Big Voice in Stubbington/Hill Head, November 2020

STUBBINGTON November 2020 | Issue 71 | £1.50 where sold

Your local community magazine

Voice

Inside...

The ‘virtual’ marathon

Happy Birthday Big Voice!!!!

Don’t change, be a tree!

www.bigvoicedirectories.co.uk 1

to adverstise call Gemma 01329 630630 / 07909 627177

3

Voice

Smalltalk

It’s a Big Voice Birthday!

As I was putting together this month’s Big Voice, I realised that the Alverstoke magazine was edition number 180. I have been lovingly creating these magazines for just over four years now but, 180 editions mean the Big Voice is officially 15 years old!

If you are a regular follower of the ‘Small Talk’ and have been reading this magazine for some time, you may remember the lovely Coralie. Coralie ‘borned’ (her word!) the first edition of Big Voice in Alverstoke way back in 2005. She gradually grew the distribution and covered more areas (including Lee on Solent and Stubbington) and after 11 years of successful ‘magazin’ing’ Coralie, who by then had recruited her partner in crime Sean, was ready to move on to new and exciting challenges. They passed their ‘baby’ to me (not long after I had an actual baby) and since then I have continued to nurture and grow this fantastic community link.

15 years is a massive achievement for any small business and it shows how very valued this magazine is to the community and local businesses who advertise with us. I thought it would be fun to dig out the very first copy and see how things had changed over the years. Back then, the cover was in colour but the rest of the magazine was in black and white and Coralie sported a David Bowie pixie ‘barnet’ but apart from that, it was clear to see why the Big Voice has always been a popular choice for businesses to advertise in and residents to read. Even then, it was still jam packed with interesting articles and relevant information which has remained central to the philosophy of the business. Aside from reflecting on the magazine, it’s good to know that some of the businesses in this first edition are still around and as successful as ever. That must be the Big Voice effect!

It’s also great to see Coralie’s recent reappearance in the magazine with her regular ‘Chat with Coralie’ article, which can be found on page 19. Just like fashion, if you wait long enough all the good things come back around again… except for the pixie hair that is, haha!

Peach Publications 01329 630630/07909 627177

Editor

Gemma Harvey-Guttridge editor@bigvoicedirectories.co.uk

Advertising Sales

editor@bigvoicedirectories.co.uk

Distribution

This Big Voice Bigazine is delivered to residents and businesses in Stubbington and Hill Head.

For distribution enquiries please give me (Gemma) a call. Two other editions are also published in Alverstoke 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.

Happy Birthday Big Voice, I’m off to eat some cake!

Much Love,

Gemma x 4

email: editor@bigvoicedirectories.co.uk | www.bigvoicedirectories.co.uk

NOVEMBER ISSUE 2020

Recipes, community, charity, properties and more

CONTENTS 8

Get Puzzled

20

Crofton Parish

10

Recipe of the Month

24

Keep On Running

12

Mum’s the Word

29

Wish List

19

Chat with Coralie

Test yourself with this month’s crossword

A spicy, cajun, classic. Jambalaya

Outdoor, autumn fun

Local event and church update

There was still many marathons

Some local, autumn ‘must haves’

Don’t change, be a tree!

Advertise with us!

Reliably delivered by our local teams, reaching over 15000 homes each issue. THREE editions of Big Voice provide exceptional monthly coverage of our area every single month. Call Gemma now on 01329 630630, jump on our website or link up with us on Facebook.

Visit our Facebook page @bigvoicedirectories Visit our website www.bigvoicedirectories.co.uk

to adverstise call Gemma 01329 630630 / 07909 627177

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Get Puzzled Clues Across 1 Fifty percent (4) 4 Happened again (8) 8 Immobile (6) 9 ___ ___ to help out! (3,3) 10 Medicine (4) 11 Goodies given to guests at the end of birthday celebrations (5,3) 13 Unpleasant (13) 16 Saviours (8) 19 Curse (4) 20 Guarantee (6) 22 Inclined the head (6) 23 Weirdos (8) 24 Information (4) Clues Down 2 Can be changed (9) 3 Tiredness (7) 4 Go over information again (5) 5 Bye! (7) 6 Attempt again (5) 7 Large flightless bird (3)

