Diary

sePtember

Wed 3rd Coffee Break; Baptist Church Hall 10.30-12 noon Fri 5th Fri Coffee at URC 7.30 p.m. for 8 p.m. start: Bible Study at Melbourn URC Sat 6th ‘Coffee Stop’ All Saints’ Community Hall, 10.30-12 noon with Women’s British Legion Stall Sun 7th Guided History Walk at 2 p.m. in Meldreth, starting & finishing at the Village hall. Tue 9th Mothers’ Union: 2.30 p.m. at Methodist Church Hall, Orwell Gardening Club: All Saints’ Community Hall: Spring Flowers at Anglesey Abbey, 7.30 p.m. Wed 10th Coffee Break; Baptist Church Hall 10.30-12 noon 7.30 pm Reflective Service at Melboum URC Fri 12th Fri Coffee at URC McSplash Autumn Term starts Melbourn Photographic Club Year begins at Foxton: 7.30 - 9.30 p.m. Sat 13th ‘Coffee Stop’ All Saints’ Community Hall, 10.30-12 noon Historic Churches Cycle ride Tue 16th New Melboum Singers restart: MVC 7.30 - 9.30 pm Melbourn Photographic Club Year begins at Foxton: 7.30 - 9.30 p.m. Wed 17th Coffee Break; Baptist Church Hall 10.30-12 noon Melbourn & District U3A, 2.45 at MVC: A talk by Liz Carter on “Strong-minded Women” which recalls the start of the campaign for women’s suffrage in this country in the 19th Century. Fri19th Christian Aid Fundraising Coffee Morning & Tea Afternoon at 26, Beechwood Avenue Sat 20th Harvest/Fanning Display at URC from 10 am, details nearer the time. Sun 21st Harvest service I I a.m. URC Churches Together Harvest Festival Service, Moorlands, 2.30 p.m. ‘Great Cambridgeshire Run’ in aid of the British Heart Foundation,at Wimpole Hall Tue 23rd Women’s Group 7.45 pm: Members’ Music Wed 24th Coffee Break; Baptist Church Hall 10.30-12 noon Thu 25th Royston Arts Festival begins. Every day until Sun 28th . Fri 26th Fri Coffee at URC Sat 27th ‘Coffee Stop’ All Saints’ Community Hall, 10.30-12 noon

All copy for the December 2008 and January & February 2009 should be in before 15th October Copy due six weeks before the following publication date Winter December 1st

The closing date for the next issue is 15th october which will appear in December, listing events in December, January and February

october

Wed 1st Coffee Break; Baptist Church Hall 10.30-12 noon Thu 2nd Royston & District Local History Society: ‘Hatfield Forest, Past, Present and Future’, illustrated Ian Pease, Royston Town Hall, 8 p.m. Fri 3rd Fri Coffee at URC 7.30 pm for 8 pm start: Bible Study at Melboum URC Royston & Saffron Walden N.T. Association Jane Gosling, the custodian of Lavenham’s Guildball, tells us about “Mediaeval Lavenham and its famous Guildhall”. Saffron Walden County High School Sports Centre 7.30 p.m. Sat 4th ‘Coffee Stop’ All Saints’ Community Hall, 10.30-12 noon Wed 8th Coffee Break; Baptist Church Hall 10.30-12 noon 7.30 pm Reflective Service at Melbourn URC Whittlesford Gardening Club: ‘Gardening at home and abroad’: Memorial Hall, 7.30 p.m. Fri 10th Fri Coffee at URC Sat 11th ‘Coffee Stop’ All Saints’ Community Hall, 10.30-12 noon Christian Aid Partner BIDII Stall ‘Auction of Promises’ at MVC Tue 14th Mothers’ Union: Vicarage close Community Room: ‘Hymns & Things’ by Jose Hopkins Wed 15th Coffee Break; Baptist Church Hall 10.30-12 noon Melbourn & District U3A 2.45 at MVC: Richard Revels, a well known wildlife photographer, tells us about “The fabulous Falkland Islands”. Fri 17th Fri Coffee at URC Sat 18th ‘Coffee Stop’ All Saints’ Community Hall, 10.30-12 noon SOAS Quiz All Saints’ Community Hall Sun 19th Melbourn Mushroom Club Exhibition, Masonic Hall, Royston. Tue 21st 7.45 p.m. Women’s Group: Wed 22nd Coffee Break; Baptist Church Hall 10.30-12 noon University of Cambridge ‘Festival of Ideas’ begins, continuing to November 2nd Fri 24th Fri Coffee at URC Sat 25th ‘Coffee Stop’ All Saints’ Community Hall, 10.30-12 noon Cambridge ‘Festival of Ideas’ Family Day. Sun 26th 6.30 pm: Bible Sun Service: Churches Together, Shared Worship At All Saints’ Church Tue 28th Women’s Group 7.45 pm: A - Z of a Parish Clerk by Avril Mellor Wed 29th Coffee Break; Baptist Church Hall 10.30-12 noon Fri 31st Royston & Saffron Walden National Trust Association. Tom Doig, our local historian, tells us about “Birth and Baptisms in the 1800’s”. Royston Town Hall, 7.30 p.m. Baptist Church Hall: Light Party for Children aged 4 to 11years, 5.30–7pm

