Discovering Wisbech issue 057, January 2023

Another year upon us and I wonder whether 2023 will follow the same dramatic (at times, manic) course that we all witnessed with the year just gone. Perhaps a bit more “calm and quiet” wouldn’t go amiss! Of course, we start with our resolutions, and here’s ours from us all at the Discovering Magazines team: We’ll strive to continue providing you with a lively, interesting, useful, and entertaining magazine every month. Please keep the feedback coming our way, and all the very best to you all for a happy, healthy, and successful 2023.

Finally, a piece of advice for all you guys, seeking a quieter life: If at first you don’t succeed … do as your partner suggested to you an hour earlier!

Happy New Year

Welcome to 2023... let’s hope it will prove to be a positive year for everyone who lives in Fenland.

We have a great first issue to ring in the new year, hopefully the first of many...

The Discovering team will once again be working hard to bring you all your favourite regular columns over the coming months as well as news of local activities to keep you informed and entertained throughout the year.

If you have an event planned then please let us know about it and we will do our level best to include it in the forthcoming issues. Let’s hope that when we reach December 2023 we can look back on a memorable year!

Paula

Discovering Wisbech is published by a local team and is not associated with any other business. Care is taken to ensure that the content and information is correct at the time of going to press; however, we cannot take any responsibility for loss, damage or omission caused by any errors. Permission must be granted to reproduce, copy or scan anything from this publication. For a copy of our contributors’ guidelines please email info@ discoveringmagazines.co.uk.

HALLAM TRAVEL STILL HAVE THE FOLLOWING SEATS AVAILABLE:

Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs (afternoon show) ONLY 1 LEFT Weds 28th December £60

Nutcracker at the London Coliseum (afternoon show) ONLY 8 LEFT Fri 30th December £100

Strictly Come Dancing – The Live Tour (afternoon show) ONLY 1 LEFT Weds 25th January £90

Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty (afternoon show) ONLY 19 LEFT Thurs 26th January £66

Cirque Du Soleil – Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities Thurs 2nd February £105

Hamilton (afternoon show) Thurs 2nd February £112

Dirty Dancing (5pm show)

Abba Voyage (afternoon show)

Mamma Mia! The Party (afternoon show)

ONLY 1 LEFT Fri 3rd February £77

Sun 5th February £103

Sun 12th February £169

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – The Musical (afternoon show) Thurs 16th February £60

Kew Gardens and the Orchid Festival

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (both parts)

Moulin Rouge! (afternoon show)

Sun 19th February £46

Weds 22nd February £140

ONLY 1 LEFT Sat 25th February £132

Peaky Blinders: The Redemption Of Thomas Shelby (afternoon show) Sat 25th February £57

The Mountbatten Festival of Music (afternoon show)

Wicked (afternoon show)

Sat 11th March £80

Sun 12th March £79

Brick Lane Music Hall: St Patrick’s Day (includes afternoon tea) Thurs 16th March £75

Sewing for Pleasure, Creative Crafts & Fashion and Embroidery Shows Sat 18th March Adult £33 Child £29

RHS Garden, Wisley

Ain’t Too Proud (afternoon show)

RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Bressingham Steam Museum & Gardens

Matilda (afternoon show)

Sat 20th May Adult £43 RHS Member £30

Thurs 25th May £70

Sat 27th May £125

Sun 4th June Adult £34 Child £32

Weds 7th June £77

Black Country Living Museum & Dudley Canal and Caverns Sat 10th June

Adult £54 Senior £52 Child £45

42nd Street (4pm show) Sun 11th June £86

Annie – The Musical (afternoon show) 14th June £62

English National Ballet Cinderella in the round at the Royal Albert Hall (afternoon performance) Sun 25th June £100

RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival Sat 8th July £65

Marsham Court Hotel, Bournemouth – 5 days ONLY 11 LEFT Sun 9th July £448

Yorkshire Air Museum and Allied Air Forces Memorial Sat 15th July Adult £37 Child £32

