Ventnor Blog

The temperature has suddenly got colder and fuel prices aren’t getting any cheaper.

If you’re concerned about your fuel costs over the winter then you might want to go along on one of the Future Energy events that taking place on the Wight next week.

The aim of the events is to offer some help and advice to those facing high energy bills.

But it’s not just for the benefit of individuals, businesses will also have an opportunity to find out ‘Energy Options, Profits & Savings’ from Business Link on Friday 31 October at the Riverside Centre at 1.30pm, as part of the wider event.

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Coming up a week on Saturday, your chance to see Clive Gregson live at Quay Arts.

Born and raised in Manchester, but now based in Nashville, Clive Gregson is an accomplished singer, musician and record producer of world-renown.

He first attracted attention back in 1980, when his now legendary band Any Trouble burst on to the music scene.

In 1985, he formed the groundbreaking partnership with Christine Collister and toured with the Richard Thompson Band.

Between recording sessions and solo work, Clive has toured with Eddi Reader, Boo Hewerdine and Nanci Griffin Griffith.

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Just when everyone was thinking that the idea had passed, we’ve found that it looks like the disposal of County Hall could be back on the cards.

In their most recent let’s flog off what might be worth something report, otherwise known as the Capital Receipts Programme, near the bottom of the document is an entry for “County Hall and Newport Harbour” (sic).

The reason for sale is listed as “Maximise capital receipt, regeneration of Newport Harbour and County Hall sites and enable relocation of Council.”

To that end, we’re told that “Option appraisals currently being investigated which may lead to disposal or retention.”

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Update: Apologies for the false alert - this production has actually been cancelled due to lack of interest.

Theatre lovers don’t forget that tonight sees the Rollmop Theatre Company perform The Secret Agent in Newport.

This is an electrifying and timely, adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s epic play.

Rich in atmosphere and psychological realism, The Secret Agent explores the confused motives that lie at the heart of political terrorism.

Tickets for the performance which starts at 8pm in the Anthony Minghella Theatre at Quay Arts are £10 / £9 (concessions).

Call the box office (01983) 822490 to book yours.

The IW Council has published its latest list of properties and land that it owns, that it has decided to sell off over the next three years (see previous coverage).

There are now 42 items on the list, but that includes entries like “Residential Rationalisation” - management speak of the highest order, whose meaning could be innocent or something quite worrying.

Others on the list include a couple of car parks in Newport, New Street Car Park and South Street Car Park.

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Tickets went on sale this morning for the 2009 Isle of Wight Festival.

The festival takes place in Seaclose Park again next year over the weekend of the 12th-14th June 2009.

No headliners have been officially announced yet, but as we mentioned last week, Oasis are tipped to be on the lineup.

For those hoping to perform at the Festival next year, entry deadline for the Live Wired band competition is this coming Friday, 24th October, so you’d better get your skates on if you haven’t applied yet.

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With less than two weeks until the Crawl of the Newport Zombies, we thought you might like to take another look at some of last year’s footage, filmed and produced by local film-maker Darren Winter.

Keep an eye on VB and the Wight Zombie MySpace for more details.

In the meantime feast your eyes on this beauty below (not for the feint hearted) and stock up on supplies of fake blood.

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Isle of Wight PC User Group (IWPCUG) has a long heritage, with their events going back as far 1991.

They’re held on the first Wednesday of each month at 7.30pm at The Riverside Centre in Newport.

The next meeting on, 7 November, will feature a talk by Roy Murphy, talking about the Wootton Bridge Historical web site.

The site was setup to gather all of the historic information about Wootton Bridge for future generations - a worthy task.

Membership of the IWPCUG is a very reasonable £6, with a £1 per meeting charged. If you want to try it out, they say you’re welcome to attend one or two meetings without joining.

Isle of Wight PC User Group. Image: © Wootton Bridge Historical 2005-2008

27.Oct.08 - This article has been removed after we received correspondence from the Isle of Wight Council legal department.

We are consulting with our legal representatives and will update you
in due course.

According to the weather forecast for Sunday, the Island will be sunny and bright with not a drop of rain.

A perfect day then to take a ride on a vintage bus across the Island. From 10.30am on Sunday the Isle of Wight Bus & Coach Museum will be opening their doors and hosting another great Running Day.

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Many thanks to Avril Mhunduru for sending through details of this worthy appeal that takes place this weekend in Newport. Ed

Computers4Africa, a charity organisation that collects unused computers, monitors or other working IT equipment and ship them to schools in Africa, will be holding an appeal in Newport this weekend.

Have you got any computers, monitors or other working IT equipment that you no longer have a use for? Would you like to see it go to school children in one of the World’s poorest areas?

Our previous appeals have been a huge success and we now have a date for another appeal in Newport, details below. Computers donated will be sent to schools in Africa, to help them teach vital IT skills in areas where they would otherwise be unable to afford the equipment.

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On display in the Rope Store Gallery at Quay Arts is Andrew Drummond’s exhibition, Sea, Light and Landscape.

After studying painting and sculpture at Croydon School of Art, Island artist Andrew Drummond went on to enjoy a prolific career in television.

