Author: Heather Alexander (Page 7 of 7)

Strathbungo Window Wanderland – this Saturday! (25th)

wanderland image

A MAGICAL WALKING TRAIL TRANSFORMING STRATHBUNGO INTO A PLAYFUL OUTDOOR GALLERY!

FREE EVENT

ALL ARE WELCOME!

Please join us this Saturday 25th February, from 6-9pm.

Everyone is invited to wander around Strathbungo and enjoy residents’ window displays.

We hear rumours of bands in front rooms, a pop-up tattoo parlour, a human fruit machine, disco balls and bubble machines…. But the magic of Window Wanderland is that no one will actually know what’s happening until the night itself.

If you live in the area and are still to register, add your home to the online map. A ‘display’ could be as simple as a candle, book, fairy lights or image in a window. Or you could go all out and stage a performance in your front room or project onto your building! Simple or spectacular … it’s completely up to you. Anything goes! And if you need some inspiration or practical help, there’s a free drop-in workshop at the Tramway this Tuesday 21st February.

If you have any questions or would like to help spread the word about the event, please feel free to email us.

Calling all Southside bakers!!

cake

The Strathbungo Society invites entries for the Bungo Bake-Off 2017

to be judged on Saturday March 25th 2017
at the Society’s Spring Fling at Langside Hall (The Large Hall),
5 Langside Ave, Shawlands, Glasgow G41 2QR
Event runs from 11.30 – 3.00 – see below for Bake-Off timings

The Bungo Bake-Off is becoming a major part of the Strathbungo Society’s annual Spring Fling event with some fabulous prizes for 2017 winners.

1st prize: A 2 night stay (for up to 4 people) in a refurbished fisherman’s cottage by the sea in Galloway (donated by Rosie Ilett and Gerry Hassan).

Other prizes: Rock ‘n Rollers; Gusto and Relish; Christopher Robin and Bakery 47 have also donated other prizes for 2nd and 3rd placings and runners-up.

Bake-Off instructions & timings:

  • Bakers from the Southside of Glasgow are invited to submit a cake or a plate of cakes that they have made from scratch to the theme of ‘Spring’.
  • Fee to enter the Bake-Off is £2 per cake or plate of cakes to be paid in cash when submitting entry. This fee also covers entry into the Spring Fling event.
  • Bakers can submit any number of entries (each will incur a £2 entry fee).
  • All those entering the Bungo Bake-Off are expected to be amateur bakers and not selling/promoting cakes as a business or secondary activity.
  • All cakes must be delivered on Saturday March 25th to The Large Hall, Langside Hall between 10.30 a.m. and 11.00 a.m to be signed in by a Spring Fling helper who will give you a receipt and a Spring Fling ticket.
  • Any cakes arriving after 11.00 cannot be entered into the judging. No other arrangements can be made for cakes to be entered.
  • The judging – led by a professional cake expert – will take place between 11.15 and 12.00. Judges’ decisions are final.
  • Winners will be announced at the event, and all entries are then available for viewing. Winners are required to make themselves available for any media interest and coverage that may arise from this event.
  • All bakers are invited to collect their cakes from the Hall from 1.00 onwards unless you wish to donate your cakes to be sold at the Spring Fling’s Tea Room in aid of the Strathbungo Society. Please say when you submit your cake for the Bake Off if you will donate or collect your entry.

Please contact Rosie Ilett on rosieilett@hotmail.com if you plan to enter Bake-Off or if you have any queries.

“Make Your Mark” – new housing in East Pollokshields

Following the “Make Your Mark” consultation earlier in 2016, proposals have now been published for developing the old Gasworks plot in East Pollokshields, with an open consultation being held by developers at the Tramway on 8th November between 2-7.30pm.

Although Pollokshields Community Council welcomes new development, they are concerned about the lack of consultation about what is to be developed and have asked the Society to help publicise the development proposals. Here’s what they say:

“We welcome new housing development in our area but only when there is full community consultation and consideration of the effect on Pollokshields – schooling, public transport, traffic implications, additional leisure & green space requirements. The developers of the first social-rented phase have declined our invitation to provide detailed plans in advance so we can circulate their proposals. Instead they have committed only to the minimum necessary under planning law by holding the ‘exhibition’ at the Tramway next week [on November 8th]. This is the sole statutory requirement to ‘consult’ under existing planning laws.

We urge you to attend the Tramway event where we will record your comments and ensure they are conveyed to the planning authority. A community council member will be on hand throughout but if you have some spare time to help us keep a record of your views, please get in touch.

Because we regard the 8th November event as inadequate for meaningful consultation we intend to repeat the exercise at a planned Public Meeting on 24th November. The venue is SoulRiders in Forth St from 6-9pmhowever the Home Group management has not yet committed to attend. This is part of a more detailed event to present the results of the MakeYourMark charrette earlier this year. We will include a vote on how to best organise community empowerment. A buffet will be offered from 6pm as well as an exhibition. Full details very soon.”

You can download the leaflet about the Tramway consultation here.

Consultation on Queens Park Arena

There are some changes in the running of Queen’s Park Arena (QPA), with a new company – Inhouse – being engaged to oversee a programme of events from 2017 (when the Arena escapes the clutches of Scottish Water).

