Moulsham Times - March 2019

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Issue Number 73 - March 2019

Award Winning Local Kitchen Studio Celebrating Ten Years In Business.

On Saturday 23rd March 2019 Regal Kitchens will be celebrating their 10-year anniversary! To mark this occasion they will be hosting a LIVE NEFF cooking demonstration day between 10am and 4pm. All customers (whether existing, new or potential) are welcome to come along and sample freshly prepared food and enjoy complimentary drinks, along with expert advice from the friendly staff on the latest NEFF products and kitchen innovations. There will also be a free prize draw where everyone attending will be given a chance to win kitchen equipment worth hundreds of pounds, plus everyone leaves with a free goody bag.

Regal Kitchens was founded in 2009 by Nicola and John Martin, and in their ten years so far, they have supplied over 1,000 kitchens.

They have been driven by a passion to create amazing spaces within people’s homes.

Today’s kitchens sit at the centre of

the home and need to be functional, but also give off the wow factor.

Regal Kitchens has recently won globally recognised awards from well known brands such as Hafele and Neff, both in recognition of their imaginative designs, unparalleled installation facility, and high customer service focus. With their exclusive ranges, Regal are proud to offer everything from a modest makeover to complete kitchen projects.

Other accolades won in previous years by the company include the kitchen industry’s Customer Service Gold Award, and the FIRA Gold Award for installation excellence, as well as now being recognised as a ‘Which Trusted Trader’ and an accredited member of the KBSA (Kitchens & Bathroom Specialist Association).

Why use a KBSA member for you home improvements?

• Confidence that you are using a reputable and reliable company.

• Satisfaction that your chosen company meets the stringent membership criteria required by the KBSA. • Quality in the service, design and installation of your home improvement project.

• Security in the knowledge that your money is protected.

• Delight in the end result!

The showroom in Navigation Road has many working Neff appliances, working Insinkerator kettle taps and 15 kitchen displays featuring timeless, elegant and cutting edge design.

For more information about their upcoming celebration, contact emma@regalkitchens.net.

Regal Kitchens showroom in Chelmsford is open 10am-4pm 7-days per week. www.regalkitchens.co.uk

MT Welcome Hi readers, Welcome to the March edition of Moulsham Times.

A couple of annual dates to remember for this month; Pancake Day is on Tuesday 5th March and St Patrick’s Day is on 17th March!

Don’t forget that you can also view our magazines online at www. issuu.com/itsyourmedia.

Enjoy your month.

Regards Paul & Nick

it’s your media Ltd Advertising Nick Garner 07970 206682 ads@itsyourmedia.co.uk

Editorial Paul Mclean 07595 949701 editorial@itsyourmedia.co.uk

Disclaimer: It’s Your Media Ltd publish the Moulsham Times. The opinion expressed in each article is the opinion of its author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of It’s Your Media Ltd. No part may be reproduced without the prior written permission of It’s Your Media Ltd. Reg Co No. 09154871. Printed by Printwize.

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MT Therapy - by Chelmsford Therapy Rooms Hi everyone, Jenny here. I’m taking a slightly different slant on todays article. Rather than talking about a specific type of therapy or ‘issue’ I’m writing about mental health, mindset and personal development in general. I just got back from an amazing expo called The Best You - avid readers may remember I wrote something on the event last year. It’s all about personal and professional development, but also improving the world in general by everyone looking after themselves, each other, the environment etc. The tag line for the event is ‘arrive with questions and leave with answers’. There are workshops on everything from healthy eating, fitness, motivation, mindset, how to set and achieve goals and lots and lots of other areas!

The Best You corporation is owned by Bernardo Moya, an editor/ author/publisher/TV producer/CEO of NLP Life Training. He has been a leader in the personal and professional development industry for over a decade due to his experience in the self-help industry, entrepreneurial mindset, and many longstanding collaborations with leaders in the personal development industry, including individuals such as Paul McKenna and Richard Bandler. He is passionate about motivating people to live their best lives, as well as ensuring they leave a positive legacy and help look after the planet.

The event was held this year at Olympia and was split into various areas. The main stage was hosted on the same floor as the other workshops this year. This was very helpful for those of us wanting to go to lots of different workshops in lots of different areas. I took a friend with me this year and she’s hugely into health and science, so we split our time in between workshops that she was interested in, and workshops relevant to my interests. That said, the speakers at The Best You Expo are very inspiring and we both enjoyed all he workshops we went to!

The areas were slightly different this year. The following sections offered relevant workshops and exhibitors: Best For Business: How to make your business successful, but also what is the definition of success to you? ie: not just making lots of money.

Empowering Women: Not just from a business perspective but a personal one too, whether that’s looking at self esteem, confidence, or your own personal soul journey.

Health and Lifestyle: Nutrition, fitness, motivation, mindset, everything that contributes to your health and how you live your life for the best you.

This section has workshops and exhibitors that show you how to make your business idea profitable!

The Best Youth: Inspirational young speakers up to the age of 25.

Yes, there were children speaking at this event! For example, 14-year old Daniel Bissonnette is recognised as one of the most in demand youth speakers on nutrition. The youngest speaker - ‘Amazing Angel’ - I think was nine year old and is a motivational speaker. There were also workshops on teaching and mindfulness for children.

Yoga and Meditation Room: Different types of yoga and meditation for those that want to try it out or expand their horizons.

There was also a book shop and book signings so you could meet your favourite author if they were there.

I went to this event last year and as I said in the corresponding article, I have kept in touch with some of the inspirational people I met; it was lovely to see them again and have a good catch up!

I know that many people out there might have an interest in psychology or personal development or counselling etc, but perhaps feel a little lost and don’t know where to start. Going to something like this can be life changing for some people. Most of the exhibitors and people speaking at the workshops have been through dramatic and sometimes terrible things in their lives and have come out of it and want to share their stories. This might be a good start for anyone feeling a bit lost. Your ticket in gives you access to all of the workshops - and you don’t have to sign up to anything either.

This year it didn’t cost any more to see the main speakers - all the workshops were free! If anyone is interested in going next year make a note of the website www.thebestyouexpo.com, and keep an eye out for the dates for next year’s event!

If anyone is interested in seeing a therapist, Chelmsford Therapy Rooms has a range of therapists that can help with a multitude of issues, offering many therapies from hypnotherapy to counselling to nutrition. Please see the website www.chelmsfordtherapyrooms. co.uk, or email info@chelmsfordtherapyrooms.co.uk or call 0330 100 5162.

Chelmsford Therapy Rooms is owned and run by Jenny Hartill, an integrative counsellor and hypnotherapist, who is happy to answer any questions!

Masters, Mentors and Influencers: Hosted by some of the best coaches, journalists and celebrities in the industry; here we found out some information about how they got where they are. Talks looked at mindset, subconscious skills, how to deal with fear in business and much more. Speakers included Calum Best, Bill Walsh, Mirela Sula and many more.

Inspiration Zone: This is the ‘practical’ area looking at overcoming phobias and improving esteem and generally having a jolly good time! Workshops included salsa dancing, pole dancing, phobia cures and photo shoots to boost esteem.

Mindfulness and Wellbeing: Looking at changing mindset, getting in touch with yourself and healing anything that might be holding you back.

Passion to Profit: Got a business idea?

4 www.moulshamtimes.com

MONDAYS Millennium Community Centre, Recreation Ground, Baddow Road, Great Baddow CM2 9RL 9:00am, 11:00am,1:00pm, 5:00pm & 7:00pm Lucy 07801 433626 Springfield Bees Preschool, Perryfields School, Lawn Lane, CM1 7PP 5:00pm and 7:00pm Angie 07814 992628 TUESDAYS Broomfield Village Hall, 158 Main Road (behind Angel Pub), Broomfield CM1 7AH 3:00pm, 5:00pm and 7:00pm Victoria 07823 441198 Millennium Community Centre, Recreation Ground, Baddow Road, Great Baddow CM2 9RL 3:30pm, 5:30pm and 7:30pm Samantha 01245 266442 WEDNESDAYS Church Of St Augustine Of Canterbury, St Augustines Way, Springfield CM1 6GQ 9:30am and 11:30am Emma 07887 692906 Writtle Community Association, Longmeads House, 12-14 Redwood Drive, Writtle CM1 3LY 3:00pm, 5:00pm and 7:00pm Jennifer 07792 516866

WEDNESDAYS Springfield Park Baptist Church, Springfield Park Road, Springfield CM2 6EB 5.30pm and 7:30pm Elise 07979 816486 St Michael's Church of England, Junior School, Barnard Road, Galleywood CM2 8RR 7:30pm 0344 897 8000 THURSDAYS Millennium Community Centre, Recreation Ground, Baddow Road, Great Baddow CM2 9RL 9R 9:30am Samantha 01245 266442 North Springfield Baptist Church, Havengore, off Pump Lane, Springfield CM1 6JP 5:30pm and 7:30pm Victoria 07823 441198 Newlands Spring Community Hall, Dickens Place, Chelmsford CM1 4UU 5:30pm and 7:30pm Jennifer 07792 516866 Moulsham High School, Brian Close, Chelmsford CM2 9ES 5:30pm and 7:30pm 0344 897 8000

FRIDAYS The Church Of Ascension, Maltese Road, Chelmsford CM1 2PB 9:15am and 11:15am Life Church, Hall Street, off Moulsham Street, Chelmsford CM2 0HG Samantha 01245 266442 5:30pm and 7:30pm SATURDAYS Angie 07814 992628 Springfield Park Baptist Church, Springfield Park Road, Springfield Boreham Village Hall, CM2 6EB Main Road, Boreham CM3 3JD 8:30am and 10:30am 5:30pm and 7:30pm Emma 07887 692906 Marie 07988 426728 　

Chelmsford - by Vicky Ford MP

I was very honoured to be elected as the new chairman of the AllParty Parliamentary Group for Infrastructure. This brings together members of parliament from many different political parties who have an interest in delivering infrastructure projects.

