Ripples MAY 2017 L&F_1 LINK – May 07 28/04/2017 12:21 Page 1 May 2017 Ripples MAY 2017 L&F_1 LINK – May 07 28/04/2017 12:21 Page 2 CONTENTS ALL CHANGE: Are you ready? Ripples May Egged on by family members and business associates, I News 4 have abandoned my five-year-old but reliable Acer PC in favour of a tiny, shiny Apple MacBook computer. Fairford Festival 10 Everyone said I’d be sure to like it. When it all works, it Home & Garden 16 runs like a gem. But since taking it out of the box six weeks ago, life has, at times, felt like ‘hell on earth’. Councils 22 In the middle of all this I went to the Lechlade Community Cinema for the Lechlade Music Festival 26 film ‘I, Daniel Blake’, Ken Loach’s take on Britain’s benefit system. It was the Creative Arts 28 technology thrown at the lead character by the social security system that made the biggest impression on me. I’ve been blessed with a technical Business 30 education and have used computers and gadgets a lot. If I was struggling Food & Drink 34 with the PC/Mac conversion, how on earth would a carpenter in his 60s, who’d never used a computer, be able to login, let alone fill in the complex Sport 36 online claim forms? Pets 39 So, what have I learned from this experience? This applies to any technology Wellbeing 40 really. Profile 42 It’s an inescapable fact that we find it harder to adapt to change as we get older. Even ‘technical’ people find change difficult and frustrating. If you know Events 44 a younger person willing to be your wingman, enlist them immediately. Transport 49 The bigger the change (and I’d include the PC/Mac here) the more you need Contacts 50 to allow for things to go wrong – and, believe me, they will. That means giving it plenty of time to install and overcome the seemingly endless glitches. Churches 50 Take stock of all the equipment you use and what you do with it. List it all and get advice about how it will all fit together. Your budget must allow for Cover Picture: replacements and upgrades. And you might need to allow for expert technical Members of Fairford Classic assistance to get it all running. It’s surprising how the cost and time escalate Car Club meeting at the while confidence drains away. Royal Agricultural University. Photo: Malcolm Cutler Perhaps the most important question is whether you are ready for the change. People who easily follow intuition will probably feel at home quickly with REMINDER: modern technologies. Whereas people like me (an irritating engineer who The deadline for our needs to know how something works) may well make a meal of it. May edition is 12 noon, Editor Friday 12th May. Ripples Community Magazine Published by Adrian Young and Graham Fry © Ripples Community Magazine, 2017. All rights reserved. Named contributors retain copyright on their work. Ripples Magazine is published 10 months a our format or inconsistent with our editorial Email is preferred for contributions, year during the first week of the month; we policy. otherwise by post. take a break in January and August. Make sure you are writing for a general All news, events and announcements: The deadline for contributions and audience, not just your own organisation. [email protected] advertising is 12 noon on 2nd Friday of the Contributions up to 150 words are Paid advertising: month before publication. preferred. If it is too long, we may ask you [email protected] to cut it down. We may publish longer Opinions expressed in the magazine are not Distribution: contributions, but get in touch first to avoid necessarily those of the publishers. [email protected] the annoyance of a rejection. Contributions may be published in the Tel: 01793 764768 Photographs and artwork should be clear magazine or on the website. Make clear any with good contrast. JPEG electronic format Post: limitations about what, how and when we is preferred but we can scan from good 2A The Stables, Gilberts Lane, may publish your contribution. quality prints. Make sure any identifiable Highworth, Swindon SN6 7FB We reserve the right to edit contributions people in photos agree to the photo’s Please inform the editor if you spot a and to not publish any contribution or publication. Get parent’s consent in the mistake in Ripples so we can rectify it in a advertisement that is either unsuitable for case of minors. future issue. www.ripplesmag.co.uk 3 Ripples MAY 2017 L&F_1 LINK – May 07 28/04/2017 12:21 Page 4 NEWS A tree for Bob Fairford Classic Car Club celebrates 30 years When the St. John’s Priory Park On