Inhouse are running a consultation with local people to find out what would best meet our needs. Here’s what they say:

“Inhouse are a socially conscious company and appreciate what Queen’s Park Arena means to the people of the Southside. We are asking for your input in to developing the space as both a community asset and a viable venue. Upon Scottish Water vacating and once the land around the site has settled, we plan to launch a full bodied programme of events from April 2017.

To make sure you have your say, the following surveys will only take a few moments of your time and will help us to take local businesses, organisations and residents’ views in to account when developing the events at QPA. The survey link for local businesses, groups and organisations is here, and if you are a local resident you can also fill out a neighbours’ survey here.

If you have views on the Arena and how it could be used, do take a few minutes to have your say!

Local man on a mission

Ian Stark of Vennard Gardens is waging a one-man war on obesity and welcomes feedback or debate on his perhaps provocative theories. Here, with a nod to Sir Isaac Newton, he observes the blackbirds who feed on his apple tree.

[This article has been posted by a blog admin on behalf of Ian Stark.]

A proper Eureka Moment!

blooming apple treeI have a very small apple tree in my back garden which each year gets loaded (usually around 1,000) with cooking apples. I distribute with difficulty most of the apples, but this year there were well over 1,000 and I left over 100 on the tree and on the ground. While eating my breakfast one morning, I watched a blackbird eating from one of the apples on the ground. It just ate what it wanted then flew away.

Most of us have heard of the last apple that fell to the ground and, according to legend, led to a Eureka Moment that changed science in respect of gravity. Well – the bird on the ground was a very real eureka moment for me. One thought led to another and an especially good feeling went through my body. Think of all birds, light, thin with their little hearts beating 19 to the dozen. Except that is, the birds that walk on the ground – turkeys and hens to name but two.

You see, (or I hope you soon will) for the past four years I have been writing a book that goes slightly askew from current advice. I completed the book, checked all the facts and science, found definitive proof and arranged for the book’s publication. I had written in my book that 90% of the nutrients in apples are sugars! (Check nutrients online.) Also, that sugars are the fuel most used in fast exercise – without the food being stored as body fats before use. This is a key!

Sorry about that, it was such a pleasant little story and I’ve just turned most of you off, but please bear with me and keep an open mind if you can. This leads to better lives for all of us and hugely better for some of us!

So what happens to birds that stay on the ground? They can’t do fast movements and they get heavy therefore can barely fly. Cheetahs and greyhounds burst with fast energy but strangely are never heavy or fat! Elephants and Hippos don’t often use fast movements, grazing’s their way and heavy they stay.

Wrongly, I’d guess, this triggered my brain. I had completed a book that I had been writing as a hobby. However I had based my original conclusion that fast exercise (not food or lack of food) was the key to reducing weight gain and therefore obesity and Type 2 diabetes. I arrived at this by observation and the science of how the body works (my idea had formed over 40 years) and I was happy that my book showed this.

However, I had found no science that could verify completely that obesity would be reduced by people taking fast exercise in any given population (although my belief was that it would reduce obesity). Until, that is, I found a relatively new study of 132,793 British women which looked at how they had been living and this proved conclusively that sufficient fast exercise does make a population thinner! Look up – http://jech.bmj.com/content/68/Suppl_1/A23.1.abstract (“Physical activity in relation to body size and composition in women in UK Biobank”) and argue with it if you can!

My conclusion is that if anyone takes a lot of fast exercise – they won’t get fat. Those who take a moderate but very regular amount of fast exercise will need to keep an eye on when they eat and what they eat—and watch that they don’t take very large amounts at one sitting. Those who only take minimum exercise will be extraordinarily lucky not to put on gradually increasing amounts of weight, as well as watching when, what, and how they eat. So there you are:

A bird on the ground,
not looking around.
Has led to a thought,
that hasn’t been taught.

Fast Exercise is the primary means of avoiding obesity!

bare apple tree

Make your Mark – public meeting 20th March

Following the Make Your Mark community planning consultation, a public meeting is to be held at 553 Shields Road, attended by Nicola Sturgeon MSP, Alison Thewliss MP, Cllr David Meikle, Bailie Norman MacLeod and Bailie Hanif Raja. There will be a Q&A session as well as an introduction by Bill Fraser and a presentation of findings by the planners.

Programme:

2.00pm          Arrivals/Welcome (15-20mins)

2.20pm          Introduction to Make Your Mark (5mins)

Bill Fraser, Chair Pollokshields Community Council

2.25pm          Presentation of Findings (15 mins)

Jude Barber, Collective Architecture and

Andy Campbell, Dress for the Weather

2.40pm          Political Panel in Conversation (20 mins)

(Chaired by Bill Fraser)

Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister/MSP

Alison Thewliss, MSP

David Meikle, Local Councillor

Bailie Norman MacLeod, Local Councillor

Bailie Hanif Raja, Local Councillor

3.00pm          Make Your Mark – on-going involvement (30-45 mins)

Opportunity to note interest in Community Forum, share local information, sign up to short term actions etc.:

  • ‘A week in Pollokshields’ – Share information about activities on a large ‘day-by-day’ chart
  • ‘The Vision – 5 areas for action’ – Get involved/sign up to take short-medium term action

3.45pm          Event ends

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