Oracle Thorpe Bay December 2018

February 2018 December 2018

Your all-seeing local

OR CLE Thorpe Bay, Southchurch, the Garrison & Shoeburyness

WIN! A pair of tickets for Fastlove - George Michael tribute at Cliffs

COUNCIL! Our vibrant High Street

LOCAL ISSUES! Development of Southend Seafront

LIFE SHOULDN’T BE PAINFUL!

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December 2018

ORACLE

WELCOME

Oracle continues to focus on Southend’s problems in and around the High Street and Seafront, keeping the issue in the public eye. I would like to remind all residents to please think of the local businesses in Southend who rely on our trade to survive, especially during this Christmas period. We all know the expense of parking is a problem, but these businesses still need our support.

The Council have issued a statement stating that every Thursday, from 4pm and all-day Sunday there will be free parking in 10 of the council run car parks across Southend’s town centre, until the end of December.

10 % CREAM

Over 200 Years of Experience Under One Roof

Paul Thompson, ex Chair of Southend Seafront Traders Association and former director of Southend BID, shares his knowledge of the Seaway Car Park and his thoughts on how the loss of this carpark could affect the town.

For this month’s competition, for all those George Michael fans, win a pair of tickets to see ‘Fastlove’ A Tribute to George Michael on Thursday, 17 January at the Cliffs Pavilion. This is a spellbinding experience you don’t want to miss. You’ll be getting up (to get down) to all your favourite songs: Careless Whisper, Freedom, Faith, Father Figure, Outside, Jesus To A Child and many more. For more details www.thecliffspavilion.co.uk To enter the Oracle/Fastlove competition please either email info@oraclepublications.co.uk or visit the competition page on Oracle’s website and leave your name and contact details. Alternatively, for those of you who would prefer, we still accept competition entries by post to Oracle’s office address, please see below for address details.

Merry Christmas to you all and thank you for your continued support.

Emma Wynne-Morgan Publisher

170 The Broadway

01702 393838

Thorpe Bay

Oracle House, 11 Clarence Road, Southend-on-Sea, Essex SS1 1AN www.oraclepublications.co.uk info@oraclepublications.co.uk

01702 588 599

Oracle Publications and Creative Media @oracle_essex

www.huntroche.co.uk

Printed by Printwize Ltd, Witham CM8 3BN – 01376 500900 HR_210x594_B.indd 1

December 2018

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12/01/2018 10:31

3

CONTENTS Development of Southend Seafront 9/10 Local Issues by Paul Thompson

Our vibrant High Street

16

Council by Cllr. Martin Terry

Stop Doorstep Crime

22

Council news

Look a million dollars this Christmas 28 Salon advice by Craig Smith

Garlic-infused slow-roast pork shoulder with roasted apples.

40 Recipe by Judy Barden

Memory Worship - Worship for those with and without dementia 46 Local support by Angela Merenda

Discovering organic vegan wine Health by Genesis Ali

50

Brainbox 58 What’s On 62 Useful Number’s 68 Advertiser Directory 70

Advertorials Cliff House Clinic Source Social Value Essex Equity High Tech Membrane Shoebury High School

14 21 36 56/57 60/61

All rights reserved. No part of Oracle Publications UK Ltd may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means either wholly or in part without prior permission of the publisher. Oracle Publications UK Ltd is editorially autonomous and the opinions expressed are not those of the publisher unless expressly stated.

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December 2018

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Your recycling and waste collection day will change over Christmas and New Year.

Revised Christmas and New Year Collection Days Normal collection day

Revised collection day

Tuesday 25th December

Thursday 27th December

Wednesday 26th December

Friday 28th December

Thursday 27th December

Saturday 29th December

Friday 28th December

Monday 31st December

Tuesday 1st January

Wednesday 2nd January

Wednesday 2nd January

Thursday 3rd January

Thursday 3rd January

Friday 4th January

Friday 4th January

Saturday 5th January

Remember!

Please put the right thing in the right bag, box or bin!

Between the 7th and 19th January 2019, we’ll collect your real Christmas trees for recycling. Please place alongside your other recycling on your collection day. Remember to remove all decorations and tinsel.

For more information on what to do with cards, wrapping paper and additional recycling please visit our website southend.gov.uk/recycling Thank you!