Whitby Leisure Day Sun 16th July £31

Aspects of Love (afternoon show) Weds 19th July £86

Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey) Weds 26th July £58

Tower Hotel, London – 4 days ONLY 18 LEFT Fri 28th July £321

Scarborough Leisure Day

Thurs 3rd August £27

Tina – The Tina Turner Musical (afternoon show)

Thriplow Daffodil Event & Country Fair

Fri 24th March £72

Sun 19th March £77 & Juliet (afternoon show)

Sat 25th March Adult £30 Child £27

Tottenham Hotspur FC Stadium Tour Sun 26th March Adult £53 Senior £51 Child £45

The Lion King (afternoon show)

Weds 29th March £72

The Lord’s Tour Sat 1st April £58

Silverstone Interactive Museum

Sun 2nd April Adult £42 Child £35

Legoland Thurs 6th April Adult £59 Child £54

Seven Drunken Nights – The Story of the Dubliners

Oxford Leisure Day

Camden Markets

Sat 8th April £52

Sat 15th April £28

Sun 16th April £30

Bakewell Market & Judith Mary Canal Boat (includes 2 course meal) Mon 17th April £55

Anglesey Abbey, Gardens & Lode Mill Weds 19th April Adult £38 Child £31 NT Member £24

Bakewell & Matlock Bath

Wroxham Barns & Southern Comfort River Trip

Sat 22nd April £26

Sun 23rd April £32

Windsor Castle Thurs 4th May Adult £58 Young Person £49 Child £47

London for King Charles III Coronation

Blickling Estate

Sister Act (afternoon show)

Chatham Historic Dockyard

Southend on Sea

Titanic – The Musical (afternoon show)

Sat 6th May £39

Sun 7th May Adult £39 Child £32 NT Member £24

Weds 10th May £65

Sat 13th May Adult £46 Senior £45 Child £42

Sun 14th May £30

Weds 17th May £60

The Telford Hotel, Spa and Golf Resort – 5 days Sun 6th August £430

Liverpool FC Tour and Museum Sat 12th August Adult £51 Senior £47 Child £42

The Princess River Cruise Experience (includes 2 course lunch) Sun 13th August £48

Skipton & Canal Boat (includes 2 course meal) Weds 16th August £62

Chatsworth House and Gardens Sat 19th August Adult £43

RHS Garden, Harlow Carr Sun 20th August Adult £38 RHS Member £28

Greenwich Leisure Day Sat 2nd September £31

Twickenham Stadium Tour and World Rugby Museum Sun 3rd September Adult £54 Senior £49 Child £46

Phantom of the Opera (afternoon show)

Cannon Hall Farm

National Memorial Arboretum

The Drifters Girl (afternoon show)

Weds 6th September £75

Sat 16th September £35

Sun 17th September £26

Thurs 21st September £68

Ramsey Park Hotel, Isle of Man – 6 days Sat 23rd September £602

Everybody’s Talking about Jamie (afternoon show)

Weds 27th September £55

Alfie Boe Fri 6th October £92

Mrs Doubtfire (afternoon show)

Leyburn & Masons Gin Distillery

Natural History, Science and Victoria & Albert Museums

Thurs 12th October £75

Sat 14th October £56

Sun 15th October £31

Regent Street Motor Show/London Leisure Day Sat 4th November £31

Hogwarts in the Snow

Sat 30th December Adult £78 Child £66

Coaches depart from Spalding Bus Station, unless stated otherwise. New excursions added weekly.

A new dawn for TVS Interfleet

WINDOWS 8.1 DEADLINE LOOMS LARGE

Windows 8.1 End of Life begins on January 10th, 2023. This means Microsoft will no longer update or support the operating system after this date (in fact, Microsoft ended mainstream support for Windows 8.1 in January 2018, which meant new features were no longer added, and warranty claims became invalid).