In Chelmsford, infrastructure is a very important matter - the city of Chelmsford has grown considerably. It is right that we try to deliver more homes especially for young people, however we also need the infrastructure to go with it.

In Chelmsford, I have been working with representatives of the parish, city and county councils at the meetings of the Army and Navy Task Force which we set up last autumn. Expert engineers and highways planning specialists have drawn up a wide range of suggestions of potential long term alternatives to the current flyover and roundabout.

It is important that local people and organisations have their voices heard, so local stakeholder consultation meetings are being planned.

It is going to take a number of years to design, plan and then construct any new scheme and it is important to get this right.

residents who have problems with difficult landlords, or housebuilders who have failed to build to an acceptable standard. The Government has recently announced plans for a New Homes Ombudsman so that buyers of new build homes can access fair, fast and effective redress if things go wrong. There will also be a new Housing Complaints Resolution Service, as well as access to redress for leaseholders, private tenants and students in privately run accommodation. We have also just voted on a new Tenant Fees Bill which will put an end to unfair letting fees and hidden charges. This will make it easier for tenants to find a property at a price they are willing to pay and save renters an estimated £240 million in the first year alone.

In Westminster, the Brexit discussions continue. Local businesses in Chelmsford have told me they are increasingly concerned about the uncertainty of a ‘no deal’ exit. I will continue to support the withdrawal agreement.

It’s been very good to be out knocking on doors across Chelmsford recently, joining some of our local councillors and listening to views on local issues.

If you have an issue that you would like me to help with, as ever, do not hesitate to email me at vicky.ford.mp@parliament.uk.

There is also progress being made on Internet safety and I was very pleased that my Science and Technology Select Committee published our report on the Mental Health Impact of Social Media on Young People. We worked on this report for many months taking evidence from experts, tech companies, community groups and directly from young people in many schools and youth groups. We strongly recommend that there needs to be stricter regulation of social media companies and a ‘duty of care’ obligation by the companies towards those young people who use their platform.

The tragic case of Molly Russell who took her own life, has reinforced how important it is not to delay. The Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, has already written to companies demanding they take action.

The Government is due to publish its own recommendations for changes to the law very soon.

This month I also attended the passing out parade for the latest recruits for Essex Police. These new officers join the 150 additional officers which were added to the Essex force last year and will be part of a further additional increase of 240 officers for this year. Our police force in Chelmsford have been working exceptionally hard, especially to combat drug related crime and theft. In the last quarter of 2018 they performed 500 stop and searches in Chelmsford which is up from 80 in the same period for the previous year. One third of these stop and searches resulted in positive outcomes. They have also made numerous arrests, including the arrest of one persistent car thief. There is very helpful advice on how to protect yourself, your family and your possessions from crime on the Essex police website - it is well worth a quick read to check that you have all the latest info.

I am often contacted by Chelmsford 6 www.moulshamtimes.com

From County Hall - Dick Madden

As you know, besides being a local councillor for Chelmsford Central, I am also the Cabinet Member for Children and Families at Essex County Council.

At the start of the year we had some very good news in regard to our recent Ofsted inspection of children’s services in Essex. We are absolutely delighted that Essex County Council’s children’s services were rated outstanding by Ofsted. This is a great result for the county and I must commend all the staff, and of course the social workers who work with young people on the ground.

This would not have been possible without all their hard work and dedication.

Lodge Community Trust. As part of the scheme, a new facility was purchased nearby from Essex Police, securing the long term future of this important community group.

Planning was achieved in October 2017 for 26 units in three apartment blocks of private and specialist housing together with associated external works. Work on site commenced in January 2018 and practical completion of the scheme is forecast for October 2019.

BE SAFE Dick

Council Thrilled to Be Shortlisted for Keep Britain Tidy Award Chelmsford City Council narrowly missed out on picking up the Love Parks award last week at the Keep Britain Tidy Network awards 2019 ceremony.

The council’s Celebrate Your Parks event was shortlisted in the Love Parks category, which recognises an outstanding event or campaign during Keep Britain Tidy’s Love Parks Week campaign in July.

The Celebrate Your Parks event, held at Central Park, was organised by the council’s Parks and Love Your Chelmsford teams and celebrated everything great about Chelmsford’s parks and green spaces, with exciting outdoor activities put on by various departments at the city council and local businesses. The event was attended by hundreds of families throughout the day and gave them a chance to attend somewhere where they may not have visited before, with a picnic and catch up with friends and family in a beautiful park setting.

The council was up against some great competition, shortlisted alongside Northumberland County Council and Derby City Council, with the latter taking home the award on the night.

New Café at Oaklands Museum Chelmsford Museum all-new café, The Hive, officially opened to us all on Monday 4th February.

Named in honour of the museum’s much loved working beehive which has fascinated generations of children, the café is situated in the beautiful Victorian part of the museum building surrounded by parkland and flooded with natural light. Builders have stripped back to display the beauty of the original Victorian architecture and the café walls are fittingly decorated with a gold bee motif.

Like the bees, we will be able to flit between the museum’s welcoming halls and the glorious parkland outside, with the café opening onto the sunny rose terrace.

The Hive is the first part of the museum to open its doors following a major redevelopment funded by Chelmsford City Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund. The project will completely transform the experience for visitors, using the very latest audiovisuals and special effects to take people on an emotional journey through time from an ice age plain to the modern city of Chelmsford.

Topping out Ceremony Celebrates 26 New Homes in Chelmsford A topping out ceremony was held on Thursday 7th February at Moulsham Lodge in Chelmsford to mark construction work on the site reaching its highest point.

The ceremony was attended by Cllr Gagan Mohindra, Cabinet Member for Economic Growth, who was accompanied by myself, as well as representatives from DCH Construction, Essex Housing and Oxbury Chartered Surveyors.

View both our magazines online at

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Developed by Essex Housing, Essex County Council’s in-house developer, this vacant and heavily constrained site was the former home of a community centre supported by Moulsham www.issuu.com/itsyourmedia

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MT Health

Myths of Back Pain (Revisited) - by Chris at Forté Physical Health Just over a year ago I wrote an article for this magazine titled The Myths of Back Pain. In it, I discussed how it is okay to twist and bend (despite all the health and safety advice), why you should be lifting heavy weights as part of your general health and exercise model, and why training to get a sixpack could be doing more harm than good.

In the clinic, I still hear people worrying about these things and I wanted to address some other common myths that crop up on an all too regular basis.

First, a quick recap: Myth #1: Lifting Heavy Weights Is Bad People often think heavy lifting is bad for the spine, but the research is quite clear that strength is a key player in the prevention of back pain. In order to get strong, lifting weights can be helpful, but it’s not necessary. If you don’t want to go to a gym, using your own body as a weight might be the answer - for example, certain movements in yoga and pilates can be really tough! This sort of strength is good because it teaches you how to control your own body.

Myth #2: You Shouldn’t Bend and Twist Whenever people say they avoid bending and twisting, I think: ‘but you’re a human!’ You should see the amazing anatomy we have interlacing through our body, specifically designed to perform at its best in a bend and twist.

nourish the cells and regular stretching and exercise to gently and progressively test your body’s limits, it doesn’t matter what your age is, your body will respond positively.

Myth #5: Rest Helps the Back When you are in pain, rest can feel the right thing to do. After all, moving hurts! The problem is, rest doesn’t accelerate healing movement does.

In the clinic we use a couple of silly phrases - ‘movement is medicine’ and my personal favourite; ‘motion is the lotion’. Each time we take a step, our body creates a pump to draw in nutrients and squish away waste. This helps our immune system do its thing and create healing.

Sure, you should avoid sharp pain, but do as much as you can to keep mobile when injured.

All of this advice comes with the caveat that if you are worried about an injury you have, then you should seek professional advice. Seeing someone like an osteopath would help you create an individualised plan to figure out the problem and get you back on the road to health.

If you would like to ask our team of osteopaths any questions, please get in touch by calling 01245 522 360 or take a look at our website at fortephysicalhealth.co.uk.

Have a healthy month!

Research has shown that those who limit their movements when reaching in the space around them are more likely to have back pain. Those who have more variability in their system have a lower incidence of pain.

Myth #3: Training Your Core Prevents Back Pain This myth specifically relates to movements like the sit up which try to isolate the abs in an attempt to get the elusive six-pack. The evidence shows that doing too much of this type of training makes it more likely you will have back pain.

Of course, it is helpful to have strong core muscles, but they should be trained in a dynamic and integrated way that includes the hips and shoulder muscles. This helps build strength and control throughout the whole body.

So, onto the new ones. The next myth is the most common one I encounter and it’s one I really want to nip in the bud:

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Myth #4: If You Have Pain Now You Will Have Pain Forever This idea can be quite scary for people. When you have pain, it’s easy to think it will last forever or will get worse over time, but the vast majority of problems get better.

Pain is common after a certain age, but it’s not normal. Phrases in our language like, ‘it’s all downhill from forty...’ or ‘it’s my age...’ keep the candle of myth burning.

Rather than blame age, I prefer to blame habits. As long as we are alive our body has the ability to change. This is a process known as bioplasticity: our body changes in response to a given stimulus, particularly the ones we do the most often.

So what stimulus are you giving your body? If it is a stimulus of a sedentary lifestyle, high carb diet and lack of stretching, your body’s response to that will be to tighten up and have pain.

If, however, the stimuli you give your body includes a healthy diet to

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MT Gardening

I hope you’ve all noticed that the days are definitely getting longer and spring is just around the corner. This relatively mild start to the year has started to bring plant growth forward. Whilst this is great, it’s worth considering that frosts are still around and young leaf and flower blossom will need to be protected. Keep horticultural fleece at hand just in case we have sudden drops in temperatures.

For me, this is a busy time of the year with lots to do and prepare for. Check out these tips for success: Continue to Plant Conditions are perfect as there is less check to any growth and watering is minimal. If staking trees, check that you stake on the windward side of the tree and use a suitable tree tie; consider using a rubber based tie with a buffer spacer between stake and tree to avoid any potential rubbing and development of entry points for disease.