Please put everything out by 7am. Collections continue until 6pm.

for Southend

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December 2018

December 2018

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December 2018

LOCAL ISSUES

Development of Southend Seafront

In 2002 I switched from my city job to running a business on Southend Seafront.

My family had previously run businesses on the seafront in the late 70’s so the concept was not entirely new to me. Almost 17 years on, I’m still running my business. During this time I have chaired the Seafront Traders Association and had a stint as a Director of the Southend BID. I feel passionately about the Seafront and believe it makes a considerable contribution to Southend’s economy. The council’s proposed restaurant/ cinema development on Seaway car park represents a critical threat to tourism in Southend, so when invited by the Oracle to write an article for them I felt compelled to lay out the truth about this development.

Located behind the Seafront, the strategic importance of Seaway car park’s 661 spaces is vital to the town’s tourism economy. The A127 and A13 converge at Victoria Circus, following Queensway through the underpass takes visitors directly to the entrance of Seaway where they can park easily and conveniently.

Today 85% of Southend’s tourists arrive by car. As residents, you know when the sun is out there is a major shortage of car parking spaces around the Seafront area. The lack of parking capacity creates major congestion as cars circle round and around hunting for non existent spaces. Seaway is full by 1pm on busy days, the traffic queues up, the roundabout grinds to a halt and congestion builds across the whole town and down the A127 past Basildon.

December 2018

Resultant pollution and increased journey times are detrimental to the town’s economy.

Local residents avoid the Seafront and High St when it’s hot for fear of getting stuck in traffic.

Visitors choose not to return as it can take hours to get into the town and find a parking space. More parking spaces are desperately needed to cater for population growth and to allow tourism and our economy to grow.

Development on Seaway

A viable development on Seaway must satisfy the seafront’s parking needs (661 spaces), as well as ‘consuming its own smoke’ in terms of providing spaces needed for the demand created by the development itself. In short, anything less than 1000 spaces would cause congestion and gridlock on sunny days damaging the town and it’s economy.

The development comprises a 1370 seat multi screen cinema, 10 restaurants, an 80 bedroom hotel, bowling alley and an amusement centre. In fact the make up and mix of leisure and restaurants is very similar to that in the Festival Leisure Park at Basildon. Festival Leisure has over 2000 parking spaces. (And no Seafront) SBC agreed to and signed a contract with the developer to include a minimum of only 480 spaces in the development, resulting devastatingly in a loss of 181 spaces. Call it commercial naivety or plain stupidity but that was what was agreed and it falls far short of the 1000 spaces needed.

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9

The High St will not escape the ill effects of the development. The seafront drives footfall to the shops so anything that hurts the seafront will in turn affect High St footfall. The ‘restaurant

quarter’ and Odeon at the north of the town will also suffer. The sector is struggling nationally, the likes of Prezzo, Jamie Oliver, Strada and Gourmet Burger all in trouble.

Demand is simply not there for more eateries in the town. Restaurants will close, some will relocate to the new development. Can the Odeon survive? Jobs will go, businesses close and SBC will lose out on rates, as charity shops fill the voids. Frankie & Benny’s is the first to close from the top of the town, having signed up to Seaway. Squatters and other non desirables have already moved in!

Seaway car park The town’s largest car park, Seaway, is a significant revenue generator and asset which in theory is owned by the residents of Southend. Thus I believe the financial terms of this deal should be in the public domain. SBC thinks otherwise, having kept these details hidden from all but a handful of officers and councillors. Why? Instead of putting the site out to tender on the open market, SBC sold the Seaway lease privately to an out of town developer for the premium of £1. Three years on SBC bought the Gas Works site (half the size of Seaway) to replace the car parking that would be lost to the Seaway development for £9.5mn!

Under the agreement SBC’s rent will be £282k p/a for the Seaway site (comprising the car park, the Rossi factory and the neighbouring house in Herbert Grove). However the car park took £607k this year, the Rossi factory and house have a market rent value of £67k and 13kp/a. This puts the site’s current gross revenue at £687k p/a. The tax payer will be considerably out of pocket if the development comes to fruition.

SBC’s claim they are seeking a ‘more stable’ income from rent and rates as opposed to

parking revenue pales into insignificance as revenue from Seaway has increased by a staggering 75% in the last 7 years. Last time I looked commercial rents have plummeted and the chancellor had just cut retail business rates by a third. SBC’s claims fail to account for the displacement of jobs and rates as businesses close in the top of the town due to the new development.

