Moulsham Times November

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Issue Number 23 - November 2014

MT Welcome Hello readers

Welcome to issue number 23. This month look out for information on naming the hub in Moulsham Lodge on page 7 and Moulsham First’s meeting on November 4th on page 30. Also we are helping to promote a campaign via sponsorship to provide children with high visability vests as the evenings get darker, more information on how you can help on page 27.

This month has seen the Ideas Festival take place around the city.

I have so far attended an historic walk of Moulsham Street which was thoroughly intersting, the festival launch where we met some of our writers we had not met before and the River Day. Well done to Leonie and her team on a great event.

Regards Nick & Paul

Editorial Advertising Paul Mclean Nick Garner 07595 949701 07970 206682 ads@itsyourmedia.co.uk editorial@itsyourmedia.co.uk Disclaimer: It’s Your Media publish the Moulsham Times. The opinion expressed in each article is the opinion of its author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Its Your Media Ltd. No part may be reproduced without the prior written permission of Its Your Media Ltd. Reg Co No. 09154871. Printed by Imagery UK.

Perfection by Chloe Perfection by Chloe was started by Chloe Whitehouse two years ago as her mobile beauty business and her clientelehas grown rapidly.

Her current beauty room is situated above Rumor Hair Salon on Moulsham Street.

Chloe is a level three qualified beauty therapist. She is able to offers some of the most up-to-date treatments including Dermalogica facials and Crystal Clear Micro-Dermabrasion. Furthermore, quality treatments, including OPI nail lacquer, are also routinely available.

Take a look at our newly improved website www.perfectionbychloe. com. Aesthetic treatments are also available and performed by an experienced and highly qualified doctor.

Perfection by Chloe has made a fantastic start this year; Councillor Dick Madden attended the open evening in September and had his nails manicured. Mr Dick Madden, who represents the ward where the shop is situated, said: “I am delighted to see a young person with such determination launching her own business within Moulsham Street.”

Chloe is very passionate about her beauty business and is determined to offer clients the best available products and treatments without the hefty prices. She is not just using Dermalogica, but also selling the Dermalogica products from her beauty room. This is also why Chloe would also like to extend a 20% off all facials to clients who bring in a copy of the advert, which is opposite.

Opening times have now been extended to five days a week, Tuesday-Saturday and including two late nights. Chloe is happy to give free advice on any of her treatments and will arrange a free consultation with Dr Ahmed for clients wishing to explore the idea of Botox or Fillers.

8th November Danbury Fireworks

The skies of Danbury will again be illuminated with colour on Saturday 8th November 2014 as the Friends of Danbury Scout Group hold their annual fireworks display event at Danbury Outdoors, off the A414. This event has been running for over 46 years and keeps its title as one of the best, largest and oldest displays in the area. What started out as a small gathering of people and a £20.00 box of rockets 46 years ago has now developed into event with a fireworks budget in excess of £10,000. As always, the stunning aerial fireworks display will be set to music, fired by an award winning fireworks company providing a constant riot of sparks, colour and sound culminating in a spectacular finale.

The beer tent will be making its return, serving a selection of beverages including real ale, lager, wine, soft drinks and of course mulled wine to warm you up. There’s plenty of space in the beer garden giving a perfect view of the display. There will also be a host of catering outlets to suit every taste.

This year we are joined by Heart FM who will be hosting our live entertainment stage including music from live band Twisted Logistics who are making a welcome return. Be sure to tune into Heart FM’s Breakfast & Drive Time shows as they will be running competitions for free tickets to the event.

Other entertainment is on offer in the form of our traditional giant bonfire and our usual funfair providing additional entertainment for all the family with a happy hour from 5:30 to 6:30pm.

To get tickets for Danbury Fireworks 2014 you can either buy them at a reduced rate in advance from one of the many local businesses around Danbury and Chelmsford, including Manor Farm & Chelmsford Star Co-op food stores, or alternatively, tickets are available on the gates.

A free car park, run by the Danbury Fireworks team of volunteers, is open from 5pm and you are urged to arrive in good time as the fireworks will start promptly at 8pm.

All profits from the event are used to support Scouting in Danbury and other local supporting charities and organisations.

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Chelmsford Civic Society is Looking for More Members The aims of Chelmsford Civic Society are to stimulate public interest in, and appreciation and care of, the history, appearance and Examples of character of Chelmsford. recent activities Do you care about: Campaigning for new uses of • The preservation of buildings? the Shire Hall • History and architecture?

Lobbying for improvements to • River banks, parks and trees? proposals in the City Centre • Future planning and land use?

Visit and talk at Chelmsford Cathedral • Transport, road and car parking?

Guided tour of Hylands House • Are you passionate about matters of (saved from demolition by campaign historical interest and planning matters? including Civic Society) If you wish to contribute to our campaign and Guided walking tour of the join a programme of talks and outings then city centre please complete the form to join.

For further information please visit our web site: www.chelmsfordcivicsociety.co.uk.

If you would like to write for any of our magazines or have a one off article to send us please email editorial@itsyourmedia.co.uk

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Charity Race Night 27th November @ 8.30pm 7 Hall Street, Chelmsford, Essex, CM2 0HG 01245 299 126 www.oconnorschelmsford.com

From the House

by Simon Burns MP - Flu Vaccinations

Every year too many people suffer from influenza, despite the fact that the NHS provides flu jabs free of charge. Through information I recently received from the Department of Health, I am pleased to see a large overall increase in the number of influenza vaccinations over the past four years.

Since 2010, data for England on the number of seasonal influenza vaccinations administered by primary care and NHS trusts shows an overall increase in vaccinations for healthcare workers with direct patient care,

pregnant women, and those over 65.

Influenza vaccine uptake for frontline healthcare workers with direct patient care has increased from 34.7% in 2010/11 to 54.8% in 2013/14, with an increase in the actual number of vaccines administered from 359,080 to 534,090.

For those aged 65 and over, the number of vaccines administered has increased from 6,287,011 in 2010/11 to 7,062,210 in 2013/14. This was coupled with both an increase in the vaccine uptake, as well as an increase of more than a million patients registered.

The vaccine uptake for pregnant women has remained stable with only a small increase from 38% to 39.8%, the number of vaccines administered as increased substantially as the number of patients registered has more than doubled. The number of vaccines rose from 121,164 in 2010/11 to 262,081 in 2013/14.

The increase in figures is promising in the fight against influenza, especially to protect those who are most vulnerable. I do think it is important that as many people as possible take up the offer of a flu jab, particularly those groups of people at most risk, and I would urge them to consider having a flu jab this winter.

Moulsham Lodge Community Trust Hub Open Day The Trust held an open consultation day at the new hub (the police station) for the local community. This allowed people to come and look round the police station in Moulsham Lodge, see what the facilities are like and give us suggestions on what they would like to do with the facility. We set up idea walls in different rooms allowing people to suggest ideas against themes including clubs & community support. We also set up a wish list wall with all of the items that we needed to get started from computers to teaspoons and one requesting particular skills from admin to plumbing.

We had a steady flow on both days with a rough estimate of about 100 through the doors, lots of people contributed to the idea walls and signed up for our regular e-newsletters. We also put a request out on the Facebook group “Chelmsford Freecycle” and now have some chairs a fridge, lots of plates and cutlery and a few small tables, so a thank you to those that donated their items.

Our most pressing problem at the moment is to get the building decorated, but to do this we need paint and quite a bit of it. We have a group that has offered to provide the labour to decorate as part of their contribution to the community and I’ll talk about them more next time.

Mark Springett, Dick Madden and Linda Mascot

Then we need to furnish it with all the right equipment so that it is configurable to a wide range of activities and interests. We are hoping to complete towards the end of November or before, but this does depend on a number of factors, including money.

Name the Hub Competition We keep using the word hub, and it will be a hub for the community that will allow the trust to branch out from but, we need a name for it, something that everyone will identify it by. Therefore we are running a competition to name the hub (not sure what the prize will be yet). We would like it to have a name with the police used as a theme. eg cop, copper, peeler, station etc. A special competition page will be set up on our web site, see details below. You can email us, text us, phone us or write to us, or just drop your suggestion through the letter box of the police station.

Contact: Mark Springett T: 01245 351040 M: 07411 808731 or Text, Email: enquiries@mlct.org.uk Website www.mlct.org.uk address 99 Gloucester Avenue, CM2 9DS

Lorna Fuller, Deputy chair and Trustee and Treasurer Ginny Lawrence

I’ve Crossed so Many Mountain Ranges Between Home and Nepal I Couldn’t Tell You How Many.