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Another point to think about is tree protection (from deer, rabbits etc) if your garden is under attack. Use a suitable tree guard to give the best head start for any tree you’re adding to your garden this year.

Feeds Towards the end of this month use general purpose feeds. Rates do vary depending on feed type, however an application rate of 35-50g/m2 would be fine. Just lightly fork in around the plant.

Clean Containers Clean through and tidy planted containers. Cut down perennials past their best and be vigilant for vine weevil larvae. These grubs thrive on freshly roots, so perennials including bulbs are highly susceptible.

Grubs are around 1cm long, white with a dark head end. Any grubs found can be popped on bird tables where they’ll be picked off by our grateful feathery friends. It’s also possible to use biological controls as the temperature warms up; look out for nematodes in your local garden centre or on line.

Prune Clematis This is a great time for pruning group 3 clematis before they start active growth in the spring. These include late flowering species which will be in bloom from summer to late autumn, flowering on stems grown in the same year. Group 3 contains varieties of Viticella Clematis and low growing, herbaceous clematis varieties such as Clematis recta ‘Purpurea’. The Viticella types are perfect for any sunny garden whether it’s in the ground or in an ornamental container. In borders I tend to let them wander through the beds to give depth of colour and interest throughout the summer months. They come in all key colour types.

As group 3 clematis flower on new stems, you can afford to cut away a large amount of the plant’s old stems, resulting in rapid regrowth and flowering within the same year. Cut all of the stems of the plant down to a pair of strong buds 20-30cm above ground level. Remove all the growth above this and spread remaining stems out evenly, gently tying them to a support system using soft string to prevent the plant becoming congested. I use obelisks in borders to give height and accents in the borders.

Prune Shrubs Prune shrubs such as butterfly bushes, sambucus, all roses and coloured stems to reduce dead, diseased and damaged growth, Remember to tell our advertisers you saw their advert in the MT www.moulshamtimes.com

removing of suckers and crossing branches.

Lastly, with coloured stemmed plants, if you prune to keep the plant juvenile the plant will produce brighter, more intense coloured stems for winter colour later this year. Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’, C. alba ‘Sibirica’ and Salix alba are excellent specimens to use.

Clean Beds and Borders Clean through beds and borders by raking off any old leaves and cutting down grasses. For pheasant’s tail grass (Carex and Luzula) just rake through with your hands to dislodge old decaying leaves rather than cut down, then feed and add a generous layer of well rotted organic matter to aid in moisture retention and weed growth.

Lastly, if you want to further your knowledge and understanding of these or other gardening jobs, please do consider getting in touch with Writtle University College, as we run a comprehensive range of part time day release programmes. If you’ve got a bit more time we also offer full time Level 2 & 3 programmes plus many apprenticeship pathways.

We’ve got courses on garden design, construction (erecting fences, paving and brickwork), plus general garden tasks such as pruning, propagation, container gardening, successful care of lawns and growing fruit and veg. For the professional we have a whole load of competence certificates covering arboriculture, pesticide application and use of various machinery and equipment.

Check out our website at www.writtle.ac.uk.

Happy gardening!

For any gardening tips contact Tom Cole, Horticultural Lecturer, Writtle College, Chelmsford, CM1 3RR by post (including a SAE) or by email at tom.cole@writtle.ac.uk.

Could You Open Your Garden This Summer to Raise Money for Farleigh Hospice?

On Sunday 2nd June 2019 Farleigh Hospice will be organising an Open Gardens event in Old Moulsham, thanks to the support of the local residents. We already have a number of committed gardens and we would be delighted with a few more.

Choosing to open your garden is a commitment but also a very worthwhile experience. Many of our gardeners enjoy it so much that they open their garden year after year. Gardens of all shapes and sizes are welcome - big or small, wild or landscaped. It is a lovely way to show off your garden to visitors and bring your whole community together, all while raising vital funds for Farleigh Hospice. The event starts at 11am and will run through till 5pm and you’ll spend the day welcoming visitors and sharing your passion for gardening. Some gardens also offer refreshments as well as plants, crafts or local produce sales - it’s up to you.

In 2018, the Open Gardens events raised over £27,000 for the hospice. With the continued support of the mid-Essex community, we are hopeful that this year’s events will be even more successful.

Every penny that is raised from the Open Gardens this summer will make a huge difference to those facing life limiting illnesses.

All of Farleigh Hospice’s services are free of charge, and without the generosity of the local community we would not be able to care for nearly 4,000 people every year and help carers and families, offer bereavement support and continue to be an integral part of the local community.

For more information on Old Moulsham Open Gardens or to request a registration form, please contact Debbie de Boltz on 01245 457 352, or email fundraising@farleighhospice.org.

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Music and Blues and Roots in the City - by Nick Garner Chelmsford Arts and Cultural Festival 2020 We have not much to report at present as we are in the midst of sorting out what we are planning for 2020 - the dates are set from 19th to 28th June. We are still looking for people who are interested in getting involved in many different ways such as volunteering or helping on the admin, or with event organisation as well as with helping us to get further sponsorships. There is so much to do, so if you think you could help us then please email us at hello@ chelmsfordfestival.org.

Music and Ramblings A new music venue has just opened in Chelmsford in the Viaducts by the bus and rail station called The Hot Box. This is also part of a new skateboard shop by day. It has a purpose built stage as well as a PA and becomes our newest live music venue by night. Hot Box are looking for artists and promoters who would like to play and put on shows. They already currently have a number of great acts lined up to play in the near future. If you are interested, pop along to Arch 27, the Viaducts, or search out the Hot Box Skate Shop.

We have a busy month ahead. At the football club on Friday 15 March we have The Christians performing. This is the 80s band who had hits with Ideal World, Words and Harvest for the World to name a few. Garry Christian (vocals) is still at the helm with an incredible band behind him. Opening the night will be Rich Young, who is also part of Buster James who have opened for too many big acts to mention, as well as being festival favourites. Rich, while being a great keyboard player and guitarist, is also a really good singer-songwriter. th

Green and John ‘Magic’ Wright playing some country, plus Roy Mette, Richard Townend, Dave Thomas, Russ Cottee, Robin Bibi, Cornfield Encounter... and many more.

There will be bands, some jams, and lots of fun with good food from the club complimented by The Serious Shake (a very good bar).

A good time will be had by all, remembering our good friend Mike Lightfoot - and all this for just £10.

Then on Friday 5th April we have John Coghlan performing. The original drummer for Status Quo for twenty years and seventeen albums, brings his own Quo band to the football club - they even say that his Quo band is currently the best... Trevor Gentry’s band, Stony Road, will open for them. You may even recognise the lead guitarist in the headline act, as Trevor has been recruited back into John’s band since we originally booked them - so this will be fun I am sure.

The UB events throughout March: Friday 1st Saturday 2nd Sunday 3rd Friday 8th Saturday 9th Sunday 10th Wednesday 13th Thursday 14th Friday 15th Saturday 16th / Sunday 17th

On Mother’s Day, 31st March, we have a special memorial fund raising show for our late good friend Mike Lightfoot, who sadly died on 13th December last year from a heart attack - a night he was planning to go and see The Pretty Things’ last show. Mike was one of music’s biggest supporters as well as being a dedicated season ticket holder for Southend United and a staunch union man. Mike was also the nicest person you could wish to know or meet with a kind heart and a laugh that was a cross between Sid James and Muttley. Mike was one of the most knowledgeable people on music that I knew, as he loved all music - except for pop!). So we will be putting on a 10-hour event from noon to 10pm in his honour and raising money for the British Heart Foundation and The Basildon Hospital cardiac unit.

The musicians have come out in droves wanting to play for Mike and pay homage to our good friend, and hopefully we have covered just about all the types of music that he loved. We have Naomi playing some classical music on her cello accompanied by guitar and percussion. We also have none other than Todd Sharpville playing too. Todd is a top blues man who headlined many festivals over the years and has played with some of the biggest names in the business. As well as these, we have Denny Newman coming over from Germany with his band Black Dog Man, Denny used to play with Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones) as well as Manfred Mann’s Earth Band where he also wrote some of the hits. Tim Aves is putting back together his band Wolfpack especially for the show, and The Delta Ladies will be playing the event as well. We also have Sam Kelly (the legendary drummer), Stuart Dixon and Jamie Williams & the Roots Collective, while Trev Turley will be bringing along the Mojo Preachers.

Also playing will be The SharpeeZ and The Connor Selby Band with Joe Anderton. Also Rostock and Beggar. The list goes on, with Lexie 12

Friday 22nd Saturday 23rd Sunday 24th Friday 29th Saturday 30th Sunday 31st

The Delta Ladies Twisty Turns - a new act creating their own special twist on old-time country and bluegrass.

Yoka and Big Ray - another new act who are a must-see, from 4.30pm.

Steve Hooker - returning with his band.

The Hitman - on tour from New York, one of New York’s top blues men - and he has chosen to play the UB during his UK tour.

Digby Rose - yet another new act a duo playing a mix of covers and originals.

Joe Anderton - open mic session.

SharpeeZ Maximum R&B - Blues & Roots in the City host.

Jar Records - hosting.

The UB St Patrick’s Day Weekender - starting on the Saturday at 5.30pm with Irish folk from Barry Owens, then from 9pm Medicine play celtic folk rock. On the Sunday from 3pm Barry Owens will play again, then from 5.30pm Porch Swing (with Dave Ferra and Chris Berry) will play a mix of folk, Irish and blues for us all.

Lady J & the Troublemakers - returning for a fun filled night.

Andy Twyman Lizzie B - playing originals and covers.

Matt Love - DJ set Denny Newman - bringing his band, Black Dog Man, all the way from Germany.

Katy Forkings - live at 4.30pm.

