Freemasons Donate over £180k to Alzheimer’s Research UK

The Masonic Samaritan Fund has donated over £180,000 to Alzheimer’s Research UK, the UK’s leading dementia research charity. The money will help support the first two years of pioneering research to develop a simple blood test to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease.

Scientists at King’s College London, one of Alzheimer’s Research UK’s 15 network research centres, are carrying out the innovative research. Prof Simon Lovestone is leading the study and received the first instalment of the donation from the Masonic Samaritan Fund at a ceremony on Tuesday 13 September, at King’s College Hospital.

Simon Lovestone, Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at King’s College London, talked about the research project and the importance of this donation:

“Our aim is to develop a simple blood test that can be used to diagnose Alzheimer’s very early, even before any symptoms show. To do this, we are using advanced techniques to study proteins in the blood of Alzheimer’s patients, looking for markers that reflect changes happening in the brain during the disease.”

“Whenever we hear about people with Alzheimer’s it’s always apparent that the disease started many years before it was diagnosed. Some evidence suggests it might even start five to ten years before diagnosis. If we are to find an effective treatment, and carry out studies to find new drugs for Alzheimer’s disease, then we must have a way of diagnosing it much earlier. I can’t tell you how pleased I am to receive this generous donation and the continued support of Alzheimer’s Research UK.”

John McCrohan, Grants Director and Deputy Chief Executive of the Masonic Samaritan Fund, presented the cheque to Prof Lovestone and said:     “We are acutely aware that more investment into dementia research is needed urgently to defeat Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Alzheimer’s Research UK is making great strides by funding world-class scientists and we are proud to contribute to Professor Lovestone’s ground-breaking study.”

Dr Marie Janson, Director of Development at Alzheimer’s Research UK, added:

“We are very grateful to the Masonic Samaritan Fund for this most generous donation towards Professor Lovestone’s vital research. Early detection of Alzheimer’s is crucial to ensure the treatments of the future can be given swiftly and when most effective. This research will bring us closer to that goal.”

“There are 820,000 people in the UK living with dementia today, with numbers set to rise significantly in the next generation. Dementia is not a normal part of ageing, it is caused by brain diseases which we can beat if we invest in research now. We have already made great progress and I have real hope that this study will bring some positive results.”

To help Alzheimer’s Research UK defeat dementia, donate online at www.alzheimersresearchuk.org or call 01223 843899.

30th September – Firefly Bar – London

City Connect supports London events from numerous organisations. We are proud to promote these London events to our City Connect readers making them accessible to all. If you are interested in this London event, either leave a comment below or go to the CitySocialising website. If you have any suggestions for other London events for us to promote, contact us directly.

City Connect highlights the following CitySocialising London event:-

Event Name: Firefly Bar City Drinks & Dancing

Date: Friday 30th September

For more information and to RSVP online visit CitySocialising and sign up for free.

All new members are entitled to attend one free Social when signing up to the CitySocialising site.

Event Description:

Firefly bar opposite the Old Bailey is set over 3 floors and has a relaxed atmosphere, a retro cocktail bar and an area in the basement known as The Vault open Thursdays and Fridays. It is the party room and the place to have a blast. With 2-4-1 Happy Hour Cocktails 5-7pm. An area has been booked in the host’s name (Joy) – just ask at the door

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Free Therapy Mailing List

Free therapy is for you if:-

  • You feel stressed, tired, anxious or exhausted
  • You need to relax but don’t know how
  • You need rejuvenation but nothing seems to be working
  • You feel at a crossroads and are not certain about which path to follow
  • Your life feels as if you or someone else has caged you in
  • You want the control back in your life be it taken by a person/illness
  • You feel you make the wrong choices in life
  • You spend your time feeling pressured into people pleasing
  • You find you procrastinate or worry rather than managing your time
  • You feel you have gone off course
  • You want that promotion at work but have no idea of the next step
  • You are in a bad relationship and you need to walk away

If you are looking for a free therapy session, then look no further! There are two ways to get one:-

  1. Add your e-mail to our mailing list below to put your name into the monthly lottery draw which offers one free session to our lucky winner. If you remain on the mailing list you automatically get added every month to the monthly lottery. We will not pass on your details and only send approximately one newsletter a month.
  2. Become part of THE PROJECT. Just click here to fill out the application for yourself or a friend who you think deserves to be given a free therapy session. Sloan Sheridan-Williams currently offers 4 hours a month on this offer as does Alan. The other therapists involved in THE PROJECT offer between 1-4 hours a month. There are many free hours to be won. Apply now.

THE PROJECT is designed to offer therapy to those who deserve it the most. We automatically include:-

  • Anyone in the emergency services or armed forces
  • Anyone who currently raises money for charity
  • Anyone who cannot afford therapy
  • Anyone who commits to paying the free session forward by volunteering their time somewhere else
  • Anyone who is nominated by a friend, family member or colleague as deserving a free session
Name
Email
Location
?
You can put more than one location if you require.
Comment ?
If you wish to add any further comments please use this box.