Melbourn Library

Open at the following times:Monday, Wednesday and Friday 2.30 to 4.30 pm Thursday 5.00 to 7.00 pm Saturday

noVember

Sat 1st ‘Coffee Stop’ All Saints’ Community Hall, 10.30-12 noon Tue 4th Melbourn Photographic Club at Foxton: 7.30–9.30 p.m. Wed 5th Coffee Break; Baptist Church Hall 10.30-12 noon Thu 6th Royston & District Local History Society, ‘An Army Life’, including as a British Military Attache, Colonel Derek Bishop, Royston Town Hall 8 p.m. Fri 7th Fri Coffee at URC 7.30 pm for 8 pm start: Bible Study at Melbow-n URC Sat 8th ‘Coffee Stop’ All Saints’ Community Hall, 10.30-12 noon Sun 9th 10.45 a.m. Remembrance Service at Melbourn Cross, followed by Service in All Saints’ Church Tue 11th Mothers’ Union: AGM Fowlmere church Wed 12th Coffee Break; Baptist Church Hall 10.30-12 noon 7.30 pm Reflective Service at Melbourn URC Fri 13th Fri Coffee at URC Sat 15th No ‘Coffee Stop’. Bazaar in All Saints’ Community Hall & Church: I I a.m. - 3.30 p.m. Sun 16th Meldreth Village Hall: Local History Group Open Day I I a.m. - 4 p.m. Wed 19th Coffee Break; Baptist Church Hall 10.30-12 noon Melbourn & District U3A 2.45 at MVC: Janet and Christopher South say ‘Snap out of it pictures without a camera7.’ Fri 21st Fri Coffee at URC Sat 22nd ‘Coffee Stop’ All Saints’ Community Hall, 10.30-12 noon Tue 25th 7.45 p.m. Women’s Group: The Fruit Growing Year by Tim Elbourn. Wed 26th Coffee Break; Baptist Church Hall 10.30-12 noon Fri 28th Fri Coffee at URC Royston and Saffron National Trust Association. A social evening and fun quiz at Saffron Walden County High School Sports Centre 7.30 pm .Sat 29th Sat 27th ‘Coffee Stop’ All Saints’ Community Hall, 10.30-12 noon Christmas Tree Festival, Holy Trinity Church, Meldreth 11 am–5pm Sun 30th Christmas Tree Festival, Holy Trinity Church, Meldreth, I I a.m–5pm followed byAdvent Carol Service 5.30 p.m.

noVember

Tue 2nd Photographic Club at Foxton: 7.30 - 9.30 p.m. Wed 3rd Coffee Break; Baptist Church Hall 10.30-12 noon Thu 4th Royston & District Local History Society: ‘A Silk Purse from a Pig’s Nose’ 450 years of our house, Robin Webb. Royston Town Hall, 8pm Fri 5th Coffee at URC Sat 6th ‘Coffee Stop’ All Saints’ Community Hall, 10.30-12 noon URC Christmas Bazaar 10 am until 12 noon, followed by an opportunity to share a hot lunch Sun 7th Meldreth Guided History Walk 2 p.m. Wed 10th Churches Together Carol Singing at the Black Horse, 9 p.m.