This doesn’t mean however that Windows 8.1 will stop working on this date – you can continue to use it for as long as you want. But just because you can continue to use Windows 8.1 during its End-ofLife stage, it doesn’t mean you should. The biggest danger with continuing to use Windows 8.1 after January 10th is that it won’t be patched for any new viruses or security problems. Moreover, the more people that use Windows 8.1 after its Endof-Life date, the bigger the incentive will be for malicious hackers to target viruses at it.

So, if you still use Windows 8.1, what should you do? One option is to upgrade to Windows 10. The upgrade process is relatively easy, and in many cases, you can keep your files on your PC. Most programs have been updated to work on Windows 10, and the layout and interface are similar to Windows 7. You may need to buy a Windows 10 licence, and these can be quite

expensive (the deadline for the free upgrade was back in July 2016).

The only issue you may have is that Windows 10 is due to reach its end of life on October 14th, 2025, therefore if you were thinking of buying a new desktop or laptop, you may now wish to consider buying a Windows 11 compliant one.

Windows 11 has its own set of stringent requirements, such as:

• The CPU must be recent, i.e., from about the last four years or so, examples of this are an eighth Gen Intel or a 3rd gen AMD Ryzen Laptop or second Gen AMD Ryzen Desktop chip or newer.

• The PC must have a TPM 2.0 security chip.

• The computer’s motherboard bios must be capable of using Secure Boot.

If your PC is unable to meet these requirements, and this will unfortunately apply to many out there, you will not be able to update to Windows 11. Admittedly, it can be forced on to older equipment; however, Microsoft does not recommend this as you will undoubtedly face issues in the future.

Regardless of which option you choose, you should still ensure that your documents are safely backed up before upgrading.

PHILIP AT DIAMOND BYTE

VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO SEE OUR ARTICLE ON THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA BACKUP – WWW.DIAMONDBYTE.CO.UK

Wisbech St Mary-based Fenland Timber, which has been supplying domestic and commercial customers throughout Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Lincolnshire since 2016, has been rebranded with the company name being changed to Frankham’s & Sons Ltd and trading as Frankham’s Timber & Building Supplies.

Owner Sam Frankham (36) said he has been thinking about rebranding the business for some time and wanted to get the new name in place for the beginning of the year. He said: “My customers often say they’re going to see Sam Frankham so I think it will future proof the business and give people something to talk about which is good advertising for us.

“It also gives me the chance to branch out into other areas and I have already rebranded the onsite tool shop as Frankham’s Hardware & Tools.”

The company is a timber yard and landscape merchants where people can get whatever they need to complete a job, with sheds and fencing being the most popular types of work.

Sam, who is helped in the business by his wife Maryann and four permanent employees, said the business supplies a wide variety of services and timber products to choose from, much of which is sourced locally, with new lines added all the time.

Check out Frankham’s Timber & Building Supplies at Units 1-3 Sandbank Barns, Sandbank, Wisbech St Mary, Cambridgeshire PE13 4SE. Tel: 01945 410177; Email: sales@frankhams.co.uk; Opening hours: Monday-Thursday 7am-6pm; Friday, 7am-5pm; Saturday, 8am-3pm; Sunday, appointment only.

Self-Assessment Tax Return

Mark Burrows

The weeks around Christmas and into the start of the New Year are, in practice, among the busiest times of our year when the ‘penny drops’, no pun intended, for those who need to file their Self-Assessment tax returns and deposit pennies with HM Revenue & Customs.

The deadline for filing a Self-Assessment return is 31 January, 2023 so our message is do not delay – file it today.

If you are unsure whether you need to file a tax return then consider the following questions and act accordingly:

• Did you work for yourself at any time in the tax year from 6 April, 2021 to 5 April, 2022?

• Did you receive income over £10,000 from dividends, savings or investments?

• Did you have income from land and property in the United Kingdom?

