ALVERSTOKE October 2020 | Issue 179 | £1.50 where sold
Your local community magazine
Voice
Inside... A COVID safe Halloween
Continuing to a new Parish Centre
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Cinder Toffee
Photograph taken by Michael Branicki 1
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Voice
Smalltalk
October is on its way.... I can’t believe how fast this year is passing us by, although many of us will be glad to see the back of 2020. The kids are now back in school, the jumpers are being pulled out and dare I say it, the heating is being switched on! October means we are now into Autumn, the days are shorter and it’s the month the clocks go back (which happens @ 2am on Sunday 25th). Don’t forget! I’m a summer girl. I love the sun, flip flops and taking the kids to the beach. So, I’m not looking forward to the darker evenings or chilly weather. With my youngest starting school full time this September I feel like I have suddenly lost my right arm. For the last 9 years I’ve had a ‘mini me’ by my side almost every day and now I’m split between the emotions of missing him terribly and the joy of finally having some time to get my ‘to do’ list done. Every now and then I have a wave of panic that I’ve lost a child, before realising I’m actually meant to be alone. Swapping days of slime, Lego, parks and play dates for cleaning, gardening and decorating will take a bit of getting used to. As much as I longed for an hour to myself in lockdown, I’m now counting down to half term so we can have some time together again. Half term brings Halloween. The coronavirus pandemic has interrupted many traditions this year and Halloween looks to be no different. Typically, it falls on a Saturday this year, what a great day to be able to make the most of it. If you would like some ideas of how to still make this day memorable for the little ones, whilst respecting social distancing, turn to ‘Mum’s the Word’ on page 12.
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Distribution
This Big Voice Bigazine is delivered to residents and businesses in Alverstoke. For distribution enquiries please give me (Gemma) a call. Two other editions are also published in Stubbington & Hill Head and Lee on Solent. Whilst Big Voice Directories aim to provide a quality publication for local reference, it cannot be held responsible for the services, reputation or cost of any of the advertisers, and content of adverts or editorial herein. Readers must make their own enquiries to establish the credentials of each entry. Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited without prior written permission from the Publishers. The magazines are produced on paper sourced from FSC approved paper mills and printed using vegetable based inks. They love being recycled but please pass to a friend first! Magazine, adverts, design, layout and content ©Copyright Peach Publications Ltd.
Lastly a quick update on my running progress. The one year I’ve actually managed to keep it up, all of the events I was hoping to enter have been cancelled! However, I’ve finally found I’m enjoying running for runnings sake, whether that’s with a friend or solo, around the town or along the beach. That’s one great positive out of 2020 for me!
Gemma x 4
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OCTOBER ISSUE 2020
Recipes, community, charity, properties and more
CONTENTS 8
Get Puzzled
21
Chat with Coralie
10
Recipe of the Month
24
Keep On Running
12
Mum’s the Word
14
St Mary’s Church
Test yourself with this month’s crossword
Cinder Toffee...part science experiment, part sweet treat
Learning to make new friends
Finding a new sporting passion
Have a COVID safe Halloween celebration
The new Parish Centre update
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Get Puzzled Clues Across 1. Smacked (6) 4. Riches (6) 8. Foundation (12) 9. Meticulous (10) 12. Wanted (6) 13. Like better (6) 16. Services (10) 17. Advanced society (12) 18. Hint (6) 19. Revolves (6) Clues Down 1. Purchases (8) 2. Contemplated (8) 3. Deliberation (13) 5. Uncommon (13) 6. Male vocalist (5) 7. Contention (5) 10. Legitimate (8) 11. Gifts (8) 14. Stiff (5) 15. Male relative (5)
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Recipe of the month
Cinder Toffee Part science experiment, and part sweet treat. This is fun for the kids and perfect for Halloween and Bonfire Night Preparation time: 5 minutes Cooking time: 15-20 minutes, plus cooling time. Serves: Depends how sweet your tooth is! Ingredients: 165g demerara sugar, 165g caster sugar, 60ml golden syrup, 4 tbsp water, 15g butter, diced, plus extra to grease, pinch of salt, 1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda, *A sugar thermometer is also handy. Method: Generously grease an approximately 24cm square tin. Put the bicarbonate of soda within easy reach of the hob. Place both sugars, syrup, water, and butter in a deep, heavy-bottomed pan with a pinch of salt. (Make sure it is a deep pan or the ‘science bit’ will go horribly badly!). Heat gently, stirring, until the sugars and butter have dissolved. Then turn up the heat slightly and bring to the boil without stirring until a teaspoon of the mixture forms a hard ball when dropped into a bowl of cold water. If you have a sugar thermometer the toffee is ready when it reaches 138C - this will take about 10-15 minutes. When the mixture gets to the correct temperature, remove it from the heat and quickly and thoroughly whisk in the bicarb. It will foam and grow alarmingly - the kids will love it! Pour the foamy mixture into the tin and leave to set. When it’s cold, get the kids to smash it into pieces! Optional: Pour melted chocolate over the shards for the ultimate cinder toffee treat.