Having been in the Ladakh region of Northern India it made a good change to drop down to low ground again, unfortunately this low ground was Delhi! I had been in Delhi 5 years previous so I didn’t want to be a tourist. I had day to day stuff to sort out regarding IT, bike repairs and alike. I wasn’t enjoying the hot and dirty city, so with a friend from London I took a holiday from riding and flew down to Sri Lanka for two weeks to enjoy this wonderfully relaxed and welcoming country.

Upon returning to Delhi I got out of the city as soon as possible heading east passing through villages, towns and cities that never see tourists which made stopping an amazing experience, as within seconds massive crowds would gather, stare and on occasions when someone spoke English would ask so many questions. There is nothing better than travelling to non-touristy places.

Three days after leaving Delhi I arrived in one of the places I most wanted to visit on this adventure, Varanasi. I had heard and read so much about it and regretted not making the effort to visit 5 years earlier, now I was here and I spent four days absorbing the amazing sights and smells of one of the worlds amazing cities.

Varanasi is on the banks of the river Ganges and one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world, it is the holiest city in Hinduism and Buddhism and is described as the spiritual city of India.

Whilst there are tourists, not many are western, the majority of

visitors are pilgrims who come to bath and wash in the Ganges which is believed to wash away ones sins. There are miles of Ghats where pilgrims wash in what is said to be the most polluted river in the world, this can’t be helped by the funeral pyres which are burning bodies a few metres away from the Ganges 24 hours a day.

I didn’t know how long I would spend in Varanasi and found myself transfixed on the many activities and rituals including walking past and stopping only a few metres myself from bodies being burned on the pyre. It is said that the only way to stop the cycle of life, death and reincarnation is to die in Varanasi or have their remains cremated on the ghats at the edge of the Ganges.

After the sensory overload which is Varanassi I headed north to Nepal and The Himalayas again, it’s not healthy to compare such different places as Varanassi and The Himalayas, just to say they are equally magical in vastly different ways. I passed through the fertile wetlands/paddy fields of Northern India en route before crossing the border into Nepal where I started to climb the foothills of The Himalayas. Having crossed a pass at 2,500 metres I then dropped down to Kathmandu where I happened to meet, by a complete coincidence, 6 of the 10 people I am crossing Myanmar/Burma with at the end of October, I spent a week with these guys before heading east again. I’m currently back in India in Darjeeling looking at the Himalayas again, this time about 1,500 miles from where I first saw them in Northern Pakistan.

You can follow me at danskeates.com

What a month it has been again since our festival which is still raising money for the Helen Rollason Cancer charity. So far we have had two events this month and one was as It’s Your Music at Jardins in Braintree with Dona Oxford and the Standard Lamps, two excellent acts.

The Lamps, a trio who come from the south east, are fantastic with great original music watch - out for them. Headlining was Dona Oxford, wow what a keyboard player and singer she is and what a great band. Dona has played with many of the best, including Van Morrison and Keith Richards to name a couple. She put on a show that everyone said it was world class..

At the Bassment, Blues in the City have had a couple of great shows. In September we had a great opening act with the Hokum Boys from north Essex, then from America we had the wonderful Kent DuChaine with his ever trusty Leadbessie, his 1930s resonator guitar, with his songs and tales it was a great night. Then in October we had a double headline show with, again from America but originally from Sweden, Sofie Reed who wowed the audience with her playing of the Dulcimer and harmonica and with her fantastic vocals. Then all the way from Suffolk we had our great mates Back Porch. These guys are unique with their blend of skiffle and blues - you cannot help but want to get up and dance to them. They are playing at the Ale House on Saturday 15th November, well worth going to. Also on Saturday 29th November at the Ale House you can see Dave Jackson who played at the Woolpack for our festival this year.

Dona Oxford

Now looking ahead to the Bassment on Wednesday 12th November we have a great night in store, with Mike Happninboy and friends opening the night, then we have the Fran McGillivray Band - if you love Bonnie Raitt’s voice you will love Fran - and with Mike on guitar and Roger on drums and percussion you will be in for a real treat. Friday the 14th November we have a great night in store in Braintree at Jardins with two greats of the blues rock world with LaVendore Rogue, who’s members hail from Wolfpack, Hokie Joint and the Sruckbats. Also we have Roadhouse playing these two bands normally headline in their own right but we have them both on the same night, so you get two greats for the price of one. You can buy tickets for the Jardins show from the Ale House or online - see the advert in this magazine.

There is plenty more great live music on in and around Chelmsford. so check out the what’s on guide in Chelmsford The City Times for all the latest news of gigs and events.

Boningtons are pleased to announce the recent opening of their new Chelmsford Valuations Office

George Hamilton Barrable (British, d. 1887) Portrait of a lady, sold: ÂŁ9,500 On h/8th t 7 r e b ed Novem r mly invit ent n ev re wa you a al valuatio m to .30p peci to a s n 10am - 5 ford s e betwe the Chelm Tr yner meet uer, Brett ns' r val Senio d Boningto s. t an exper f o team

For more information or to arrange a home visit contact Brett...

Contact Brett Tryner: brett@boningtons.com 101 Lower Anchor Street, Chelmsford, CM2 OAU - 01245 352213 Open for valuations Monday - Friday 9am - 5.30pm Mond www.boningtons.com

MT Gardening

What’s this weather doing? One moment it’s lashing down with rain, very windy and the next glorious sunshine… it’s certainly testing us gardeners!

At this time of year bedding plants are usually flagging and certainly not looking their best. Just ready to be plucked from the beds and spring bedding added. At Writtle College we won’t be planting out until after October half term – very unusual for us as we always hope to get beds cleared, prepped, marked out and ready for planting. We have, however, sorted out containers - so that’s a start.

give me a surprise in the spring. A light watering and all is done… now where’s that glass of wine?

Good luck and happy gardening!

For any gardening tips why not contact Tom Cole, Head of Faculty for Land & Environment, Writtle College, Chelmsford, CM1 3RR by post (including a SAE) or by email at tom.cole@writtle.ac.uk.

Containers are great additions to any garden, whether it’s on a patio or by an entrance, they can definitely spruce up an area and extend the season of interest. This year I’ve decided to do the same at home. A number of my pots and troughs need a total re-think and a new lease of life. I’ve enjoyed them, but just like any bed or border, it’s time for a change.

After popping down to my local garden centre armed with a myriad of ideas, the trolley was filled and I left with a car boot burgeoning and my wallet ever so slightly light of cash. My thoughts this year are to have a range of permanent plants; some woody and a few hardy perennials, all under planted with bulbs. For this year I’ve chosen Scilla siberica for its lovely blue mini hyacinth-like flowers and a height of no more than 15cm (6”) and Allium spherocephalum, these drumstick alliums have a tall flower spike; up to 60cm (24”) and will look super in the largest troughs and tubs. But, these won’t give me any joy until next year. For the time being the evergreens and hardy perennials take centre stage.

Evergreens and hardy types do give you something to look at all year, but at this time of the year when leaves are dropping everywhere, they become focal points. For one tub I have used a range of evergreens and deciduous types. I thoroughly recommend recycling wine cases… having enjoyed the wine! This box will make for a useful container for a couple of years. It’s 24cm (2’) x 15cm (6”) x 20cm (8”) deep. Into the container I’ve added a multi-purpose potting compost (after adding drainage holes in the base). After which I’m adding a hardy plumbago/ leadwort (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides) which will provide all year round colour; usually dark leaved but at this time of year foliage turns red before falling plus it has dark to mid-blue flowers. Just in front of this a male fern (Dryopteris affinis) will provide glossy green attractive foliage. You could also add the Christmas rose (Helleborus niger) providing dark green leaves and white booms in winter/ spring. My last plant is a hardy perennial called Heuchera ‘Shanghai’ producing deep veined silvery purple foliage. To finish off I’ve popped in a handful of the Scilla siberica to

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FROM COUNTY HALL

by Cllr Dick Madden

Can you smell it in the air. The weather is changing and the early signs of Christmas commercialism have started to appear and here at county hall I have already paid for our office Christmas lunch. For me and Kathryn Christmas is a wonderful time, our greatest gift is seeing all our grandchildren excited and when opening their presents and their innocence and sense of awe. Additionally, our latest of seven grandchildren, baby Oliver, will take part in his first Christmas.