Andrew has painted continuously throughout his career in television, and now paints full time from his studio in Ryde.

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Oasis are holding a press conference later today and it’s rumoured that they’ll be headling the Isle of Wight Festival as broken by our mates Virtual Festivals.

The quote they have from ’source close to the band,’ “Oasis are keen to get on the road again because they’re really proud of this album (Dig Out Your Soul). The Isle Of Wight Festival is a big one for them as it’s really upped its profile in recent years.

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Joining us at Bestival this year with camcorder in hand (thanks to Wight Trash Films) was Abi MacRobert, capturing all that went on around her.

She’s put together the first release of a two minute film, which shows that despite the less than ideal weather conditions, Bestival goers continued to enjoy themselves regardless.

We’ve got some other video bits including a longer feature to look forward to over the coming weeks. (Video after the click)

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The Virtual Festivals UK Festival Awards are in full swing and the first round of nominations have now been shortlisted.

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On Friday next week a group of Island musicians will be joined by a band from Brighton to help raise money and awareness for the needy in Tanzania.

Coming over for the gig from the mainland will be the fab Lucky Elephant (pictured) who you may have sen play at Bestival or the Big Green Picnic.

The band are signed to Rob Da Bank’s Sunday Best record label and the mother of one of the band members has a close connection to the village in Tanzania, where it’s hoped a school can be built for the benefit of the young people there.

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It’s A Raid! is packed with intriguing stories and memorable songs tracing the colourful history of Chicago and the rise and fall of its most notorious characters, performed by an award winning cast.

Nominated in 2007 for Best Acoustic Blues Act, Diana Braithwaite and Chris Whiteley keep the classic blues tradition alive, creating a brand-new sound steeped in the style and grace of yesteryear.

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We are very proud to welcome Dean Friedman described by such pop luminaries as Paul Simon as an important musical influence.

He will be performing songs old and new from his extensive catalogue in the Anthony Anthony Minghella Theatre on Tue 28 Oct at 8pm.

Dean is the chart-topping writer of such classics as “Woman of Mine”, “Lydia”, “Lucky Stars” and “Ariel” whilst another, ‘McDonald’s Girl’ was officially banned by the BBC for mentioning the name of the well known fast food chain in its chorus!

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Yellow Brick Road, the excellent clothes shop in Newport are having a mega sale today.

Everything is going for £15 or less.

Help beat the credit and crunch and stay looking cool. All items will be £5, £10 and £15 so some real bargains to be had.

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In part one of Maeve’s article, she looked at the dreaded ‘flu and covered some of herbal preparations that can help. As a registered and experienced homeopathic practitioner, Maeve sets out below some of the homeopathic remedies that she has found helps keep the runny noses at bay. Ed

Remedies
There are over 50 remedies in the homeopathic materia medica indicated for flu, here are just a few of the most common remedies I use for flu in my practice.

But first:- how to give homeopathic remedies-

Remedies if bought from a shop usually come as pills; remedies can be taken straight into the mouth or dissolved in a glass or bottle of water.

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David Pugh must have let out a high sigh of relief last night when the results of the Mount Joy by-election were announced.

Con - Roger Dixcey - 286, 45%
Lib Dem - Steph Wilmott - 155, 25%
Ind - Mandy Mellor - 150, 24%
Lab - Steve Cooper - 38, 6%

Thanks to Steve for sending through the results last night.

Taking a look around Nodehill Middle School last night reminded us of a great conference coming up later this month, organised by Modern Foreign Languages Teacher, Joe Dale.

It was about this time last year that Joe held the world-class conference about the use of technology in education.

Last year’s conference was extremely successful and Joe has built on that for this year, which includes over 30 different presentations, workshops and hands-on training sessions.

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We were contacted by Adrian Nicholas, who was originally to be the Conservative candidate of choice for the Mount Joy ward in Newport, left vacant by the resignation of Melanie Swan.

You may have seen a few letters on the County Press letter page recently. Well, Adrian was rightly frustrated because the County Press had decided to censor his right to reply and not publish his letter.

From what we’ve heard from Adrian, he’s rightly confused about his on/off position as a candidate for Mount Joy.

He tells us that David Pugh invited him to County Hall and asked him to run as the Conservative candidate.

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Island based DJ promoters, Slipdisc will be putting on a bash this weekend to celebrate their 2nd birthday

Taking place at the Studio in Newport, for just £5 you can dance you little socks off to the DJs choices of ultimate house through the ages.

Those lovely people at Slipdisc are always keen to see audience participation go a bit further than just moving their bodies around to the rhythm, so this night will also feature a friendly, but competitive battle amongst the seven Slipdisc DJs taking part; they being Lady J, Overtype, Jordan Peake (soon to play at The Ministry of Sound - details coming soon), Smithy, The Poodle, Jam and AB.

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Regular readers might remember that earlier in year Island band, The Kurves played a charity gig to prisoners at Camp Hill Prison.

Jamie Fineran, lead singer in The Kurves, who also works at the prison approached, ‘the guvner’ Ian Young to ask whether his band could put on the charity gig, raising cash for the Hospice whilst bringing something from the outside world to the prisoners.

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