Welcome to this week's Penny Post celebrating local life in and around:
Newbury • Thatcham • Hungerford • Lambourn • Downlands • Wantage • Marlborough
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In your area
• Hungerford Area: arts, heat, repairs, reports and archaeology.
• Lambourn Valley: plans, grit, trees, volunteers and donations.
• Newbury Area: a larder, a quarter-final, art, code and an ombudsman.
• Thatcham Area: post, signs, gifts, DJ skills and a missing bus.
• Compton & Downlands: a sale, a vote, donations, crafts and fundraising.
• Theale Area: a cycleway, an approval, prints, applications and cherry trees.
• Wantage Area: puppies, stories, charge points, health questions and rhymes.
• Marlborough Area: ash trees, garden waste, roadworks, precepts and paths.
• Swindon Area: schools, trees, a hub, an oasis and robins.
A bit more news
• Plan B guidance – revised Covid requirements from this week.
• Please remember to submit your Covid test results whether positive or negative.
• Have your say on how the Thames Valley Police budget should be spent by 18 Jan.
• 6 Jan train timetable update from Bedwyn Passenger Train Group.
• 2022 Travel Advice from Veronica at Fare Wise Travel.
• West Berkshire Library January news.
• Penny Post Hungerford January Newsletter.
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Recommendations
• Flossy recommends Into the Light Home Healer Emma Loveheart "Thank you for everything you have done, our house now feels like a home. For the first time in 4 years, a sensor light in the cloakroom has finally stopped turning on randomly at all hours."
• Joanna recommends Fare Wise Travel Veronica and her team really listened to what we were looking for and found something incredible that suited us both. For a very good price. It was quick, efficient, value for money and a very friendly service.
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Special offers
• Merry Fitmas from Herongate Club 3 month membership, no contract.
• Lavender Eye Pillows & Soy Wax Candles & Online Yoga with Beth. Quote ‘PENNYPOST’ for £2 off (valid until 31 Jan 2022).
• Spa days, hair/beauty treatments & gift vouchers from Natura Spa at Inglewood Quote PENNY10 for 10% OFF in Jan 2022.
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Local activities
• Bookends Book Club on zoom Mon 10 Jan: My Sister the Serial Killer. All welcome.
• Free LInks to Thrive creative classes for adults of all ages & abilities to support wellbeing
• Ageing Creatively classes for over 55s with Corn Exchange, Newbury start 17 Jan.
• WISE male youth dance company 12 Jan audition at the Corn Exchange Newbury.
• Free10-week Family Links Nurturing Programme for parents and carers (of children any age) in the Wantage and Grove area starts Fri 21 Jan. Focusing on empathy, positive discipline, self awareness and appropriate expectations.
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January Courses Guide
For a good choice of in-person and online activities to keep you busy.see our guide here for art, craft, dance, drama, singing, fitness, cookery, Spanish, yoga, mindfulness and more.
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New Year Quiz
Still time to enter our bumper quiz here for the chance to win a generous prize from The Ibex in Chaddleworth. The good news is that you don't have to answer all the questions.
Deadline: 23 January.
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New year, new you?
• If you want to start volunteering there are lots of opportunities from your local library and tree planting and faggot making to crewing The Rose of Hungerford.
• If fitness is on your resolution list, Herongate Club has extended weekend opening hours, frozen membership prices, has no-contract three-month memberships and no joining fee in January.
• The pros and cons of New Year resolutions versus a slight change of direction.
• Whatever you decide to do this year, iwriting your goals down increases your chance of achieving them.
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Wrapping up Christmas
Here are ideas for what to do with your tree, cards, Christmas pudding, unwanted presents and even plastic Celebration & Jacobs Cream Cracker tubs.
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Guest glogs & features
• Astronomy Guide to the January Night Sky.
• Dry January: our tips for first-timers. Don't worry it gets easier...
• 12 Days of Crofton Beam Engines.
• Keeping pets Safe in Winter tips from National Animal Welfare Trust Berkshire.
