstone, orangetip, small tortoiseshell, peacock and holly blue. I have seen just one damselfly. The Butterfly Conservation Organisation does a tremendous job for butterflies and moths and other insects - discover the best insect-friendly plants for your garden at: butterfly-conservation.org/292/gardening.html. Blue tits and great tits time the hatching of their first broods with the leafing of the trees and the increase in insect numbers, so I hope the cooler weather has not had an adverse effect. Most summer bird migrant species have returned from their African winter quarters. Swifts are wheeling about and screaming their way around the streets of Chelmsford. The first noisy hungry starling broods are appearing, particularly on grassy areas.
Turtle dove - copyright Jeff Delve
At the lake in Central Park, despite the urban environment, another pair of
coots has successfully reared a brood of three chicks! The turtle dove is an attractive species and the male has a distinctive purring call. Unfortunately the species has suffered a severe decline since the 1970s and is now on the Red List of conservation concern. The main cause is thought to be seed availability for breeding birds and the RSPB has started a project to increase seed production, particularly on farmland with various trials. Forthcoming Chelmsford wildlife club events include: RSPB - Chelmsford and Central Essex Group: www.rspb.org.uk/ groups/chelmsford. Essex Birdwatching Society website has all details (www.ebws.org.uk). Essex Wildlife Trust - Chelmsford Group: www.essexwt.org.uk/getinvolved/local-groups/chelmsford. Essex Field Club: www.essexfieldclub.org.uk. Recent Essex Bird News The most noteworthy May news included a red-rumped swallow at Gunners Park at Shoeburyness. Meanwhile, Bowers Marsh RSPB excelled, recording pectoral sandpiper, garganey, black-necked grebe and spotted redshank - and the pair of black-winged stilts returned for a few days at the end of the month. Abberton Reservoir, south of Colchester, has recorded summer visitors like garganey and black tern and golden oriole and an elusive black kite was reported in the Chelmsford area for a few days at the end of the month.
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Chelmsford City FC Although it seems like a life time, it will be a year in August that I took the chair. On that day I stated we as a board had three main objectives this year, reduce the debt, develop and bring forward the youth and create an atmosphere that will entice people to come through the gate. I stated that for us to achieve this we needed to be united and work together and along with the introduction of new blood, who could provide the skill sets that were lacking. I felt we can not only achieve our objectives but go that little bit further in our hopes of achieving top level non league football here at Melbourne Park. To date things are going well on all three fronts. So what have we achieved? We have held regular meetings with the members, which have gone down extremely well, and the positive vibes in the room and the willingness to unite and pull together on all fronts is very pleasing to see. We are working very closely with the council, and have developed an excellent relationship by holding quarterly meetings to discuss any issues and progress on operational and financial issues. It is vital that this continues and we build on that relationship. We now have all the correct procedures and policies in place as far as our commitment to human resources. The club review which was an in depth look at every aspect of the business is now being adhered to and aligned to the way we take the club forward. In terms of our objectives, we have achieved the following: The Debt We have held meetings with the majority of the people who have a debt with the club and to date the response has been excellent and I am looking forward to some really good news by the end of the year.