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Mum’s the word
Halloween with a difference 2020 and COVID-19 has robbed us of many fun times and traditions, sadly Halloween looks to be no different. My children always look forward to ‘trick-or-treating’ and love having the opportunity to dress-up and collect sweets and treats from participating neighbours. I wonder what advice will be issued by the government in the lead up to the big day and what restrictions will be in place. Where we live the neighbours indicate their participation by decorating their home or leaving a pumpkin on the doorstep. This year however, I’m not sure how many neighbours (especially the elderly or vulnerable) will feel comfortable to welcome young ghosts and ghouls, no matter how cute they may look. If I’m honest, the thought of many tiny hands reaching into the sweetie tubs one after the other freaks me out a bit, not to mention the fact that the little monsters will undoubtedly want to tuck into some of them on the way round (pre hand wash!). I think I will be keeping my children at home this year, but I’m determined to ensure there can still be fun for all so I’ve come up with some great activities to keep them entertained. • Create a ‘spooky’ scavenger hunt. Set this up in the garden or inside and create some spooky clues that lead the children to each item. Indicate the exact spot with a pumpkin decoration, spiders web or drops of fake blood! • Fill a spooky piñata with sweets you know are COVID safe, hang it in the garden and ask your kids to take turns in trying to break it open. • Design a haunted room in your house and go all out on the decorations, get dressed up and scare the kids in a safe and fun place. • Snuggle up and watch a ‘scary’ movie, something like Goosebumps, Hotel Transylvania or Monsters Inc (depending on age). • If the weather is nice read age-appropriate ghost stories in the dark outside. Take plenty of blankets, cook hot dogs and toasted marshmallows on the barbecue and light pumpkins around the garden. • If you do decide to leave something out for any brave trick or treaters, make sure the sweets are individually wrapped and left in a bowl next to some hand sanitiser! Whatever you decide to do this Halloween, make sure you have fun and stay COVID-safe.
HALLOWEEN MUMMY DOGS
Halloween treats don’t just have to be sweets and chocolate. Here is a tasty treat the kids can help you make! Ingredients: 1 pack puff pastry, 1 pack of sausages of choice, Soft cream cheese for eyes, 1tsp toasted sesame seeds
1. Gently fry the sausages until lightly browned. 2. Allow to cool. 3. Slice the puff pastry into long strips and wrap around the sausages to create their ‘bandages’. 4. Bake in the oven according to the puff pastry instructions. 5. When cooled, use a cocktail stick to scoop the cream cheese out and position on the sausages for their eyes. 6. Top the cream cheese with a toasted sesame seed. 7. Serve and enjoy.
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St Mary’s Church
In 2014 the need to renew and update the Parish Centre for the community was identified. Expectations were of refurbishment and extension to help it serve for the future. The 50th Anniversary of the centre in 2018 seemed to be a good moment to celebrate all it has given and to see it developed.
team must be further guided by professionals. In addition to our Architect we have appointed a Quantity Surveyor & Contract Manager, along with engineering firms to draw up our plans for the structural, mechanical and electrical design of the building (SME). We’ve also contracted a fire expert and acted upon the recommendations.
We are so thankful for all the thousands of gatherings and many more thousands of people who have benefitted from the Parish Centre through the years. Reflecting on this we are grateful to those local people who had the vision, raised the funds and worked hard to give us the Parish Centre back in 1968.
So, I am pleased to say that all is moving forward! Despite the year we’ve had, the project is not on hold or merely chugging along! This stage leads us to a fully costed design, which we can use to seek the grants required from national bodies if our vision is to be delivered for a well matched new centre to serve the community for many years to come.
However, analysis of cost and benefits revealed the scale of the task to restore the current centre, because so much infrastructure needs replacing.