Free Therapy

Free therapy is for you if:-

  • You feel stressed, tired, anxious or exhausted
  • You need to relax but don’t know how
  • You need rejuvenation but nothing seems to be working
  • You feel at a crossroads and are not certain about which path to follow
  • Your life feels as if you or someone else has caged you in
  • You want the control back in your life be it taken by a person/illness
  • You feel you make the wrong choices in life
  • You spend your time feeling pressured into people pleasing
  • You find you procrastinate or worry rather than managing your time
  • You feel you have gone off course
  • You want that promotion at work but have no idea of the next step
  • You are in a bad relationship and you need to walk away

If you are looking for a free therapy session, then look no further! There are two ways to get one:-

  1. Add your e-mail to our mailing list to put your name into the monthly lottery draw which offers one free session to our lucky winner. If you remain on the mailing list you automatically get added every month to the monthly lottery. We will not pass on your details and only send approximately one newsletter a month.
  2. Become part of THE PROJECT. Just fill out the application below for yourself or a friend who you think deserves to be given a free therapy session. Sloan Sheridan-Williams currently offers 4 hours a month on this offer as does Alan. The other therapists involved in THE PROJECT offer between 1-4 hours a month. There are many free hours to be won. Apply now.

THE PROJECT is designed to offer therapy to those who deserve it the most. We automatically include:-

  • Anyone in the emergency services or armed forces
  • Anyone who currently raises money for charity
  • Anyone who cannot afford therapy
  • Anyone who commits to paying the free session forward by volunteering their time somewhere else
  • Anyone who is nominated by a friend, family member or colleague as deserving a free session
Name
Email
Therapy you wish to claim ?
Please click just one of the therapies. You can only choose one.
Why do you think you should be entered into the lottery?
?
you can put your job, charity work, unemployed or that you will volunteer to give 1 hour of your time to someone else.
Location
?
please just add your location - we are looking for London, Cambridge or UK.
Any other information

Nurse HawthoRNe Season Finale

If you didn’t catch the season finale of Nurse Hawthorne, I’m back to give you the 411! It’s a no brainer really that in the 3rd season of Nurse HawthoRNe,  viewers would be left with a cliffhanger. Don’t all good television ends this way? Okay, so we get to the segment where Christina reluctantly signs those divorce papers Tom so hastily delivered to her doorstep. Christina, upon reflection, comes to the realization that she’s in love with two men. Her soon to be ex-husband Tom Wakefield, and her new found love, detective Nick Renata.

Before leaving for some much needed heart mending and soul searching, Christina goes to the hospital to drop off divorce papers to Tom, wishes him well and departs. Next, she drops off a letter at the precinct addressed to detective Nick Renata where she questions his innocence in the murder of her assailant.

Although she loves him, she’s decided to end their relationship. Camille drops her mom off at the airport and heads back to James Rivers Hospital where she severs her own relationship with young doctor Miles ( the married Miles) and meets up with Tom to talk about her starting college. Tom promises that no matter what happens with his marriage to Christina, he will always be there for Camille.

Meanwhile, having boarded the plane, Christina gets a call from Nick informing her of his mother’s death. Christina hurriedly aborts her vacation plans to go be with Nick. She helps to organize funeral arrangements and coax the feuding Renata brothers into squashing burial disagreements- it’s what their mom would have wanted. Back at James Rivers, Tom has helped to save a friend’s life, questioned his haste in delivering divorce papers to his wife and heads home to Christina’s to apologize after seeing her at the hospital, following the funeral. Christina is greeted at the hospital by Kelly and thanks her for intercepting the letter meant for Nick. Kelly excitedly shows her own letter to Christina, having passed the scrub nurse certification. Christina tells Kelly she’s special.

Christina becomes CEO of James Rivers Hospital. Tom makes head surgeon. Bobbie keeps Christina’s old job and get funding for the Cancer treatment center. Morrissey becomes spiritually grounded and the 3rd season of Nurse HawthoRNe ends with a bang-literally.

THE CLIFFHANGER:

Tom drives up to the house he once shared with Christina. He rings the doorbell and Christina answers, wearing one of Tom’s old shirts. Tom relates the harrowing events of the day and his “aha” moment. She sits on the edge of a chair and listens. Tom haltingly and emotionally tells Christina how much he truly loved her and how sorry he was that he wasn’t there when she needed him to be on the night of her attack. He hoped they could someday get past the “stuff’ and become close again. Christina cries… the two hug… Truly a scene for the hankie!

As Tom leaves the house, he encounters a weary and beat looking detective Nick Renata on his way to visit Christina. The men give a long stare in passing. Admittedly, Nick looked more menacing. Tom is seen sitting behind the wheel of his car. Nick knocks and Christina goes to answer the door. He comes in and tells her to sit down. She’s taken aback by his appearance but tries to stay calm. She tells Nick about the visit from a friend and fellow officer earlier at the hospital. The officer said Nick had been missing for 4 days… She asks if  he’d been drinking.

Nick sits across from Christina. He tells her that he read her letter and takes out a gun. Christina is clearly shaken. Nick asks if she’s afraid of him. She’s about to say she loves him, but, Nick interrupts by placing the gun next to his heart…”You and me Christina.” He caresses his chest with the gun. “You and me.” Nick abruptly leaves. Before Christina can sit down again, she hears a gun shot. Racing outside, she glimpses a car speeding off and Nick fatally shot at the wheel of his car. Screaming for help, Christina pulls detective Renalta from the car, clutches him in her arms and continues to scream for help!