If you are putting on, or know of, any events that we should feature and help to publicise, please email us at editorial@itsyourmedia. co.uk. As ever, please do try to come out and support the great live scene that we have in Essex - if you do not, we may lose it. For more information on all of the above, see the links below and pick up a copy of the City Times and go to the What’s On pages to see what else in happening in your area. If you go to our Facebook pages look at the ‘Events’ tabs where you can see who is playing and preview the up-and-coming acts. www.bluesinthecity.co.uk www.facebook.com/bluesinthecitychelmsford Twitter: @BluesintheCity1 www.itsyourmusic.co.uk www.facebook.com/itsyourmusic Twitter: @itsyourmusic The Arts and Cultural email: hello@chelmsfordfestival.org www.chelmsfordfestival.org www.facebook.com/chelmsfordfestival Twitter: @chelmsfordaacf

www.moulshamtimes.com

Morequizin’ - by John Theedom 1.

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What are the names of Michael Jackson’s children?

Why did the owner call his dog Dagenham?

A peen is part of which common hand tool?

How many main types of teeth do adult humans have?

The ‘Big O’ is the nickname of which famous singer?

Tatting is a form of what?

What is ********* M Dior’s first name?

What colour is Shiraz wine?

If you are whey faced, what is wrong with you?

What is the word disco an abbreviation of?

What type of mammal is a klipspringer?

In which English county is Dungeness?

When, precisely did we join the EEC? The term turdiform refers to which type of bird?

During WW2, no white bread was baked. When did it restart?

Who was The Galloping Gourmet?

In the fashion world, who created The New Look?

Who was the comedian who sang Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West)?

What connects ‘gate’, ‘goal’ and ‘bed’?

What is the capital city of Ukraine?

How is sodium chloride more commonly known?

What is the capital of Liberia?

Where in your body is the hyoid bone?

In which English county are the South Downs?

In which decade was Anthony Eden the prime minister?

26.

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What is fado?

How old (in 2019), is the singer Neil Diamond?

Who or what is a roamer?

When did the Vietnam War end?

In which month is Prince Philip’s birthday?

Who was Britain’s first astronaut?

What is a slipway used for?

What is the first name of the US actress, Ms Thurman?

The maw is which part of an animal?

Where is ninon used?

Natation is the process of what?

Give another name for a leaping antelope.

What type of animal is a porbeagle?

What is the inscription on the letterbox of 10 Downing Street?

When did Ava Gardener die?

Deadlines for the March edition: Articles - 20th March Print ready art work - 28th March

14 www.moulshamtimes.com

Personal Finance Clinic: Save on Tax with these Tax Planning Tips Personal Finance Clinic We are fast approaching the end of the tax year, so take a few minutes to review your personal finances ahead of the 5th April deadline. Many of you will be able to take advantage of some tax planning tips to help you keep hold of more of your hard earned cash. Today, I’m discussing pensions, redundancy and ISAs. Claim Tax Relief on Pensions Pensions are a fantastic way to save for retirement because personal contributions receive tax relief. In other words, instead of handing over tax to HMRC, it goes into your own pension pot. For example, if you make a £100 pension contribution, this is topped up to £125 to take account of basic rate tax-relief (20%). If you pay tax at a higher rate, you are entitled to more tax relief.

Crucially, many pension schemes only automatically apply tax relief at the basic rate of tax (20%), so if you know you are paying income tax at 40% or 45%, you need to make sure the additional 20% or 25% is being credited to you.

Check with your HR department to make sure you are getting the correct tax relief. If you are paying into a personal pension separately from work, you need to let HMRC know, or there’s a good chance you’re missing out. This can be done via an annual self assessment, so make sure you record your pension contributions correctly on this.

If you don’t complete an annual self assessment, write to HMRC to claim the tax relief due to you - and you can only go back four tax years for this.

this has now been reduced right down to just £10,000 a year. For example, imagine your salary, bonus and rental income from letting out a property takes your total income to £210,000. At this level, you are only permitted to contribute £10,000 a year, yet it’s quite feasible you’re contributing much more. Go over your allowance and HMRC will send you a tax bill in due course. If you act now, you may be able to make use of carry forward rules, which means carrying forward any unused allowances from previous tax years to offset an overpayment in the current tax year. It is vital this is documented so that you can present it to HMRC. Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) If you haven’t done so already, contribute to your ISA. You can contribute up to £20,000 per person to ISAs per tax year. The beauty of an ISA is that it’s a tax wrapper, which means that any cash or investments held within one of these accounts can grow in value, free of taxation. Over time, you can save a fortune in tax by holding your investments in ISA accounts, especially if you are able to contribute to it every year.

Most people feel quite comfortable with cash ISAs, but have you considered opening a stocks & shares ISA? If you can invest for at least five years, preferably 10, a stocks & shares ISA might be for you, especially if you already have cash savings for a rainy day elsewhere.

Over time, investments in an ISA can really start to build up and some people are now ISA millionaires, saving thousands in tax each year because they hold their investments in this type of account.

Plus, when you withdraw money from your ISA, there’s no tax to pay either, so you can use ISA withdrawals to top up taxable income in retirement.

Retiring Soon?

If you are planning to retire in the next couple of years, have you thought about topping up your pension now? Each tax year, most people can contribute the lower of £40,000 a year or 100% of their salary per year (called the Annual Allowance). Perhaps you earn £80,000 a year and, between you and your employer, put in 10% of your salary - or £8,000 a year. At the same time, perhaps you have already paid off your mortgage and have, say, £50,000 in savings.

Did you know that you could put £20,000 of those savings into a personal pension, receive a top up of £5,000 into your pension from HMRC straight away (20% relief) and receive the additional 20% of tax relief back via adjustment to your tax code?

Saving for Your First Home?

Lifetime ISAs were recently launched to help the under 40s save for their first home. If you think you will want to buy in a few years, you may wish to open a lifetime ISA now. You can put in a maximum of £4,000 in this tax year and the Government will top your contribution up by 25%. So, if you put in £4,000, the Government puts in £1,000.

There are rules and restrictions with these accounts that you need to be aware of, however.

You may want to seek advice on this, as it’s important your individual position is carefully considered to ensure suitability, and do remember that your contribution will be invested and subject to investment risk. Investments can go down as well as up.

Fiducia Wealth Management has offices at Saxon House, 27 Duke Street, Chelmsford CM1 1HT (01245 950 922) and at Dedham Hall Business Centre, Brook Street, Dedham, Colchester CO7 6AD (01206 321 045).

Been Made Redundant?

Be aware that you could contribute some of your redundancy pay to your pension and receive tax relief on this too.

You can contact Lauren directly via lauren@fiduciawealth.co.uk, or via 07850 873 126.

Clearly, if you’ve been made redundant you need to make sure you have enough money to live on until you find another job before considering this. For some people however, it can be a sensible approach, such as if you’ve already got another job lined up, you don’t need the redundancy money for anything else and your pension provision is currently lower than you’d like.

Income of More Than £150,000; Are You Aware of the Tapering Rules?

Individuals with total income, taxed to income tax, of £150,000 or more a year need to be aware of the new tapering rules or they could unknowingly end up facing a tax charge. Previously, if you earned £150,000 or more a year, you would be able to contribute £40,000 a year to pensions between yourself and your employer. For some,

Lauren Peters, Senior Financial Adviser at Fiducia Wealth Management, is a Chartered Financial Planner. She also holds the Pensions Specialist and Later Life Specialist qualifications.

www.fiduciawealth.co.uk

Life T M Hack

Flattened pillow? Pop it out in the sun for 30 minutes. The sun will absorb any moisture caught up in it and plump the pillow up!

MT Cooking - Moroccan Spiced Lamb - by Beverley Matthews Getting bored of the same old Sunday roast dinner? This recipe will liven up any family dinner table. My favourite thing about this recipe is that it’s perfect to serve family style and everyone can keep going back for more until it’s all gone. And if there are any leftovers, the lamb works really well in a Thai massaman curry. This dish is also a favourite for our upcoming weddings this summer!

receptions, BBQs and weddings. To find out more about me or Perfect Day Caterers, visit www.perfectdaycaterers.co.uk or email me at beverley@perfectdaycaterers.co.uk, I’d love to hear from you!

Ingredients 1 whole lamb shoulder (on the bone) Spices - 1 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tsp ground coriander, ½ tsp cayenne pepper, ½ tsp ground allspice, 1 tsp salt, ½ tsp ground black pepper.

500ml Greek yoghurt 2 tsp rose harissa paste 1 bunch fresh coriander 1 bunch fresh mint 1 pomegranate Pomegranate molasses Method 1. Take off any large pieces of fat from the lamb (smaller pieces of fat are fine to keep on, but you don’t want any really thick bits).

2. Mix all the spices together and rub all over the lamb.

3. Put the lamb in a roasting tray, cover with tin foil and cook in the oven at 150oC for 4-5 hours. The lamb is ready when it is soft and easy to pull apart.

4. While the lamb is cooking, finely chop the mint and coriander, then mix together with the yoghurt and rose harissa. If you want it spicier, just add more of the harissa paste.

5. Cut the pomegranate in half and bash each half with the back of a spoon to release the pomegranate seeds into a bowl.

6. Once the lamb is cooked, put the whole joint onto a serving platter, top with the yoghurt, pomegranate seeds and molasses.

7. Serve with roast potatoes and your favourite vegetables, or as an alternative, serve it with cous cous and some roasted squash.

Thanks for reading my recipe. I am the owner of Perfect Day Caterers, an event catering business. We cater for all kinds of special occasions, from small intimate dinner parties to canapé

07936 198651

16 www.moulshamtimes.com

Christ Church

Please call Michael on:

07976 693457 or email Info@m-specservices.co.uk

Electrical Installation & Maintenance What to Do in Lent In the Western Church, Lent signifies the liturgical season between Ash Wednesday (March 6th this year) until the day before Easter.

Traditionally, this is a time for fasting and self-denial for Christians, yet the origins of Lent give a somewhat different emphasis to the season. The word ‘Lent’ is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘lencton’, meaning springtime - when the days are becoming longer and warmer, with the hopeful promise of summer to come.