In November 2014 the then new leader of the council, cllr Ron Woodley was advised by senior council officers to sign this agreement.

The 4 year deal was signed, with an expiry date of 10th Dec 2018. Turnstone Estates has failed to achieve planning permission for the development within this timeframe, and thus SBC can walk away from this deal after 10Dec18.

I met Ron Woodley for a coffee last week, he agreed that after the 10th Dec deadline, SBC should put the whole development under full review.

Why not ask your local councillors if they also support SBC going back to the drawing board on the Seaway development?

by Paul Thompson PaulTho32949139 Oracle welcomes thoughts from all sides as balance is very important. Write your letter in the comment section located under the relevant article on our website. oraclepublications.co.uk #SaveSouthend

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COUNCIL

Our vibrant High Street At the heart of a thriving town like Southendon-Sea you need a vibrant high street.

Businesses and experts representing the retail sector say the primary barrier to footfall is excessive parking charges, yet the current administration raised them, and during this year’s budget cycle, a proposal changing rates was pushed through on a named vote, deleting the 1, 3 and 5-hour bands. These changes were objected to at Scrutiny Committee, as the opposition knew that these proposals would cause serious problems to the businesses in the high street, as residents would have to pay for 2 hours to pop to the bank or optician for example, but the administration responded that they were not putting up charges. It was further exacerbated by listing this change as “budget saving” when it was actually a £700,000 revenue generating item.

Budget amendments This decision contrasted with the budget amendment to reduce parking charges and look at affordable borough-wide permit schemes, enabling residents to park cheaply in our car parks. We also recognise the need for free short stay click and collect bays, as they are a strategic part of contemporary shopping.

There was also a budget amendment to have police support officers patrol the high street and deter rough sleepers and beggars, which was also voted down. Unfortunately, due to this, we lost at least six months of not having those officers patrolling the high street.

16

Therefore, our high street has problems with rough sleepers and aggressive beggars, which is unnerving for many and frankly undesirable for any town centre. We know that London Boroughs send “difficult” residents to Southend, as it has been publicised in the media. We have challenged Officers and the Administration to deal with the source of the problem, but this has fallen on deaf ears.

landlords There are poor-quality landlords taking in people with many problems who end up wandering around the high street, adding to the problems.

The Opposition attempted to obtain a landlords licensing scheme to control this situation, but it was rejected by the current administration.

High streets are suffering with an annual decline of around 5% due to online shopping, so it is not helpful when a Council is incapable of strategic thinking making it a difficult situation for retailers and the high street.

by Cllr Martin Terry Independent Councillor for Thorpe Ward

Oracle welcomes thoughts from all sides as balance is very important. Write your letter in the comment section located

under the relevant article on our website. oraclepublications.co.uk #SaveSouthend

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December 2018

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COUNCIL

Stop Doorstep Crime Most of us will know a victim of doorstep crime. We may even have fallen victim ourselves. Rogue traders are criminals. They appear to be professional tradespeople, using glossy leaflets, websites and wellpresented vehicles to portray a legitimate business but these are used to con people.

Often the addresses on the leaflets are bogus and their phone numbers are unobtainable.

Doorstep rogue traders will target the elderly and vulnerable, worrying them about work they say is needed to their property. Often they will point out a minor problem and convince the resident that the issue needs to be addressed urgently. The most common type of services they offer are driveway cleaning, tree maintenance and general property repairs.

How it works These tradesmen can be extremely persuasive and determined, cajoling their victim into agreeing to unnecessary work at hugely inflated prices without providing any guarantees or legally required documentation.

They will seemingly offer big discounts for cash and will demand payment in advance, often coercing and accompanying the victim to the nearest cash point.

and often unfinished. The victim will probably have no way of contacting the trader to return to complete the work or to be able to seek redress. Rogue Traders present an increasing threat to our communities, often leaving victims severely distressed and hugely out of pocket.

What can be done Remember, it is your doorstep, do not let these people bully their way into your home.

If you’re not sure who’s at your door you don’t have to open it, genuine callers will make an appointment to come back at a later date or will be happy to wait while you check that they are who they say they are.

If you are considering employing a tradesman, search from a reputable source such as the Buy with Confidence scheme which is the only approved scheme operated by Trading Standards. They can be contacted either by calling 03454 040506 or by visiting www.buywithconfidence.org.uk You can report doorstep crime by calling Trading Standards via Citizens Advice on 03454 040506 or if you feel threatened, call the Police on 101.