Orchard Surgery – Dispensary

Monday to Friday 8:30 – 1:30 and 2:00 – 6:00 Phone 01763 261246

Telephone requests are not accepted For repeat prescriptions you can: Fax 01763 262968 or email: prescriptions.orchardsurgery@nhs.net • Allow at least 48 hours (two working days – excluding weekends and bank holidays) for repeat prescriptions to be ready. • Do not leave your request to the last minute. Prescription/medication depending on eligibility can be collected from the

Surgery Co-op Tesco in Royston

Please let the dispensary know where you wish your prescriptions to be sent. This will remain your choice until we are informed otherwise.

Prescriptions requested before 12pm Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Prescriptions requested before 4pm Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Prescriptions requested after 4pm Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday will be ready after 10am Wednesday Thursday Friday Monday Tuesday

will be ready after 3pm Wednesday Thursday Friday Monday Tuesday

will be ready after 10am Thursday Friday Monday Tuesday Wednesday

Sue Hempstead 8a Romsey Terrace, Cambridge. CB1 3NH Tel 01223 416141 sueh@camtad.freeserve.co.uk Office Mon-Fri 9.30am-12.30pm.

A drop in advisory session is held at MOORLANDS, THE MOOR, MELBOURN NO APPOINTMENT IS NECESSARY from 2pm to 4pm,

25th September 23rd October 27th November There are no session in December

See the following website for more information www.colc.co.uk/cambridge/camtad/sessions.html

Battery exchange and retubing.

We do not do hearing tests

CAMSIGHT

Visually impaired and thought you could never use a computer? Even if you have never used a computer before, we would love to hear from you! Guide, an all in one computer programme with speech and large print software, can enable you to: Write letters and documents Scan and read books and letters. Magnify handwriting, diagram & pictures. Surf the internet. Play CDs & MP3s Use a calculator Come for a demonstration at your local Community Access Point, which is at: Meldreth Sheltered Housing Please call Camsight on 01223 420033 for more information Funded by Cambs. LSC, Neighbourhood Learning in Deprived Communities Funding and administered by Cam Sight and CP Learning Trust

own hand no less, and now you realise just how much reading there is involved and you just think, ‘Oh forget it. I’ll just get him to tell the story when I want to hear it.’ Well, listen to me, lad. I found you out so there - you aren’t cleverer than me. But I’m not a mean man so you can stay. Besides, what you said about young Loran needing to be told was more than true.

Anyway, as I was saying: before time itself was created, before the accidental creation of the twins, this Presence was, and many say still is, all that there has ever been. Yes, yes you heard me right.

Jack, stop looking so angry, you trainee priests think you’re all that. Well, let me tell you something, you’re not.

As far as I know, and it knows, it never started. It just is everything. The Qawa an Miun goes on to say that the start of time was when It worked out how old It was. Well, if you have any idea of who wrote4 it and have actually tried to make sense of all of it, you will know how much of it was the scribe’s idle scribbling. Trust me, all of you here know it was my ultimate grandfather who wrote it but that doesn’t mean that I can’t contradict him. It fashioned time to perform a process that is beyond human conceivability. The twins were just a by-product of that process.

They fought over everything: whether they were as powerful as the Presence or not; whether they were more important than one another, and so forth. The Presence once said that it was like time. One was a point in time and was convinced that its purpose was to make everything that way, with no change; the other believed that It was part of time, ever moving on. Their original ‘fights’ were no more than arguments but it soon turned into a fight to destroy the other.

