http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/ en-us Copyright 2008 Thu, 15 May 2008 08:19:52 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss FROM The Daily Telegraph, May 6: A disabled war widow who has refused to pay her council tax for two years has fled abroad to escape arrest. So it’s come to this, has it? Inspector Gripper of the Yard looked up in scarlet faced fury when his sergeant jabbed him stiletto style with the bad news. “She’s flown chief. Done a runner. Scarpered. Gaff’s empty. No trace. Searched. No passport. Spain’s favourite.” http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/05/police_are_getting_a_grip.html http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/05/police_are_getting_a_grip.html Blogs Cheshire Contributors Personally Speaking Thu, 15 May 2008 08:19:52 +0000 THIS country has developed a serious problem to go with all the others. This one borders on obsessional. We cannot resist tinkering with our roads, adding this, putting in that. Usually, it is in the name of safety, but sometimes I do wonder. Our relationship with roadways seems to be one of gardens and gardeners. http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/05/signs_of_artistic_ambitions_in.html http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/05/signs_of_artistic_ambitions_in.html Blogs Cheshire Contributors Personally Speaking Thu, 08 May 2008 13:46:58 +0000 Sorry to bother you. If you’ve a few moments to spare I won’t keep you long. I know you’re pushed. Who isn’t these days? I was wondering if you were intending to vote tomorrow and whether you had made your mind up yet, because I’d like you to vote for me. Yes, that’s right, in the elections. http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/04/the_local_elections_are_all_ab.html http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/04/the_local_elections_are_all_ab.html Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:35:23 +0000 ONE of the country’s newest universities is offering a degree in selling beds. The Britain we live in, eh? It is what would have been called a training course in your day. Now it comes with a cap and gown and two years’ obligatory student drunken revelry. But for being born in the wrong era I would have enrolled myself and happily moved into the halls of residence. Not only would I have bedded the pretty little blonde-haired girl down the corridor I’d have sold her the mattress as well. http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/04/industry_gets_into_bed_with_un.html http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/04/industry_gets_into_bed_with_un.html Blogs Cheshire Contributors Personally Speaking Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:17:17 +0000 WEIGHING up what to do for my hols, I was torn between a rainy week in a caravan in Abergele – it always rains in Abergele – and joining the first civilian space flight on Virgin Galactic’s spaceship Two Feather. They are now taking bookings, you know. Abergele stands on a direct route for the rain clouds from Snowdonia. All the while, it is sunny in Llandudno. You can see it sort of shimmering in the distance. But the cheap caravans are in Abergele, or Towyn if you are the fun-loving sort. If there’s a caravan site, there is always a shop and social club nearby, so there’s no end of things you can do if it is raining. http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/04/is_trip_on_spaceship_truly_out.html http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/04/is_trip_on_spaceship_truly_out.html Blogs Cheshire Contributors Personally Speaking Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:58:37 +0000 Dramania Performing Arts is all about music, street dance and drama... oh... and having loads of fun along the way! We encouage active involvement in performing arts for young people who are serious about a career in the arts or for those students who just like to showcase their talents. Dramania Performing Arts is headed up by Artistic Director, Bryan Povey who has almost thirty years experience in the performing arts! Bryan is also supported by professional sound engineers, lighting directors, choreographers, musical directors and administration staff. The Dramania Team, believe in giving each student the chance to shine and showcase their talents that they have learned from us. We will give each student the opportunity to work in a professional theatre environment and become the star that they truly are! http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/04/dramania_performing_arts.html http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/04/dramania_performing_arts.html Cheshire Contributors Dramania Performing Arts Ellesmere Port Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:50:16 +0000 ]]> http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/04/vale_ryal_lions_invite_you_to_an_afternoon_of_music_with_the_kions_youth_band_at_the_hollies_farm_shop.html http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/04/vale_ryal_lions_invite_you_to_an_afternoon_of_music_with_the_kions_youth_band_at_the_hollies_farm_shop.html Cheshire Contributors Mid Cheshire Northwich Vale Royal Lions Wed, 09 Apr 2008 18:47:06 +0000 The first time I watched Runcorn FC, I was seven year old boy. My Dad had just beaten the ‘bookie’ with a ‘Six Penny accumulator’ and won over £11 on the horses! He took us to Canal Street to watch Runcorn FC in the winter of 1964. I didn’t know then that standing on the Popular Side would change my life forever. I would end up writing a book about my home town club - Runcorn FC, called “Gone But Not Forgotten.” So, after two years and lots of hard work researching and writing the book against the odds, I have had no funding at all to do this project. I’m asking all football fans and ex-players, or anybody who can help me fulfil this life long dream, to sponsor this book. The reason I am writing the book is so that our club’s wonderful history, will be remembered for generations to come. I have interviewed ex-players, managers and life-long fans, including relatives of the famous 1939 team. I have collected