The work is normally of a very poor standard 22

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December 2018

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BEAUTY

Look a million dollars this Christmas

When the Christmas lights go on in Southend High Street, you know that the festive season is upon us - and not only that, with it comes a round of social engagements that keep going through to the New Year.

Naturally, the hectic social calendar is simply a series of great excuses to dress up and wear glamorous make-up. Whether you’re celebrating with friends, getting ready for the office party or, let’s be honest here, trying to outdo your brother’s missus at a family do, here are my hair and beauty tips for looking a million dollars this Christmas…

Look amazing this Christmas December is definitely the ideal time to use charcoal eyeliner or some sparkly eyeshadow for some genuine glitz and glamour. The key is to blend - use a softer colour in the corner of your eye and add the darker shades as you work your way out.

Don’t neglect your hair. The constant switching between the cold outside to warm, hated or air-conditioned indoor environments can dry your hair out. So, make sure you use moisturising conditioner and, at least once a week, apply a deep-condition hair mask for extra shine.

The cold of Winter has a remarkable effect on your summer tan. Maintain that natural glow by applying a gradual fake tan to slowly build the colour for a natural finish. This will give you a sun-kissed look on the dancefloor and in the obligatory group photos at parties.

Talking of photos. If you’re a bit of a coffee fiend and can’t help but have a cheeky peppermint mocha or gingerbread latte every morning, make sure you use whitening toothpaste to keep the stains at bay.

A rather delicious way to avoid chapped winter lips is to exfoliate them with a simple mix of honey and brown sugar. Rub the mixture on your lips for a natural way to keep your lips soft and Christmas kissable.

Choosing a hairstyle Now, when it comes to choosing a hairstyle to rock your festive shindig, each season has its own trends and, in some cases, a mind-boggling number of different, on-trend looks. Here at Grateful Heads, we think you can’t really go wrong with tumbling tousled curls. Heated rollers are an easy way of achieving this classic look, and they can be worn while you wrap your Christmas presents for easy multitasking!

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December 2018

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For more information www.wilkinskennedy.com 30

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December 2018

Get ready for winter As the leaves begin to fall, before we know it, winter will be upon us.

From design to installation, we provide the full service.

With the days getting shorter and the clocks due to go back, now is the time to consider how you can efficiently heat your home.

At Thornwood we have the perfect solution for those cosy nights and weekends in front of your woodburner. So let’s make sure you don’t have to go through another winter without the warmth and comfort of a wood-burning stove in your home.

Contact us for a free home consultation or pop in to discuss options at the showroom.

Visit our new showroom 327 Southchurch Road, Unit 8 Southchurch Business Park, Southend-on-Sea, Essex SS1 2PE Our site is wheelchair friendly plus free parking for our customers. t: 01702 904002

e: info@thornwoodfireplaces.com w: thornwoodfireplaces.com

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December 2018

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NEW EX DISPLAY CONSERVATORY FURNITURE SALE We have some stunning ex display Conservatory sets on sale at Highgate with savings of up to 50%

Desser & Ex display sale Desser & Co. have over 95 years experience manufacturing conservatory cane furniture, featuring British made cushions.

We will have a full display of their products all year round. Choose from the many fabric options and have your suite made to order; then delivered to your home by us.

This Opera three piece suite including Coffee table was £1933 Now £999

Ex display Corsica Modular Set in costa fabric was £1949 now £1200.

Ex display Stamford Harlow three piece set 2, 3 seater sofas and (Two chairs & sofa) in armchairs up to 35% Oasis was £1880 now off + combined deals. £1250.

Dijon three piece set (two chairs & sofa) in Arkansas was £1665 now £800.

WE OFFER THE HIGH QUALITY OUR CUSTOMERS EXPECT Highgate is one of the largest garden furniture and leisure showrooms in Essex and we only work with brands that we trust. Our site is wheelchair friendly plus free parking.

