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Charity News
Welcome to newsletter number 29. Well, by the time you read this we'll have done our first car boot sale at Holcot Showground (Monday 29th Aug. 11 am start. NN6 9SN) I hope Sylvia hasn't sold my paste table! I'm sure we'll have a report for the next newsletter.
As shown below Fit n' Fab is returning to live meetings on Thursdays from 2nd September (it's a two-hour meeting) and still Zooming on Tuesdays. A lot of the regular Fit n' Fabbers say they have missed the social side of the hall meetings (and maybe the biscuits too) so if you haven't Zoomed with us and want a bit of light exercise followed by a tea/coffee and a chat it all kicks off on the 2nd September. See the details below.
We hope you enjoyed last month's newsletter If you missed it here is a link: Click here to see
If you want to be a member of Northants Parkinson's People then, please
Join Us Here
Important Information
Have you served in the armed forces? Do you have bad knees or hips? Or any musculoskeletal condition? Then read on here.
It is not widely known by civilian GP's that there are two clinics in the UK that specifically deal with veterans MSK problems. The details for them are below.
The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital in Oswestry have a Veteran Orthopaedic Clinic every Thursday afternoon and twice a month on a Friday morning, run by Lt Col Carl Meyer RAMC. GPs can refer to them even if they are not normally within their own NHS Trust. Please advise them of the following link:
https://www.rjah.nhs.uk/our-services/orthopaedic-surgery/veterans.aspx
The second specialist clinic is held at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. the Chavasse clinic runs every fortnight on a Thursday between 0830 and 1300 within the existing fracture clinic. This clinic is operated by Lt Col Ben Caesar RAMC. The referral form is in the attached link. Again your GP can refer if you are not in their NHS trust area.
https://www.bsuh.nhs.uk/chavasse-clinic/
Appointments are now back to normal following the Covid crisis. The initial appointment should be within three weeks of referral and any operation will be based on clinical need, but this is usually far quicker than through the normal NHS route. This service is available for all veterans both regular and TA/Army Reserve, and even if you are already on a waiting list, this can be changed to one of the clinics very easily. The links contain the referral forms for your GP. Please advise them when you visit next.
If you haven’t already, please advise your GP you are ex-forces, a note or email stating rank, unit and time served is all they need. Once they have this on your records some services are accessed quicker because you are a veteran.
DON’T SUFFER UNNECESSARILY
Please get your Friends and Families involved
We are registered with EASYFUNDRAISING, which means you can help us for FREE. Over 4,000 shops and sites will donate to us when you use easyfundraising to shop with them – at no extra cost to yourself! All you need to do is sign up and remember to use easyfundraising whenever you shop online. It’s easy and completely FREE!
Even if you don't shop online, maybe your friends or families do.
Please ask them to help too
Click the image to sign up or go to
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Virtual Pub Quiz
Every 1st Saturday of the month. (next one is 4th September 11:00 am) Zoom in with the in-crowd. Several rounds of General Knowledge, Music and Pictures. A bit of a social at the end.
Join Zoom Meeting
Walk In the Park- Update
We've had some good turnouts lately, everyone who attends have said they really enjoyed the fresh air and the company. All are welcome whatever your ability, come along on a Monday and get some training with Nordic Walking Poles. Wednesday and Friday's are friendship walk days - bring your poles if you want. We meet at 10:30 am in the car park just off the Kettering road, near the old Pavillion.
It is handy to know how many will be attending so please send a quick email to let us know when you will be joining us, our email is: [email protected]
Northants Parkinson's People contact details are
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MISSING LINK QUIZ
Our Guest quiz compiler this month is Marie. The aim of this quiz is to discover the missing word that links to each of the clue words
For Example PLAYING, BOARD, BIRTHDAY. The answer is CARD
- BLOND, MOUNTAIN, TRAY.
- CHIC, SHOOTER, SOUPER.
- BLACK, SKATE, THIN.
- ROAD, TROWEL, TRACK.
- CRACKER, FAIL, HAVEN.
- LUCKY, SHEEP, STICK
- BAG, PIED, SAND.
- ABOUTS, EVERY, SOME.