Who shot detective Nick Renata?

1. Tom, because he’s jealous?

2. Nick, because Marc Anthony’s character is leaving the show?

3. The brother of Christina’s assailant who is out for revenge?

Keep it here for more insights…

Images reproduced from TNT

Epigenetics in Cambridge – DNA May Not Be Your Destiny

Epigenetics is a newly emerging field in Biology and has invaded many news reports around the world over the past few years. But what exactly is epigenetics?

The term genetics describes the study of heritable changes involving DNA, which is the molecule carrying genetic information in our cells. When we reproduce, our genetic code recombines with that of our partner to create another fascinating individual. Sometimes our cells mutate and cause unwanted proliferation, which can lead to cancer. These are genetic changes, i.e. alterations in our actual genetic code. However, our bodies are not that simple and there are other changes which are heritable and do not include the change of the genetic sequence. Hence the term carries the prefix “epi” (Greek for besides, above). Factors such as the 3D-structure of our DNA, expression of genes, natural modifications such as methylations and so forth have a great influence on development and heritage. They can even be involved in the formation of diseases, which in return has drawn the attention of many pharmaceutical companies to this new field. So the good news is: we are not just the sum of our genes!

Cambridge as a place of world-class research is at the forefront of epigenetic research and the university has many outstanding research groups working in that field. The Cambridge Epigenetics Club, which meets regularly in Cambridge, has been set up for interested individuals of the university to share knowledge and bring people of the scientific field together.

Epigenetics will be hitting the news in the next few years and certainly there will be heavy debates about new strategies to tackle diseases. It is important to remember that the field aims to understand the fundamentals of life and the outcomes of the research can potentially be used to help people. Most likely there will be heavy debates on the subject. I my opinion, it is important to keep an open opinion and remember what scientist try to do. In this context, the word “Cloning” is a natural phenomenon seen in many species and only got a negative connotation when the news reported about “Dolly the Sheep” and “Designer Babies”. It is up to us as the public to decide where we want to lead society, what challenges we want to tackle in the future and how we want to use the invaluable wealth of knowledge science has to offer.

So we are not defined just by the sum of our genes. Who we are and what we are is determined by many other factors. What will be the next discovery?

Image reproduced from pharmaceuticalshealthcare.blogspot.com

24th September – Pub Mini Mingle – London

City Connect supports London events from numerous organisations. We are proud to promote these London events to our City Connect readers making them accessible to all. If you are interested in this London event, either leave a comment below or go to the CitySocialising website. If you have any suggestions for other London events for us to promote, contact us directly.

City Connect highlights the following CitySocialising London event:-

Event Name: Pub Mini Mingle

Date: Saturday 24th September

For more information and to RSVP online visit CitySocialising and sign up for free.

All new members are entitled to attend one free Social when signing up to the CitySocialising site.

Event Description:

The third bi-monthly “PUB MINI MINGLES” (last Saturday of the month, every 2 months) – a more intimate, laid-back version of our “Mass Mingles” but still our own private event and venue.

We’re back taking over our own lovely, central London pub. Book on as places are limited and it’s guest list only on the night.

Our Mingles give you the chance to meet lots of likeminded London girls and guys for a night of drinks, chatting and making new connections.

CitySocialising is taking over a central London traditional British pub this Saturday, not far from Chancery Lane & Russell Square.

This Mingle’s for everyone that always chooses a pub over a club for their Saturday night. No gimmicks, no dancing just a few drinks and chatting all evening long! There’s a great choice of beers & a vast wine list

We’ll see you there!

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Press release: LC

23rd September – Mayfair Bar – London

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City Connect highlights the following CitySocialising London event:-

Event Name: Babble Bar Mayfair

Date: Friday 23rd September

For more information and to RSVP online visit CitySocialising and sign up for free.

All new members are entitled to attend one free Social when signing up to the CitySocialising site.

Event Description:

It’s out to Babble Bar in Mayfair. This is a chic and elegant bar/club with a cool crowd and a resident DJ playing all the latest Funky House, RnB, Commercial and Dance music. If you want to let your hair down and party this is definitely the place to be. Dress code is trendy/smart.

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d’Arry’s Cookhouse and Wine Shop

I have written previously about the gentrification of the Cambridge dining scene that took place during the mid-noughties.

 

Looking back, the one that started it all was perhaps the transformation of the rather scruffy King St Run town pub into the smart, sophisticated and quirky yet unpretentious urban gastropub d’Arry’s, serving the kind of simple but well-made pub foods that match well with the riper and more fruit-driven flavours of New World wines such as Australia’s d’Arenberg which provides not only most of the wine list but also the name itself.

 

We first visited d’Arry’s within a few weeks of it opening and soon became regulars, enjoying the relaxed sophistication of its funky interior, friendly service and well-made but unpretentious food.

 

The prices were also very reasonable and it was the kind of place where one could take young children during the day and not feel out of place.

 

However, over time, d’Arry’s dropped off our radars as other, newer, smarter places opened and we just never quite felt the need to go back to that quiet, somewhat backyard-ish corner of central Cambridge where it is located.

