Thame.net

Category: Thame news

  • Boris Faces Seatbelt Investigation

    THAME’S MP, Boris Johnson faces possible prosecution, after he was filmed driving his Lambourghini with his two young sons strapped together in the front passenger seat.
    Read the full report on Times Online

  • Cuts To Speech Therapy Service

    THE Vale of Aylesbury PCT, which is the body in charge of Thame?s health services, recently announced that its Speech Therapy service will not be taking on any new patients and advises people to seek help privately.
    The Trust itself currently has an

  • Join The ‘Knees Up’ At Towersey (Contributed)

    THE kings of Cockney rhythm, Chas & Dave, will be visiting Towersey, near Thame, for the first time ever for a Cockney Knees-Up on Thursday, August 24. They will be taking to the stage in The Rockney Marquee, decked out like a London pub (complete with a snooker table!), which will transport revellers to London?s East End for an evening of music, song, dancing and laughter.

    Chas & Dave will be performing many of their hits accompanied by their ?new? drummer Mick who has only been performing with them for 30 years! “We are still trying him out,” says Chas. To get into the Cockney Knees-Up spirit, visitors are invited to dress up in Cockney gear with a chance to win a prize.

    Tickets for this rocking event are

  • Ickford School Children Get On Their Bikes

    CHILDREN at Ickford School went back there for the first week of the summer holidays for two cycling courses ? Biking Basics and Introduction to Road Cycling.
    Younger children enjoyed fun and games on their bikes in the playground while the older ones practised their on-the-roadskills.
    The courses followed levels 1 and 2 of the National Cycling Standards under the expert guidance of cycling instructor, Cathy Gaulter-Carter.

    Cathy said:”It’s great to have cycling courses in a small village like Ickford, especially at the beginning of the holidays, as it will encourage families to get out on their bikes for the rest of the break and hopefully cycle to school in the autumn.
    “The children can all use their new skills to become much safer cyclists with good control and, for the older children, good road sense.
    “We had great fun in spite of the soaring temperatures. The younger children had lots of practice taking a hand off the handlebars to collect a water bottle or signal and we even had a bicycle limbo game! I took the older children on rides to Shabbington and Thame (thanks to the new cycle path) and we rounded off the week with a beautiful circular route to Waterperry.
    “Cycling is such healthy exercise and good for the environment too. The more people who take up cycling, the less traffic we should see at school times.”

    National standards have been adopted to replace the outdated ‘cycling proficiency’ and the general aim is to get more people cycling more often and more safely. The three levels are for adults and children from beginner to advanced levels.

  • Burglary After Keys Left In Door

    RINGMASTER MESSAGE from Thames Valley Police:
    Between 4.30pm on Saturday, July 29, and 2am on Sunday, July 30, a property in Seven Acres, Thame, was burgled. Entry was gained by using the keys that had been left in the front door.

    Items stolen included store cards, car keys and a handbag from the upstairs bedroom.

    Anyone with information relating to this message, please call the police on 08458 505 505 and quote URN 656 of 30/07/06.

    WHAT is Ringmaster?
    Information is sent out to eighbourhood Watch co-ordinators via the Ringmaster computer system. These messages can be sent via phone, fax or e-mail to your home or business address at times that are convenient to you. You will not receive a message about every crime in your area but will be informed of spates of crime and incidents where a description of a vehicle or person has been obtained.

    Typical messages may be a warning of bogus callers or suspicious people seen in your area. A Co-ordinator would then pass this message on to their scheme members.

    How can I find out more and get Ringmaster messages sent to me?
    See the website: Link
     or contact the scheme’s Regional Administrators at Abindgon, who are Sarah Parker, Anne Barber and Carol Rudd, on 01235 556938.

  • Le Manoir settles Out Of Court

    INTERNATIIONALLY renowned chef, Raymond Blanc, has settled out of court with an American couple who were burgled whilst staying at his Milton Common hotel and restaurant, La Maison Quatre Saisons.
    Follow Link
     to read the full report in today’s Oxford Mail.

  • Thame Guides Off For A Pirate Weekend

    Avast me hearties! Shiver me timbers!
    A GROUP of 25 Thame Guides set off on Saturday (July 29), for a week of buccaneering fun.
    The girls, all members of 3rd Thame Guides, are taking part in “Pirate Camp” at Blackland Farm, East Grinstead, in West Sussex, until next Saturday, August 5.
    The Thame guides are accompanied by Leaders and young leaders including Liz Shorthouse, Guider in
    charge, Quarter Master,Ellie Shorthouse and Nicola Spacy – all ex-Thame Guides.

    New Guiders, Debbie Sims and Hannah Hazell, have also gone along to join in with the marauding merriment. They are also ‘home grown’ having climbed through the ranks as Brownies.

    The Seven day programme with a pirate theme will include abseiling, kayaking, archery, zip wire, crate challenge, wall climbing and a pirate parade, as well as camp fires, wide games and duties.

  • Gardening News Letter – August, By Jane Follis (Including recipe for all those courgettes!)