As he rips at wrapping papers I know his eyes will be darting about, not fully understanding but feeling happiness and love. The reason I share with you a sample of my family life is, as we read this article, in our communities of Chelmsford City, Old Moulsham and Moulsham Lodge there will be individuals who will spend Christmas on their own not because they want but they have to. So this Christmas, do a good turn for a neighbour who is on their own, whatever the gesture you will receive the same happiness and love that baby Oliver will feel when ripping open his numerous presents.

The first Chelmsford marathon took place today, weather was really good and a fantastic turn out. Did I do it you ask? No, I attended some of the event but had to slide away as two of our grandchildren were baptised. To those in our community who took part, well done and thank you.

I have been asked again to remind residents if you can avoid passing through the Army and Navy roundabout roadworks for the next 6 months,then please try to do so. Yes it is frustrating with traffic queues but we know our housing estates so if you can, avoid the A&N. Whilst travelling through the estates though keep to 30mph or even less, we have many children walking about, when on the way to school and when school is out.

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Tomorrow evening I am officially opening the Chelmsford Ideas Festival 2014. I appreciate by the time this article is published that the festival, that lasts two weeks, will be over. However I want to place on record on behalf of all residents of Chelmsford a thank you to Leonie Ramondt the Ideas Festival Director and Malcolm Noble Chairman of Changing Chelmsford. I will share my experiences at the festival in a future article of mine.

By the way, all keep an eye on Shire Hall, all the scaffolding is coming down and we will see how the old building has scrubbed up. I am quite excited, I do hope I am not disappointed.

Oh, the open day at the new community hub at Moulsham Lodge was a success. The old police station was open again and many local residents came with suggestions on how to bring the building to life, brought assorted pieces of furniture to fill the empty rooms and so many tea mugs and I mean so many. I particularly liked many of the proposed names for the building, my favourite being The Old Cop Shop. Over the past few years a few of us, including myself, have facilitated the acquiring of this community hub and now we call upon the local community to support it and make use of it. I particularly want to put on record on behalf of residents our thanks to Mark and Sue Springett for their commitment, hard work and diligence in breathing new life into The Old Cop Shop.

BE SAFE - Dick Madden

www.moulshamtimes.com

MT Baking by Alison Motley

Welcome to my new column, I’m a curious eater, food obsessor, and avid baker whose motto is ‘if in doubt add chocolate!‘ I love to travel and discover new foods and flavours. The first place I usually head for is the local market, bakery or supermarket and my suitcase will often be full of strange and wonderful ingredients on the return journey!

I have an allotment, which provides me with lots of fresh fruit and veg to use in my baking and I love to think up recipes to use courgettes and raspberries by the ton every August!

I’m also interested in researching regional dishes from around the UK, and old traditional recipes that are in danger of being forgotten.

But most importantly of all I’m keen to encourage people of all ages and abilities to cook for themselves.

I admit I’ve been worryingly addicted to this year’s Great British Bake Off. Realising I had a prior engagement on the night of the Final last month, I recorded it to watch at midnight when I returned home rather than wait until the following day to view it! I have been continually amazed by the increasingly intricate bakes the contestants have produced, but for me personally, baking is all about the flavour and sharing food with those around you.

Who cares if your Victoria Sandwich is slightly lopsided, or your buttercream a little grainy? The most important thing is to have a go and have fun! The more you have a go, the more you learn and the better you get. Your family and friends will love you for it, and trust me when I say it WILL taste great because YOU made it!

So with that in mind I thought I would start by sharing this recipe for my Carrot and Coriander Loaf, it’s a rustic bread, but what it lacks in looks it makes up for in taste. It uses one of my favourite flavour combinations, not usually associated with bread and is lovely with a hot winter soup. It’s a great way to use up any excess carrots I’ve grown, but if you are not lucky enough to grow carrots yourself, don’t worry, as they are cheap to buy and at their seasonal best right now.

It’s also a great way to get a few extra veggies into your day and seems so wholesome as to make you feel positively self-righteous!

Carrot and Coriander Bread 300g carrots, peeled 1 small onion

400g Strong White Bread Flour 150g Strong Wholemeal Bread Flour 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons ground coriander 1 and a half teaspoons dried quick yeast (or 1 sachet easy-blend yeast) 100ml milk 100ml warm water 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 egg, beaten 1. Grate the onion and 100g of the carrots and mix.

2. Chop the remaining carrots and boil until tender. Drain well, puree or mash until smooth and leave to cool.

3. Combine the flours, salt, yeast and coriander in a large bowl.

4. In another bowl mix together the water, milk, oil and carrot puree.

5. Add the carrot mixture to the dry ingredients and mix to form a dough.

6. Tip the dough onto a floured surface and knead well for 10 minutes until smooth. The dough will be quite sticky so you may need to add a little more flour to the surface as you work.

7. Place the dough in a clean oiled bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and leave in a warm place to double in size (approx 1 hour).

8. Knock back the dough on a floured surface, sprinkle over the grated carrot and onion and knead gently until combined.

9. Shape the dough into a round, place on a floured baking tray and cover with oiled cling film. Leave in a warm place for a 45 minutes to rise.

10. Preheat oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas mark 6, slash the top of the loaf several times with a knife and brush with beaten egg.

11. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown and hollow sounding when tapped.

12. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Feel free to swap a teaspoon of the ground coriander for ground cumin, add a sprinkle of chilli powder or even add a handful of fresh chopped coriander to the dough at stage 8 if you like.

I’m excited to be writing about baking over the coming months and sharing some recipes with you. I would love to hear from readers with any suggestions and ideas, or what you would like to see here. Drop me an email at motleybakes@aol.com.

Ea

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The Hop Beer Shop opening early November 2014 in Moulsham Street Chelmsford. It is not only a craft beer bottle store but a Micro Pub offering a variety of ales straight from the cask.

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The first Micro Pub was the Butchers Arms in Herne Kent. Since then over 70 have opened across the UK, and The Hop Beer Shop will be the first of it's kind in Essex.

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The shop will showcase a wide variety of bottled beers from Essex and beyond, including Europe and the USA, all of which can be consumed on the premises or taken away.

Please follow us @hopbeershop for latest news

Open Monday to Saturday 12pm to 9pm.

173 Moulsham Street, Chelmsford, CM2 0LD www.thehopbeershop.co.uk 01245 353570 Cycling and Recycling by Cllr Victoria Irwin Hello, I am Councillor Irwin, one of your local city council members for Moulsham and Central Ward and I hope to be contributing to the Moulsham Times with news from the city council. This month I was hoping to focus on two issues reasonably close to my heart: recycling and cycling! The city council has a variety of recycling schemes and offers kerbside collections for paper, cardboard, glass, plastic, cans, food waste and general waste. They even now offer the “WEEE” scheme and will collect small electrical items from the kerbside as well. Check out the website for further details: www.chelmsford.gov.uk/recyling. Please do give recycling another think and if you have any ideas about how recycling could be improved please get in touch, you can find my contact details on the Chelmsford Council website.

Next, cycling - I am not a keen cyclist, but my husband bought me a lovely new step-through bike and I hope to have gained my confidence on it and be riding to the station for my commute in next to no time! Chelmsford Council are running a course of cycle rides - particularly for those who are less confident - and provide maps of the 36km of cycle routes throughout the city! Take a look, www. chelmsford.gov.uk/cycling. Now I have no excuse….

It’s Your Music Presents LaVendore Rogue and Roadhouse live at Jardins in Braintree on 14th November 2014 see the advert on page 16.

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Boningtons Fine Art Valuers and Auctioneers New Office in Old Moulsham

Boningtons Fine Art Valuers and Auctioneers are pleased to announce the opening of a new valuations office in Chelmsford. The office is open for valuations of art and antiques five days a week between 9am - 5.30pm. The office complements Boningtons current saleroom in Loughton where there are fortnightly interior sales, four fine art and antiques sales per year and regular military, toy and collectors sales.

I am your local valuer in Chelmsford having joined the company from Bonhams, London. I originally studied Fine Arts Valuation at Southampton University and then worked for an auction house in the Midlands for ten years. I had always wanted to be an auctioneer and valuer, my father and other family members were, and more importantly, still are collectors of English porcelain. I have a passion for everything to do with art and antiques. When I’m not clambering around attics and sheds looking for Ming vases I enjoy swimming, reading and days out to country houses, I’m loooking forward to exporing the rich cultural heritage and the picturesque countryside of Essex.