Call 01702 904000 327 Southchurch Road, Unit 8 Southchurch Business Park, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, SS1 2PE www.highgatefurniture.co.uk | sales@highgatefurniture.co.uk

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December 2018

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TACTICAL FAMILY LAW SOLICITORS BECAUSE LIFE ISN’T ALWAYS BLACK & WHITE White & Co Solicitors, 51 Alexandra Street, Southend-on-Sea, SS1 1BW

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Have yourself a merry little Christmas …

Have yourself a merry little Christmas, Let your heart be light …

According to the latest news from the media, following a study of over 9,000 65-year-olds, over an 8 year period, experts have come to the conclusion that those who have an interest and purpose in life are likely to have a better sense of well-being, in addition to a more positive attitude, leading to greater longevity.

Not sure as to what qualifies one to be an expert in this particular field – presumably an honours degree in the bloomin’ obvious! Still, there you have it, it’s official – get yourself a hobby, start socialising, and happiness will follow.

Your troubles will be out of sight What they forgot to factor in though, is that although the best things in life may come free, hobbies and socialising cost money! As you get older you may have the time to do all the things you want, but you’re unlikely to have the income or savings to make the most of it.

So, don’t forget that it’s never too late to be the person you always wanted to be, and if your New Year’s resolution is to grasp the chance to do so, if only you could afford to … perhaps you should look

at releasing some of the cash locked up in the value of your home. The monies released can be used for any purpose including travel (cruises or visiting distant relatives), hobbies and activities (golf or bowls, art and education), you’re never too old to learn new tricks or make new friends!

Here we are as in olden days, Happy golden days of yore, Faithful friends who are dear to us, They gather near to us once more And whilst it is also a truism that money can’t buy you happiness, it can certainly make misery a whole lot more palatable!

Through the years we all will be together, If the fates allow, Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow But you don’t have to muddle through – find out if Equity Release can work for you. It’s not suitable for everyone, and you will need to seek Independent Financial Advice. Call now for a quick chat, or arrange a consultation.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

And a happy and prosperous New Year!

by Ron Radway, Financial Consultant

Essex Equity Release Advice Centre 01702 410016

O

Essex Equity Release Advice Centre For a free consultation and friendly, professional advice, call 01702 410016

www.essexequityrelease.co.uk 36

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FOOD

Garlic-infused slow-roast Pork Shoulder with roasted Apples

This cut of pork takes quite a long time to cook but well worth it and the roasted apples make a nice change from apple sauce. Use the lovely juices to make your gravy and put the crackling under the grill to puff up.

Enjoy!

Cover the whole thing loosely with foil and cook for 3-3 ½ hours. About 30 minutes before the pork is ready, make a shallow cut around the waist of each apple and tuck them round the pork. Remove the foil and continue roasting for about 30 minutes or until tender.

Ingredients:

Remove the tin from the oven and transfer the pork and apples to a carving dish. Remove the skin from the pork, cut into strips and place on a baking tray (put the grill on to high). Cover the pork with foil and leave to rest.

11 tbsp sea salt flakes ½ tbsp garlic granules 2 x 1.2kg boneless pork shoulder joints 1 onion, sliced 3 bay leaves 1 head of garlic, halved horizontally 300ml chicken stock 8 small dessert apples (cox’s) 1 heaped tbsp plain flour Preheat the oven to 200/fan 180/gas 6. Mix the salt, garlic granules and ½ tbsp of ground black pepper in a bowl and rub all over the pork joints. Scatter the onion and bay leaves in a large roasting tin and place the joints on top.

Add the halved garlic, cut side down and pour the stock round the meat.

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Strain the juices from the pan pressing as much soft onion and garlic through as you can. Skim off the fat and use back in the roasting tin with.

Place on the hob add the flour and heat until smooth. Gradually blend in the strained juices, bring to the boil and simmer until thickened.

Put the skin under the grill and watch for 3-4 minutes to make the crackling.

Slice the meat and serve with the roasted apples, crackling and sauce.

Serves 8

by Judy Barden Next month: Smoked Haddock and wild mushroom tray bake

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WHAT CAN A VITAMIN B12 INJECTION DO FOR YOU? BENEFITS OF B12 Boosts Energy Levels • Boosts Sleep • Deeper Sleep • Balanced Immune System • Mental Clarity & Prevents Memory Loss • Weight Loss • Aids Digestion • Heightens Metabolism • Brain Health • Healthy Skin, Hair, Nails & Heart • Prevents Anaemia • Lowers Risk of Parkinson’s & Alzheimers Disease

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December 2018

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LOCAL SUPPORT

Memory Worship - Worship for those with and without dementia Memory Worship is a new service that has been created to support the spiritual needs of people living with dementia. This short service takes a regular pattern of welcome - singing well-known hymns, listening to a familiar passage of scripture, followed by a brief talk, prayers then saying the Lord’s Prayer together. Dementia can leave sufferers and their carers feeling isolated – we understand how this can feel and our dementia friends trained team can offer support and help.