Friday 9th April, 60 members of the Association was established Fairford Classic Car Club (FCCC) over 15 years ago, The Trout’s gathered for lunch at the Royal landlord Bob Warren offered Agricultural University, Cirencester to the Creel Bar as a free meeting celebrate the 30th anniversary of the place as there was nowhere club. The FCCC was formed in 1987 by available for group meetings on Fairford residents Malcolm Cutler and the Park. When the new Tony Scrivens, as a club for local classic development at the Park, car and motorcycle enthusiasts and their Lechlade Court, was built last families. year, Penny Warren offered them the same meeting place. Members come from all over Glos, Wilts, Oxon and as far away as Devon. Key to the All felt they wanted to show their club’s success has been the wide range of affection and gratitude to Bob activities which not only cater for motoring and Penny by presenting an enthusiasts but also for their wives, apple tree in Bob’s memory. The partners and families. These include regular tree is a Braeburn apple as Bob attendance at local village fairs and charity events, Nursing Home, where we were made very welcome loved fruit trees, especially apples, and it has been a regular supporter of the Fairford and many of the home’s residents enjoyed seeing the and had planted a small apple, Festival. cars, followed in glorious sunshine, by a run to the pear and plum orchard. He Royal Agricultural University for a very enjoyable The first meeting of the club on 12th April 1987 was always hankered anniversary lunch. More photographs and at the Hyperion House Hotel in Fairford. It was after a real cider information can be viewed on therefore fitting that our 30th anniversary started orchard. www.fairfordclassiccarclub.org.uk. with coffee at what is now the Hyperion House Steven Soltesz, Penny Warren receiving Bob’s apple tree Story and photos: Malcolm Cutler treasurer of the from Steven Soltesz St. John’s Priory and proud I am that the residents of both St Park Association, John’s Priory Park and Lechlade Court made the thought enough of Bob to present me with presentation. this apple tree in his memory and I would like Penny said: ‘I to thank everyone concerned.’ would like to say how pleased Story: Margaret Hing. Photos: Liz Roberts Training for Community First Responders (CFR) CFRs are volunteers who support their local and enter job reference 202-009-17. Applications community by attending emergency calls ahead of close Wednesday 10th May. an Ambulance. No previous medical training is Information from Stephen Andrews: 07795 915902, needed to become a CFR. [email protected] or David Chapman For details of the next course, go to www.jobs.nhs.uk 01367 850454, [email protected]. CONTACT RIPPLES COMMUNITY MAGAZINE For news, events and announcements Your local reporters Email: [email protected] Fairford and surrounding villages or post to: Tel: (01285) 712150 Ripples Magazine, 2A The Stables, Email: [email protected] Gilberts Lane, Highworth SN6 7FB Lechlade and surrounding villages Tel: (01793) 764768 4 www.ripplesmag.co.uk www.ripplesmag.co.uk 5 Ripples MAY 2017 L&F_1 LINK – May 07 28/04/2017 12:21 Page 6 NEWS Circus coming Sarah answers the call of the wild to Lechlade They say that once you’ve the lions roaring very nearby. been to Africa, the sights, During her stay, Sarah befriended a lonely meerkat, who The St Lawrence School smells and sounds stay with had been bullied and beaten up by the other meerkats Summer Fete is an annual you forever and are always in his ‘mob’ and had been made an outcast. Another event and the school’s calling you back. That is animal friend was a wild cat that slept in her tent a few biggest fundraiser. This year exactly what happened to times, together with all its fleas and ticks! Not quite so we are very excited to be Sarah Roberts from lovable were the wild dogs that had been at the reserve hosting the National Festival Fairford. She went to South for quite some time – so long that there were concerns Circus! Africa for the first time in about their ability to fend for themselves once released 2008 to spend a month The circus will perform in St back into the wild. So Sarah and a few other volunteers Sarah Roberts with her working as a volunteer at WANT TO ADVERTISE IN built a mock beast out of bits of tree branches, twigs Lawrence School grounds on baboon friends the Shamwari Game BOTH EDITIONS OF and horse skin. When presented to the pack, they tore it Friday 16th June: show times Reserve.