The Chelmsford office is based in the cosmopoliton area of Old Moulsham on Lower Anchor Street and I very much look forward to meeting you at the valuations office. As well as valuations for sale I can also carry out professional valuations for insurance and probate and are also happy to make home visits if this is more convenient. The Chelmsford office will provide clients with the advantage of a professional valuation service without having to travel to London whilst the saleroom in Loughton offers access to the international art market through live internet bidding ensuring the best prices possible.

Please contact me if I can be of any help or feel free to pop into the office to say hello. We are also having a two day valuation event on the 7th and 8th November where you can meet myself as well as the entire Boningtons team of experts.

For more information or to arrange a home visit, contact me at brett@boningtons.com or call the office on 01245 352213

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum Springers AODS – 4th - 8th November 2014 Civic Theatre Chelmsford – Box Office 01245 606505 Our story takes place in front of three adjacent houses on a street in ancient Rome. Firstly, the house of Lycus, a peddler of fine female flesh. Next is the house of Senex, his wife Domina, and their son, Hero. Finally, the house of Erronius, whose young children were kidnapped many years ago.

Pseudolus, a slave in the household Senex and the property of Hero, wants his freedom and to get it will resort to pretty much anything; much to slave-in-chief, Hysterium’s, displeasure and disgust.

Hero yearns for the beautiful Philia, a girl who is one of the courtesans in the diverse house of Lycus and agrees to give Pseudolus his freedom if he can help him to win her. She has however, already been sold by Lycus to Miles Gloriosus, a soldier

with a rather large ego. “Sir if you had been a woman you would have been her.”

“As magnificent as that!?”

Pseudolus tries to come up with a foolproof plan to get the young pair together, but will it all go as smoothly as they hope? With a few mistaken identities, a band of talented Proteans playing many different parts and some fantastic musical numbers in between, how could it not go according to plan….?!

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them in raising funds for Help for Hero’s and The Parachute Regiment Charity. Merrick Allen, one of the three Directors of The Home Partnership, said: “We are delighted to support the Bricklayers’ Arms Troop while at the same time celebrating the opening of our new Brentwood offices. The We felt this was a natural next step for us and Parachute Regiment Charity and Help for Heroes are we’re pleased to announce we officially opened both magnificent causes and it’s great that regulars, our doors recently and celebrated our launch with from one of our local pubs are supporting them.“ friends and family and business associates. We’ve put staff into the new branch that all have links to Gary Middlehurst, leader of the Bricklayers’ Arms Brentwood so that they can offer the best level of Troop, said: “We would like to thank The Home local knowledge to clients.

Partnership for their support which is much appreciated by all of us and gave us a great boost as Within this branch we will be covering Brentwood we completed our strenuous training regime so that and all the surrounding villages. Incorporated within we were ready for the real thing.” our evening we were honoured to support the local charity Operation Market Garden 2014 (OMG) in To follow the team: aid of ex-service men and women. https://www.facebook.com/groups/operationmarketgarden2014 In September 2014 team members of the OMG To donate: re-enacted an arduous 75 mile march, with full army http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/omg2014 kit to Arnhem. This will commemorate 70 years since the original mission.

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The Other Mrs. Cassady by John Power In the November 2013 issue of Moulsham Times I paid a posthumous tribute to Carolyn Cassady, who had died near the end of that year. She was the second wife of Neal Cassady, who was Dean Moriarty, the anti-hero of Jack Kerouac’s 1950s American novel, On the Road, which had been made into a film by Francis Ford Coppola and Walter Salles released earlier in that year. Through the research into the Beat Generation writers by local author Dr. Chris Challis, Carolyn had come to have connections with Chelmsford and Ingatestone. Equally well known through the ‘Road’ book was Cassady’s first wife, Lu-Anne, who takes the role of Marylou in the book and film. Carolyn, Camille in ‘Road’ film and book, was an educated woman, who Neal had met when she was a student of art and theatre design at the University of Denver, Colorado. As such she was able to write about the genesis of the Beat Generation herself in Off the Road, an edited version of a longer text which became the film Heartbeat and enjoyed literary celebrity on both sides of the Atlantic.

Cassady’s first wife, Lu-Anne, came from a less privilaged background and for many years was known by all but those close to her by what Kerouac, calling himself Sal Paradise in ‘Road’, had written about her.

criminal ways in that environment and in Reform School. He boasted that he had stolen 500 cars, or borrowed them at least, as he always intended to return them minus the petrol consumed before the owner knew they were missing. But as they got to know one another, what Carl Jung called the ‘shadow’ archetype came in to play: they saw in each other what they were not, and Cassady aspired to become a writer, and indeed did write an autobiography, The First Third, while Kerouac was attracted to the freewheeling libertine lifestyle of Cassady who became the ‘hero’ in more than one of his books.

The main characters of On the Road are Sal and Dean, whose macho chauvinistic outlook was the norm in pre-sexual equality America.

It seems that at first meeting the two men did not relate to each other, because, although Jack had been a football hero his nature was more of a shy, sensitive intellectual with ambitions as a writer, whereas Cassady had grown up in the flop houses of Denver with an alcoholic father during the Great Depression and learned the petty

Lu-Anne was born in 1930, during the Depression years, daughter of James Bullard and Thelma Stone. For work James moved to Los Angeles but Thelma chose to stay at the family ranch near Denver with her two older sons from a previous marriage, while Lu-Anne went to school in L.A. for 8 years until she was 12. When she rejoined her mother in Denver she had re-married and Lu-Anne took her stepfather’s surname to create a family identity, but this alienated her from her father for most of the rest of her life. As US finances began to recover her mother owned a bar - ‘Thelma’s Crystal Bar’ - and life became very different for Lu-Anne as she witnessed the unstable marriage with her stepfather which often became violent, and as she herself grew to enter adolescent maturity prematurely her stepfather became a predatorial threat which helped her mother decide to let her marry Neal Cassady. They lived with an aunt and Lu-Anne worked as a domestic drudge for very long hours to support them. When Neal saw her hands raw from work, he told her to take money from where her employer kept it and he stole a car for them to escape in. That eventually led to the life on the road that Kerouac chronicled.

Cassady married Lu-Anne when she was only 16, and he was in his 20s. But he was to practice serial infidelity throughout his life, and divorced her when he got Carolyn (Robinson, then) pregnant, so that the child would have married parents. The second marriage does not seem to have been a highly sexual one. Carolyn told me she had been raped by both her brothers when she was 10 years old, and did not achieve sexual liberation until the 1960s. So Cassady continued to run back to Lu-Anne, and go with other women after the marriage, which was itself dissolved in 1963.

A Denver friend that Neal had relied on for for transport when he had none, Al Hinkel, who was Ed Dunkel in ‘Road’, said later to writer Gerald Nicosia when he wrote up Lu-Anne’s story with her daughter Anne-Marie Santos as The One and Only, published in 2013, that LuAnne was smart and pretty but troubled by her parents divorce and became sexually active aged 14 when she had also had to fight off her stepfather’s advances. Despite her sexually precocious appetites she was no juvenile delinquent and only stole at Neal’s behest and out of need for food. Dunkel said she always felt a responsibility over misdeeds of those around her, as their travels took them to New York and New Orleans and meetings with other aspiring writers like Allen Ginsberg (Carlo Marx in On the Road), junkies like William Burroughs, (Old Bull Lee in On the Road) or the poorer variety of Beatnik like Herbert Huncke, who had to steal to feed his habit. Cassady’s thanks for the adventures saw him dump Lu-Anne and Kerouac in San Francisco to go back to Carolyn and his daughter. It is difficult to see how Kerouac could still idolise Cassady after his. Indeed it did mark a rift between them, yet Jack still agreed to another trip down to Mexico for more drink, drugs and brothels, only to be deserted again when he fell ill with dysentry. Cassady was mainly a literary inspiration after that. Although Neal, Carolyn and Jack did manage to effect a menage a trois of sorts in San Francisco for a while. Jack moved on to idolise Gary Snyder in his follow-up novel to the ‘Road’ saga, Dharma Burns

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and enthuse about Gary’s West Coast Zen Buddhism, that his old friend Allen Ginsberg and newer arrivals to Beat thinking were beginning to look at. Snyder went to Japan to study Zen and managed to sidestep immediate Beat celebrity. Lu-Anne married a sailor, Ray Murphy, at this time but he proved to be jealous and abusive, which at least Cassady had never been. The marriage lasted only two difficult years, but did yield Anne-Marie, who helped Gerald Nicosia write The One and Only tribute to her mother. After that Neal worked on the railway to support Carolyn and his daughter until a couple of Federal Agents trapped him into giving them three marijuana joints and he got a three year prison sentence. Lu-Anne fell back on the experience she had gained at her mother’s bar, at LA night clubs like that of Sam Catchini: the ‘Little Bohemia Club’ , and the club of Joe DeSanti, where she got to know several rising stars like Johnny Mathis. She was married four times.