together dozens of photographs, some even go back to the very beginning of Runcorn FC in 1918. I am hoping that local companies will see that that this project is worth while, and sponsor the printing costs to make this dream become a reality. If you would like to be one my top twenty sponsors - because that’s all it would take - to make this book something we could all be proud of, please do not hesitate to contact me! A donation from every sale of the book will be given to aid ‘The New Ground Fund’ for Runcorn http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/04/make_my_dream_come_true.html http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/04/make_my_dream_come_true.html Blogs Tales from a Kingsley Road Kid Tue, 08 Apr 2008 13:13:06 +0000 Teachers are being worn out by classes who hum in unison or start orchestrated coughing and other schoolboy pranks, says the union NASUWT. Humming? Coughing? They should be so lucky. We drove our French teacher mad. Of course we did not mean to, not so he’d spend months off work and return from some psychiatrist’s couch a thug with the manner of a kindly uncle, but we did. All teachers are supposed to have ways of dealing with mischievous classes. I remember a physics teacher who could lift me off the ground by the ear lobes. Mine, not his. Others just had authority. You played your joke and then did as you were told. Whenever Fat Malc, the French teacher, turned to write on the board we’d swap places, so when he turned back, no one was where they were supposed to be. Ha ha. http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/04/mon_dieu_classroom_pranks_turn.html http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/04/mon_dieu_classroom_pranks_turn.html Blogs Personally Speaking Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:34:18 +0000 When we were teenagers, in the early seventies, we played football on Heath Park in Runcorn, until you couldn’t see the ball. Once, the football went into the pond, the water was dirty, and we knew there was broken glass at the bottom, it was going dark, no one would volunteer to go in with the frogs. Luckily it was in the middle of the Scouts “Bob a Job” week and a little red headed Boy Scout happened to be passing the Heath Park, so we grabbed him, gave him a stick and held him over the pond to get the ball. After the boy got the ball out, he ran off throwing lumps of soil at us and using quite shocking language for a Boy Scout, perhaps they had a badge for swearing in those days. We shouted after him “See you again next year” “Not blooming likely he shouted”. He was none too pleased with the task, even though we did give him a bob for the trouble. Later in the year, as the autumn weather came and leaves littered the pathways, we climbed trees for conkers to string. We also used our old jams jars to go blackberry picking, the ones we had collected tadpoles in, but had to throw them back as Dad would go mad if we took anymore home. We washed the old jam jars in the dirty pond water, then we went blackberry picking at Weston, after playing in the caves on Runcorn Hill. The blackberries were always at their best in mid to late September. We took them home and Mum made homemade blackberry pie and a rice pudding to go with it. I can still taste that pie now, as far as the Boy Scout goes, I wonder what happened to him, I bet he kept well away from the Heath Park on “Bob a Job week”! http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/04/grumpy_boy_scouts_and_blackber.html http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/04/grumpy_boy_scouts_and_blackber.html Blogs Tales from a Kingsley Road Kid Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:33:48 +0000 LET me tell you something about Cheshire. It starts at Hoylake in the west and ends at Stalybridge in the east. Even though Wirral and anything the other side of Bowdon has not been in Cheshire since the last time they mucked about with the boundaries, the folk who live there still see themselves as Cheshire people. Certainly those whose families who can trace their residential antecedence right the way back through the mists of time to, oh, 1974 and beyond. http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/04/real_cheshire_folk_know_their.html http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/04/real_cheshire_folk_know_their.html Blogs Personally Speaking Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:08:02 +0000 There was social life before girls and social life after girls. Looking back I think the former was definitely more fun. Sorry ladies! Firstly there was no cinema in Weaverham, the nearest being Northwich, but I think regular cinema going came into the ‘social life with girls’ era. Secondly there were no computers available and no computer games. But the old saying “we made our own” fun was true and we had plenty of it. Looking back and analyzing it with hindsight, I would say that we certainly had more direct contact with our outside environment and nature. Staying indoors for socializing was never a good option. We usually had a collection of ‘mates’ from within a small radius of surrounding streets, lanes, drives or avenues. After homework was rushed and finished we got out and about. My first home was in Gerard Drive, so my ‘mates’ were from Gerard drive, Farm road, Gleave road, and the Crescent. Apart from the odd game of soccer and cricket, we often headed for the woods (Owley Wood) and a wooded area, the name escapes me (perhaps a reader can help, which was at the bottom of the steep decline that Wallerscote road made before leveling out towards Winnington. The areas were a treasure trove for rabbit hunting, frog spawn collections and ‘John Wayne – western type games’. We could keep ourselves amused for days. I remember vividly in the summer months playing in the wheat fields that were adjacent to Farm lane and often getting chased off by irate farm workers. The River Weaver was of course another favourite spot, were we would gather raspberries and strawberries for pie making and head for a swim in the Weaver. It was pretty brown in colour in those days and after reading Steve