Memory Worship services take place from 2-4 pm at Thorpe Bay Methodist Church, The Broadway, on the first Monday of each month and at Wesley Methodist Church in Elm Road, Leigh on the third Monday of each month. The idea behind this type of service is to provide a safe area for all those with or without dementia to come together to experience a time of worship and prayer, sing songs, chat

and much more. After the service we provide tasty treats and drinks for all to enjoy and we then host fun activities and simple crafts.

We believe it’s vital to recognize people’s faith at all levels, even if they can no longer express this verbally and to provide a caring environment where they can approach God, worship and praise him within a friendly community.

Memory Worship this Christmas Join us at Thorpe Bay for our next service which will be themed around Christmas on Monday 3rd December from 2-4 pm.

Traditional Christmas Services Come along to Thorpe Bay’s Nativity service at 10 am and Carol service at 6 pm - both on 16th, our Christmas Eve communion at 11.30 pm and our Christmas Day Celebration service at 9.30 am. We have lots more going on so please check out our website www.tbmchurch. org for more details.

More information contact: Angela Merenda - Thorpe Bay Methodist Church 01702 217560 Julie Peek – Wesley Methodist Church – 01702 479804

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December 2018

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HEALTH

Discovering organic vegan wine You might think all wine is vegan as it’s made from grapes. Well it may surprise you to learn that is not always the case. The process is a bit more complicated than that. As we all know wine is essentially fermented grape juice. Yeasts, either natural or cultured, convert the grape juice sugars into alcohol.

earth, and bentonite and kaolin clays as “fining” agents or produce unfiltered and unfined (“raw”) wines.

Now we have defined what vegan organic wine is, lets talk about the benefits of drinking it as opposed to the average bottle of wine.

Defining Organic

1. Less harmful chemicals –no use of artificial and synthetic chemicals, herbicides or pesticides

So, lets define ‘organic’ in terms of wine. Organic wines are made without herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers and genetically modified seeds.

Organic wines also typically avoid the use of added sulphur in bottling. The benefit of this is a reduced risk of getting a blotchy complexion or more severe reaction. This may be caused by an allergy to preservatives.

2. Higher levels of Resveratrol – an antioxidant found to be anti-ageing, promote heart health, protect the brain

Defining Vegan Let’s move on to defining ‘vegan’ in terms of wine. The reason that all wines are not vegan or even vegetarian-friendly has to do with how the wine is clarified and a process called ‘fining’. Traditionally, some wineries will use animal proteins such as casein (a milk protein), albumin (egg whites), gelatine (animal protein) and isinglass (fish bladder protein) to remove impurities and sediment from wines. Vegan wineries instead use charcoal, diatomaceous

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3. Lower levels of sulphites – less likely to cause allergic reaction 4. Less impact on the environment – not using artificial chemicals or animal by-products means less harm to the ecosystem 5. Above all, tastes better If you would like to learn more about organic vegan alcohol, then pop into the store for a tasting session. We also stock organic vegan beer, vodka and gin. If you don’t drink alcohol, that’s fine come try our non-alcoholic gin.

by Genesis Ali Nutritionist at V Health Thorpe Bay

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December 2018

Foot Health Practitioner

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Mobile foot care service offering treatments in the comfort of your own home, including: • Nail Cutting & Filing • Corns • Callus/Hard Skin • Fungal/Thickened Nails • General Foot & Nail Care • Dressings & Paddings

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59

‘If you think reading is boring… you’re doing it wrong.’

Once upon a time, in a world before iPhones and Play Stations, people would look at words printed on paper and use knowledge and strategies, word recognition and comprehension - a process called reading, an interaction between the text and the reader. Sadly, it really is becoming the case that reading is ‘not a thing’ anymore.

Children often insist that they have so many more interesting things to do these days that it is something that is regarded as a chore by them, rather than something that can be pleasurable or seen as a leisure pursuit. When we get a new novel out in an English classroom, the cry of the teenager can be heard, asking, ‘Can’t we just watch the DVD?’