- BROWN, DADDY, LUMP.
- CLERICAL, HUMAN, MESSAGE.
- BEAR, CAP, REGION.
- CHARMING, CROWN, REGENT.
- GUY, LADDER, TIGHT.
- JOB, SPECIAL, SYMPATHY.
- BIG, HOOD, STEP.
- DRINKING, LAST, POLL.
- HAND, NATURE, SPLIT.
- AID, BLUE, CYCLE.
- BASIN, RICE, SUMMER
- MARKET, POWER, TANKER.
- BRISTOL, HOPPING, TUNNEL
- ART, GAS, SAVAGE.
- MINT, NECK, WATER.
- CORRESPONDENT, EXCHANGE, OFFICE.
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GARDENING TIPS FOR THIS MONTH
Pruning early flowering Honeysuckle
First, remove any dead or diseased looking stems. Then tie any loose hanging bits to the support. Now cut back a third of the side shoots to a few buds. The aim is to make the plant a nice shape on which the flowers will form next year. Do not remove all of this year’s growth otherwise you won’t get any flowers next year. It’s more like a trim to obtain a nice shape. This can be done in September or October.
I have two early flowering Honeysuckles growing in pots up obelisks. One is called Dropmore Scarlet and its flower is beautiful in June and July so that is getting a little trim in early September. BE WARNED that all parts of this honeysuckle are toxic to dogs.
The other is a common Honeysuckle which has creamy, yellow flowers again in June/July. However, I leave trimming this one until early spring as after the flowers drop red berries are formed. These look lovely and provide the birds with food during the winter months.
Lavender
To keep Lavender plants looking compact and attractive it is best to trim them annually in late summer just after flowering. Do not cut back hard into the woody bits of the plant as new shoots do not readily grow from these old hard stems.
Photo before trim and photo after trim
 
As always please carry on deadheading your plants and they will produce more flowers well into September. In the case of dahlias, they will flower right through to the first frost.
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'WOULD YOU ADAM & EVE IT'
The most sort after position in the royal court in 14th to 17th Centuries was 'THE GROOM OF THE STOOL'. Basically, when the royal personage awoke and performed the usual 'duties' (that is going to the toilet). The 'groom of the stool' accompanied the monarch. When they were done, the groom then had to present urine and whatever else to the doctors (usually 3 of them) to examine and rule on the health of the Monarch. Not a nice job! but think on, no one else at court spent time with the King in such close quarters. They would pass gossip and info about other courtiers and could influence the King/Queen to do what they wanted. A very influential and lucrative position indeed.
The WHIPPING BOY
Another sought after position at court was that of the 'WHIPPING BOY'. The reason for this job was that in those days if a child did not perform adequately in class or made trouble in the lesson time, the normal thing was to use 'corporal punishment. However, if the child was one of royal birth, then a teacher or schoolmaster could not lay hands on them, to do so was punishable by death! The solution was to provide a stand-in who was punished in the Prince's place. Obviously, the stand-in did not relish this, but they were rewarded. An example of this was when the later to be Charles the First was a boy his stand-in was William Murray, son of Lord Murray of Fife. As he was the third son, he stood to get very little in the family. However, when Charles eventually became King one of his first acts was to make William Murray the first Earl of Dysart with an annual stipend of £500 per year, at that time an enormous sum. Being the Whipping Boy paid off in the end, as it normally did.
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Recipe of the Month
Stuffed Mushrooms
Ingredients:
- some large flat mushrooms
- courgette
- bell pepper (any colour that takes your fancy)
- chopped onion
- garlic
- soft cheese (75g for two large mushrooms)
- To garnish some grated cheddar or dollops of blue cheese and a couple of cherry tomatoes per mushroom
Method
- Dice the courgette, pepper and onion
(My Tip: As this may be more than required for one or two people, I keep a plastic container in the freezer and add any overs to it and freeze, I can then use these straight out of the freezer (add olive oil, garlic and herbs) as roasted veg sometime later)
- Gently fry the veg in a little oil, add a minced clove of garlic after 5 mins.