• Delivery & Take-Away Guide.
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Good causes
• This week from the Volunteer Centre West Berks includes online Volunteer Recruitment Fair Sat 5 Feb and lots more.
• West Berks residents struggling with energy, food, clothing and housing costs can apply to the Household support fund.
• Age UK charity shop in Thatcham and Trindledown Animal Welfare Trust in Great Shefford is grateful for donations of unwanted Christmas presents.
• The 4 million households in the UK who are on energy key meters pay one third more for fuel compared to those on standard direct debit tariffs. Please join the Community Organisers conversation to address this unjust situation about fuel poverty on Tue 11 Jan at 1pm.
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Property and land
• For sale: four-bed house, Hungerford. £435,000. Brearley & Rich.
• For sale: six-bed house, Clench Common. £1,750,000. Brearley & Rich.
• For rent: two-bed flat, Eddington. £720pcm. Nina Clark Lettings.
• For rent: one-bed flat, Newbury. £975pcm. Nina Clark Lettings.
• For rent: ad hoc workspace, Hungerford. £20/day Hungerford Printing Company
• For sale: Eden Retirement Livings Pearl House in Newbury offers spacious apartments and penthouses with 24/7 concierge, restaurant, club lounge and parking.
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Local businesses
Please visit our local business directory to support the businesses that support PP. Pubs, cafés, B2B, arts, food and drink, trades, shops and more...
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This week: The Funky Noodle for delicious South East Asian take-aways
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This week's jobs
This week's jobs include: record label admin assistant, part-time admin & finance officer, part-time dog walker & pet sitter, returns administrator, foreman/site manager, full-time marquee rigger, workshop-based mechanics, bar and wait staff, chefs, kitchen porters, housekeepers, drivers, lifeguards, warehouse operatives, forklift operators, unit managers, cleaners, LGV drivers, personal care assistants, heavy-recovery operator, service manager, carers, recreation assistants, facilities manager, nurses and laundry assistants.
Volunteering is good for the CV (and the soul) See local volunteer positions avaialble.
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This Week with Penny
• According to superstition, spirits live in the trees we bring into our homes for Christmas and must be released before Twelfth Night (6 Jan) so they can get back into the fields to help the crops grow. But we are keeping ours up a bit longer to keep spirits up at home while evenings are still dark. Apparently The Queen doesn't worry about superstition either, keeping up her decorations until 6 February, the anniversary of her father King George VI's death.
• A lot of local pubs are taking some days off this month. For instance The Five Bells in Wickham is open Friday to Sunday until 16 Jan.
• It was a relief when our vegetarian son didn't turn vegan as threatened after Christmas. In fact he had an allergic reaction to vegan chocolate, possibly to the soy lecithin ingredient which is used in many products these days. According to Natrue's Corner in Newbury and this article, we should stick to fermented soya products like miso and tempeh, and tamari instead of soya sauce.
• What appeals to me more is a Climavore diet which is more nuanced than the plant-based band wagon that has become a big manufacturing business, seemingly full of ingredients from a chemistry lab rather than real food. Maybe I'm just old fashioned...
• The River Lambourn is just starting to rise in our village where the riverbed is dry for months every year. It will be great to have our sparkling chalk stream back. Let's hope that this year it will be less contaminated with sewage than it has been in the past – over to you, Thames Water...
• Happy New Year and all the best for a healthy and happy 2022.
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See also the nine weekly news section (links at the top of the newsletter) for upcoming events in your area.
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We recommend double-checking in-person events are still going ahead.
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Sun 9 Jan
Charity Christmas Tree Chipping, Hungerford
Wed 12 Jan
Wantage Cafe Scientifique online:The Harwell connection to the exposure of Klaus Fuchs, the most dangerous spy in history
Sat 15 Jan
Repair Cafe, Wantage
Sat 22 Jan
Old Baby Mackerel Bluegrass Music at Ace Space, Newbury
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Have a great weekend,
Penny & Brian
penny@pennypost.org.uk
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