Our mission Our mission, as the merry band of English teachers that we are - and there are quite a few of us here - is constantly to strive to enthuse them about books, plays, poems, newspapers, magazines, blogs, speeches, letters, interviews, reviews; any kind of text on paper that we can - it doesn’t have 60

to be a long novel. The focus of the newstyle GCSE is very much close analysis, of how language (and even the structure of the writing) is cleverly used to convey messages.

For a generation who don’t generally choose reading as a passion in their spare time, this can be quite a tall order, as the texts can be very ‘wordy’ and are only seen for the first time in the exam situation.

We are constantly telling them that they need to become ‘word nerds’, listening to literally everything that people say, taking in deliberate styles and chosen dialogue, reading things that are intended for a specific audience.

The competition What great timing then, that our Council put out a competition to schools, when we hadn’t been back more than a few days in September, to visualise what Southend will look like in 2050. Wow - big topic! Over 350 local pupils entered and 5 of our brilliant lower school pupils became finalists. We are so proud of the sensitive ideas that they came up with, especially around health,

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December 2018

education and the environment. They got to attend a presentation and meet the Mayor, while their work was displayed for the guests to read.

In a world where budgets are tight and trips out of school can be taking time away from essential classroom training, we have been trying to find ways to try and engage them in reading and writing again in a fresh way and a different environment. So imagine our delight when we received an invitation from one of our governors to make a connection with ‘Metal’ which is an incentive run from Chalkwell Park that encourages and supports all of the arts. Another timely gift!

published. They saw first-hand that writers can be just as interesting as they are and some are even young people, who haven’t been out of school that long, have been to University and still choose to read (and even write) books.

Keep Reading!

Meeting Dean Atta What an amazing facility! We were fortunate enough to take a class of Year 10 pupils there for a morning to meet a young author called Dean Atta, who was initially wary at the thought of 30 teenagers giving him their honest opinions on his latest, dueto-be published work (who wouldn’t be?).

Our pupils went about the morning in their usual manner: listening respectfully to what he had to say, asking thoughtprovoking questions and speaking their minds about what they had heard. He was suitably impressed and they were seen to be thoroughly engaged by the idea that a young man could be so passionate about literacy that he enjoyed it and made a career out of it. Who knew?

Diary date for March ‘Metal’ are hosting more writers for a week in March and we have been invited back to join in some workshops then. Can’t wait! It was a fantastic way to get pupils to acknowledge the level of skill and passion that goes into actually getting your works December 2018

Michelle Buck - Head of English Shoeburyness High School - 01702 292286 schooloffice@shoeburyness.southend.sch.uk www.shoeburynesshigh.co.uk

SOUTHEND EAST COMMUNITY ACADEMY TRUST

STOP PRESS: Carol Concert - A Christmas Celebration Wednesday 12th December 2018 at 7pm in the Wendy Owen Hall at the school.

We have vacancies for community governors on our school’s local governing body – please see the school website for further information.

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Carpenter & Joiner

WHAT’S ON ADVENTURE WONDERLAND

DATE Everyday from 1st-24th December TIME Varied times VENUE Adventure Island, Southend-on-Sea, SS1 1EE To obtain the best value please allow for a four hour stay, although many guests stay for the whole day.

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JOHN SORRELL - your local carpenter and joiner for over 25 years Most aspects of woodwork and property maintenance undertaken, including:

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DATE Everyday from 1st-24th December TIME Varied times VENUE Sealife Adventure, Eastern Esplanade, Southend-on-Sea Make sure you have written your Christmas letter to give to Santa and check to see if you are on the good list! Santa will be free of charge and anybody with children can visit Santa.

CAROLS FOR CHRISTMAS DATE 8th December 2018 TIME 13:00 - 17:00 VENUE Royals Shopping Centre, Southend High Street Local choirs performing inside the Royals throughout December.

SOUTHEND CHRISTMAS MARKET DATE 8th December 2018 TIME 09:00 - 17:00 VENUE Southend High Street Festive treats for all the family.

FATHER CHRISTMAS AT PRITTLEWELL PRIORY DATE

8th December 2018

TIME 10:00 - 16:00

Don’t miss your opportunity to meet Father Christmas at Prittlewell Priory on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th December! For one weekend only, Father Christmas will be in the magical setting of Prittlewell Priory to greet our younger visitors, but don’t forget to book in advance.

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