Create An Atmosphere That Will Entice People To Come Through The Gate This has proved to be the biggest success to date which despite having an average season, there is still a feel good factor around the place and the enhancement both upstairs and down alongside the introductions of new menus, breakfasts and cheap beer. The numbers coming through the gate are spending more money than on previous occasions, especially upstairs and the gates are above the budgeted numbers. We have seen further enhancements to the club house in terms of the memorabilia and signage downstairs. We have agreed a four year sponsorship package with Molson Coors, who will take over from Greene King as the provider of all beer, wines and spirits to the club. This is a fantastic deal for the club, with cheaper beer, and no tied in clauses or penalties. As well as special deals that will benefit both the supporter and the club. Develop and Bring Forward the Youth This is an area where again we seen some unparalleled success, for the second season running one of our boys who was developed through the academy into the first has signed for a football league club, last season Aaron Greene signed for Brentford and this year Joe Ward signed for Brighton & Hove Albion. Players continue to come through to the first team via the SOCA academy, and to have five academy players playing in the last fixture proves we are doing something right. The long term vision is to have a stream of youngsters knocking on the first team door every season. We must remember we will not get it right every time and if we make mistakes, which we all will do, we must learn from them and ensure the same mistake is not made twice. The current board is always prepared to listen to people’s views and comments, so all feedback is appreciated whether it’s good or bad. If we don’t know about it we can’t put it right. So please come forward to any official and tell us how things are going and what is causing you concern, and we will try our best to make it better. We all want the best for our club so let’s find out what the YOU want and let’s try and make it happen. Our first Home friendly is against West Ham United on the 17th July, I look forward to seeing you there. T.O. Smith – Chairman
Family Friendly Funnies Why did Johnny throw the clock out of the window? Because he wanted to see time fly! Why was the baby strawberry crying? Because his mom and dad were in a jam. Why shouldn’t you write with a broken pencil? Because it’s pointless. When does Friday come before Thursday? In the dictionary. What’s easy to get into but hard to get out of? Trouble. What stays in the corner and travels all over the world? A stamp. Page 27 If you know a CLEAN joke email editorial@itsyourmedia.co.uk
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CT CHARITY The J’s Hospice The J’s Hospice has been developed through the drive and vision of the local community to see enhanced care and support for young adults across Essex with life limiting conditions such as cancer and a wide range of complex neurological and metabolic conditions. The
J’s provides tailored specialist nursing, respite and end of life care, advice and advocacy, emotional care, bereavement support and a range of activities for the young adult and their family in the comfort and security of their own home. Our aim is to encourage young adults throughout the county to live life to the full, however short.
The population of young adults with life limiting conditions is growing due to advances in medical care and improved technology, but there are very few dedicated services for young adults. The J’s is the first home-based service in the UK, with age-appropriate delivery of hospice and respite care for this age group. It really does make such a difference to our patients to be treated as young adults - to be allowed informed choices about their treatment and to be given the opportunity to live their lives to the full. To maintain and support The J’s service, we rely heavily on the generosity of the wider community. Only around 30% of our funding comes from statutory and government sources, a huge 70% is raised through regular giving, community participation, our charity shop and events such as the Chelmsford Marathon. The J’s Hospice host a range of events from large events such as The Chelmsford Marathon, which in 2014 (its first year) saw
1,900 participants sign up and raise £100,000 and Pedal for The J’s, our annual charity bike ride, which on May the 3rd 2015 saw 890 participants saddle up raising £30,000. Our annual ball, held on the 21st of November, will see The Great Gatsby take over Orsett Hall with a night of food and entertainments. It’s certainly a date to put in the calendar! For information regarding these
events, please email: Jessica. dellow@thejshospice.org.uk. The J’s Hospice Dragon Boat Challenge is taking place on Sunday 26th July at The River Chelmer, Backnang Square, Chelmsford. More than 30 crews from Essex companies are expected to battle it out in 30ft brightly painted Chinese dragon
Page 28 To be our charity of the month please email editorial@itsyourmedia.co.uk
boats over the 200m course. As part of the River Festival, there will be lots of fun activities for all the family. Entry fee is £400 per boat plus sponsorship. Price increases on Friday 26th June. For more information, email: laura.birden@thejshospice.org. uk. Community fundraising is a vital part of The J’s. We certainly rely on individuals in volunteering their time to support us in anything from hosting a ‘Cuppa and a Cake’, ‘Manage a Mile Challenge’, ‘No Cake November’ or organise a quiz in ‘Pub Quiz Galore’ in July. If you would like more information regarding any community events contact Maz on: maz.keenan@thejshospice. org.uk. There are lots of ways in which you can support our aim of maintaining the best possible quality of life for the young adults we care for and we will always greatly appreciate any support you can give. Please visit our website www.thejshospice.org.uk for more information on ways to get involved and start making a difference.