 

Moreover, d’Arry’s has also had something of a run of bad luck with not one but two kitchen fires to cope with and it’s fair to say it has lost something of its original buzz.

 

A few weeks ago, new manager James Storey invited me to meet him for a cup of coffee to chat about ideas for recreating some of the buzz about the place. We kicked around a few ideas to be explored later, but as a first step, he suggested that I come in for a meal as his guest and also meet new Head Chef, Patrick.

 

If you have ever heard a piece of music that you once knew well but haven’t listened to for years and found that with the passage of time it seems to sound somehow different despite its familiarity, you will understand how I felt returning to d’Arry’s after an absence of several years.

 

Yes the edgy, funky decor was still all there – the bare-brick walls, up-turned, cut-off wine bottles for candle holders, the rustic logs and ornate picture frames – but it somehow seemed different.

 

Of course, it’s not d’Arry’s that has changed but Cambridge with several new openings that also do this modern, juxtaposed, mixed-up style of interior design and what was once edgy now feels as though it’s starting to become part of the mainstream.

 

Arriving for a Sunday lunch, we were welcomed by James and opted to sit indoors by the window overlooking the street – the layout of d’Arry’s is somewhat unusual as you enter to see a courtyard straight ahead and either turn left into a private dining area or right into the main restaurant and bar section.

 

Eschewing starters, we went straight into ordering main courses; the children chose fish and chips and a Sunday roast, Mrs CWB opted for a trio of fish and I followed James’ recommendation for duck breast on sweet potatoes with garlic, ginger and a raspberry jus.

 

Wines to match the adults’ meals were brought and whilst the match for the seafood with asparagus was a fairly predictable “Broken Fishplate” Sauvignon Blanc, I was initially a little surprised at the choice of a Stump Jump Riesling for me.

 

However, it proved to be inspired, as the acidity of the wine cut through the strong garlic and ginger flavours whilst it had enough body to stand up to the meatiness of the duck.

 

I have historically been rather unimpressed with Australian Riesling, finding it generally too lean and limey for my taste but this one was a great food-friendly easy-drinker with a soft fullness, good zesty, citrussy acidity, a touch of sweetness and a balanced minerally finish.

 

On the palate it felt weighty and fleshy and had the toasty aroma of fully ripe, thick-skinned grapes. The Sauvignon had a similarly rounded and easy-drinking yet sensible feel with lots of varietal herbaceous aromatics on the nose, crisp mouthfilling acidity on the palate and a minerally finish.

 

Criticisms, if there can be any, are that the wines were served perhaps just a degree or so too warm and that the glasses were a little chunky and undersized for proper appreciation.

 

Part-way through our meal new Head Chef Patrick popped out for a chat and explained that he had previously run a multi-awarded hotel kitchen in Great Yarmouth on the North Sea coast, catering mainly for high-flying oil, gas and renewable energy people transiting through.

 

Arriving at d’Arry’s to find there had been no head chef for several months, Patrick spent the first part of his time just rebuilding the basics but is now looking to put his own stamp on the menu which has some central themes and standards (d’Arry’s is part of a small independent chain which gives a certain degree of buying power for raw ingredients), but does allow for personalisation as well.

 

Originally from South Africa, his influences are Pacific Rim fusion, as evidenced in my duck with garlic and ginger, plus use of fruit from his homeland.

 

I don’t know too much about South African food, but I can’t help feeling that Asian fusion has become a little passé and the buzz these days is more around either rustic Italian or sherry bar tapas.

 

I also think they may be missing a trick of the zeitgeist in not offering a local and / or seasonal menu – not least because Cambridge is in the middle of farming country with several good farm shops within easy reach.

 

That said, the menu does feature more classic dishes such as scallops, smoked salmon and devilled kidneys and in any case our food lived up to my expectations of what d’Arry’s should be – well-made food from good quality ingredients, unfussily prepared and served with just the right amount of panache.

 

However, puddings were the real highpoint of the meal and we opted for a mango and ginger cheesecake whilst the kids chose vanilla ice cream and chocolate fondant.

 

These were some of the best puddings I’ve had in Cambridge – the cheesecake was light yet rich and perfectly balanced, whilst the accompanying dessert wine, The Noble Prankster, was deliciously syrupy with marmalade, peach, apricot, a touch of botrytis and some hints of Christmas spice and mixed peel with a balanced sweet-sour finish.

 

Purely in the interests of research, I also sampled the kids’ puddings and they were extremely good, too – the ice-cream was rich, creamy and flecked with vanilla, whilst the chocolate fondant was perfectly cooked on the outside and deliciously, stickily gooey on the inside.

 

Over coffees, I talked to James more about the pub and its clientele; he explained that it has a strong core of very loyal regular customers who appreciate the value that it offers.

 

This strikes me as a good base to build from if the place can introduce some new and interesting changes at a rate that doesn’t alienate existing customers, but a path that could lead to a downward spiral of increasing focus on value and downward margins if unchecked.

 

Current offers from d’Arry’s include a Friends of d’Arry’s scheme and a Punt & Lunch flyer. These represent good value for the consumer, but to me are merely pricing strategies rather than the kind of exciting, buzzy innovations that will get people talking about d’Arry’s as a must-visit place again.