• Did you receive any untaxed or overseas income?

• Do you have Capital Gains Tax to pay, e.g. from selling investments or property?

• Finally, did you receive income over £50,000 and are you or your partner keeping Child Benefit payments?

Those are the basic questions but HM Revenue & Customs’ website includes a questionnaire that will guide you through the process. You can find it at: www.gov.uk/check-if-you-need-tax-return. It takes only a few minutes to check if any of your income or gains will require you to prepare and submit a return.

If the result is ‘yes’ and you are not sure where to start, then we would be happy to assist and advise. Don’t hesitate to contact us at your local Wisbech office.

A word of warning: Late filing attracts an automatic £100 penalty.

Information on which this article is based is correct at the time of publishing. Any updates are available on our website: whitingsllp.co.uk

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customers, Tom can complete lots of different aspects of repair work, saving them the expense of buying new.

Tom and his wife Suzanne are very grateful to the customers that have supported their growing business over the last two-and-a-half years. They are looking to the future and excited about what the future holds for the developing business.

If you would like further information about how Westbrook Window Repairs can help please call them on 01354 653445 and follow them on Facebook.

Fenland Foragers

Wisbech Yoga Club

Wisbech Yoga Club

Meets at Trinity Methodist Church on Mondays 7pm-8.15pm and Wednesdays at Elm Primary School or Emneth Central Hall 7pm-8.15pm. For availability, please contact Peter on 07905 601585 or email: pabamullins206@ntlworld.com

Meets at Trinity Methodist Church on Mondays 7pm-8.15pm and Wednesdays at Elm Primary School or Emneth Central Hall 7pm-8.15pm. For availability contact Peter on 07905 601585 or email: pabamullins206@ntlworld.com

Wisbech and District Flower Club

Royal Air Force Association Wisbech Branch

Meets every third Monday of the month at St Peters Hall Wisbech from 7.30pm Please call Yvonne on 01954 581360 for more information

Fenland Foragers runs The Little Acorns toddler group on Wednesday mornings, 9-11am in St Johns Church grounds on Station Road, March along with Nature Detectives a group for al ages 9.30-11.30am every other Friday. To book please call Hayley on 07962 337988 www.fenland-foragers-forestsch.class4kids.co.uk

Rings End Nature Reserve

Family workshops for all to be involved in. Meets every second Sunday of the month in the car park for the nature reserve Rings End PE15 0BE. Conservation for all 9.30am-12noon. To

Monthly talks and meetings at The Secret Garden, Mile Tree Lane, PE13 4TR

Facebook https://m.facebook.com/FenArch/ Website https://www.fenarch.org.uk

11am till 2pm rafawisbech.co.uk Situated at 22 Lynn Road PE13 3DJ

Wisbech u3a is an organisation which aims to meet the social, recreational and creative needs of those no longer in full-time employment. We meet on the 2nd Thursday of the month in St Peter’s Church Hall, Wisbech at 2-30pm. We have lots to offer you so please come along and find out for yourself. www.u3asites.org.uk/wisbech

The business officially opened in May 2019. Tom Westbrook, the man behind the company, had more than twenty-five years’ experience in the trade before embarking on this new challenge. Tom explains: “I’ve always dreamed of running my own business and still to this day feel overwhelmed by the support received from local customers.”

Tom loves running his own business and especially enjoys meeting people and helping with any job big or small. From repairing draughty letter boxes, changing locks, hinges, and glass to replacing a house full of windows or fitting a stylish new door he is always happy to provide a free no obligation quote.

Tom has always been a big believer in repairing wherever possible. Often to the surprise of many customers, Tom can complete lots of different aspects of repair work, saving them the expense of buying new.

Tom and his wife Suzanne are very grateful to the customers that have supported their growing business over the last two-and-a-half years. They are looking to the future and excited about what the future holds for the developing business.

If you would like further information about how Westbrook Window Repairs can help please call them on 01354 653445 and follow them on Facebook.