Our sadness has been the very recent decision by our Project Manager, Ann Smith, to step back. All the team fully understand but are non-the-less sorry because Ann first joined the project in 2015 providing us with expertise and guidance. The ability to step up to tasks, clarity of decisions and exemplary record keeping being just a few of her many attributes! Ann worked so hard that we don’t have enough words to thank her for all that she has given. But, 5 years is a long time and if there is a moment to change then Ann has chosen a good one now that the project enters a new phase. All who know Ann Smith are so grateful for her work and her friendship within the project and wish her well. Thank you so much Ann.
In March 2020, after six years of hard work, the new Parish Centre Regeneration Project received planning permission for a new building. We are so grateful to all in the community and of the Parish Centre user groups who worked so hard and generously with fundraising and the detailed planning. Over £120,000 has been raised through your generosity, at the popular coffee mornings and at so many social events, concerts, open gardens and… the list goes on! All of these activities were wonderful for our community and we’re so glad that they brought much pleasure to so many people. It was in March the team and community raised a glass upon receiving planning permission – but sadly this was just as the pandemic and lockdown arrived! This didn’t stop the ‘project’, but it did curtail all of our social fundraising activities which have been greatly missed. Despite the impact of the virus, the regeneration team and Parochial Church Council continue to take the project to the next stage. Lockdown did impact the London based building consultant firm who were generously guiding us and unfortunately had to withdraw from the project. Even so, with all that has been raised (and with your continued ‘gifts’ through this time – over £11,000!) we have now contracted firms to draw up detailed plans for the new centre. Because this project is so important to get right, our voluntary
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Our thanks also to you for this is a project to serve the community – our vision is for the building to be a ‘servant’ for many years to come (a worthy successor to the current centre!). Without your support this wouldn’t be possible and so thank you to those who’ve continued to donate towards this, even during lockdown and without our wonderful social events. We look forward to keeping you in touch as we continue to make progress. Revd Andy Norris Chair of the project and of the Parochial Church Council Rector for Alverstoke Parish
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CHAT WITH CORALIE
Learning
to make friends At the time of writing, we have just been sorting out school uniforms in readiness for the likely return of our kids to go back for the Autumn Term. Thankfully we are not at the beginning of our parenting journey and I can only imagine what it must be like for those of you who are sending your little ones off for the first time, knowing that classrooms and playtime will probably feel very different this year than ever before. Our children are now all at senior school and know what they’re doing. They all cycle in each day and get on with their routines. But of course, in 2020, going to school has become a totally different beast. As a family we don’t panic much about things and take quite a pragmatic view so that we can get on with life as best we can. COVID has been a tricky one though - with ‘high risk’ grandparents in the annexe, we have felt morally obligated (and emotionally too) to keep them protected from this invisible, potential, killer. And to that end the children have been shielded from most activities, including mixing with their friends, until only recently. Even now they still maintain social distance and Lucy, our 14 year old, is struggling with being unable to hug her friends. So the thought of 7th September is somewhat exciting to them. To get back to all the people they would rather be hanging out with and to get back to school - a routine so ingrained in them that even though they complain about it they enjoy the consistency of it and now miss it, having had it taken away. For us as parents though, we are beginning to feel differently. Our feelings are driven more by the fact that our younglings are more keen to return based on the company of their peers, rather than the learning. They will all admit that they were 100% more productive and effective whilst studying at home which they all said they quite enjoyed. Yet when we suggest that they continue to do this they look bereft their friends are all at school? The driving reason for them to return is for the social interaction and their friendships. We completely understand that this is so important for their growing up - and isolation is no fun unless you choose it. Fundamentally though isn’t school about learning? I know we’re not the only parents who berate our kids and say those immortal words ‘stop talking in lessons and concentrate - it’s you who will miss out later!’ And ‘you should stop showing off to your mates, they won’t care when you fail your exams’ etc...