Out of love, my friend assures me, the original Presence made them immortal, so to speak. They could not destroy each other. Its reasoning, which is another piece of astounding logic, went thus: they were fighting because they wanted to kill each other or because one wanted to kill the other. And if they were unable to achieve that goal, then they would stop. But as everyone now knows, it didn’t work like that. They continued to fight, and as they got more aggressive they discovered their ability to create universes. The one who had fashioned Itself the name of God decided to focus its power on keeping the universes going until something interesting happened.5 The other, the one who had fashioned Itself the name Devil, did the opposite; It focused all its power into destroying those same universes.

It all came to a head when the one called Devil destroyed the universe that the God had cared for until it was almost at the end of its life. The God’s retribution was colossal; it involved hundreds of universes, that had been lovingly cared for, being decimated and two whole dimensions were totally, utterly and completely obliterated.

To save creation, the Presence confined them to one universe. The Presence still loved them. Therefore, so that they wouldn’t feel lonely, It created several other devils and gods to go in the universe. Then, my friend informed me, It liked the idea of chance, for that is what It had created in doing this, so much so that It created chance in all the other universes. Chance meant that there were two possible ends for the universe; that of nature and that of self-destruction.

The Devil found the shadows to his liking and drew about him all the creatures that hid in the shadows, afraid of the light; he conquered the shadows and the dark depths of the night. Meanwhile, the God gained the trust of the light-seeking beings, including the worship of an ape-descended species. They both ruled their element, the Devil through tyranny and fear, the God through friendship and trust.

And still they fought. They fought for eons. Slowly the Devil turned his attention to something that had been bothering him: no matter how many times he destroyed the God, his brother, he would not die. Centuries came and went as they do and the Devil thought and reasoned. In fact, his reasoning went thus: I am bound to my brother with bonds that are beyond my power to break. They state that I cannot kill my cursed brother whilst I still live and since I am the only one who can – No! The only one who can and wants to kill him – it is unwise to die, so I need to think again. I cannot kill my brother but I can kill the other spiritual beings and, better than that, if I can absorb their energy then I can overcome the bond that binds me.

Now the best way for me to tell you what happened is to read it from the Qawa an Miun. It is the closest book to the truth6 to have been written as of yet and it will save me having to spend the next couple of days looking for the notes I have written on the subject - you know how bad my memory is.

So here you go: extracts from the Qawa an Miun, the holy book of the timekeepers:

Thus after another thousand planets have deceased, the Devil has countered the limits that It was once bound by and has managed to kill Its brother. The Devil committed this horrible act whilst he laid siege to the city of Caughton. The siege wall fell; the whole of Caughton fell – apart from the TimeTower. The God died; he gave his life so that the last defender, a young soldier, could run up to the top of the Time-Tower.

Whilst waiting for death to come, he sounded the horn of time one last time. And as the sound died away, the Presence was let into this Universe, in the form of a man.

As the minions of the devil broke down the door to the Time Tower, the Presence stood and picked out of the air a pair of scimitars seven feet in length.7 As he charged down the stairs to meet the warily advancing horde, he grew to nine and a half feet in height, whilst keeping the soldier’s strong, muscular shape.8

continued on page 38

4 Guess who told me this, yes you guessed it It did, the Presence. He told me it when he was trying to win me over, and let me tell you I was on my knees before he had finished the first sentence – though that might have been due to my father taking my legs out from under me as he went past. 5 That interesting thing is that the universe slowly goes through what they called atomic fraises until they become a lump of what the first Presence call cordex. 6 It is 99% correct, you have to let the scribes have some artistic licence otherwise they get huffy. 7 Guess what they were made of, yes, you guessed it cordex! 8 Well he had to. Imagine trying to fit the energy of a Longtinifin warhorse into an old Sigreten horse (admittedly, it is more like a star than a Longtinifin horse but you get the picture).