In the early Church, Lent was a time for Christian novices (catechumens) to undergo final preparation and self-examination prior to their baptism and confirmation at the Great Vigil Eucharist at first light on Easter Day. Whilst the catechumens were encouraged to meditate seriously on the ways in which they fell short of the ideals of Christian life and become aware of the need for repentance and of making amends, this was not at the expense of the great hope of the new life to come in Christ. Fasting may have been part of this, but only to the extent of encouraging self-discipline, not for mere self-chastisement - and most certainly not with a view to making oneself look pious in the sight of others!

Are you thinking of giving up chocolate or alcohol or other goodies for Lent, or even taking on extra responsibilities into an already overburdened schedule? Are such intentions likely to go the same way as most New Year resolutions, abandoned after a week or two with accompanying feelings of guilt? I know mine have in the past.

Let’s take a fresh look at the idea of fasting, and heed the advice of His Holiness Pope Francis, in his words to the Roman Catholic church for Lent 2018: 1.

2.

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6.

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8.

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Fast from hurting words and say kind words.

Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude.

Fast from anger and be filled with patience.

Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope.

Fast from worries and trust in God. Fast from complaints and contemplate simplicity.

Fast from pressures and be prayerful.

Fast from bitterness and fill your heart with joy.

Fast from selfishness and be compassionate to others.

Fast from grudges and be reconciled.

Fast from words and be silent so you can listen.

The last one is especially important I think!

With much love and good wishes for a well kept Lent 2019, Gareth Bennett Music Minister, Christ Church URC, Chelmsford.

For more details about what happens at Christ Church, visit the website at www.christ-church-chelmsford.com, or find them on Facebook or Twitter.

M-Spec Services based in Chelmsford cater for all your electrical requirements, no job is too big or too small. You are always guaranteed a professional service at competitive rates.

• Smoke Alarm Installation • Fault Finding • CCTV & Fire Alarms • Fuseboard Upgrades • Access Control & Intercom Systems • Rewires • Test & Inspect Certification

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Life T M Hack

Stretch for 5 minutes before going to bed.

Your muscles will be more relaxed and you will fiind it easier to find a comfortable position to sleep in.

Moulsham Infant School

At Moulsham Infant School, we are very proud of our creative curriculum. During February, we held our annual International Week.

Every class chose a country to learn about from Sweden to Egypt and China to Holland. The whole curriculum was taught this week using our chosen countries including; Geography, History, Art, DT, English and Maths.

This term, our Reception children started Forest Schools, an

Moulsham Junior School

Children are encouraged to strive in order to succeed, and this was highlighted during a recent visit to the school by Gianni Frankis, the Olympic sprint hurdler, and Peter Bakare, who represented Great Britain in the 2012 Olympics in volleyball. They worked with every class in the school and the children were engaged and inspired. The following report was prepared by two of our Year 4 children, Callum and Jack.

“Gianni Frankis and Peter Bakare came to Moulsham Junior School for the day to do exercises with us. It took place on 24th January 2019. We were working with Sports for Schools to raise money.

inspirational concept providing learning opportunities outdoors. Mrs. Jennings is fantastic at engaging children into the world outside come rain or shine - to get hands-on with the natural environment through shelter building, mini-beast hunts, fire building and lighting, nature art, campfire cooking etc. Children learn to develop a connection with nature and a whole range of skills from personal, social and emotional, to physical development and communication.

did not win his first race and kept going until he became the excellent athlete he is today. His presentation was an inspiration.

“People in our school were able to have a go at hurdling which inspired us to have a go at home too. It doesn’t matter if you are not an expert, still have a go at exercising.

A big thank you to our teachers Mr Dyson and Miss Elder for arranging it.”

Mrs Marie Staley, Headteacher

“We completed a series of challenges, including spotty dogs, press ups, mountain climbers and star jumps. Our whole school participated and each class spent ten minutes watching the class before them and ten minutes exercising. You may think it was easy, but it was hard!

“We were all handed a sponsorship form to use to collect money. If we raised £5 we got a blue Sports for Schools wristband and if we raised £15 we received a red wristband signed by Gianni Frankis as well as the blue band. However, if we raised £30 we received both wristbands together with a poster of Gianni. A lot of people raised over £30.

“Gianni is a 110 metre hurdler for Great Britain and Peter plays volleyball. Gianni told us never to give up and keep on going! Gianni 18 www.moulshamtimes.com

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Rotary Steps up the Fight Against Polio Rotary’s official birthday is 23rd February and it is always a good time to review the latest progress in the initiative to rid the world of polio.

It has been well documented in my articles over the years that when Rotary first embarked on a campaign to eradicate polio there were 1,000 new cases every single day spread over 125 countries.

Now, thanks to the mass immunisation programme delivered since 1985, the number of countries still endemic is down to just three Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

The good news is that Nigeria is on the verge of being declared non-endemic, as the last case was almost three years ago and it is the achievement of three years with no new cases that designates a country ‘polio free’.

Further good news is that so far in the six weeks of 2019 there has been just two cases in Pakistan, so you would think that the end is in sight and polio will soon be a thing of the past. However the reality is not so straightforward. Because the virus is so virulent and travel is so easy and frequent these days, it is not beyond the realms of possibility to see a sudden surge in new cases if not all the children in the world have the polio vaccination. Staggeringly, it has been estimated that if polio is not eradicated shortly, we could see as many as 200,000 new cases across the world within 10 years. When the world is declared polio free, it will be just the second human disease ever to be eradicated, after smallpox.

This takes money - lots of money, and Rotary has been raising funds for many years and the sums involved are mind-boggling. Rotary has also lobbied governments to supply aid and facilitate immunisation days and in the last couple of years organised a partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which matches the money raised

by Rotary. Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft, has gone on record saying that because of the esteem in which he holds Rotary International he is very comfortable supporting the polio campaign.

So what sort of events will we see over the next week? The Chelmsford club is having a Fill Your Plate for Polio morning which will consist of a coffee and cake morning at the home of President Anne Moriaty. These informal meetings are very popular and have been used as fundraisers for other good causes such as Chelmsford Community Transport. The other local Rotary clubs will also be arranging varied events and I may be able to report on them in the next issue.

Such events are not confined to Rotarians, nor confined to the date of 23rd February. The public is more than welcome to organise an event.

In fact, what a great idea! Simply choose what kind of event you want to organise. Some examples might be: Pie and a Pint, Cheese and Wine, Prosecco and Blueberries, Fish and Chip Supper, Tea and Purple Cupcakes... or anything and anywhere you can think of!

There are lots of free resources available for promotion. If you would like to register an event, please contact me and I will send you the registration form. Each polio vaccine costs around 20p, so even a small donation can literally save lives and you can be a part of making history. It is also a good way of getting in touch with your friends or 20

Chelmsford Rotary Club meets at Hampton’s Sports and Leisure (formerly Marconi’s Sports and Social Club, so it is the club within the Moulsham area). There are four other Chelmsford clubs and they each offer an alternative meeting day, time and location, so there should be one that fits into your lifestyle.

We are always on the lookout for new members; people who have a desire to put something back into the community whilst enjoying a new circle of friends.

Give me a call to hear about the many options now available or visit www.chelmsfordrotary1240.org.

Stan Keller 01245 260 349

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Spot 10 Differences... (answers on page 24)

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Jonny’s

Hi everyone! The year is rushing by as usual, it’s the end of February already. The weather is unseasonably warm as I write this, but no shorts on yet, as I fully expect the cold weather to return before long.

I have decided that after a number of years writing about wine in this column, I am going to change the emphasis. In future, I will be writing about things other than just wine. I have done a lot of research about what I may call my new column: Inspirations, Revelations, or perhaps Observations and after a lot of thought, I decided I would call it Jonny’s World. Is that apostrophe in the right place?

I am a regular newspaper reader and I note that I am having to skip more pages of newsprint as time goes on. Meghan and her dad have featured again, and it seems they have been writing to each other or something. Big news for sure, but not the news I can be bothered to read. I did see a headline that she was going to the US to have a baby shower. I didn’t even know the baby had been born, and why would you go all the way to America to give it a wash?

I normally skip the ads too, but recently a number of products that may improve my health have come to my notice. In the health section - not an advert but a report - it asks if I have cold extremities.

Which ones were these I wondered? Turns out it’s mainly hands and feet. If I have poor blood flow, this can result in cold bits. But there is hope; this can be improved by eating chocolate or (apparently) a chocolate pill. This contains cocoa flavanols which will help warm the extremities by increasing blood flow and gives the blood vessels more elasticity. That’s what I need, stretchy blood vessels. The same article talks about adding magnesium flakes to the bath water to reboot the mind... a bit like turning the laptop on and off when it goes wrong?

Apparently it makes the body stronger and more flexible. If I do this and take the chocolate pills, I will be wobbling all over the place with stretchy blood vessels and now a flexible body. I don’t think I will bother, I can’t see it working in the shower!

I also saw an advert recently about special socks that are good for diabetics to wear as it helps certain aspects of the disease. I found this interesting, as I had never thought that socks had sugar in them.

On reading further, I discovered that these socks have very little elastic at the top and therefore help with pain caused by swelling legs.

In another ad, Len Goodman of Strictly fame feels ‘...as fit as a biscuit’ since using a special cream to help to reduce the pain in his 22

bones. Not sure that I would like to be as fit as a custard cream - and what a fate, to end up being dunked in a cup of tea!

What about a four foot plant to help with relaxation and create ‘a wonderful, calming, oriental ambience’? This is done by the leaves, which are green and have simple vertical lines. These ‘plants’ it turns out, are made of floral silk, so they don’t need tending and - wow, I could have one for just £55 with free standard UK delivery. There’s a form on the ad to place an order. Now, where’s that pen? Thank goodness. I can’t find one.