Underworld connections gave her temporary relief from bowel cancer that had her hospitalised for long periods on a couple of occasions. She also became a morphine addict, but after the financial problems that ruined what had become by then a prosperous life, she managed to quit the drugs before she died.

Neal and Carolyn had studied the remarkably accurate psychic readings of Edgar Cayce, and Neal evidently shared this enthusiasm with LuAnne, as when she was in Virginia Beach with daughter Anne Marie they visited the Edgar Cayce foundation which was set up to study his psychic revelations. Anne-Marie also recounts an amusing irony: she was of the later hippie development out of the Beats and often went to see groups like The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and The Doors. By that time Neal Cassady was enjoying some counter culture celebrity driving the bus, ‘Further’, for Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters and the Grateful Dead were often part of the bus crew. As he often did, Neal looked up Lu-Anne on his travels looking for a place to stop over with the bus. She was out , and Ann-Marie treated this rather rough looking, washed out, by then LSD and amphetamine user with caution and turned them away.

If she had known the ‘Dead’ were on the bus she would have let them in without a second thought. A further irony was that she may have been turning away her own father, as Neal always said that he, and not Murphy, was her father!

Neal continued contact with Lu-Anne until near the end of his life, and letters show that she still loved him, charismatic despite all his faults.

His freewheeling celebrity status was his downfall as he walked tirelessly along a Mexican rail track, high on amphetamines until he collapsed and died of exposure. That downfall was echoed by Kerouac whose celebrity led him from beer and marijuana to brandy and his stomach burst as he drank himself to death in his forties. Fat and bloated and militantly right wing and Catholic he turned his back on his old friends and lived with his mother after numerous failed relationships and marriages. Lu-Anne could only look on as the self destructive duo went their separate roads to demise. A game she used to play with Jack was cloud watching, to see what forms their minds could create. Towards the end he told her “I don’t see anything in the clouds anymore.”

Lu-Anne died of cancer in 2008. When Coppola and Salles made the On the Road movie, daughter Ann Marie got to do a body double for her mother, but she never got to see it.

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MT Therapy by Jenny Hartill Over the last few months I have discussed one of the most popular self defeating behaviours: that of addiction, focussing quite heavily on alcoholism. This month I want to discuss another self defeating behaviour: amoking.

Now for a confession: i am a smoker. Cue the shock, horror, “OMG you’re a therapist how can you be a smoker” etc. I may be a therapist but I am a human being with my own self defeating behaviours thanks very much! This is an important article for me because by the time you guys are reading this, I will be doing StopTober - the idea being that those who manage to stop smoking for 4 weeks are more likely to stop forever. Having a good understanding of how self defeating behaviours work, I do believe that StopTober and Go Sober for October can be very helpful, lots of self defeating behaviours are carried on simply because we’re in the habit of doing so! Therefore if you get out of the habit, the self defeating behaviour is more likely to lose its hold over you because (hopefully) your subconscious realises that you can function just fine without it and didn’t need that self defeating behaviour in the first place.

Mostly clients come to me for hypnotherapy to help them stop smoking. However, once a client has been in therapy for a while and they see themselves improving, lots of clients want to cut down drinking and stop smoking because they realise the benefits. So, how can counselling help you stop this very dangerous self defeating behaviour? Firstly, we need to look at why you started smoking in the first place. Many of my clients reply to this question with “I don’t remember, I just did”. Sorry guys but that doesn’t wash with me!

There’s a reason you forced toxic smoke and poisonous nicotine into your precious lungs - you know those things that help you breathe and, like, keep you alive? Breathing in the chemicals and tar included in cigarettes is not a normal bodily function, it’s something we train ourselves to do. If it was natural, many more people would survive smoke inhalation in fires! But they don’t, people can die from smoke inhalation in a house fire just like people die from cancer caused by smoking. The only difference is we willingly smoke cigarettes and we do this over a longer space of time. So, sit down, be honest with yourself, and look back to the first time you ever smoked a cigarette.

Put yourself back there, what was going through your head? Why did you want to smoke? Did you even want to smoke? Why did you carry on smoking? Was it peer pressure? I remember exactly why I started.

I was bullied at school, one of my friends told me that if I smoked I wouldn’t get picked on as much because I would “look cool” and look “harder” if I smoked because all the “hard people” smoked. So one day she invited me over to hers, and I kid you not, I had a lesson in how to smoke “realistically, like you’ve been doing it for years”. I coughed my guts up. I hated it. But my friend had be convinced that this was the ticket to “being cool” and not being bullied anymore so I went with it. And so began my smoking career. I was 15. So why do I want to stop now, I hear you cry? Because I promised myself I would stop in my 30s because now I have been smoking for more than half the time I’ve been alive and frankly that freaks me out a little!!

Once we have found the reason you started in the first place, we need to look at why you carried on back then (ie: what reinforced it), what makes you smoke now (the current mindset and status of your self defeating behaviour) and why you want to stop. The current mindset of why you smoke is very important. I have loads of friends that smoke. We all go out together for a cigarette, a common reason for not wanting to stop is that the client will feel left out. In which case I have a very simple solution to this. When your friends come back, ask if you missed anything! If your friends ostracise you from the group because you’re now the non-smoker - maybe you need to look at the type of people you hang out with. They may feel you are ostracising them because you are taking control of your self defeating behaviour and have chosen to stop, they may think you feel you are now above them. Just explain you are doing this for you and you’re not going to judge them for still smoking. At the end of the day, if they

20

want to smoke that’s their choice. There’s no point getting on your high horse because you decided you didn’t want to anymore.

Another common reason people struggle to stop smoking is that they’re afraid that they need it, they wonder what their life will be without cigarettes in it. They feel as though they are losing something, as drink can become the alcoholic’s best friend with some smokers the cigarette is their best friend. It’s a constant, something that will never leave them, they can always go and buy another pack of cigarettes. In this type of case I would remind the client that their best friend is slowly killing them, and do they really want to be friends with someone that is slowly committing murder - with the client’s help! Many clients battle with themselves - this is a symptom of addictive thinking (that I have written about before) and the key to beating any self defeating behaviour and any addiction is to change the mindset of the client and the the thinking process by encouraging them to challenge their current beliefs about their self defeating behaviour. If the belief system (concerning the self defeating behaviour) was correct, the client wouldn’t feel they are reliant on it.

If I can be of any help or if anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact me via my website www.counsellinginchelmsford.co.uk

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Wine Corner

Hi there, I hope you are all enjoying the Indian summer. As I write this I am looking out at a lovely blue sky and the temperature is in the 20s. Something different this month. A friend of mine (Shirley Shiraz - Syrah in France) has been on a lovely holiday in France and I asked her if she could write something about her experiences and she has very kindly sent me her blog, whatever that means.

She writes...

My friend and I booked ourselves on a holiday aptly entitled Walk and Wine. We weren’t quite sure what to expect but we had an excellent time, made some good friends and learnt a lot about the Bordeaux region and its wines. Our hosts were husband and wife, Mark and Laurent. Mark is English, Laurent is French and they run several different trips of this type in the various wine growing regions in France. This is a summary of our trip, and I hope you will enjoy reading about it.

“Arrived safely in Bordeaux and transferred to our hotel in St Emilion.

We were staying in the Palais Cardinal Hotel, right in the centre of the town. This hotel is apparently owned by a local wine merchant so all the wines we were having with our meals were supplied by him. We started our holiday by meeting our hosts and the rest of the group.

We started our wine drinking by sharing a very nice, chilled EntreDeux-Mers on the terrace, part of the terrace wall was part of the old city wall – what a setting! The red we had with our dinner was from the vineyards of the hotel proprietor Chateau Clos de Sarpe, I’m not sure what it was but it was extremely nice. We had only been in France for four hours and tasted 2 wines already – a taste of things to come!