OK, this isn’t an article about learning per se - I have lots of views on the curriculum and grading and this piece isn’t big enough to go down that rabbit hole - but when one discusses school and all that goes with it, should the draw of friends be enough to dictate where the child learns? I have had some serious thoughts about keeping the kids to their original timetable during lockdown and continue at home. By managing their own workload, and without the distraction of the ‘cool kids’ in the corner, they got on with what needed to be done. No worrying about their hair, clothes or the latest ‘trend’. Because there was no-one around to see them! So they could just study. Admittedly it wasn’t all plain sailing. They got themselves into pickles a couple of times but it was easily rectified and the support from the school was excellent. There will be children whose parents have not had the facility to watch over them each day. And there will also be children who haven’t done much work at all and will find going back to school a tough challenge, in terms of what they have missed and for their brains that will have undoubtedly got out of the habit of learning. And so for our kids we find this a concern. How will the teachers be able to juggle everything including the new restrictions on movement in the school? We certainly wouldn’t want their jobs right now. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe it’s just that I have got used to having my kids at home. And as they are growing so fast I’ve enjoyed having them around more. I am becoming acutely aware of the sands of time slipping away. Two of my children have already left secondary school now and neither of them want toys for Christmas. That’s a bummer and makes me sad. Whatever decision you may have made over your child’s education be ensured that, nowadays, there isn’t really a right or wrong answer. Jobs are going to be harder to obtain in the future and I think flexibility is going to be key. Teach your kids to communicate well, trust their instincts and look after their health and armed with those things they should be OK in the world out there... And as for friendships? They can be found in the strangest of places. Apparently even in the chat room of Fortnight. Until next month
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Keep on running
A new Sporting passion... How was your summer? Or are you still hanging on and squeezing every last drop out? I already miss my early morning coffee in the garden, post dog walk,. Getting out of bed whilst it’s still dark outside will take some adjusting to and I’m sure it will only seem worse as the cooler weather creeps in. I appreciate that for some the pandemic has been very traumatic but despite the doom and gloom, I have seen many positives. Mother Nature definitely enjoyed the break that lockdown gave the world and families had time to rediscover each other, enjoying much more quality time as a single unit. Another very popular positive was how many used exercise as a way of beating cabin fever. Whilst the gyms were closed, there was an increase in the amount of people walking, running, cycling and even open water swimming. I amazed myself at how I adapted to the Solent and my newfound love of sea swimming. My wife bought me a bright orange tow float that not only allows me to be seen but acts as an emergency floatation aid and dry storage for essentials such as car keys. It’s brilliant! I’m not the most confident in deep water so this kit gives me (and my wife) peace of mind in knowing that I can hang onto something if I get into difficulty. For many 2020 will be remembered for COVID but for me, it’s the summer that I swam 1 mile in open water!
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There has also been a huge increase in outdoor fitness classes and Personal Trainers seem to be popping up everywhere! This has really helped to fill that important void for some, as they chase the endorphin rush, or for others that wanted to shift some lockdown lard! One of the groups to stand the test of time is the BootCamp UK who meet at Gosport Park several times a week. Dan, the chief instructor puts his students through military style functional fitness drills that really make you feel the burn and although that might not sound much fun, he must be doing something right as the class size is consistently healthy and in all weathers too. Have you found a new sporting passion? Are you a SUP (stand up paddle) board junkie or do you love taking to the waves in a kayak? Have you used the fabulous new outdoor gym on the Gosport’s Golden Mile? What do you think of it? Let us know and by all means share a photo. In the meantime, stay safe, positive and healthy. Nick (Absolute GosVegas) cartscartergosvegas@gmail.com
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We welcome Lloyd… We’d like to introduce you to Lloyd, who is one of the newer members of our fantastic care team. Lloyd is new to care, so we wanted to explore how he found this new career and if it’s met his expectations. Lloyd joined us during the lockdown period of May 2020 after working at a plumbers merchants in Southampton for a number of years. Although he liked his previous role, he said that he really wanted to make a difference in the community and so sought a career that met his caring nature. Lloyd has always had such a huge amount of respect for the elderly and felt that working in a role that made such a big impact on their lives was one he would love. Since starting with Bluebird Care, his expectations have been exceeded. He said that the opportunity he has to talk to people and get to know them is amazing; “It’s not just about a list of tasks. I get to spend quality time with people, really enrich their lives and support family members. So many families work hard to support each other, it’s really nice to be able to take some of the pressure away from them too.”
Lloyd said that he came to Bluebird Care having researched some other local companies. He saw that we were rated ‘outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission and then, having looked at the website, really got a feel for how exceptional as a company we are. He went on to say that from his first phone call through to his training and now the ongoing support he receives, he has not been disappointed and truly loves his job. Lloyd would love to look at career progression in the future but for now, is really loving being ‘out on the road’ and face to face with our lovely customers. We feel that Lloyd has a long and exciting career within this industry and he is a joy to work with. His positivity and drive to make an impact on his customers lives is evident in everything he does and we are thrilled to have him as part of the team.
To find out more about Bluebird Care’s services, please visit www.bluebirdcare.co.uk/gosport or Call 02393 233922 | email gosport@bluebirdcare.co.uk |
@Bluebirdcaregosport
Bluebird Care, Communications House, 1 Quay Lane, Hardway, Gosport. PO12 4LJ
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email: editor@bigvoicedirectories.co.uk | www.bigvoicedirectories.co.uk
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