8

12 Plot of land for growing veg (9) 14 Item of warm underwear! (7) 15 Steered clear of (7)

17 Scale (5) 18 Ballads (5) 21 Craze (3)

email: editor@bigvoicedirectories.co.uk | www.bigvoicedirectories.co.uk

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Recipe of the month

Jambalaya A spicy cajun classic

Preparation time: 15 minutes. Cooking time: 50 mins + 10 mins resting time. Serves: 4-6 Ingredients: ½ tsp white peppercorns, ½ tsp black peppercorns, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tsp cayenne (or more if using a very mild sausage), 1 tsp dried thyme, 2 bay leaves, ½ tsp salt, 2 tbsp neutral oil, 2 smoked pork sausages e.g. Chorizo, 4 bone-in chicken thighs, 1 onion, finely chopped, 1 red pepper, finely chopped, 1 celery stick, finely chopped, 4 spring onions, chopped, green and white parts separated, 3 garlic cloves, crushed 800ml chicken or pork stock, 1 tsp Tabasco or other hot sauce, plus extra to serve, 300g long grain rice 300g large raw prawns Method: Turn the heat to high and in a small dry pan toast the peppercorns, paprika and cayenne. Grind them in a pestle and mortar until smooth. Add the thyme, bay leaves and salt, then set to one side. Lower the heat to medium and heat the oil in a lidded frying pan. Add the sausage slices and cook until golden. Remove to drain on kitchen paper. Add the chicken and cook until golden brown, remove and place with the sausage.

Add the onion, green pepper, the white parts of the spring onions, and garlic to the pan. Cook until soft and translucent, then stir in the spice mix and cook for another couple of minutes. Return the chicken back into the pan and pour stock and Tabasco over everything.

Lower the heat to allow the mixture to simmer for about 15 minutes until the chicken is tender. Stir in the rice and simmer for a further 10 minutes. Stir everything once then cover with a tight lid, reduce the heat and steam gently for 15 minutes. Remove the chicken. Add the prawns and sausage, stir again, then replace the lid and leave to rest for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, shred the chicken then fold into the rested jambalaya, season to taste with salt and more Tabasco.

Garnish with the spring onion greens.

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email: editor@bigvoicedirectories.co.uk | www.bigvoicedirectories.co.uk

Dawn Rebecca

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11

Mum’s the word Outdoor, Autumn Fun Covid-19 has caused so many events to be cancelled during 2020 and firework displays are the next in line. My children love wrapping up warm and going along to watch one (or more) local displays. Normally in the November edition I will list all the venues, prices and times and I’m yet to find one that hasn’t been cancelled. So instead I thought I would remind you to stay safe if you choose to do a mini display at home and suggest some autumnal activities you can enjoy with the children instead.

Go for a walk in the forest: We love pulling on our wellies in the autumn and going for a woodland walk. This time of year is brilliant as there are plenty of fallen leaves to crunch under your boots or collect for art activities. It’s also a pretty good time to capture some great family pictures, throw some leaves into the air and snap at the right moment! Titchfield Haven, Holly Hill, Alver Valley and the Forest of Bere near Wickham are all fab!

Toast marshmallows: We actually love to do this all year, inside and outside. We toast them on the barbeque, over a fire pit or sometimes just over the hob (always being careful!) The children love to create our own version of a s’more and pop them between two biscuits with a piece of chocolate.

Go on a conker hunt: If you have a competitive family like me this is bound to get everyone involved. Firstly, see who can collect the most, then teach the kids how to play ‘conkers’. Two players each thread a conker on to an old shoelace or a piece of string. Then you take turns, one holds theirs out at arm’s length and the other tries to hit it. The winner is the person who smashes the other person’s conker. If the conker comes off but isn’t smashed, you are allowed to reattach it! You could also try making one of these amazing conker caterpillars. The little ones will love keeping this and apparently, they keep the spiders away.

Go bat spotting: We have been lucky enough to spot bats in our garden in both our new home and the previous one. In our old house we actually put a bat house in the tree. They are mainly active for 2-3 hours after dusk whilst they look for food. It is also mating season for bats, ahead of winter hibernation. If you get really interested, you could try looking up some bat facts.

Watch a sunset: Lots of people were enjoying getting up super early during lockdown to watch the sun come up but this isn’t always possible when you have little ones in tow. An autumn sunset is totally achievable though. The beach is a great place to watch the sunset, as the nights draw in check the sunset time and head to the coast. Take a flask of hot chocolate with you too.

Fly a kite: It’s been super windy lately, which is perfect kite flying weather.

Geocaching: If you are a regular reader you will have heard me mention this many times before. There are millions of geocaches hidden around the world, there are probably some near you right now. Get the free Official Geocaching app and start finding ...

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email: editor@bigvoicedirectories.co.uk | www.bigvoicedirectories.co.uk

Mum’s the word

Looking for a super easy and fun craft to do with the children to celebrate Fireworks Night, then give this a whirl! You and the kids can make these cool fork firework prints which require practically no preparation.

All you need is a fork, a few colours of paint and some paper. Pop the different colour paints into some small containers and ask the kids to dip the bottom of their fork into a colour and press it down on the paper so it shows the lines. Suggest they go round in a circle to make a firework shape.

