Today’s Fakenham Fair was well attended and the event was great fun. Lots of stalls, bouncy castles, local organisations and demonstrations – and the weather was very kind too!

Fantastic work by Kick Start and the Fakenham Area Partnership – well done, guys. Here’s to a successful full-blown Fakenham Carnival in 2011!!!

What are you doing tomorrow? Did you know that it’s the Fakenham Fair? Well, it is. From 2pm – 6pm in Millennium Park.

“Rides, inflatables, stalls with toys, crafts, games, food, classic cars, bows & arrows, you can even come and build a wall! “

The running order looks like this…

• 2.00 Football
• 3.00 Punch & Judy
• 3.30 Tae Kwon Do Display
• 3.50 Basketball Display 
• 4.00 1st Acadamy of Dance Performance
• 4.20 Magic Show
• 4.45 Fakenham Bowmen Display

… but may be subject to change.  Then in the evening, there’s the disco…

8-11pm Family Disco, Community Centre, tickets £2.50 on the door, under 12′s FREE

There’s a car I see when I’m walking to work – somebody’s having great fun with the paintwork.  A few weeks ago it was covered in text. Now it looks like a cave painting on speed! Brilliant stuff.

Have you seen one of these in the wild yet?

How cool is this? It’s a funky purple eco-friendly jute bag bearing the message…

“Fakenham. Bloomin’ Lovely.”

It was designed by year 10 pupils at Fakenham High School for the Fakenham Area Partnership, who obtained some funding for the project via a bid to  ‘Awards For All’.

The bag is 100% recyclable and will be sold through local markets and retailers, plus schools, community groups and the Tourist Information Point. A Farmers’ Market postcard/calendar will be placed into each bag to underline the “shop locally, eat healthier, live sustainably” message.

Want one?  They’re £3.50 each. Find them at…

Corders Budgens
Lawnwise & Leisure
Fakenham Heelbar
Fuglis
Get Smart
Sweets-n-things
Secrets
NewsKlip
Fakenham Garden Centre

And they’ll also be available at…

Chemstop
Whichcraft/Witchcraft?
Amie’s – Hairstylist
Fakenham Racecourse
Tourist Information Point/Library
Connect Office

Ofcom enlists 4-year-olds to boost dodgy DAB stats • The Register

Do you listen to the radio? Do you use a DAB digital radio? Are you concerned about a digital switchover for radio which will mean that FM radio will be phased out?

Ofcom have produced the latest in a series of reports on which the future of radio broadcasting in the UK will be based. It seems to skew the data it uses on purpose to indicate that the use of analog radio is waning and that DAB uptake is a success.

For example, Ofcom claims five digital-only stations are reaching over one million listeners a week. However, the ‘listeners’ it cites are aged 4+ instead of the industry-standard benchmark of 15+.  Other ‘statistical shenanigans’ are also pointed out in this article at The Register.

It’s designed to convince us that DAB is a good idea and a complete success which we should all rush out to support by buying DAB radios and junking our perfectly-serviceable (and superior quality) FM sets.

There’s also a more in-depth blog about it by a chap called Grant Goddard, an independent media analyst, here – http://grantgoddardradioblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/lies-damned-lies-and-ofcoms-first.html

We’re being fed false information again. Somebody have a word before we’re sold a digital pup.

Fakenham: Warnings for moped riders – Local – Lynn News

Good to se the SNT focusing on this. The behaviour of these riders who seem to hang out in the car park next to Tesco has been extremely annoying at best and at worst, an accident waiting to happen.

If you haven’t been to Fakenham Surgery recently, you may not have seen their leaflet explaining what their proposed new building in Clipbush Lane will look like. Here’s an artist’s impression…

Looks impressive. If you’d like more details, the leaflet says that their newsletters (from which this is taken) can be obtained at the Surgery Website

You know that little park by the river path? Yes, just down Hall Staithe (corrected: cheers, Mark) - that’s the one. Well, there’s a project underway to freshen it up a tad. It was looking a bit run down, so an organisation from Norwich is organising (what else would they do?) a bunch of long-term unemployed youngsters to give it a lick of paint and add some sparkle. Apparently, it gives them a bit of work experience and adds a project to their CV. No doubt it gives them a bit of confidence-building too – that can’t do any harm. Anyway, they were all busy down there today when I popped out for a walk, so I took the opportunity to poke my nose, have a quick natter and take a snap.

Nice to see youngsters doing community projects like this. Thanks. Well done, guys!

The Air Ambulance hovering over town centre rooftops this afternoon, attending a casualty in the market square.

This EDP article look interesting. I think it marries up with the plans for walking and cycling routes around the town which were published in the Council’s Local Development Framework document.

I reckon it’s a great long-term idea which would enhance the area and prove to be an attraction for tourism. Here’s the article link:

Wensum Valley Trust  Bid to create long distance riverside path in Norfolk – Norfolk News – EDP24.