 

It would be great to see d’Arry’s back on the radar of smart eating places in central Cambridge and, with the possibilities offered by its wine list and private-dining space, I don’t think it will take too much to get there.

 

A two-course a la carte meal with a bottle of wine and coffee at d’Arry’s Cambridge costs around £70 for two people, whilst the Friends of d’Arry’s offers two courses and a glass of wine for £10.

 

Links

 

d’Arry’s Cambridge – http://www.darrys.co.uk/

 

d’Arenberg wines – http://www.darenberg.com.au/

Copyright Tom Lewis 2011

20th September – New Members Night – London

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City Connect highlights the following CitySocialising London event:-

Event Name: New Members Drinks & Soialising

Date: Tuesday 20th September

For more information and to RSVP online visit CitySocialising and sign up for free.

All new members are entitled to attend one free Social when signing up to the CitySocialising site.

Event Description:

It’s all about taking the plunge this week at our New Members Social. You’ve got to start somewhere on CitySocialising, and the best place is right here!

And this week our New Member’s night is at Pause on Leadenhall Street. Just across the road from the iconic Lloyd’s building and perfectly located for some CitySocialising whether you’re looking for good wine, classic cocktails or simply good quality draft beer.

Two of our CitySocialising Hosts will be on hand during the evening to welcome you when you arrive, settle you in to the night and answer any questions you might have about the site and service but really it’s just a great opportunity to go for it and start getting social with us.

The evening will most certainly help to assure you that the people we attract are as laid-back, chatty, friendly and sociable as we say they are.

The perfect opportunity to kick-start your social life and meet a whole new social circle, we look forward to seeing you there.

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Charity Evening with Dame Evelyn Glennie

Hosted jointly by The Business Club Cambridge and The Inspired Group, on September 29th world-renowned percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie will give an inspirational talk on Entrepreneurial Spirit in aid of East Anglia Childrens Hospice, Scotsdales Charitable Trust and Able Child Africa.

Renowned as one of the most innovative and eclectic musicians in the international arena, Dame Evelyn is also much in demand as a motivational speaker. In this presentation, Dame Evelyn, who lost her hearing when she was 12 years old, will be using music as a way of demonstrating the importance of listening.  

There will be lots of opportunity to network during the evening and a delicious Italian supper will be provided by BigDay Catering. There will also be a raffle. All proceeds from the evening will be donated to EACH, Scotsdales Charitable Foundation and Able Child Africa.

This event is likely to sell out very quickly so please book now to avoid disappointment.

Tickets: £25 regular and £20 for Business Club Cambridge and Inspired Group members.

Venue: David Rayner Building, Scotsdales Garden Centre, Great Shelford, CB22 5JT

Time: 6-9pm

Book your place at here.

16th September – Islington Friday Jazz – London

City Connect supports London events from numerous organisations. We are proud to promote these London events to our City Connect readers making them accessible to all. If you are interested in this London event, either leave a comment below or go to the CitySocialising website. If you have any suggestions for other London events for us to promote, contact us directly.

City Connect highlights the following CitySocialising London event:-

Event Name: Islington Friday Jazz

Date: Friday 16th September

For more information and to RSVP online visit CitySocialising and sign up for free.

All new members are entitled to attend one free Social when signing up to the CitySocialising site.

Event Description:

Join us on the night in Angel’s no frills Blues and Jazz venue.

We’ll be meeting for some drinks in the bar which is easy to find from Angel station. Inside it’s all teeny tea lit tables, black and white photos of famous jazz and blues artists & red walls.

The bar’s focus is the music and tonight it COULD be The Red 8, a newly formed Blues outfit consisting of several of of the bar’s favorite performers. Taking inspiration from the great Blues and Gospel records of the 1930′s and 1950′s and putting their own “state of the retro” twist on it, at the same time remaining absolutely true to the original spirit of the recordings.

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13th September – New Members Night – Cambridge

City Connect supports Cambridge events from numerous organisations. We are proud to promote these Cambridge events to our City Connect readers making them accessible to all. If you are interested in this Cambridge event, either leave a comment below or go to the CitySocialising website. If you have any suggestions for other Cambridge events for us to promote, contact us directly.

City Connect highlights the following CitySocialising Cambridge event:-

Event Name: New Members Night

Date: Tuesday 13th September

For more information and to RSVP online visit CitySocialising and sign up for free.

All new members are entitled to attend one free Social when signing up to the CitySocialising site.

Event Description:

If you’re a new member, haven’t been on a Social yet or are a Free member thinking about coming out with us, then this is the night for you! Meet some great new people relax and enjoy a great evening of mingling and making new connections in your city. Bar snacks and cocktails are served at the venue.

We’ll have an area reserved for us at the bar, where your host, Alan Philippe, will be waiting to welcome you when you arrive and settle you in to the Social. Keep your eyes peeled for a CitySocialising logo on the table or ask the venue staff for the table reserved under the name CitySocialising. You’ll normally find us by one of the tables nearest the entrance.

If you’ve registered with us but haven’t been to a social, or if you just want to get a feel for what we’re all about, we’d love to invite you to come along to our New & Free Members’ evening.