    THIS continuing dry spell has prompted me to sit down and write a list of drought tolerant plants readily available in the UK.
    This will not only help me with future planting plans, but it is also something I thought might be of interest to you. If you want a copy just contact me and I will forward it on to you. As I was going through the list I realised that certain plants we thought of as extremely tender only a few years ago, such as Pittosporum tenuifolium ?Silver Queen?, can now quite happily survive our winters; more indications perhaps of global warming.
    I was also pleased to find that I already use the vast majority as a matter of course.
    Having ripped my garden apart in late July I can now sit back and think what I might plant. I removed an enormous Viburnum tinus that had spread to at least three meters, two Choisya and a Euphorbia
    wulfenii. The space these have left is amazing and I can?t wait to sit down and actually design something for my own space. Whilst working in the garden we found, to my horror, an adder basking under some old bricks and he wasn?t small!! I now very gingerly
    walk up the path to my office wondering if he is lurking in the undergrowth.
    August is the month when we designers think things go quiet.
    Not so for me, I?m afraid. I still have lots of interesting projects on the go, including the possibility of two commercial jobs. I am also quite excited at the prospect of judging the ?New Homes
    Garden Awards? on the 17th.

    This competition was set up a few years ago to encourage developers, designers and landscapers to
    all work together. I might even enter it next year. If you are interested the website is www.newhomesgardenawards.co.ik.

    A U G U S T
    SEASONAL RECIPE
    PISTO MANCHEGO
    Great if you have a glut of courgettes.
    3 tbs of fruity olive oil 1 pepper cut into squares
    1 medium onion, chopped 1 courgette cubed
    5 cloves of garlic minced 1lb tomatoes, skinned and chopped
    1 tbs minced parsley salt and pepper
    Heat the oil in a large saucepan and saut

  • All Right For Summer – By Julia Gasper

    IT is the time of year when all sensible people are making Summer Pudding, one of the great creations that proves the British genius for puddings.
    What’s extraordinary is that there are still some people out there who don’t know how to make it, and a lot of silly recipes around that can’t resist complicating this wonderfully simple pudding. Delia Smith’s recipe tells you to butter the bread – no, that’s just confusing Summer Pudding with Bread Pudding, a very different matter. The latter is cooked, in a custard, and contains eggs and dried fruit. The clever thing about Summer Pudding is that it’s not cooked, which is just the point of it. It was invented by frugal nannies and housewives to avoid lighting a fire or switching on an oven in summer. One recipe I found on the internet even says you can use rhubarb!! Ugh. Never put in lemon zest – the summer berries have quite enough acid of their own. And there is absolutely no need to butter the dish.

    Take a mixture of summer berries, preferably picked fresh from your own garden. Strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants and blackberries are all good. Raspberries on their own are excellent. Slightly squashy ones are all right so long as they are really fresh and haven’t gone off or dried out. At a pinch you can include some very ripe loganberries, but if you do, remember to double the amount of sugar. Some people use cherries, in which case you have to stone them. The fruit should be enough to nearly fill the pudding-basin you are going to use, which should have a rounded bottom. Pick out any stalks or stray insects, put the fruit in a saucepan, barely cover with water and add enough sugar to make the syrup sweet. There’s no hard and fast rule as berries and tastes vary, but about a heaped tablespoon of sugar for every handful of fruit is a good start. Raise it to simmering point for a few minutes, just long enough to dissolve the sugar, because remember, the fruit should not be cooked.

    Line the pudding-basin with slices of white bread. It hasn’t got to be stale, and I think it’s well worth a bit of fresh bread. It certainly shouldn’t be more than a day old. Take off the crusts if you like, if you can’t remember the War, in which case to do so will shock you too much. After stirring and tasting the fruit, to make sure the sugar is dissolved and there’s enough, spoon it into the bowl, cover it with a last slice of bread, put a saucer on top that fits into your bowl, and weigh it down well. After chilling for a few hours in the fridge it should be ready to serve with cream. The bread, saturated with sweetened juice, will be transformed into a moist sponge the colour of claret wine.

    And DON’T make another to freeze and bring it out at Christmas. Things like Summer Pudding should be enjoyed in their fleeting season, just in those few weeks when the berries are there in the garden and the days are long.

  • Car Boot Sales – Cheap As Chips But Is It Safe Or Legal?

    COUNTY councillors are conducting an investigation into the way car boot sales across the county are regulated. They want to find out if people who shop at car boots sales are being protected from rogue traders and are not buying fakes or other products that may be stolen or substandard.
    Cllr. Colin Lamont, who is leading the Review on behalf of the Council?s Community Safety Scrutiny Committee, said: “Thousands of people regularly flood to car boot sales every weekend in search of a bargain. Yet few people will be aware that this pleasant pastime is being increasingly abused by a few people profiting from the sale of fake and substandard goods.
    “Markets, in one form or another, have existed for millennia and are a vital cornerstone of trade. Everybody knows that car boot sales are an excellent way of recycling unwanted goods but we do need to know that the products that are for sale at them are not being misadvertised or in any other way fraudulently sold.
    “We are concerned that these great events are sometimes tainted by a few rogue traders masquerading as private individuals, with a view to escaping tax, VAT and their legal and moral obligations to their customers, and that some goods for sale at such events and other markets may be counterfeit, substandard or even stolen.
    “Some of our constituents, for example, have complained that tools or ornaments stolen from gardens and garden sheds may be being sold at local fares and car boot sales.”
    He continued: “It is important that the rules that apply to shops are also seen to apply to other places where lots of goods are bought and sold, so that consumers are protected wherever they shop and legitimate traders are not facing unfair competition.
    “We want consumers to be able to enjoy their favourite sales, confident that the goods they buy are safe, legitimate and work.”

    The council insists that the Councillors looking into this subject are keeping an open mind and want to know what local residents think about these ideas.

    If you have any views on this matter; any experiences ? good or bad ? of shopping at car boot sales and other occasional fares, the Scrutiny team would like to hear from you. They can be contacted by phoning 01865 815029 or emailing scrutiny@oxfordshire.gov.uk