Fenland Archaeological Society (FenArch)

Please call Hayley on 07962 337988 for more information

Friends of Wisbech & Fenland Museum hold monthly talks at Wisbech Public Library. For further details, please see (Insert ‘Facebook’ or its logo) Friends of Wisbech and Fenland Museum, www.wisbechmuseum.org.uk or email: friendsofwisbechmuseum@outlook.com

THE POWER OF HYPNOSIS

New Years' resolutions can be a powerful way to change habits and behaviours or to make a really positive change in your life. But, according to Forbes, eighty percent of New Years’ resolutions fail. Hypnotherapy with me can help increase your chances of success!

My name is Valerie Robins, and I am a certified clinical hypnotherapist. I use the latest hypnotherapy techniques, including EMDR, NLP and I work with a wide variety of issues:

Freepik.com

This month, I’d like to consider our human default setting, which is “to be ok”. No matter how shy, sensitive or anxious a person is, we come to this world with the inner sense of being ok. For example, do you know that new-born babies are afraid of only two things? They have a fear of falling and a fear of loud noises. Everything else, babies learn afterwards:

• We learn that something might be wrong with us and that we are not good enough.

• We might develop fears and phobias.

• We learn that we need external things to make us feel ok (food, shopping, hair-pulling etc.)

Learning negative thoughts or developing phobias can take only a tiny, seemingly insignificant moment. Consciously you may not even notice

these little moments in your life, but these things make sense and are embedded in your subconscious mind. For example, you ate ice cream, and you felt better. Here, your subconscious mind records it and uses it the next time something happens and you need to feel better. Your subconscious mind is there to help you out. Not many people realise that most things we do are done on autopilot. The capacity of our conscious mind is minimal. So, to make significant changes in behaviour, we have to go on a subconscious level. How good would you feel if your mind was reset - as if the unwanted things were never there? This is where hypnosis can help, bypassing your conscious mind and going directly to the level where all changes are possible.

Email me at lerahypnotherapy@gmail.com or get in touch via text, WhatsApp or phone at 07919 924569. Also, feel free to explore my website lerahypnotherapy.com

Looking forward to helping you improve your life, Valerie Robins, MH, AdvHyp, QGHR, 5-PATH IAHP Certified Hypnotherapist

Parent & Child Fostering is where a parent and baby stay with you at a time when they need extra support. You observe, teach, and guide the parent over a short period of time to give them the tools, confidence and independence to have the best start in life.

FELICIA’S STORY

Felicia has had eight Parent & Child Fostering placements within her three years of fostering. She said “fostering has sat at the back of my mind for as long as I can remember. Too many children have such a difficult start in life, and I wanted to try and change that”.

Why Nexus?

Choosing nexus was a nobrainer for me. The whole team is so supportive and helpful, and nothing ever seems like too much trouble. . They also ensure my daughter is happy with having people in our home.

Parent and child fostering

My social worker phoned to ask if I would consider a parent and child placement temporarily. By the time this placement ended, I knew this was the route I wanted to go down. I took a leap of faith by handing my notice in at the school and haven’t looked back. You have to be very open-minded. They might do things differently from how you would parent your child, and you have to be able to stand back and let them do things their way, as

long as it is safe. Unfortunately, sometimes these people haven’t witnessed a safe way of parenting themselves, so they don’t know any better.

The highs and lows

I have always established a good working relationship with the mums. When they leave, they are so grateful and appreciative. Having difficult or awkward conversations with them is always quite daunting; however, if you approach the conversation in a nonjudgemental way, they will take the information on board.

What advice would you give

Do your research. Fostering can be incredibly challenging, but seeing the difference you are making in young people’s lives, makes it’s so rewarding that it would be hard to do anything else.

Felicia and her daughter have helped many young families.

My social worker phoned to ask if I would consider a parent and child placement temporarily. By the time this placement ended, I knew this was the route I wanted to go down.