- When the veg has softened turn off the heat and add the soft cheese and fold together gently. Add chopped or dry herbs if preferred (dried Sage is good)
- Cut the stem out of the mushrooms and wipe the dome with oil, place on a baking tray and load with the veg/cheese mixture
- Optionally top with grated cheese and halved cherry tomatoes.
- Bake in the oven for 20-25 mins at 200c
This recipe can be modified with whatever you have, I've used chopped chorizo, leftover cooked chicken, ham pieces. Served one as a side dish or two as a main dish.
Phil
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Boothville Dave tells us more about Ham Radio
and its dark uses
A true story from a few years back.....
We get on well with our neighbour's but a few years back our neighbour's from the back of our garden sold their house and the new neighbour was very antisocial and he had a model Helicopter which he fired up at six o'clock every day I had asked him several times telling him it was the worst noise I had ever heard anyone with a model Helicopter. he refused to even consider it, one day he was drowning out the conversation between my wife and me to the point of despair. I thought that's it I will make him think twice about playing with it to annoy me so I made sure that shack looked vacant and then set about finding his transmit frequency which I found to be 27MHz with about 0.5-watt output, I told my wife and son Dan to squint through the blinds and I then turned my HF transmitter on and tuned it to 100 watts and then the moment of self-satisfaction and looking for a halo I triggered the radio transmitter...and overloaded the front end of the chopper....the chopper went into a spiral, started thrashing the privet hedge like John Cleese thrashed a motor car with a branch from a tree. 'What the hell has done that' he said followed by a string of expletives as he struggled to unravel it from the hedge, needless to say, he never did it again. Hellscopter was no more alas.
 We understand the helicopter looked like this when Dave had finished with it!
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MISSING LINK QUIZ Answers
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- BLOND, MOUNTAIN, TRAY.
- CHIC, SHOOTER, SOUPER.
- BLACK, SKATE, THIN.
- ROAD, TROWEL, TRACK.
- CRACKER, FAIL, HAVEN.
- LUCKY, SHEEP, STICK
- BAG, PIED, SAND.
- ABOUTS, EVERY, SOME.
- BROWN, DADDY, LUMP.
- CLERICAL, HUMAN, MESSAGE.
- BEAR, CAP, REGION.
- CHARMING, CROWN, REGENT.
- GUY, LADDER, TIGHT.
- JOB, SPECIAL, SYMPATHY.
- BIG, HOOD, STEP.
- DRINKING, LAST, POLL.
- HAND, NATURE, SPLIT.
- AID, BLUE, CYCLE.
- BASIN, RICE, SUMMER
- MARKET, POWER, TANKER.
- BRISTOL, HOPPING, TUNNEL
- ART, GAS, SAVAGE.
- MINT, NECK, WATER.
- CORRESPONDENT, EXCHANGE, OFFICE.
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- ASH
- PEA
- ICE
- RAIL
- SAFE
- DIP
- PIPER
- WHERE
- SUGAR
- ERROR
- POLAR
- PRINCE
- ROPE
- OFFER
- BROTHER
- STRAW
- SECOND
- RINSE
- PUDDING
- SUPER
- CHANNEL
- NOBLE
- POLO
- FOREIGN
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Tommy Coopers Favorite Jokes
1. The Ugliest Baby
A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The driver says, “Ugh! That’s the ugliest baby I’ve ever seen.”
The woman stalks off to the rear of the bus and sits down. She turns to the man sitting next to her and says, “The driver just insulted me!”
The man says, “You go and give him a telling off. I’ll hold your monkey for you.”
2. The Zoo
”I went to the zoo the other day, there was only one dog in it, it was a shitzu.”
3. Bar Stories (1)
”Dyslexic man walks into a bra”
4 Blondes
A young blonde woman is distraught because she fears her husband is having an affair, so she goes to a gun shop and buys a handgun. The next day she comes home to find her husband in bed with a beautiful redhead. She grabs the gun and holds it to her own head. The husband jumps out of bed, begging and pleading with her not to shoot herself. Hysterically the blonde responds to the husband, ”Shut up…you’re next!”