“We found out afterwards that we set the record for the number of bottles drunk on the first night – apparently 10 in all. I would add there were 11 in our party and the 3 guys certainly out-drank us!

We set off the next morning on a bright and sunny day on what turned out to be quite a long walk. We walked through St Emilion to Chateau la tour du Pin Figeac. The vines cover an area of 27 acres of gravelly land where some of the best Saint-Emilion wines grow. The combination of soil type, location and exposure to the sun coupled with the blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc grapes gives the wine from here its complex aromas, its elegance and a very strikingly fresh finish (well that’s what the owner told us). We sampled three reds in all, 2 from this vineyard and a Pomerol from the owners other vineyard. The Pomerol was a much lighter wine but they were all nice and I would describe them as elegant.

“The Madame du Chateau gave us an interesting talk on the history of the vineyard and the wine making process. Apparently, the vineyard was her grandmother’s dowry and has remained in the family since. The grapes are still picked by hand as are all the grapes in this region but certain other parts in the process owe more to the 20th century, mainly that they are cooled for a couple of weeks before being processed which helps to bring out the aroma of the grapes.

We then walked through a few vineyards to Montagne-Saint-Emilion where we had the first of Laurent’s wonderful lunches. The family were not at home but had left us plenty of wine to try – to be honest I can’t remember too much about the wine, only that once again it was good. This was another small family run concern, as were most of the vineyards we visited.

“We walked back to St Emilion – it was a lovely afternoon, 29 degrees, so it was the thought of a nice cold beer when we got back to the hotel that kept us going.

We had another great meal at our hotel, again drinking the wines of the proprietor and prepared for our move to Blaye the next day.”

Sorry to interrupt Shirley but I was thinking about signs the other day. Some seem to result in the opposite to their aim. Take the road 22

sign “Think Bike”. Now, when I see it, I immediately start thinking back to my childhood, first shiny red two wheeler with stabilisers. My mind wanders back over the years to all the bikes I’ve had, times I’ve fallen off and so on. Then I suddenly realise I’ve just driven three miles not really concentrating on the road. I also think local councils could save money with some lateral thinking.

The sign “new road layout” is totally unnecessary. Regular users of that piece of road will have been stuck in traffic for three months whilst the change is engineered, so they are bound to know that it’s new. Anyone who has not used that stretch of road before will not know the old layout! So why spend out on the sign?

“We stopped on the way to Blaye, walking through a small village with a very interesting church. We arrived at Chateau Pey Labrie, in Fronsac after about an hour and were greeted by Eric Vareille, the proprietor. He explained that the wines of Fronsac were the most important in the area until the middle of the 19th century, surpassed only by the wines of Saint Emilion. After phylloxera attacked the vines, Fronsac stayed forgotten until the 1960s and today it is winning back its world reputation. Eric’s father bought the vineyard in the 60s and Eric is carrying on the family tradition. They have 9 hectares which are planted 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc, but the mix in the wine varies from year to year. There are two appellations in this region Fronsac and Canon Fronsac. The Canon Fronsac is the top of the two and this vineyard falls into that category.

“We tried 3 reds here. The first hadn’t been in a barrel and was very light. It had no ‘legs’ but was a very drinkable wine. Eric then gave us a 2008 wine. This was not a good year for wine growing and although the wine was nice, Eric did not consider it was worth keeping – it wouldn’t improve with age. The second was a 2010 which Eric said was a much better year and worth keeping. I couldn’t taste much difference, they both tasted good to me! It was interesting, however, to compare with the wine that had not been barrelled, a vast difference in the taste and ‘feel’ of the wine.

“He then produced a Rose. It was quite dry but full of flavour and on a hot day, this beautifully chilled wine went down exceptionally well with us all!! Eric had lunch with us and provided a seemingly bottomless pit of his wines – excellent! Just a note – the rose was €3 a bottle – what a bargain!”

More to come soon, thanks Shirley.

Bin end chuckles.

Tip. Open a bottle of wine to let it breath. If it’s not breathing, give it mouth to mouth.

Remember, alcohol is not the answer, but it may make you forget the question.

Keep calm and carry on drinking (in moderation)

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A Local Vintage - by Robert Jones

We meet a lot of Moulsham people every year when our garden is involved in the annual Farleigh Hospice Urban Gardens Open Day. Some often stop us in Moulsham Street to enquire how our minivineyard is getting along. Visitors to the garden are intrigued that we have grape vines that produce our own Moulsham Red; so, I thought Moulsham Times readers might like an up-date on this year’s vintage.

add sugar and gently reduce the mixture. When cool it is strained, plastic bottled and kept in the deep-freeze. It makes a delicious nonalcoholic drink on its own or drunk with fizzy water. It is also popular when used, like mure or cassis, added to sparking white wine. What is left in the straining bag finally goes into the compost bins; so nothing is wasted of our precious harvest.

The “vendange” (grape harvest, in English!) took place this year on Saturday 11th October. This has to be booked well ahead to make sure we get the usual band of helpers, local chums and some of our grandchildren. The harvest really is a labour intensive business but it can be great fun, especially combined with a jolly harvest lunch when the job is done. By good fortune a rainy weather forecast turned out to be wrong and the job was done in warm, sunny conditions.

Back to real stuff from the wine press. This is called the ‘must’, the juice before it has fermented: it is left in a large bucket for a day or so to let the odd bits and pieces settle out, then we add some sugar and dried wine yeast before putting it into demijohns for fermentation. The sugar and yeast is just to make sure it all starts well. There is normally sufficient natural yeast present on the grapes and the juice can start to ferment even as it comes out of the press; but we like to be sure. The added sugar is a recent innovation, which has been adopted since we discovered that even the French add sugar. For years, we thought that was bad form! At once, the must starts to ferment quite fiercely; so the demijohns are only partly filled to avoid spillage, with a loose stopper to exclude air but to let the fermentation gasses escape.

2014 certainly promised a noteworthy vintage. In fact, vineyards all over England and most of mainland Europe had been making similar predictions. A very warm spell in early spring came just as the little green grape blossoms appeared, with plenty of insects to do the pollinating. As the following weeks passed, the appearance of many bunches of grapes and all looking very healthy, showed that those little helpers had done a good job. Then we had a useful summer mixture of weeks of very hot sunshine but with generous quantities of rain too to swell the grapes. They looked so good so early that we decided to put the nets on earlier than usual, at the end of August, for fear of a blackbird invasion. Without nets to keep them off they can strip a vine overnight. One year we lost a third of the crop that way through a small hole appearing after a windy night. This year our defences worked and it was quite amusing to watch the baffled birds!

It takes about an hour or so for the team to pick the grapes. We then strip them off the bunches, leaving the small, un-pollinated green ones which might affect the flavour of the wine. These and the stalks go into the compost bins. The separated grapes then go through the outsized mincer - the one we use for chopping up cider apples - before going into the press. Pressing is the really satisfying part of the process, watching the blood-red juice gushing into the buckets.

We put the grapes through this process twice, then put aside what is left, the lees, for later processing into grape juice.

As I write this, the wine is fizzing away in the demi-johns, with the airlocks popping merrily and will continue to do so for several months. If airlocks are not fitted the liquid will just turn into vinegar.

Also, it is worth noting that, throughout the whole process, it is necessary to keep to a strict regime of hygiene, everything being sterilised. We use copious quantities of Milton, which does the job without residual taste. When the fermentation stops, the wine will be racked off, returned to clean demijohns, sealed and left to rest for two months before being bottled. We find that it is a good idea to leave it for four or five years before drinking. At present we have just started on the 2010. This year it looks as though we will get about 25 bottles - Moulsham Red, vintage 2014!

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MT Charity - RSPCA RSPCA mid Essex branch (which includes the Brentwood area) is the local branch (one of over 170 branches in the UK) and a separate charity to the National RSPCA. We provide a number of animal related services including a veterinary clinic in Great Baddow and a charity shop in Chelmsford. We assist the National RSPCA in their work by dealing with abandoned, neglected, injured animals, and those that have suffered cruelty within our branch area, treating them and rehoming them through our clinic in Great Baddow.

The branch is looking for short and long term fosterers. We are looking for volunteers to help look after its rescued and stray cats, kittens, puppies, dogs and rabbits in its care on a temporary basis until forever homes are found for them. Free veterinary treatment is provided; and the animals remain the property of the branch. All that we ask is that the fosterer provides a good home and lots of love.