So after all this reading, I have been uplifted. Not because I am going to buy any of it, but the fact that it has saved me about a hundred quid by not buying any of it.

I was walking through the park in the city centre the other day and, well, I noticed that the figure which shows which side pedestrians should walk definitely looks male! I’m surprised that the PC Police haven’t picked up on this. They would probably insist that there should be two lanes, one for the men and one for the women, and these days, possibly even more.

Have you been confused with the road work diversions in the city?

I have, especially with the buses. First of all, I had not read the warnings about impending changes to bus routes. I was stood outside the back of Smiths for at least 10 minutes, until I noticed that no traffic was coming past. I eventually saw the notice and went to a temporary stop in Market Street to get the Park and Ride bus. Along it came - great. Last week I wanted to get a 31. Along came a 31X, perfect, but it sailed by without stopping. It turns out they don’t stop there. I really should start reading the information in these sort of circumstances.

Last week I went to Calais to top up the wine stocks and this is possibly the last time it will be worthwhile. The affect of the unmentionable ‘B’ word is not clear, but I assume that it may revert to where we were before we joined the EU. If I remember correctly we could still bring wine in from France, but only a very small amount would be exempt from UK duty. This will add, at over £2, to each bottle of wine. I knew I voted remain for a reason!

Bin End Chuckles (I know, but I couldn’t think of anything else to call it) My grandfather invented the cold air balloon, but it didn’t really take off...

Toughest job I ever had was selling doors door to door...

Keep calm and... well, keep calm...

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Molly’s Thoughts: Commuting If, like me, you’re unfortunate enough to have to travel via a form of public transport to get to work everyday, you may have noticed some common behaviours amongst fellow commuters that allow you to characterise them and become the narrator of your journey, making the delays a little more bearable. In my story, there’s: •

•

•

•

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The Bookworm: The people we all aspire to be. Those that switch off by switching on their imagination and entering into a world of fantasy. I personally don’t think it’s fair to put my tired eyes through such trauma. Although, I have always wished for a way of being able to see with my eyes closed, so should this ever become possible I will reconsider, but until then I’ll allow stories to unfold in my dreams.

The Gamer: Whether it be Candy Crush, or 8 Ball Pool, the world definitely isn’t short of dedicated gamers that sigh with relief when an announcement of delays grants an opportunity to finally reach a new level, determined to make this journey the one that they smash their high score.

The Serial Binge Watcher: Those that have been gifted a free trial with Netflix or the mighty Amazon Prime and feel that it’s necessary to watch as much as they possibly can before their contract runs out in a month, or 6.

The Productivity Seeker: Those that take agile working to the extreme. The masters of balancing a laptop on their knees that put their work before the comfort of those sitting nearby. Those that find the strength to carry on post 5pm.

The Head Bopper: Those people that dance to the music playing through their headphones that only they can hear, engaging in

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a silent disco for one. I applaud your confidence. You’re truly dancing as if no one were watching. But please know that we are all watching and we are all very, very uncomfortable.

The Observer: Those of the population that are similar to myself, those so tired that they tend to zone out for most of their journey. Those that catch themselves catching others performing their commuting routine, spotting the gamers from the boppers.

However, I must point out that the observer must not be mistaken for the final commuting character...

The Freak: In stark contrast to all of the above, there are the freaks. The people that literally do nothing, as if to be enjoying their commuting experience. No earphones in, no book to read, no programmes to watch, no games to play - no distractions.

Simply sitting, listening. Listening to the eaters, the sniffers, the heavy breathers. Neglecting their own business and instead watching texts being typed, uninvitedly co-watching a programme with the neighbouring serial binge watcher, keeping up to date with the Metro’s version of the world’s current affairs over someone’s shoulder after having not picked up one of the thousands of copies for themselves. You know the type.

So I urge you, people of Chelmsford, the next time you travel on any form of public transport, notice. Observe and spectate the eccentricities of those around us. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s frustrating, sometimes it will make your blood boil and other times it’s just plain fascinating.

I can guarantee you that picking up on these things and having a little running commentary in your head of these people’s actions will keep you entertained whilst on your travels. If not, I don’t know, plug your earphones in and begin your own silent disco. I dare you.

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Neighbourhood Watch Hi All, your friendly neighbourhood Ayman here!

I’ve got some some graphs to share with you this month based on the incidents that are shared by the police with those that join Neighborhood Watch.

Shout out to Moulsham Drive, Mildmay Road, St John’s Avenue and Rosebery Road, who have all done a great job in getting themselves up and running.

Our neighbours all grow stronger when they are able share information with each other helping to improve their homes and reduce crime. We’ve been seeing information being shared within groups about cars and suspicious behaviour creating an increase in the amount of incidents being reported to the police to investigate.

What the overview of Moulsham crime graph tells us is that vehicles are the most targeted and easiest to get to being outside. You wouldn’t believe how many people forget to lock their doors or leave valuables in their cars, though keyless car crime is still relatively low.

I was surprised by ‘Other Robbery’, but this is actually more to do with how the police were not able to categorise this into the other items.

Some of this does include theft of mobiles, wallets and money.

Another point to note that there is a relationship between pedal cycle and property - most often, the pedal cycle is at the property. So two crimes often get committed to get to the bike by breaking into an insecure shed.

The more information reported, the more intelligence the police have to take action.

This month, I want to share last year’s incidents that have been collected based on the residents of Moulsham and Central Ward. We need NWs on some of these roads and if you want help, please get in touch.

The good news from the above is that we can do more to secure our vehicles and bikes. You’ll understand my point from the next graph.

On the details of crime graph, you’ll see once again that ‘Robbery - Other’ was not properly broken down to categorise into the other types of incidents.

37 incidents were related to our homes, of which 14 were damages to our homes - some of which are attempted break-ins. Ideally, we want to see this figure higher when we have more house alarms.

‘Non Dwellings’ are mainly our sheds, garages and summer houses you’ll see a total of 61. Thieves are targeting sheds for the bikes.

You’ll see bike theft is the highest single category at 95!

Vehicle crime is still overall the highest when you look at the damage to vehicles and theft. Where possible, we need to keep our vehicles in places with good light and where we can keep an eye (camera) on them. Criminals are scoping cars and hiding faces, so we need to make sure our driveways are well lit with good cameras and good physcial locks and immobilisers.

The roads do form a pattern to show that the most populated roads for shopping and footfall do attract the most incidents. ‘All other roads’ are incidents with less than 1% each road. We had 841 incidents last year and those at 1% had an estimated 8 incidents per year.

So what are the incidents that have happened in Moulsham and Central? To give a better idea I’ve removed the High Street, Duke Street and Moulsham Street to understand what criminals are targeting outside of town.

Next month I’ll be going into more detail of what we can do to keep our bikes and cars safer.

All the best. Stay vigilant and stay safe.

Ayman Syed aymansyed@gmail.com

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The Evolution of British Rock ’n’ Roll. Part 7 - by John Power

Before he became Terry Dene, Terry Williams worked in the HMV stockroom in Oxford Street. One evening in the Cat’s Whiskers, Kingly Street’s coffee bar and juke joint, Terry offered to sing with the Bell Cats, and he sang Blue Suede Shoes. It went down well, so he took his guitar to the 2i’s Coffee Bar, and then got to sing with Rory Blackwell’s Rock ’n’ Rollers at the Razzle Dazzle Club at Studio 51.

Blackwell fired him for drinking too much - not the last time it would be a problem for Terry.

Paul Lincoln had got to hear him and suggested the name change to Dean, after James Dean, so he became Terry Dene. Hymie Zahl from Foster’s Agency became his agent and got him a gig with a rock ’n’ roll package show at Romford Odeon: Meet for Cats followed in March of 1957, then Hymie got him on to Six-Five Special in April on several subsequent occasions. Decca issued a single A White Sports Coat (And a Pink Carnation), which got into the top 20 within a week.

Hymie’s next move was to get him on a national variety tour and his second single in July got to number 6 in the charts. An offer for a movie part in The Golden Disc, to start filming in August, followed that. By September he has appeared at the Royal Festival Hall.

The familiar story of management picking poor songs at a time of plentiful good US releases marred his record sales, but it didn’t affect his appeal to girl fans. A band of old jazzers was also put together to back him and that didn’t work out either due to there unsympathetic attitude to rock. So a second attempt was made with younger musicians, and these became the Dene-Agers, then the Dene Aces.

They included Clem Cattini who was to have a long career in rock bands that included Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, who continued as the Pirates after Johnny’s death well into the 21st century. Before Dene they’d been called the Teddy Kennedy’s Rock ’n’ Rollers and half-heartedly played alongside variety acts, so were only too pleased to be on Dene’s tour.

Two fellas working at the 2i’s in ‘57 were Alex Wherton selling coffee upstairs, and Michael Hayes selling cokes downstairs. Michael had a catchphrase when enthusing about things: ‘Thats the most’, so he gained the nickname Mickie the Most, and later Mickie Most, which was the name people got to know him by later when he became a successful record producer. At that time James Dean’s Rebel Without a Cause and Jayne Mansfield’s The Girl Can’t Help It had a big effect on him as they offered more glamour than his life as an apprentice welder. He started hanging out around Soho instead of going to work, and found a niche in the 2i’s. On some Saturdays, he and Alex would go to the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith where Six-Five Special was filmed and mingle with the crowd. They managed to learn a few guitar chords from (Adam Faith’s) Worried Men and paired up as The Most Brothers, as a kind of Everly Brothers - but ‘without the talent’ they admitted, but it got them a gig from Paul Lincoln and Hymie Zhal on the Isle-of-Wight in September 1957. Later, they backed Terry Dene at the Elephant and Castle’s Trocadero, which led to them being signed to Decca Records. A single, Whistle Bait, was backed by top jazzers like Tony Crombie and Bert Weedon, who had no real feel for rock and a studio chorus of wolf whistles was so gimicky it wound up like something from Billy Cotton’s Band Show. But they persisted.

