Romance in Colliers Wood

‘The first day of the rest of your life’

The Colliers Wood ballroom dancing glitterati attended the August monthly ball at GJ’s bar and restaurant, togged out in black ties, smart lounge suits, cocktail dresses and ball gowns. Gorgeous, cute and discerning fashion were all evident.

The music provided the opportunity to dance ballroom routines- quick and slow, European and South American (and the occasional very slow ‘smooch’) with the added joy of making new friendships.

Although these monthly balls take place every first Thursday of the month, there was no lack of spontaneity and inventive dialogue amongst those who attended, and competition in the fashion stakes made the evening totally fascinating and will no doubt stimulate many new fashion designs- do not be surprised if ‘I saw it in Colliers Wood first’ becomes a catch phrase.

These occasions give not only the opportunity for dressing up and testing the effectiveness of that new perfume, but for forming new friendships in a sedate non-threatening environment.

The glamorous scented air of the sprung wooden dance floor was enhanced by the enchanting view of the Italianate terraced garden outside, where couples lingered under a starlit sky maintaining the romantic momentum aroused by their dance interpretation of the music- who knows- for some their frog kissing days may be over.

So, every first Thursday of the month from 7.30 pm, dress up and release your inner self at this dance venue- this re-invention may be ‘The first day of the rest of your life’- as was sung in one of the waltzes.

by G. Tudor-Hart and A. Townsend

Little League Football Registration on the 12th of September from 10 - 12pm at the Colliers Wood Recreation Ground - want to get help run it? Contact us!

Do you have a story for our Winter edition? Get it to us by the 16^th of November and yours could be our cover story!

Contact the editor, Christopher at info@collywood.org.uk, or leave a voice or text message on 07588 812078.

Parking Charges Are Good For Our Planet?

by J. Buchanan

They would help us to save a habitable planet if it encourages people to get out of their cars, which contribute so significantly to the climate change (CC) situation. There is now increasing evidence of CC destroying our planet's human life support system. The proposals are understandably unpopular with motorists BUT, as someone who gave up driving and (almost) riding in other people's cars several decades ago, I strongly recommend 'life without cars'.

Since the 1970s when Dr Paul Ehrlich of Stanford Uni, USA, wrote 'The Population Bomb', population sizes have grown from Worldwide c4bn to 7bn now and c56m to c61.5m in the UK. Ehrlich's 'How to be a Survivor' describes lifestyle changes needed. These changes were radical and involved significant localisation of food production & behavioural changes. They cut out carbon emitting travel & global food transportation. Nowadays we surely need even stronger changes if we have a chance of preserving this planet in a habitable form for future generations.

Significant contributions to the emissions that are and have caused the CC situation come from the excessive CO2 emissions from manufacture, transportation (both air & land) & consumption in our extravagant throw-away society.

Perhaps Colliers Wood, as part of a socialising & integrating community, should welcome increased charges – perhaps with special concessions eg free permits for those with special health needs – and lead the way within what is regarded as an environmentally caring & friendly local authority – by cutting down or giving up using private cars and set examples to other communities.

Colliers Wood Community Food Co-operative

by M. Dees

Do you have problems buying good quality food in the local area? Do you want to buy organic but are frustrated by the cost and lack of choice? Would you be interested in joining together with local residents to source local produce or organic essentials?

More and more communities are setting up food co-ops so they can get good food at an affordable price and have more control over where their food comes from. Food co-ops are groups of people who join forces in order to be able to buy foods they may otherwise find it hard to get hold of at a price they can afford. By volunteering their time and pooling their buying power they can get produce direct from local farmers or wholesalers.

There are lots of types of Food Co-ops including buying clubs, stalls, bag or box schemes, mobile stores or home delivery schemes, markets or shops.

Before we start to develop a food co-op to provide good quality food at an affordable price, we need to know if you are likely to use it and if it will suit your needs. If we set up a food co-op do you think you would shop with us? What sort of products would you be interested in buying from a food co-op? Fresh fruit and vegetables, wholefoods (e.g. rice, beans, nuts, flour, dried fruit, etc), meat and dairy, or other produce?

Is there any particular type of food co-op you’d most like to use? Informal buying club (i.e. collecting pre-ordered foods from people’s houses), stall at local community venue, bag or box scheme, mobile store or home delivery, or a shop?

The food co-op will be run by volunteers - would you be prepared to spend some time volunteering on a regular basis? Are you interested in being involved with setting up the food co-op or being on the committee? Would you like to be kept updated about the progress of the project?

If you are interested in helping out with, or shopping with, a local food co-op then please email mikedeesfromhull@yahoo.co.uk or call Michael on 07963 254252 with the answers to the above questions.

• Do you think that we should plant more trees in Colliers Wood?
• Where do you think we should plant them?
• Would you like to help us plant them?

A total of £172.80 has been raised this year to plant more trees in Colliers Wood - over £120 was raised at our community games nights and £50 was donated by the stallholders at the Cavendish Road table-top sale in April. This money will be match-funded by the environmental charity "Trees for Cities" who would like to help us plant 600 trees during National Tree Week at the end of November. We have invited them to join us at our next residents' meeting which will be held at the community centre at 7.30 p.m. on Tuesday 8^th September. They would like to hear from us about where we would like these new trees to be planted. I hope that that you will be able to join us so that you can have your say!

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Editing, artwork and design by C W Killerby. Copyright © C W Killerby 2009. All rights reserved. This site is best viewed with a standards-compliant web browser such as Firefox.