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Chelmsford BJJ The home of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Essex
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Stargazing with Mark Willis June/July Antares is a much bigger star than our Sun, if placed where our Sun is, it would reach out beyond the orbit of Mars. However, with a surface temperature of 3,000 degrees C, it’s only half as hot as our own Sun. To find Antares, look south and it’s about 40 degrees above the horizon. Antares is 550 light years away, so the light from Antares we see today is from 1465. Saturn is on view near Antares. Look a little higher to the right (one o’clock). Although Saturn will not appear quite so bright as Antares, it will still be very easy to spot. Saturn is a gas giant which is 10 times bigger than Earth. Through a small telescope, 150cm (6in) upwards, Saturn appears as a disk with a ring around it. Dark-adjusted eyes will be able to resolve more and more detail. Take a look at Solar System Quick (www.solarsystemquick.com), this is a wonderful resource for budding astronomers and teachers who would love quality basic astronomy information. The big event in the astronomy calendar is Pluto. This mysterious
little world is so distant that even the mighty Hubble Space Telescope only resolves it as a blurry orange disk. New Horizons was launched back in January 2006 and is due to encounter Pluto on July 14 this year. Interesting to reflect that New Horizons is now closer to Pluto than the Earth is to the Sun. The light from the Sun will take just under 6 hours to reach Pluto. To illustrate this, a light sent from New Horizons would only take just over 6 minutes to reach Pluto! If we were able to turn New Horizons around to look back at the Sun, it would appear only as a very bright star. For the first time ever, we will see Pluto in magnificent detail. The science we’ll gain is likely to be huge! Next time in City Times Stargazing with Mark Willis: Arrival at Pluto! Mark Willis presents Willis Wireless every Monday at 7pm on Chelmsford Community Radio. Web: Tweet me: Email:
www.chelmsfordcommunityradio.com @WillisWireless mark.willis@chelmsfordcommunityradio.com
A Great Finale to the Rotary Year
Well, in the end we fell well short of breaking the world record for the biggest quiz, but there are positives. Firstly, more people now know about Rotary and what it does, so from that point of view it was an outstanding success. We had articles in several local newspapers, I was on the radio three times talking about Rotary and it was also on many social media sites and there were lots of leaflets around - and of course, we had an article in Chelmsford The City Times and its sister magazine, Moulsham Times. Secondly, we have raised some money for Lancaster Special Needs School in Southend which was the objective. We don’t know the final figure yet as receipts are still coming in, but
£799
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it will make a significant difference to them and in particular to their new garden area. Thirdly, we have shown a big outdoor quiz can work and if we ever decide to have another shot at the record any doubters will feel confident that it can be done. Everyone who was there thoroughly enjoyed the quiz and the atmosphere and I have received many complimentary comments. Of course, I am disappointed that we didn’t quite make it, but I like to look at the positive side and my thanks to everyone who gave their support. I am now almost at the end of my term as Rotary District Governor and it has been a hectic year to say the least, with as many as six or seven meetings or events every week. Taking on any voluntary position is a big commitment and the country would grind to a halt without the magnificent work accomplished by the voluntary sector. It’s nice to know you are making a difference to the lives of many people but in return you get great satisfaction and meet so many wonderful people. The projects I like best involve our young people. Just last week we had the finals of the Rotary Young Leaders Awards held in the outdoor centre in Mersea Island. These teenagers have won through the heats and when they come together for the first time they work in teams in problem solving and it is wonderful to see them encouraging each other to overcome physical fears, to build their confidence and the ability to put their ideas to an audience. This experience will stand them in good stead in their careers. Of course, whilst my role is ending, I will still be heavily involved with Rotary and other charities and I will continue to keep you informed of what is going on locally and ask if you would like to join in. One reason in particular for being a Rotarian can be illustrated by the recent earthquake tragedy in Nepal. As usual, Rotarians were amongst the first to get aid and shelter to the affected region, but not only that, it is the fact that all the money collected goes direct to the area without being dissipated in administration or staff costs or lost through corruption as is sometimes the case with other organisations. It does make me proud to be a small part of such an organisation. At present I don’t have figures of how much Rotarians have donated - with the generous help of local people - but it runs into a six figure sum, which will help the rebuilding process in the years to come. Rotary knows that whilst the immediate impact needed to be dealt with, the Nepalese will need help for a long time in the future. Once again, if you would like to learn more about Rotary and are thinking about becoming a member, or a ‘friend’ assisting on an occasional basis, then visit www.chelmsfordrotary1240.org, or phone me for details on 01245 260349. Stan Keller
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