If you are looking for a pet to look after more permanently, the RSPCA Mid Essex branch is working in partnership with the Chelmsford Cats Protection based in Galleywood to hold a Rehoming Day on Saturday, 1st November from 10am to 2pm at the RSPCA clinic. Come and meet many different kinds of kittens, cats, and rabbits who need permanent new homes. The address of the RSPCA clinic is 32-34 Maldon Road, Great Baddow, CM2 7DL. Give an animal a home and help your local animal charities save on boarding fees.

If you already have a cat or dog, the RSPCA clinic is offering microchipping for £10 which includes a free animal health check and or get a FREE cat neutering voucher from the Chelmsford Cats Protection on the Rehoming Day.

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Along with offering pet owners greatly subsidised veterinary treatments who are on means tested benefits, our RSPCA clinic can now also treat animals whose owners are not on meadn tested benefits at reduced rates so pet owners may like to consider registering. For more information, please contact the RSPCA Mid Essex Branch Chairman on 07891 653238 or Chelmsford Cat Protection on 01245 478389 or via their website www.chelmsford.cats.org.uk.

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Ami’s Diary

‘Z-Listers’ which is the film I acted in a few months ago.

The screening is in Norwich which is where it was filmed.

It will be really good to see all the cast and crew again and I will hopefully get a copy of the DVD.

I went to the Big Gig at Wembley Arena which is Girlguiding’s very own pop concert. Diversity and Little Mix performed and they were brilliant.

I auditioned for a singing part in my next show with Theatretrain at the London Palladium in December. It is called ‘Step Into Christmas’ and I am so happy as I have been chosen to sing a duet of ‘Rocking Around the Christmas Tree’. I think I will be a bit nervous as it is a big theatre but also very excited as I love performing on stage and seeing the audience reaction which you don’t get to feel when you act in films. I think we are performing the same songs at High Chelmer Shopping Centre a week later.

I am going to a screening of

A couple of months ago I was asked to do a photoshoot by a photographer who I did one for a few years ago. I am really pleased with the photos which were taken in a park in Brentwood.

I helped out at Great Baddow High School’s open evening where I performed some songs with the Stage Stars Club and talked to children who are choosing their high school. It was also a good way of rehearsing for our school show ‘Broadway at Baddow’. We are singing, dancing and acting scenes from Annie, High School Musical and Hairspray which is really good fun. I am playing the part of Molly in the Annie performances and one day I would love to be cast as Miss Hannigan and sing ‘Little Girls’.

Keep Kids Seen Campaign In the winter time, I was driving through Chelmsford in the evening twilight, when suddenly, a small child of perhaps 6 years old ran out in front of my car. Luckily, I was able to take avoiding action at the last minute to avoid a collision. When reflecting about the incident, it later occurred to me, that, together with better road safety education, the chance of any collision could have been significantly reduced, had the child been more visible in the twilight.

Each high visibility vest is sign written with the recipient school logo emblazened on its rear with the logos of both the sponsor and Signmasters and Chelmsford The City Times on the front.

And thus the idea for an innovative child safety campaign came to mind. In short: Why not get school children in the area to wear high visibility vests?

Together we can “ Keep Kids Seen”.

Interested parties can contact us by email safe@itsyourmedia.co.uk.

There is no minimum number of high visibility vests to purchase or donate and the sponsorship scheme is available to both individuals and corporations.

As the manageing director of a local signage company, I started to approach schools and businesses in the area with my idea. For the schools, I outlined the principle of keeping children under their charge safe whenever adjacent to roads.

For the businesses, I outlined my blueprint proposals for required sponsorship. To date, through the generous sponsorship of local businesses, some 500 Chelmsford children have now been issued with high visibility vests.

We are now teaming up with the Moulsham Times and Chelmsford The City times to further the coverage of our campaign.

The scheme works like this: A sponsor provides funding to purchase the high visibility vests and nominates a school to receive them. (At a cost of £ 2.50 for each vest). Signmasters provides all printing and associated costs free of charge

27

Remember to pick up your copy of Chelmsford The City Times from:

WEA WWI Talk 11th November

Chelmsford railway station Tesco - Princes Rd, Springfield Rd and Parkway Sainsburys McCartney Moulsham Street Chelmsford Library Springfield Garden Centre Rayleigh Hifi Priest Brothers in The Meadows The Marconi Club

As part of a series of events to commemorate WWI, Essex WEA have a talk at the Cramphorn Theatre on Tuesday 11th November.

Laurence Staig a very popular tutor will speak about how WWI has been represented in film and will show clips from Paths of Glory and some less familiar titles such as Fraulein Doktor and Many Wars Ago. Paths of Glory is being shown at the Cramphorn Theatre in the evening.

Plus many pubs, restaurants and coffee shops around the city along with many surrounding villages.

Have you had an event or do you have one coming up. Let us know and we will do our best to publish it.

For more information and to book please ring 01245 354644.

St Cedd’s School Raise £7000 for the NSPCC

St Cedd’s School is committed to its caring community spirit and in support of this ethos we actively encourage our pupils to participate in termly fundraising events. This term, our children have raised £7000 for the NSPCC; an amazing achievement! Inspired by Mrs Khechimi, Head of RE and PSHE, and Mr Sawyer, Head of PE, the children threw themselves into the challenge of seeking donors for their sponsored run. Mrs Khechimi said, “the NSPCC gave the children such a wonderful assembly about the good work the charity accomplishes in the interests of all children, and there was a palpable buzz of excitement in support of the NSPCC.” The wider school community and staff are extremely proud of the children’s efforts and we sincerely thank the sponsors for their generosity for this very worthwhile cause.

Volatile Retribution (Part 7) – A Detective Carter Mystery Written by JR Blake Last time we saw Detective Carter interview Conall O’Gealghain who confessed to giving his cousin the Semtex that blew up her victim, Professor Redfern. Now Carter has arrested her suspect she needs to prove once and for all that Saorise is a cold blooded killer guilty of murder…

Saorise O’Gealghain had been waiting in the interview room for around 45 minutes. She assumed this was a tactic used by the police to make her nervous. That wasn’t going to work. She also assumed her cousin Conall had told them he gave her the Semtex. He wasn’t exactly the brightest button in the box, he had a habit of shouting his mouth off when he got angry and revealing information that really wasn’t his place to reveal. He was next on her list when she got out of here.

Detective Carter watched Saorise O’Gealghain through the two-way glass. There hadn’t been a flicker of emotion from her. When she’d been arrested she didn’t even seem bothered. Exactly what Carter had expected. She knew she should wait for DC Reid, but she wanted to interview Saorise on her own. She recognised the lack of empathy, the coldness, an undertone of self grandiosity and Carter knew exactly how to get her suspect talking. Carter entered the interview room, started the tape, and went through the formalities before beginning her questioning. But her suspect got there first: “no sidekick today, Detective Carter?” Saorise asked mockingly.

“He’s buying salted pistachio nuts” Carter replied.

“That’s taken a while. I’ve been here forty five minutes.”

“Yes, well I decided in the end you were only worth one of us 28

interviewing you anyway”.

Ouch. That hurt, thought Carter as she saw Saorise’s face turn to a look of thunder.

“Anyway, Miss Saorise O’Gealghain, for the record can you confirm that Conall O’Gealghain is your cousin?”

“Nobody’s called me Saorise in a while. Nobody English anyway. Yes, he is my cousin”.

“Good. Can you confirm that you have been in contact recently?”

“Of course, he is family after all. One should always visit family when you’re in town.” Saorise replied.

“Can you also confirm that Conall provided Semtex to you so that you could murder Professor Robert Redfern in cold blood by way of blowing him up?” A grin spread across Saorise’s callous face before she replied.

“How could I possibly have killed anyone in cold blood? I’m a mammal, not a reptile”.

“I beg to differ, but this isn’t a conversation about thermoregulation in animals. I’m asking if you murdered Professor Redfern”.

“Now why would I want to do that?” Asked Saorise.

“Because he brutally attacked you in his office 10 years ago, he violated your innocence and took away your dignity” Carter replied.

“Oh. That” Saorise said flatly. “Well DS Carter that was a very long time ago, and if there was anything to prove there is absolutely no way that you could pin this on me”.

“And why is that, Miss O’Gealghain?”