5. A classic Tommy Cooper gag
”I said to the Gym instructor “Can you teach me to do the splits?” He said, ”How flexible are you?” I said, ”I can’t make Tuesdays”
6.Teenagers
Police arrested two kids yesterday, one was drinking battery acid, the other was eating fireworks. They charged one – and let the other one off.
7.Love is in the Air
Two aerials meet on a roof – fall in love – get married. The ceremony was rubbish – but the reception was brilliant.
8. Doctor, Doctor (1)
Doc, I can’t stop singing the ‘Green Green Grass of Home‘. He said: ‘That sounds like Tom Jones syndrome’. ‘Is it common?’I asked. ‘It’s not unusual’ he replied.
9.Diet drinks
I’m on a whiskey diet. I’ve lost three days already.
10. Bar Stories(2)
A man walks into a bar with a roll of tarmac under his arm and says: ”Pint please, and one for the road.”
11. Doctor, Doctor (2)
I went to the doctors the other day and I said, ‘Have you got anything for wind?’ So he gave me a kite.
12. Mother-in-law
My mother-in-law fell down a wishing well, I was amazed, I never knew they worked.
13.Chat Lines
I saw this bloke chatting up a cheetah; I thought, ”He’s trying to pull a fast one”.
14.Twins
A woman has twins, and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named ‘Amal.’ The other goes to a family in Spain, they name him Juan’. Years later; Juan sends a picture of himself to his mum. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wished she also had a picture of Amal. Her husband responds, ”But they are twins. If you’ve seen Juan, you’ve seen Amal.”
15 Goldfish.
There’s two fish in a tank, and one says ”How do you drive this thing?”
16.Shopping (1)
I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn’t find any.
17.Put-Down
When Susan’s boyfriend proposed marriage to her she said: ”I love the simple things in life, but I don’t want one of them for my husband”.
18.Doctor, Doctor (3)
”My therapist says I have a preoccupation with vengeance. We’ll see about that.”
19. Phone-in (1)
I rang up British Telecom, I said, ”I want to report a nuisance caller”, he said ”Not you again”.
20 Phone-in (2).
I met a Dutch girl with inflatable shoes last week, phoned her up to arrange a date but unfortunately she’d popped her clogs.
21.Bar Stories (3)
A jump-lead walks into a bar. The barman says ”I’ll serve you, but don’t start anything”
22.Sleeping
Slept like a log last night…….. Woke up in the fireplace.
23. Bar Stories (4)
A priest, a rabbi and a vicar walk into a bar. The barman says, “Is this some kind of joke?”
24. Bar Stories (5)
A sandwich walks into a bar. The barman says ”Sorry we don’t serve food in here”
25.Phone-in (3)
The other day I sent my girlfriend a huge pile of snow. I rang her up, I said ”Did you get my drift?”
26. Cleaning Up
I cleaned out the attic with the wife the other day. Now I can’t get the cobwebs out of her hair.
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And Finally...
A while back I was given a telescope. and while it is about 20 years old it is for a rank amateur like me, very complicated. I have always been interested in the sciences, astronomy included so I thought I'd have a go at astrophotography. Now astrophotography has had a bit of exposure as a lockdown fad lately. Being taken up by all ages and abilities with some marvellous results. So I thought, what could go wrong...
Well, everything apparently. I thought I'd start on something easy, the Moon! cannot miss! then work up to the very far away stuff later. The Moon it seems had other ideas. Waxing Gibbous is supposed to mean about three-quarters full. In reality, it turns out to be either hiding the other side of the earth all night, squatting next to a streetlight or sitting behind about 9,000 feet of cumulonimbus cloud. What should have been a relaxing garden hobby became a frantic dash to get out, set up and take a photo before the blumming thing vanished again in the 10 minutes of cloud-free night sky we've had in the last 2 months. Add to this the frankly dangerous advice given that to preserve your night vision you turn off all outside lights and close curtains you render yourself easy prey to tripping over any and all objects in the garden and nearly stumbling through the patio window with a 15kg telescope on your shoulder. It's a wonder I survived the night!
I did manage a photo or two and the best is just below. If I don't improve on this one you will never hear of this stupid hobby again from me!
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