Have a chat and a drink or two with other members at this relaxed friendly bar and get your first taste of the best new way to meet people in the city. The first meet up is always the most nerve-wracking but once you’ve been to one, as any regular will tell you, it becomes second nature!

Alan Philippe will be on hand during the evening to welcome you, introduce you to other people and answer any questions you might have about us, but really it’s just a great opportunity to take the plunge and start mixing with new people! We’re sure that by the end of the night you’ll find that our members are as laid-back, chatty, friendly and as sociable as we say they are.

It’s the perfect opportunity to kick-start your social life. We look forward to seeing you there!

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10th September – The Weekender – Cambridge

City Connect supports Cambridge events from numerous organisations. We are proud to promote these Cambridge events to our City Connect readers making them accessible to all. If you are interested in this Cambridge event, either leave a comment below or go to the CitySocialising website. If you have any suggestions for other Cambridge events for us to promote, contact us directly.

City Connect highlights the following CitySocialising Cambridge event:-

Event Name: The Weekender

Date: Saturday 10th September

For more information and to RSVP online visit CitySocialising and sign up for free.

All new members are entitled to attend one free Social when signing up to the CitySocialising site.

Event Description:

It’s Saturday – the weekend is in full swing and what better way to celebrate than to meet up, relax, have a few drinks and meet other members old and new…make the most of your weekend in style!
Don’t stay in this Saturday – come out and join us for one of our biggest socials of the month as we head to one of Cambridge’s best bars. The perfect chance to let your hair down, forget about the working week and make some great new connexions in your city.

Our host will be ready and waiting to settle everyone in to the evening, where we’ll have a great chance to get to know each other and check out another great bar in our city!

We love Saturdays, come out and join us!!

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Wine of the Month – September

September is officially the beginning of autumn and whilst an Indian Summer this year is not completely out of the question, the start of the month has been more cold and wet than mists and mellow fruitfulness.

 All three merchants have gone for a similar theme this month, with big, warm-climate reds to remind us that up until a week or so ago, we were perhaps on holiday in much sunnier climes.

 Les Collines De Laure, Syrah, Collines Rhodaniennes, 2009, Jean-Luc Colombo – £9.99 Cambridge Wine Merchants

 

The first wine is something of a benchmark – a Syrah from the northern Rhone.

 Although the northern Rhone is Syrah’s spiritual home, these days you are more likely to encounter it as Shiraz from somewhere in the New World such as Australia, California or even New Zealand.

This Collines de Laure, a de-classified Cornas from the northern Rhone, is the most restrained on the nose of the three here and needs a bit of air to open up.

It is made by the somewhat controversial moderniser, Jean-Luc Columbo who favours modern techniques and less tannic grip than some.

Even after airing, it smells dark, inky and intense with smokey prunes, tobacco and pencil shavings.

On the palate, the texture is soft and smooth, almost slippery, but also dense with dark bramble fruit, dark cherry, blueberry and more pencil shavings.

The finish is a balanced mix of firm, muscular tannic grip and acidity.

At 13%, it feels like a big wine, but in an intense, concentrated way with no blowsiness.

It’s a very classy – and classical – wine, both the most technically adept wine here and still relatively young, and perhaps does not impress quite so much straight out of the bottle, but rather quietly comes into its own after a couple of hours in the decanter.

Macia Balte, Ananda, Mallorca-Binissalem 2010 – £10.50 Noel Young Wines

By contrast, the Macia Batle has a whole lot more going on – as you might expect from something made from five different grape varieties under the Mallorcan sun.

Two of the varieties, Callet and Mantonegro, are native to Mallorca whilst Syrah, Cab and Merlot make up the rest.

The nose is tarry with forest floor, toasty vanilla, peppery spice, a touch of burnt rubber and dark fruit aromas of blackcurrant and black cherries.

 On the palate, there is more dark berry fruit, liquorice, eucalyptus and peppery, clove spice and it feels sweet and seductive with very gentle, rounded tannins and a soft finish.

 It comes from Mallorca’s top D.O., Binissalem, which is both elevated and benefits from some cooling breezes which provide a degree of sophistication and keeps it from being overly baked.

 Alpha Box & Dice, Grenache, 2008 Tarot, McLaren Vale, Special Late Harvest – £10.99 Bacchanalia

 

No such restraining influence applies to the last wine; if the first two were “marry” and “snog” respectively, this one is “Hey baby, take a walk on the wild side”.

Described as “a bit bonkers” by Bacchanalia’s Paul Bowes, it is a single varietal Grenache from Australia’s Langhorn Creek – with a whopping 15% alcohol.

Originally from northern Spain / south-west France, Grenache is a grape that likes the heat, but is mostly blended with other less-than-noble varieties into a blend.

To me, it is a great big, bubbly, blowsy Essex-girl of a grape that wants to show you a good time.

On the nose there are cooked, jammy fruits whilst the palate feels baked with mulberry and lots of ripe fruit sweetness.

And yet it stops just short of being overly jammy – there is also some dark peppery spice and tannic grip on the finish.

Overall, despite all its exuberant excesses, this is a wine in balance – the vineyard is cooled by ocean breezes in the afternoon and the grapes are harvested in the morning when temperatures are cooler.