Williams notes on factory pollution I am beginning to wonder how we survived. The challenge in those days was to swim the whole breadth of the Weaver from the Weaverham side to the Barnton side, which appeared from a distance as a foreign country with foreigners living there! My uncle Bob initiated the ceremony for me. First by getting me to swim a certain length of the river and then after he was confident I could make it, set out alongside of me to swim the breadth. I had much less confident but plenty of determination. As I got to the middle of the river my anxiety increased. Then I realized that turning back was the same distance as going on. I made the other side exhausted, but happy for a short while, until it dawned on me that I know had to swim back. But with re-newed confidence this was achieved more nonchantly! Another more formal side of village life was the clubs and associations. We had a choice of Boy Scouts, or a newly formed Boys Brigade. The BB uniform and band seemed more appealing so a group of us joined. The uniform was quite simple, a hat that sat on the side of the head, a leather belt with a white blancoed bag attached that never carried anything and that was it. We were advised to wear a dark jacket and trousers, and as most teenagers had a dark jacket for school in those days, that was no problem. There was a whole range of activities available each week including drill marching and playing in the BB band. The only downside to the whole thing was the insistence on going to the Methodist church each Sunday, which some of us wagged of course. We hadn’t fully realized that the BB was an offshoot of the church and designed to teach boys discipline and good Christian ethics! Still we put up with the religious side for the sake of the social side. The head officer was a Mr Roper, who was a kindly man, but always seemed very serious and not prone to too much laughter. He had in fact started the association from scratch. http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/03/social_life_for_teens_in_the_5.html http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/03/social_life_for_teens_in_the_5.html Cheshire Contributors Weaverham Weaverham Community Website Sat, 29 Mar 2008 05:31:20 +0000 IS Basil Brush racist? His joke about a Gypsy nicking his wallet is a slur on all travellers, says a Gypsy and Travellers Network and stereotypes them. Personally, I suspect it’s a class thing. Mr Brush is extremely well spoken, dresses very well and doesn’t throw litter about, just the kind of person to get up a Traveller’s nose. http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/03/personally_speaking_2.html http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/03/personally_speaking_2.html Blogs Personally Speaking Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:02:27 +0000 Thought I’d put this special in as a supporter of the Cheshire Rose Fetes. Read with dismay some time back that despite surviving for 75 years they may very well not continue through lack of support and expertise! The Weaverham Rose Fete in the 50’s was an amazing event. It was a bit like Christmas in June/July. Here in Western Australia we actually do celebrate ‘Christmas in July’. July is in the middle of winter, and pretty cold. So some of us crazy gals and guys, take off for weekends and hols in the south of the state, which is the coldest part and celebrate ‘Christmas in July’, with real Christmas food, cards and celebrations! Weaverham in the 50’s was pretty quiet and the two main exciting times were the summer rose fete and Christmas. The rose fete of course attracted the traveling fair, and that was a week or two of excitement and ‘the big night out syndrome’! Whether it rained or shone, it didn’t matter. The fair ground was a honey pot to the ‘bees’ of Weaverham. We strutted are thing and met the girls for a fling. I managed to catch the last night of the Weaverham fair in July ’99. It was much smaller than I remembered and one of the stall holders confirmed the fact. The fair ground seemed to be loosing its’ appeal to modern entertainment and technology. In the 50’s the Weaverham fair took up the whole field practically and had every imaginable event. Dodgem cars, boxing rings where you could fight the resident boxer and win a quid or two. Ferris wheels, merry go rounds, hot dog stands etc etc. For us it was magic and we felt like kings for the night. I remember we all got dressed up in our best jeans, shirts and for some of us cravats and kept trying to bump into as many girls as we could and dare them to try the more dangerous rides. In ’99 on my return after 37 years away we turned out for the Davenham Rose Fete. A much smaller place and event than the Weaverham one. So come on don’t ‘throw the baby out with the bath water’. We can enjoy the new technologies like the internet but let’s retain some of the old world charm as well and support the revival of the Cheshire Rose Fetes’. It doesn’t after all have to be exactly as it was in the 50’s. What about a ‘new age’ rose fete with modern themes and space –aged displays. Remember ‘achievement is only limited by a lack of imagination’ http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/03/a_weaverham_special_past_rose.html http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/03/a_weaverham_special_past_rose.html Blogs Cheshire Contributors Mid Cheshire Weaverham Weaverham Community Website Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:59:28 +0000 Three interesting reports reach my ears: The secret of British humour is in the genes, say researchers; Britons are only happy when miserable, says an American – and Germany to buy ’Allo ’Allo. The last item is bound to make us happy. Constable Crabtree, speaking broken French in English and dubbed in German, will be worth watching with subtitles. I think we should buy it back. http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/03/personally_speaking_1.html http://www.cheshiretest.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/03/personally_speaking_1.html Blogs Personally Speaking Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:29:35 +0000