Paul Lincoln still continued to churn out his discoveries from the 2i’s, but the next was a rather odd one in the shape of Wee Willie Harris, a bit of a comedy take on rock ’n’ roll, from Bermondsey.

Somewhat small of stature, with shock of pink curls and loud, almost clown-like clothes, but which did include an Edwardian drape coat.

Aged 24 at the time, he had begun as a pub and club entertainer when not working in a biscuit factory. Lincoln used him on his cross channel promotion cruise to to Calais, playing piano like some demented Jerry Lee Lewis. He’d happened to be in the 2i’s the night of the Six-Five Special live show, with Terry Dene, the Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group, Don Lang, Jim Dale and the Worried Men. So it was that in the last week of December that Decca released Wee Willie’s first single, Rockin’ at the 2 i’s, an odd sort of Fats Domino piece with

equally unlikely trombone backing. Apparently Ian Dury met Willie much later in life and still knew all the words to the song, but then Ian always did have a quirky sense of humour, having been at art school with Viv Stanshall of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.

The line-up at the 2i’s Rock Across the Channel to Calais in the Royal Daffodil steamer, was Terry Dene and the Dene-Agers, Rory Blackwell and the Blackjacks, Wee Willie Harris (although he was still called Steve Murray then), Leon Bell and the Bell Cats, The City Ramblers and a 16 -year old Colin Hicks - Tommy Steele’s younger brother, who was also backed by the Bell Cats, and who was given some good write-ups as a new talent.

So within a fortnight, he had been auditioned by Philips Records, although it was actually Nixa who signed him soon after. Brother Tommy was the first of a large stable of trendy young men managed

by Larry Parnes as he shifted his focus from the rag trade to music.

Colin joined that stable. His first single, Wild Eyes and Tender Lips, was released in November 1957 followed by a seven week tour with the Most Brothers and a few variety acts.

Next in line for Parnes to manage was Marty Wilde (born Reginald Smith in 1939). At a time when homosexuality was still illegal, Parnes, must have felt like he was entering paradise, as his stable of sexy young men grew around him. Marty’s skiffle group back in November 1956 had been Reg Smith and the Hound Dogs, doing covers of Elvis and Lonnie Donegan songs. He was lucky enough to find a record shop near him in Greenwich run by an R&B enthusiast who managed to get some of the sailors from the port to bring back singles and albums from the States.

Marty’s collection managed to straddle many musical categories.

When he bought Hound Dog by Elvis, the store owner asked if he wanted to hear Big Mama Thornton’s version as well, and he bought

that too.

This led to other blues heroes like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf and he beat the London R&B boom of the sixties by a decade with his repertoire.

He got friendly help from a music publisher, Joe Brannelly, who got him a few West End gigs and an (unsuccessful) audition for Decca who had failed to keep up with musical developments.

During a week’s residency in Wardour Street’s Condor Club, Reg Patterson, as he was calling himself by then, was spotted by Lional Bart and tipped off Larry Parnes who, with John Kennedy, masterminded his rise to fame. It was Parnes who suggested the name change to Marty Wilde, the kind of emotive surname he liked to give to all his stablemates: Vince Eager, Johnny Gentle, Dickie Pride, Duffy Power, Georgie Fame, and Billy Fury. But

Joe Brown didn’t like the suggestion given to him and stayed with his own name. Adam Faith created his own in similar mould, although he had a different manager.

Marty’s next step was on to Six-Five Special. With his eventual record contract with Philips, he found himself up against petty censorship with his single, Honeycomb, because the song he was covering used the words ‘the Lord’, which he couldn’t sing on the show or anywhere on the BBC, so it had to be written out of his version. They couldn’t have cinema-smashing teddyboys blaspheming with ‘the Devil’s music’.

Many songs suffered in this way if they contained religious words - even instrumentals suffered if such words were in the title.

Censorship spread as the BBC Policy Panel decisions expanded to include whatever they considered unsuitable subject matter. Lional Bart wrote the b-side for Honeycomb which he titled Wild Cat, then he went a step further and found a group called the Merry Men at a talent contest, and they were sympathetic to Marty’s kind of music, so became his backing group as the Wild Cats. Now he could avoid old jazzer session men that haunted the recording studios.

Parnes let him use the Wild Cats on tour too for the same reason.

They also backed the Most Brothers. Colin Hicks had his own group, the Cabin Boys, which included Jimmy Nicol who later had his greatest hour in the musical spotlight on a tour of Demmark, Holland, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand playing drums for The Beatles in 1964 when Ringo Starr was ill.

Larry Parnes was not as generous when it came to finding digs for his musicians on tour and they were left to fend for themselves. Often having to accept last minute squalid dives in all sorts of weather and times of year - though they fared better if the BBC were footing the bill. It didn’t stop Parnes piling on the gigs and working the musicians hard though.

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All About Moulsham Lodge

Moulsham Lodge Community Trust

you are a Pink Floyd fan and are interested in coming along.

Already we’re in March and as usual time is flying.

You can also support us through buying on Amazon, as we now have a charity Amazon account. Next time you go online, buy through this link: smile.amazon.co.uk and select ‘Moulsham Lodge Community Trust’ as your charity.

Good News The defibrillator has now been purchased and we’re just awaiting its installation. It has been a lot of hard work raising the much needed funds, but thanks to the team, our fundraising activities and the help of New City Voices choir, we’ve done it!! There will be an official launch on Wildlife Day (details below) with an unveiling hopefully by the Mayor of Chelmsford.

enquiries@mlct.org.uk 07411 808 731 www.mlct.org.uk Twitter: @MLCTStation (also search for us on Facebook)

Our architect Noleen Nelson-Cole (noleennelsoncole@gmail.com) is currently drawing the plans for the building works and we hope to engage builders soon. We want to have better facilities for the community available soon, together with our coffee shop.

Our next event is the Wildlife Day on 23rd March 11am-3pm. The poster (right) gives full details but those attending, including Chelmsford Bee Keepers, the RSPB, Hedgehog Haven, Essex Badger Protection Group along with many more. Refreshments will also be available and entry is £1 for adults and 50p for children. We look forward to seeing you there and lets hope for good weather!

On 18th May we are hosting our first Murder-Mystery evening with the Phoenix Theatre Company. Why not get a group together and make up one of the tables of up to 8 people? The evening starts at 7.30pm with a live cast. There will be a hot fish and chip supper part way through the proceedings, and then the audience can interact with the cast and ask questions before the guilty party is revealed. We’ll also be holding a raffle. Tickets cost £15, which includes the hot supper you just need to bring along your own drinks.

For tickets email: bookings@mlct.org.uk. Tickets can also be purchased via the website or leave a message on 01245 351 040.

Our plans for the Mad Hatters Tea Party on 20th July are still under construction and more details will be available in due course. So so far, we’ve agreed there will be an afternoon tea of the usual sandwiches, scones and cakes, a Mad Hatters hat competition with fancy dress optional. Any activities on the day are still to be finalised.

New City Voices are supporting the Pink Floyd tribute band on 9th March at St James Church Weybridge. Tickets are available online if

Cllr Mark Springett - Moulsham Lodge Ward Elections! Yes, local elections are coming up on May 2nd and you will probably have started receiving literature from political parties talking about all sorts of local issues. So at some point my regular article will probably not appear prior to the election unless every other candidate gets an article as well, as the Moulsham Times would need to be fair to everyone.

Street Lights: Many residents have contacted me about the large number of street lights that are not working. I am told there is a shortage of the sodium bulbs but have been unable to confirm this. I believe there is also a strategy to install LED lighting and replace the sodium lights. However, I also understand they won’t do this until enough sodium lights have broken - meanwhile we continue to be left in the dark.

Parking: Parking is again one of the top issues when I’ve been talking to people on the doorsteps. There have been some very inconsiderate and dangerous parking around our schools of late, and if drivers fail to head the polite requests to park sensibly, then there will be no option but to ask the police to intervene.

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John Shennan: I’m still being excluded from any detailed discussions, but at least they have now publicly said there will be public consultations - hopefully later this year. There’s not much else to tell you on this, except a few local residents are forming a group to examine the data available to make sure we are fully informed when the consultation happens. Watch this space.

3foot People Festival: The award winning and hugely popular 3foot People Festival returns to Hylands Park, Chelmsford on 2nd, 3rd and 4th July 2019 bringing unique festival fun, exclusively to pre-schoolers (0-5yrs).

Chelmsford City Events are thrilled to announce that tickets for this year’s festival will go on general sale from 10am on Wednesday 10th April available online only at www.chelmsford.gov.uk/3foot. Tickets will also be available to purchase in person from Chelmsford Civic Theatre Box Office. mark.springett@chelmsford.gov.uk 07411 808 731 Search for me on Twitter and Facebook Blog: www.markspringett.com/blog

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Tile Kiln Corner - by Linda Mascot Having lived in Tile Kiln for 25 years, (in a house backing on to a service road) one of the great advantages of opening your front door onto a greensward area is that you have neighbourly chats as people are out with their children, dogs or just in transit. 22 years ago I met Lynnette Chasmer with her young daughter out on the green (as it’s affectionately known), we’ve been good friends ever since. As a single working parent, Lynnette was a local mobile hairdresser - this year she is spending three months based in the Greek Islands as an award winning bridal hair stylist. I asked Lynnette about her career journey...

“I’ve been hairdressing since I left school. I attended The London College of Fashion in the West End, which was a huge achievement for me - as a 16 year old girl I didn’t have a great deal of confidence and this began my career in the world of hairdressing.

designed business cards and asked friends to come round so I could style their hair so that I would have photos in my portfolio to show my work ability. My very first website was launched, and so began my career in the wedding industry. In 2014 I won Essex Wedding Hairstylist of the Year in my third year of styling wedding hair, and was also a finalist in The Wedding Industry Awards.

“Five years ago I was asked by Australian hairstylist Lorna Evans to be part of her stage show helping to create avant-garde hairstyles.