However my wine of the month is the Macia Batle Ananda for having so much going on plus a deliciously soft, sweetness on the palate.

What’s more, how often do you get to buy a Mallorcan wine ? And if you do only ever buy one, it should be this.

 All three wines benefit from at least a bit of air, whilst the Syrah has significant cellaring potential.

All should match well with dark meat – simple roast beef for the Syrah, and perhaps something more gamey such as boar or venison for the two others (the Grenache, in particular, will stand up to some sort of fruit sauce with the meat, too).

Links

Bacchanalia – http://www.winegod.co.uk/

Cambridge Wine Merchants – http://www.cambridgewine.com/

Noel Young Wines – http://www.nywines.co.uk/

Copyright Tom Lewis, 2011

10th September – Rich’s Big Walk – Cambridge

City Connect supports Cambridge events from numerous organisations. We are proud to promote these Cambridge events to our City Connect readers making them accessible to all. If you are interested in this Cambridge event, either leave a comment below or go to the CitySocialising website. If you have any suggestions for other Cambridge events for us to promote, contact us directly.

City Connect highlights the following CitySocialising Cambridge event:-

Event Name: Rich’s Big Walk from Ely to Waterbeach and/or Cambridge

Date: Saturday 10th September

For more information and to RSVP online visit CitySocialising and sign up for free.

All new members are entitled to attend one free Social when signing up to the CitySocialising site.

Event Description:

Following the success of yesterday’s gentle stroll to Waterbeach, i thought I’d up the ante a little and see if anyone fancies a walk from Ely to Waterbeach, lunch then either train home or walk by the river to Cambridge. Meet at Cambridge train station in good time to get the 09:35 out to Ely. The walk between Ely and Waterbeach is around 12 miles and should take around 3 1/2 hrs. Some of the paths are quite bumpy so a good pair of trainers or walking boots a btter option. Lunch will be at the Bridge in waterbeach with the train station around 1/4 mile from the pub should it be required.

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Jane Eyre Deserves Respect

City Connect has caught up with resident film critic Louis Maurati to give you a sneak preview of Jane Eyre which is released in the UK on Friday 9 September 2011. We have included the official trailer to whet your appetite and look forward to your comments once you have seen the film.

In the meantime, Louis’ comments are as follows:-

The 19th big screen adaptation of Jane Eyre is anything but first rate. The film is an amazing achievement for Director Cary Fukunaga’s, especially considering this is only her second feature film following Sin Nombre, a 2009 drama about illegal Mexican immigrants seeking entry to the U.S.

The two main protagonists have been given small but significant personality makeovers from the critically acclaimed novel: Jane is less pious and Rochester is less verbose. Mia Wasikowska, the Australian actress who recently portrayed Alice in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, takes on her most challenging role as Jane. Mia’s performance as the young heroine both shakes and stirs. The chemistry between Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender, who portrays Jane’s mysterious swain Edward Rochester, is superb. Fassbender’s portrayal of Rochester, a figure who is both menacing and vulnerable, is spot on. Despite the many years between the two costars, the emotional connection shines through the screen.

The film is a darker adaptation than many of the films that come before, being more true to the classic novel. With the help of some gorgeous cinematography by Adriano Goldman, who fills each frame in a canvas of blue, black, grey and brown, the audience is literally visually engulfed by Jane’s inner torture and isolation. The film begins with a young orphan Jane (Amelia Clarkson), first living with her cruel aunt Mrs. Reed (Sally Hawkins) and quickly being sent off to a scornful girls boarding school. Jane’s relocation to Thornfield Hall, where she secures employment as a governess under Mrs. Fairfax’s steady gaze, brings her into the warmer company of Rochester, the estate’s capricious owner. By the time Jane arrives at the Thornfield estate to work as a governess under Mr. Rochester, love of any kind has eluded Jane for so long that she has learned to live without it. Soon enough, however, her growing curiosity about Mr. Rochester and the special bond that manifests between them arise something within her, human connection and affection, that frightens her very being. Jane’s words “I must respect myself” reverberate over and over and it is this very sound belief that sticks with her on her journey and with the audience.

This film is a must see for anyone who appreciates the novel or who loves a melodramatic English love story. Unfortunately, being released so early in the year, it will likely be forgotten at award season. On the up side, it may live on as one the best renditions of Jane Eyre ever made.

Image courtesy of fergieinfife.blogspot.com

Video reproduced from ClevverMovies / YouTube

Food & Wine Matching at The Punter, Cambridge

A while ago, I reviewed Cambridge’s first private member’s club, 12a, for my blog (here).

It turns out that the brother of 12a’s front-of-house manager Mark Pope is a chef at local gastropub The Punter, so when I got an invitation from Ben Pope to a food and wine matching evening, I was keen to pop along.

Formerly The Town and Gown, it was previously a somewhat uninspiring place located on the corner of Cambridge’s inner ring road.

However, re-named and made over, it is now a smart, sophisticated and chi-chi place that five years after opening still looks way ahead of its time with its combination of traditional rough-surface oak beams and bare bricks juxtaposed with Victoriana-feel high-back chairs and ornate picture frames.

Arriving unfashionably on time, I was more or less the first there and got to chatting with the presenter for the evening, Jacko from Jascots Wine Merchants about business models, internet retailing, Laithwaites and a run-in he had with another internet-only retailer and one of their producers.