Your money is protected when you book your holiday with us

We understand that when it comes to paying money in advance for something such as travel, it’s so important that your money is properly protected. That’s why we are proud to be members of Protected Trust Services (PTS) who provide some of the best financial protection in the UK, giving us and our customers the confidence that their holiday money is fully protected.

What is Protected Trust Services?

PTS is a company that provides financial protection through an independent trust account and bespoke technology to protect your monies. This means, every time you book a holiday with us, your money only goes towards the arrangement of your holiday. It will be used to pay the suppliers, book the tickets, and will never be used for anything irrelevant to your booking. You can also call us at any time, ask where your money is, and we can give you an exact answer.

Being part of PTS, we take great pride in being able to offer the best and most trustworthy protection in travel. We can guarantee that when you book with us, you’ll receive the financial protection you deserve. Contact us today for a quote, we aim to beat any online or high street price.

For peace of mind, and to book your holiday with confidence, choose Holiday With Us.

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Lyncroft

Sam Mendes' love letter to the cinema Empire of Light hits our screens on January 9th. The love story set in a theatre on the coast in the 1980s, explores the very human connections and hardships of the employees in the Empire – with the relationship between Hilary (Olivia Colman) and newcomer Stephen (Michael Ward) at the centre of it and highlights those connections amidst a backdrop of social issues and the magic of film.

A hedonistic, drug-fuelled, and unapologetic Hollywood scene is the backdrop for Babylon on January 20th. The star-studded film includes Brad Pitt as Jack Conrad, an ultra-famous silent movie actor who is wondering what the changes in Hollywood will do for his career, and Margot Robbie is Nellie LeRoy, an ambitious young actress who finds herself in the spotlight. Set in 1920s’ Hollywood, Babylon explores the early days of the movie scene, when silent films were beginning to transition to sound, or 'talkies', and decadence, depravity, and outrageous excess lead to the rise and fall of several ambitious dreamers.

A deeply personal portrait of 20th Century American childhood, Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans released on January 27th is a comingof-age story, about a young man’s discovery of a shattering family secret and an exploration of the power of movies to help us see the truth about each other and ourselves. Inspired by Spielberg’s own childhood, the film won the Audience Award at the Toronto Film Festival, instantly vaulting it to the top of the Oscars’ race. This fictional version of Spielberg’s childhood and adolescence is sure to be one of the year's most genuinely heartfelt films.

The 27th also sees the release of What’s Love Got To Do With It? The cross-cultural rom-com from the producers of Bridget Jones’s Diary and Love Actually asks: how do you find lasting love in today’s world? For documentary-maker and dating app addict Zoe, swiping right has only delivered an endless stream of Mr Wrongs, to her eccentric mother Cath’s dismay. For Zoe’s childhood friend and neighbour Kaz, the answer is to follow his parents’ example and opt for an assisted marriage to a bright and beautiful bride from Pakistan. As Zoe films his hopeful journey, she begins to wonder if there’s something to learn from a profoundly different approach to finding love.

Event Cinema Start 2023 in style with André Rieu in Dublin on January 7th & 8th. Exclusive to cinemas, this celebratory concert is the best way to welcome in the new year! André and his Johann Strauss Orchestra will delight you with romantic melodies, popular classics, party tunes, and beloved waltzes. André in Dublin is the maestro’s first recorded concert in the Irish capital for more than twenty years – it is a truly special event not to be missed. Royal Ballet 22/23 season continues with Like Water for Chocolate on January 19th. A modern Mexican classic of magic realism provides the basis for The Royal Ballet’s new full-length work, reuniting Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon with the creative team who transformed Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale into dance, composer Joby Talbot and designer Bob Crowley. More blockbuster films coming your way include Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, Magic Mike’s Last Dance, Creed III and John Wick: Chapter 4. Book your tickets and find out more by heading over to: wisbech.thelight.co.uk