The hairstyles created were amazing. This was an invaluable experience for me in growing as a professional in the industry. I went on to create my new and current website. I also have a mobile app for free download (search for ‘My Wedding Hair’) designed for brides showing current styling and info on all things wedding hair and beauty. I have travelled to Cannes to style top models for a catwalk show and also run bridal hair styling courses for other hair and makeup professionals to update their skills.

“This year I’m off to Crete and Santorini to style weddings for three months in the summer. My plan is to get established on the Island of Crete and spend every summer there. It’s always been my dream to be by the sea. Bridal styling is now my passion, I haven’t looked back, I simply love it. The enjoyment and satisfaction I get from helping to make a bride look the best they’ve ever seen themselves is an amazing feeling. What I learned from travelling and along the journey is to simply live life, don’t just dream about it.” www.lynnettechasmer.co.uk info@lynnettechasmer.com 07854 687 744 mascotlinda@gmail.com Twitter: @lindamascot

Be Good and Kind and Love Each Other - the Fledgelings Pre-School Motto

It was great to be interviewed by Linda Mascot in her Tile Kiln Corner column in the last MT issue, and I’m now grateful to start a regular column myself. I’d like to start by recognising and celebrating The Fledgelings Pre-School, a ministry of Tile Kiln Church.

“I moved to Tile Kiln 22 years ago with my daughter Beth. It suited us perfectly and hairdressing got me through the years of bringing up my daughter. It was a great job being able to work my hours to suit my life around caring for my child. I felt the need to do something else, I just didn’t know what, so over the years I went on various courses including interior design, soft furnishings, upholstery (with Linda) and even French, whilst still carrying on with the hairdressing to earn an income as a single parent.

“About 7 years ago I decided to go travelling, I had always dreamed of doing this and began planning a three month trip around the world.

It was brilliant, I went to New York, Philadelphia, Daytona, Miami, Hawaii, The Gold Coast in Australia and finally Thailand. This is where I had the light bulb moment that I wanted to begin a bridal hair business. So I wrote a plan. I needed to do it properly as I’m a bit of a perfectionist. On my return home in February 2011, I immediately looked for a good bridal hairstyling course in London to update my skills and I started to build a website, went on a photography course, www.issuu.com/itsyourmedia

For more than 20 years, they have held a significant place in the local community. A place of excellence, safety, fun, community and learning, their ethos is captured by their motto: ‘Be Good and Kind and Love Each Other.’ These are values that help to teach the children in their care about love and respect for each other. This week, I spoke with manager Karen Smith and some of the staff who explained how they help young children learn to empathise with others, understanding that they have feelings too and that their actions impact on other’s feelings. For example, the word ‘sorry’ doesn’t mean much without an action to help make things better, so children are encouraged to help and comfort each other.

In our culture of increasing polarisation, these values and skills are so much more important. They reflect the attitude of Jesus Christ toward all he came across. Respectful, loving, whilst not being afraid to challenge, he demonstrated the truth that all people are created in God’s image.

Fledgelings children primarily come from the local community, with parents and grandparents very involved with the experienced staff in the pre-school.

If you’d like to know more, contact Karen Smith: fledgelings@ fledgelingspreschool.co.uk.

Tim Goodall - Tile Kiln Church 29

New City Girls WI - Helping Us to Help Others!! 2019 Some of you may not be aware, but the Women’s Institute is a charity and helps women from all walks of life. Our New City Girls WI moto is fun, friendship and education, with the emphasis being on friendship.

We all have different reasons for joining the Women’s Institute, but for some women this is a lifeline and this may be their only social engagement in a month. Remember, not everyone has family around them or a friendship group. Be kind, be friendly and inclusive to everyone always. Some of you may be aware of recent news regarding mental illness being related to loneliness.

As a WI, we pride ourselves in providing a group of friends to alleviate loneliness, making new connections, giving you fun meetings where we seek out interesting people to provide talks but most of all, we provide a support network of like-minded women who are there for each other sharing fun, laughter and new ideas.

We volunteer in our local community - for example, RDA (Riding Disability Assocation), Essex Search & Rescue, Chelmsford Community Transport, Farleigh Hospice, The Wilderness Foundation to name a few. Volunteering helps to alleviate loneliness by meeting new people and trying new things.

Our WI has raised £30,000 in five years for local charities (some of the above) and additional collections for the Women’s Refuge at Christmas time, The local food bank, bras, stamps, spectacles - the list is endless.

Please help us to help others in our community by supporting our fundraising over 2019.

We are a unique WI in our size and we can’t run without all our members pulling together as one big community and helping others.

The www.mind.org.uk website has the following pointers:

Join an Online Community We’re not saying it’s an easy thing to do. If reaching out sounds overwhelming, take a look at some of our ideas in Take it Slow for inspiration.

Open Up You might feel that you have plenty of connections, but what is actually wrong is that you don’t feel close to them, or they don’t give you the care and attention you need. In this situation it might help to open up about how you feel to friends and family. If you don’t feel comfortable opening up to the people you know, you could try making new connections.

Take It Slow If you’ve felt lonely for a long time, or even if you’re surrounded by people, it can be terrifying to think of trying to meet new people or opening up to people for the first time. But you don’t need to rush into anything. Start off by going somewhere like a café, the cinema or a sports event where you can be around people, but not be expected to talk to them. “Be brave and reach out to someone. It doesn’t have to be face to face; you could share a post on social media.”

If you’re going to a group or class, see if someone you know will go along with you the first time, or ask whoever runs the class or group if you can just go along and watch at first. Go somewhere where it’s not expected that you’ll interact straight away, like a class where everyone is focused on an activity.

Ask your GP if talking treatments are available in your area which could help you manage the mental health effects of loneliness.

Visit our online support community Elefriends. It’s a safe and supportive environment where you can talk about your mental health, without fear of judgement, with others who share your experience.

See our info on finding support online and see how you might be able to make connections through social media.

New Connections It can be helpful to think of feeling lonely like feeling hungry. Just as your body uses hunger to tell your body you need food, loneliness is a way of your body telling you that you need more social contact.

enquiries.ncgwi@gmail.com

That means the simplest way to ease feelings of loneliness can be to try to meet more, or different, people. Can you think of anything you’re interested in, a class or a group you’ve heard of, that could help you connect with new people? “Talking to people online has helped me find an understanding support network and makes me feel less alone.”

Choral music from plainsong to the 21st century interspersed with a variety of readings, both secular and sacred. The music reflects elements of the ancient sunset service of Vespers and features pieces by Tallis, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Arensky, Stanford, Kerry Andrew and Eric Whitacre.

Volunteering is a good way of meeting people. Helping others can also really help improve your mental health.

Spot the Difference Answers

Night Watch Celebrating Earth Hour by Candlelight

Saturday 30th March 2019 Doors open from 7.45pm for drinks and displays.

8.15pm - take your seats for lights down and performance which will embrace Earth Hour 2019 (8:30pm - 9:30pm).

Venue: All Saints Church, Writtle CM1 3EN. Writtle Singers Conductor - Christine Gwynn Tickets: £12.50 / £6 (£14 / £7 on the door) Free admission for children under 16

Life T M Hack

If you have a life hack that you would like to send in to us, please email editorial@itsyourmedia.co.uk

30 www.moulshamtimes.com

Great Baddow Barber Shop

Traditional & Modern English Barber Established over 4 years ago in Great Baddow, we have a reputation for a quality haircut by professional barbers at a reasonable price.

• Free Parking • Children welcome • No appointment • Credit cards taken

01245476975 www.greatbaddowbarbershop.co.uk 11 Maldon Rd, Gt Baddow, CM2 7DW (next to House of Flowers)

Sue Campbell MCFHP MAFHP

Home Visiting Foot Health Practitioner

Treatment of common foot problems • Routine nail care • Corn & callus • Ingrowing toenails • Hard skin

01245 917744 or 07583 477846

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Let us introduce your child to a new language through songs, games and stories in our fun and interactive French and Spanish classes. Suitable for preschool and primary age children.

Contact us via Facebook or email laura@linguabugs.co.uk for more details.

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II and Michael Joseph Established 18 years, high success rate He was always outside with a very reasonable joining fee!

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Call Claire for a friendly chat Hammer Four Roy Orbison Lacemaking Christian Red Very pale and Ill looking Discotheque Antelope 28. A person who moves from Kent country to country to live and January 22nd 1972 (with Ireland & work Denmark) 29. January 24th 1964 Thrush 30. June January 1953 31. Helen Sharman Graham Kerr 32. Shipbuilding Christian Dior 33. Uma Benny Hill 34. Throat of a voracious animal The suffix post 35. Dressmaking Kiev 36. Swimming Salt 37. Impala Monrovia 38. Shark In your neck 39. First Lord of The Treasury Sussex 40. 1990 1950s Portuguese music genre 78

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Hynotherapy

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YOUR LOCAL INDEPENDENT ESTATE AGENT SERVING OLD MOULSHAM FOR OVER 25 YEARS FOR A FREE PROFESSIONAL VALUATION CALL 01245 266980 Nursery Road £350,000 Broomfield Road £265,000 Queen Street £315,000

Victorian terrace house Two bedrooms Approx 50ft rear garden Many original features Mews Court £475,000

4/5 Bedroom Family House Refurbished and extended Landscaped rear garden Off street parking Upper Bridge Road £350,000

• Terrace House • Three bedrooms • Approx 90ft rear garden • Many original features

Three bed apartment Two bathrooms Two covered balcony Close to station Beehive Lane £350,000

• Victorian terrace house • Three bedrooms • Many original features • Approx 40ft rear garden Rochford Road £289,995

Semi-detached house Two bedrooms Courtyard style garden • Off street parking

Victorian terrace house 2/3 bedrooms 50ft south facing garden No onward chain Mildmay Road £525,000

Victorian semi-detached Three double bedrooms Many original features Off street parking Baddow Road OIRO £260,000

Victorian terrace house Two double bedrooms Off road parking 80ft rear garden