“Because if I wanted to murder someone, I’d make damn sure I didn’t

www.moulshamtimes.com

get caught. And I don’t care about Redfern.”

“That wasn’t the impression I got from you 10 years ago when I dragged you off Westminster Bridge as you were about to top yourself. You seemed to care very much then.” Replied Carter.

“Things change” “Is that so?” said DS Carter, just then DC Reid entered the room holding a folder. He sat down next to Carter and plonked his bag of salted pistachio nuts on the table.

“I thought I was only worth one of you?” Saorise commented, now feeling rather full of herself. She knew it would take two of them to interview her. She’d done far too good a job of killing Redfern to deserve any less.

Carter took the folder and after reading for a few seconds couldn’t help but grin very slightly underneath her composed, very well trained detective’s composure. But it was DC Reid who spoke first, he loved this moment just as much as Carter did. The moment they had an in. A solid connection. The new evidence he just passed to Carter had helped immensely, Dr Looker had sent the post-it note found on scene to be analysed, not thinking for a moment anything would come back. How wrong she was.

“Hello Saorise, how are you today?” DC Reid asked politely, looking very pleased with himself. Slightly confused, Saorise replied: “I’m well thank you DC Reid”. Something had changed, she could tell. But Saorise knew that she had covered every base and surmised they were probably bluffing.

“Saorise, are you left or right handed?” Asked DS Carter.

“Right handed. Why?” “As you came into the station today, you were finger printed. Do you remember? We informed you it was to eliminate you from our enquiries?” DS Carter asked.

“Yes, I remember”.

“Do you also remember that we took, in addition, quite unique prints from you, the prints from the sides of your left and right small fingers connecting down to the palm of your hand?” Carter continued “Yes, but I’ve never been interviewed as a suspect before. I didn’t realise those were unique prints”.

“Ah. Well you see Saorise they are. The side of your hand, just like a finger print, is unique. In fact some palm readers use that section of the hand to read the person’s future, because it is distinctive to them” Carter smiled. Almost there now.

“Is that so?” Saorise sounded slightly bored. Clearly she hadn’t cottoned on yet.

“It is so, and today Saorise I’m going to predict your future. I predict that in approximately two minutes I am going to arrest you for murder” Carter announced. Saorise’s eyebrows raised “well well DS Carter, that’s quite a statement!” she said, still not believing the detectives had anything to go on whatsoever. DC Reid placed an evidence bag from the folder onto the table in front of Saorise.

“Miss O’Gealghain, do you recognise this post-it note?” DC Reid asked.

“Why should I?” Saorise replied.

“Because you posted it on top of a laptop so that your victim, Professor Redfern, would open it and henceforth have his face blown off” DC Reid explained.

“Did I? Golly, I’m sure I’d remember doing something like that” Saorise replied. They had nothing, she was sure of it. Nothing. Anyone could have written that note. Carter continued: “you didn’t wear gloves when you wrote that note Saorise. We have two clear copies of your hand print going across the post-it note. On top of that, we’ve had a handwriting expert clarify that this is your handwriting, using a sample taken from the statement you originally gave us when we interviewed you in the cafe. Nice try though, the entire thing was very well executed. It’s just a shame you’ve been beaten by a post-it note”.

“That doesn’t prove I murdered anyone, it proves I wrote a post-it note!” Saorise said, sounding a little ratted.

“Oh yeah? Why else would you write a note from the girlfriend of your attacker and place it on a laptop full of Semtex ready to blow up in his face?” Asked DC Reid. ”Because she asked me to!”

“And Trish will clarify that will she? And you have proof? Come on Saorise, it’s over. It was a nice try, but… no cigar...” DS Carter said, leaning back in her chair looking thoroughly pleased with herself. She knew this wasn’t enough for a conviction, but what would happen next would be.

Saorise’s mouth dropped open. Her mind went blank for a second, then she remembered that she hadn’t worn gloves to write the note.

She didn’t think she needed to, she was sure it would be destroyed in the blast. She was now directly linked to the murder. In her mind she had nothing to lose, nothing but her composure anyway.

“He deserved it. He deserved to be blown to smithereens. I wasn’t the only one he attacked you know. Nobody else would come forward.

I had to do something. I had to stop him. Do you have any idea how many girls lives I’ve saved? How many souls I’ve protected from that monster? I don’t regret it. I’d blow him up a thousand times more if I could, but at least I have the memory of watching that fireball throw his worthless soul from this world into the next. Into hell”. Saorise had a slightly contorted look to her as she leaned forward staring at the detectives.

“Saorise O’Gealghain, are you confessing to the murder of Professor Robert Redfern? DS Carter asked. With dead eyes the killer simply replied: “Yes” “Saorise O’Gealghain I am arresting you for the murder of Professor Robern Redfern. You have the right to remain silent…” Carter began to read Saorise O’Gealghain her rights, one minute and forty seven seconds after she predicted she would do so.

Next time it’s a new case for DS Carter, where she’ll be travelling out of London and sparks fly as she has to work with an old colleague, her estranged husband Detective Inspector Carter.

If you wish to send a letter to us please email editorial@itsyourmedia.co.uk

29

Meeting 4th November We are holding a special meeting to discuss future arrangements for MoulshamFirst. We are concerned that MF will not progress without being more organised and without having more involvement in the doing on a broader base; also, we cannot attract funds whilst we don’t have a constitution, properly elected committee and a bank account. This goes against what some people want - but there lies the discussion.

Whither MF, or wither?

Please come along - 7pm, Tuesday 4 November - and thanks to Alison & co for hosting us at the Princes Avenue Campus of Chelmsford College (the Elim Centre couldn’t accommodate us due to building works):

Princes Road Campus Princes Road Chelmsford, Essex CM2 9DE AGENDA 1. Who are currently involved in MF and how we work 2. What we do and what we have achieved (including Neighbourhood Watch) 3. Missed opportunities 4. Organising for the future... do we have a future for MF? 5. AOB Please let us know if you are able to attend by emailing: moulshamfirst@btinternet.com

Dog Poo Can Cause Disease: Moulsham First Says “Clean it up!

All of us must have had the disgusting experience of accidentally stepping into dog mess (using the polite term). Let’s say over 95% of dog walkers are very responsible and clean up after their dogs when necessary. The fact that allowing a dog to foul in a public space is an offence doesn’t deter some folk, let alone the fact that dog excrement can cause toxocariasi, which can lead to blindness (children are particularly vulnerable) Then there’s the litter-louts! Walking through Central Park one Sunday morning we were confronted with piles of food and drink litter – some people just have no respect. So what can we do? The City Council does a pretty good job in litter control but there is also the mystery of the dog poo bin being removed from the junction of Seymour Street and Upper Bridge Road – apparently there were complaints that it hadn’t been emptied, so instead of emptying it they took it away!

Discarded drink cans, polystyrene fast food packs and the like just keep floating about. Well, it could be a lot worse – but it could be better.

Litter reflects a lack of care for the environment – and should it get completely out of hand our environment will be heading for a steep decline.

So lets watch out – and let’s keep our city clean!

This street stamp is used in one of the London Boroughs – perhaps Chelmsford could use this too? www.moulshamfirst.org.uk

The mystery of the disappearing poo bin in Seymour Street/ Upper Bridge Road: can we have it back and emptied properly please?

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Chelmsford Jewish Community

Chelmsford Jewish Community have been in this area for over forty years now. We have membership covering Braintree, Brentwood, Colchester, Maldon, Felstead and very many other neighbouring districts besides, of course, the city of Chelmsford.

We are a friendly, welcoming group and there is plently of opportunity to meet socially We celebrate most festivals and have sabbath services on alternative Friday nights and some Saturday mornings, in central Chelmsford. We have a very active ladies guild who meet monthly. There have been talks, outings, quizzes, an art class and a book discussion recently.

One of our members is in great demand by local schools to talk to pupils about various aspects of Judiasm. He has artefacts to illustrate his talks which often contain songs and are always instructive, and are fun too.

Chelmsford Jewish Community commemorates Holacaust Memorial Day in conjunction with Chelmsford City Council. Last year there were over 200 people at the City’s Council Chamber and the mayor, the MP and the Bishop of Chelmsford heard an account by a Auschwitz survivor Berek Obuchowski.

We also have fun social events and welcome Jewish folk with their non-Jewish partners.

So, if you’re interested please ring Harry on 01245 475444

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