Did you know there’s a new social club in Fakenham? One has just been started at the Community Centre and the first night is this week. Here’s a message I got via Facebook from Lisa Smerdon, who’s organizing it…

“First night of our Thursday night social club. Everyone welcome to come along, have a drink in nice, warm comfortable surroundings at affordable prices. Come and support us and give us suggestions as to what you want from YOUR community centre.”

An impressive turnout for the Armistice Day ceremony at the Fakenham War memorial this morning - especially considering the absolutely foul weather! Lovely to see so many braving the elements to pay their respects.

This is interesting. I just got a press release from Fakenham Area Partnership, who have introduced a new car scheme designed to provide transport support for people in need, to attend local medical appointments.

Volunteer drivers will use their own vehicles to carry clients to pre-booked destinations, in exchange for a modest mileage charge covering basic car running costs.

Passengers book a journey in advance, the scheme co-ordinator arranges with an available volunteer driver who collects the client from their home, takes them to their appointment, waits for them and then returns them back home.

In the early stages the scheme will only cover appointments to the Fakenham or Walsingham surgeries. In order to expand the service the team needs to recruit more drivers and would welcome support from anyone with a couple of hours spare each week.

Anyone wishing to book a journey should call 07799 274 995 between 9am and 5pm on weekdays only, giving as much notice as possible. Further enquiries about the service or becoming a volunteer can be made through the partnership desk on 01328 851555 or e-mail details to admin@fakenhamareapartnership.co.uk

The War Memorial in the town centre. We all know where and what it is, but let’s spare a second to remember what it actually represents…

On Thursday 11th November at 11am, representatives from Fakenham Town Council will be leading a community ceremony to commemorate Armistice Day with a period of reflection and silence – remembering all those servicemen who have lost their lives in conflicts around the world – on the anniversary of the end of hostilities in the Great War.

It’s a subject in our minds constantly these days, as the UK’s service personnel – including many from this region - are currently engaged in active duty in difficult conditions in the Middle East. Rarely a day goes by at the moment without a reminder appearing on our TV screens and in the newspapers and I think as a consequence, public support for our Armed Forces is probably at a bit of a high right now.

It would be lovely to see a good turnout of support at the ceremony, which is to be completely informal and open to all. It will be market day in the town and I suspect there will be lots of people who do join in – they’ll be made welcome, I’m sure. I’ll try to get there myself  to take a few photos for this website if I can.

Of course, the Royal British Legion will be holding their own ceremony in the Market Square on Remembrance Sunday too, with their own traditional march and wreath-laying. If you can’t make it on Thursday, pop along on Sunday morning to pay your respects with them if you can.

Remember, remember it’s the 6th of November – tomorrow (Saturday 6th) is when you’ll be able to see the annual Fakenham Fireworks Display at Fakenham racecourse, courtesy of Fakenham Chamber of Trade & Commerce.

Gates are open at 5pm and the display starts at 6.30. Price is £15 per car (max 5 persons) on the door. There’s food and fairground attractions, with North Norfolk Radio helping the entertainment along. This year, they’re supporting Help For Heroes and other local charities.

It’s usually pretty spectacular – enjoy the evening!

I attended a Kick Start Fakenham meeting last night – the first one I’ve been to for ages. The meetings are much more formal than they used to be, with a definite agenda and structure to them. Although the informal nature of earlier meetings was friendly and comfortable, I think it has improved with this change – they covered a lot of issues in an hour and a half!

There’s a fair bit going on at Kick Start. Carnival plans, fundraising ideas, festivals, commemorative areas being planned for the community and a lot more besides. They’re actively representing themselves on other town agencies too – the Area Partnership, Town Council and Chamber of Trade will all have Kick Start representatives from now on. It’s all coming together nicely.

Hopefully, I’ll be helping them to get a website up and running soon – they’ll then be branching out from their Facebook page so that information about what they’re doing for the town is more widely available. That’s why I was there last night.

Online information: That’s another area which will hopefully become more ‘joined up’ in Fakenham in the near future too. Watch this space!

This cartoon struck a chord. BBC News is really getting on my nerves these days. Channel 4 News covers issues much more in-depth without resorting to the descent into ‘That’s Life’ (remember that?) style street interviews. Look East is a big culprit in that respect – go into a local town and ask random passers by what they think, ideally showing their complete ignorance of the subject. We KNOW what we think. Hearing what selected other people think or don’t know isn’t going to change our views. We just want to see a report about the issue and know something’s being done about it (or not, as the case may be).

Another thing… Why do we have to vote on TV programs and phone into everything? I know they make money out of our calls, but I thought we paid these guys to make our entertainment for us – they’re supposed to be good at it and shouldn’t be getting ignoramuses (ignorami ?)  like me to contribute to their output.

Oh yeh… Breakfast on the BBC. Why has it become a vehicle for overrated pop stars, actors and authors to peddle their latest outpourings? Why, also, does it insist on promoting other TV programs all the time?

More and more lazy journalism. I dislike it intensely. Bring back news and abolish ‘infotainment’. It’s making people dumber (with apologies to all people who dislike the increasing use of the antithetical Americanism ‘smarter’, meaning more intelligent).

Rant over… for now

The Chamber of Trade’s Bonfire Night Colouring Competition attracted around 1200 entries from various local schools. When judging was over, they had the great idea of brightening up one of the town’s empty shops by plastering them inside the windows.

I think they look brilliant!

I was contacted by local poet and campaigner Vince Laws who’s organising this upcoming event …

Candlelit Vigil Against Hate Crime. Held on Lifeboat Plain in Sheringham on Saturday 23 October, from 7.30pm, with 2 minutes silence at 8pm, to coincide with vigils in Toronto, London, Brighton and Norwich.  Guest speaker in Sheringham is The Chief Executive of North Norfolk District Council, Philip Burton.

“No one should have to suffer violence or abuse for being themselves.”

Bring a jam jar and a candle and show your support (meet in Oddfellows Hall if wet)

So that you can get some background info, the main London event in Trafalgar Square is detailed here on the Gay News website. The International Day against Hate Crime (Facebook page here) was founded by Mark Healey in 2009 in the lead up to the 10th Anniversary of the nail bomb attacks aimed at London’s black, Bangladeshi and gay communities.