Wipe off the fork and dip it into another colour and press it down on to the paper over the top of the first colour.

Easy peasy fireworks! You could also use black paper and add white paint too!

Top Tip! I saw this on Facebook! Kids love sparklers but the metal part can become extreamly hot, very quickly.

So stick the end of your sparkler into a carrott! This makes them easier to hold, does not conduct heat and the sparkler can be held futher away from the body.

Genius :)

Many parents and caregivers are struggling to find toddler and baby groups that are still being run under the current restrictions.

If you are one or know one, please get in touch so we can help spread the word!

Call or text Gemma on 07909 627177

to adverstise call Gemma 01329 630630 / 07909 627177

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We Will Remember Them Why do we wear poppies?

An Australian journalist, Edward George Honey first proposed a respectful silence to remember the dead. He wrote a letter to the London Evening News which was brought to the attention of King George V. The king then issued a proclamation which called for a two-minute silence.

A Canadian surgeon called John McRae wrote the poem In Flanders Fields in which the poppies symbolise the deaths of those who fought. It is a haunting memorial to those soldiers who have died in any war.

These days Armistice Day is known as Remembrance Sunday and is a chance to honour the fallen soldiers of all conflicts.

Why do we have a two-minute silence? It was on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month that the guns of World War I fell silent. Four years of fighting and devastation finally ended. The following year ceremonies of remembrance took place on what was known as Armistice Day.

to adverstise call Gemma 01329 630630 / 07909 627177

By Sarah Davey

Why do we wear a poppy? Scarlet poppies grow wild all over Western Europe wherever the soil has been disturbed. The battles of the First World War churned up such vast areas of earth that millions of poppies germinated and bloomed, often around the bodies of the fallen soldiers.

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CHAT WITH CORALIE

Don’t change

be a tree

I’m going to start this article with a quote (which was my little quirk when I used to write our Smalltalk every month!).

It’s by a chap called Ram Dass and goes like this “When you go out into the woods, and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it.

You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree. The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying ‘You are too this, or I’m too this.’ That judgment mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.”

How many times have you found yourself judging someone by their voice, or by the way they look, or their clothes? Do you have an unconscious bias towards people and so you inadvertently treat them a certain way?

I’ve begun to feel that it’s often only with time and patience that we learn that actually human beings are a complex lot and to take someone on face value is to miss out on the beauty hidden inside.

True, gut feelings are worth listening to, and I’d like to think my intuition is good when it tells me someone isn’t right for my energy. But that rarely happens and I know I have been guilty in the past of making assumptions about people based on the obvious ‘signals’ in front of me.

For example, I remember being a bit mean once to a lady who stepped into my job whilst I was on maternity leave. She was kept on in another role after I came back and I was a bit miffed that some of the things I had put in place had been changed, or added to.

I got annoyed at the fact she chose to wear a ‘uniform’ to work and thought she was a bit nit-picky. With my more mature head on I can see now that she was exceptionally good at what she did and some of the things she’d implemented were better than the way I had done them. Instead of recognising that, I transferred my frustration onto what I thought was her issue, not mine. What a twit! I could have learned so much from her! And I look back now sadly thinking that parking too close to her mini so she couldn’t actually open the door was pathetically silly and not amusing as I had thought at the time... (disclaimer - I was probably sleep deprived, hormonal and too young!)

My mum is a paraplegic and it would be easy to think things about her that are incorrect. The amount of people who come up to her and speak as though she were deaf is incredible. Or who ignore her completely and talk to her partner like she’s stupid. Out of all my family members my mum is probably by far the most intelligent and, whilst her legs may no longer work, her brain most certainly hasn’t given up the ghost.

If her grandchildren perceived her in the way that some strangers do, they would miss out on all the knowledge built up over decades of gardening, being one of the first Navy Wrens to deploy to the Far East, fixing parts of an old car with a pair of old stockings and doing the Telegraph crossword at epic speed making most Oxford Graduates look like they were still at kindergarten. She may know her way around the Skybox controller better than I do and knows how to cook although she now sends instructions across to the kitchen so it’s still done in ‘her way’, albeit without her hands doing it all... but does her disability render her worthy of judgment?

It would be a shame if it did. So whilst we often say to people ‘you can change, don’t be a tree’ remember that the reverse is also really important. BE a tree - you never know what you might find if you bother to sit and listen.

Until next month

Coralie x

to adverstise call Gemma 01329 630630 / 07909 627177

19

Crofton Parish

AUTUMN 2020 Autumn 2020 is going to be very different for most of us.

