Marie Curie Cancer Walk

Saturday, 26th September was a very busy day for Julie Newsam of Skeffling.

As well as cooking some of the low calorie puddings for the Martin Jackson Concert that night, she helped prepare Skeffling Village Hall for the social evening, then took entrance money and started selling raffle tickets!

You'd have thought by then she'd be ready for a long sit down with a glass or three of wine to enjoy listening to Martin Jackson.

Not on your life!

At 10.30pm Julie, daughter Vicky, and a lot of friends left the Village Hall to take part in the Marie Curie Cancer walk over the Humber Bridge which began at midnight!

Dressed as Doctors and Nurses (we won't go into that) they left the Village Hall to resounding applause and set off for Hull.

The Humber Bridge is 3.3 miles long, and when they got to the other side they had to walk all the way back again!

I was assured, VERY firmly, by one of the ladies, that they were doing the walk SOBER!

Congratulations, ladies, you did a wonderful job for a very worthwhile charity. Once all the sponsorship money is in, I'll let you know how much they raised.

A full update will be in the October issue of Skeffling News.

71 Bus Route

It was two months ago that I started writing to people about the appalling state of the buses on the 71 bus route to Withernsea.

As well as posting a blog, I wrote an item for Skeffling News, and letters to the Holderness Gazette and Hull Daily Mail. From all of this I rather optimistically thought Peter Shippe of EYMS would have responded to the complaints.

But of course he didn't. He's a busy man. He doesn't have to travel on the 71 bus to Withernsea. Indeed, if he ever did venture this far out of Hull he'd do it in the luxury of a safe, warm car!

Us passengers, on the other hand, look like facing yet another winter in a rickety old drafty rattle-trap of a bus which seems to be in the garage for repairs at least once a week!

In pure frustration I have, again, sent a letter to the Gazette in the hope that Mr. Shippe will dig deep into his conscience and at least reply this time.

Better still, I'd like Mr. Shippe to leave the comfort of his office and spend a few hours on the 71 bus and talk to the passengers. It's a faint hope, but I think it's about time he saw for himself the low standard of vehicle he's allowing to go on the road. It doesn't even have safety belts! So much for passenger care.

In the column just left of this Post you'll find a poll. Please use it to register your feelings on our bus route.

The poll will run for a month, and the results WILL be sent to Peter Shippe.

It'll be interesting to see how long he can go on ignoring us!

I Was Frisked!

I've been to a lot of airports in my life, including several in America, and through all the various security procedures in operation, I have never been frisked!

Then I went to Leeds/Bradford...

There was no problem till I walked through the metal detector and it 'pinged'.

Like phantoms in the night I was suddenly encircled by three security guards, two male and one female. One of the male guards demanded my shoes then stood with the other one, about two feet away from me and watched while the female guard frisked me!

"Hold your arms out," she said crisply with a suspicious gleam in her eye as she began the procedure.

I'm glad she was wearing gloves! And I won't go into the embarrassment I felt at this public body search!

While I was suffering in silence through this 'frisking' procedure my 'friends' were hiding round the corner laughing their socks off!

When the female security person had finally finished frisking my body she tapped my watch, which had a metal strap, signifying to her male colleagues that their fun was over where I was concerned. Miraculously they disappeard as silently as they'd appeared. Not so much as a by your leave, or, you can go now!

I just hope that little escapade livened up their day - it didn't do much for mine. And that was only the START of the holiday!

Correction!

Oops! Sorry, spelling mistake.

Zykanthos is in fact ZAKYNTHOS.

I knew that. Just testing...

Post Holiday!

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the long silence, this was due to a longed for holiday. This year it was Zante, a much recommended place to be. So I went.

Zante is the place for sun, sea, sand, and anything else beginning with s!

It's probably the greenest of the Greek Islands, and the action is mainly beach based. Plenty of water sports for those inclined, with shallow water, toally safe for little ones, and those who just like a paddle.

Now here's a fact. Zante is the name the Venetians called the island when they were in occupation for a few hundred years. The Greeks, however, call it Zykanthos, which is the Greek name. So far I haven't heard anyone who lives on the island call it Zante, it's always Zykanthos.

The temperature was almost 100 degrees every day, and it's not much under 80 at night. Having air conditioning is wonderful. It makes sleep possible, which you need after a hard day lying on a sunbed on the beach. Well, someone has to do it!

All this heat tends to trigger off forest fires. On our first day on the beach helicopters were gathering water and flying off to dump it on fires. Then we heard there were huge fires near Athens. Nowhere near us, but there were lots of foresty bits prone to ignite on the island.

Zykanthos is an ideal place if you're looking for a relaxing holiday to get a suntan and make the folks back home envious. The only drawback are the mosquitoes. And there are lots of them! They're BIG and very hungry. So if mozzies look on you as a walking dinner, this isn't the place for you.

You're definitely not going to have a Shirley Valentine experience covered in mozzie bites!