Much of what we consider to be ‘normal’ community life won’t be able to go ahead this year. In this month’s article, I want to give you a quick update on community events that you might be interested in.

Crofton Community Harvest Festival – Sunday 11th October At the time of writing, we are looking forward to our first ever Community Harvest Festival and by the time you are reading this, the event will have already happened. We hope that you managed to join in. One of the main aspects of the Community Harvest Festival is donating to the Fareham & Gosport Basics Bank however you can do this at any time. Please go to their website to find out more: friendsofthehomeless.org Remembrance Sunday – Sunday 8th November Remembrance Sunday is normally one of the most important days of the year in our community. Over 1000 people gather at the War Memorial for the march-past and our Service of Remembrance.

With the current restrictions, we won’t be able to hold a Service of Remembrance as we have done in the past. However, there will still be an Act of Remembrance in some form on Sunday 8th November, which will be livestreamed so you can join in from home.

While I can’t guarantee right now what form our Act of Remembrance can take, I can guarantee that it will be shared on the Holy Rood Facebook page and the Crofton Parish website. If you ‘like’ or ‘follow’ our Facebook page, you can be sure of being kept up to date.

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Christmas 2020 Sadly, the Village Christmas Lights Switch On & Carol Service won’t be going ahead. However, the tree and lights will still go up, making our community centre look wonderful. Please do support our local shops and businesses as best you can with your Christmas shopping this year!

Christmas is still Christmas, though, and there will be lots of ways for you to join in the celebrations in Crofton Parish, both online and in-person. Look out for the ‘Christmas at Home’ publicity that will be coming out soon!

I’m afraid this month’s column has contained more bad news than good. We live in unsettled, rapidly changing times that affect our ordinary lives in countless ways. However, Jesus once told a famous story about the Wise Man who built his house on the rock, perhaps you remember it? When hard times came, represented by storms, wind and waves, the Wise Man’s house stood firm. The Foolish Man’s house however, was built on sand and came crashing down.

Jesus’ parable has a simple message: testing times reveal how strong the foundation of our lives is. The invitation from the parable is: build your life on the foundation of his love and truth. Regardless of the times we live in, that will stand firm.

Rev Richard England Vicar, Crofton Parish

email: editor@bigvoicedirectories.co.uk | www.bigvoicedirectories.co.uk

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to adverstise call Gemma 01329 630630 / 07909 627177

23

Keep on running

The Virtual Marathon...

At the time of writing this article, October is proving to be somewhat soggy! Corona virus is still causing us grief and my running is on hold until a troublesome knee can somehow be fixed.

For others, however, October offered a muchneeded opportunity for them to find their running mojo and attempt the ‘virtual’ London Marathon.

Sunday 4th October saw Gosport ‘awash’ with hardy souls either running or supporting the 26.2 mile challenge. I confess to being mildly jealous of those who chose to take part in the first ever ‘virtual’ version of this iconic event and have enjoyed reading the many stories on social media.

Life goes on and runners will always find a way of making use of their expensive kit and so 2020 has seen many running events go ‘virtual’. Another local one for us is the ‘virtual’ Gosport Golden Mile. Having had to cancel our annual promenade race due to Covid-19, we decided that we would still make use of the measured mile and raise a few quid for GAFIRS, our chosen charity. In place of the usual 500 to 600 runners, we limited the event to 100 entries and have given participants the whole of October to choose a day and record a personal best mile.

The entry fee was £5, and runners received a specially produced race bib. Nice Work Events have very kindly supplied the numbers free of charge and once again, local businesses RUNR, Bayside Cabin and Alton Sports have stepped up and offered spot prizes to keep the community feel to the event. So far a fantastic £500 has been raised and we would like to thank everyone who entered or contributed towards the event.

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My friend and one-time nemesis (before he became too good), Steve Crook, really has set the tone early on when he recorded a 5 minute 56 second mile on October 2nd. Well done Steve, this is a fantastic time and, on another day, would have probably won the Vet 55 age group category!

There are many more wonderful stories from people who have raised lots of money in doing different things and these stories will inspire someone to have a go at something at some point.

Also, on a very wet and windy Wednesday in October, our 545 RunClub runners were joined by Portsmouth Hash Runners at the Fallen Acorn.

These guys really talk our talk as they are all about the more social aspects of running. They love to find locations more off the beaten track and so we were chuffed that they chose to join us for our weekly 5K. New friendships have definitely been forged and it looks like the Hash Runners will have some new faces from GosVegas joining them at their runs very soon.

Have you been inspired to take up a sport or take on a new challenge? If so please do let us know, we would love to hear from you! How has COVID effected your day to day routines? Let us know and we can share your stories.

In the meantime, stay safe and stay positive.

Nick GosVegas Running

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