We started with a Prosecco on arrival which Jacko (in the left-hand picture box above) explained is proving much more popular in these harder economic times than Champagne.

There was the opportunity to add a choice of pureed fruits to make a Bellini with berries and cream hors d’oevres and, at the end of a meal, I would have been tempted to try it out, but as an traditionalist, I stuck with it plain as an aperitif. Elegant, light and fresh, it had a slight aroma of pears and some lifted sweetness on the mid-palate.

To me, any Prosecco is never quite as good as good Champagne, but then I can’t imagine ever considering putting fruit puree into a good Champagne as it would be too much of a waste.

As we sat down to eat, Jacko and Punter-owner and Head Chef Paul explained a bit about the evening which had been organised in aid of the East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices.

The format would be first a collection of picnic foods with suggested matching wines followed by a couple of cooked dishes. Paul had devised the menu as a one-off for the evening and sent it to Jacko for wine matches – this is perhaps the hardest way to match a wine, from a simple written description of a non-standard dish where there are so many variables.

Much easier would be to have several possible alternatives and a batch of the food to taste a range of possible options and decide on the most appropriate match. However, clearly that had not been an option and I was intrigued to see how well the matches, done remotely, would work.

Seating had been partially pre-planned, dinner-party-style, and I found myself on a table with Jacko himself plus the editor of one of our local Cambridge magazines, a high-end contract publisher and a young couple, one of whom was an aspiring writer whilst the other was researching a cure for cancer.

With so many creative types around the table, the conversation was lively and wide-ranging as we discussed the merit of back labels with tasting notes on wines (a good thing, in my opinion), natural cork vs screwcap (no strong opinions other than I like the sense of occasion from popping a cork) and writing on the internet vs novels (pick your themes and keep repeating, the internet requires volume and frequency).

The table was laid out picnic-style with rabbit rillettes, parma ham, rabbit liver pate and some very delicious bread whilst Jacko handed out two very different wines to match; a Lugana Trebbiano from Lake Garda and a Maranges from Domaine Bachey-Legros in Burgundy.

The Trebbiano had a minerally nose with aromas of stone fruit, grapefruit and liminess on the palate with some lifted sweetness, good tropical-fruit acidity and a minerally finish. Very good.

However, the red burgundy was a revelation; with a hedonistically textbook Pinot nose of vanilla, mushroom and decaying forest floor, it had lots of juicy sour-cherry fruit acidity and a beautifully soft texture with a toasty, savoury finish.

It was served slightly chilled, a frequent recommendation for lighter reds but something I have never quite had the confidence to do myself – however, in this case it worked very well. I remarked to Jacko how impressed I was with this wine and he explained that 2009 had been a particularly good vintage for this estate.

Next up came a trio of crisp whites – a Chablis Premier Cru from Romaine Bouchard had a smokey, toasty nose, linear stone fruit acidity on the palate, a rounded mouthfilling structure and a long toasty finish. It matched superbly with a dish of potted crab and pickled samphire.

Next was a rather disappointing Riesling from West Cape Howe in Western Australia which felt very tart. Australia seems to be having a bit of a mid-life crisis at the moment with its whites and reminds me a little of an overweight and out-of-date rock start trying to squeeze into a ridiculously skin-tight outfit for a come-back.

The reason we loved Australian whites in the first place was because of their big, ripe, fruit-driven appeal that had all the up-front appeal of Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie. But rather like 70s glam rock, more recent Aussie whites have become bloated parodies of this with the result that there is something of a punk backlash going on, with producers opting for a much more stripped-down, raw and bracing cool-climate feel.

Jacko declared himself seriously unimpressed with this wine, even when resampled and hour or so later.

Much, much later in the evening I resampled one last time and it did finally seem to have rounded out and become something much more pleasant and interesting, but by that stage I was perhaps the only person in the room prepared to give it one final chance.

The last of the trio of whites was a much more instantly appealing Sancerre from Domaine Laporte to match with smoked mackerel. Another classic-style wine, it had a good, typically herbaceous and aromatic nose and rounded, linear, mouthfilling acidity with some toasty smokiness and a very dry, mineral finish which needs food to match.

We then moved on to the cooked part of the meal with a joint of muntjac (a local, very small deer species introduced several hundred years ago and now something of a minor pest) with potatoes, runner and broad beans and mint. With its gamey flavours, the deer was a textbook match for the Pinot we had tried earlier in the evening, but perhaps did not need quite so much barbecue seasoning which threatened to overwhelm the subtle flavours of both the meat and the wine.

As the evening wore on, it became more like a lively, and slightly rowdy, dinner party and ever less like a serious wine-tasting. Jacko proved himself to be opinionated, forthright, outspoken and wickedly funny, worth the price of admission alone and leaning over to me at one point to whisper a schoolboy comment completely unrepeatable yet utterly hilarious.

He also grabbed my tasting notes and took exception to some of my drafted comments as I had written “sour” to refer to the lovely, food-friendly sour-cherry acidity on the red Burgundy which he intepreted literally and took as a criticism.

The final dish was a chorizo and lamb kebab which was matched with a Cal Pla Crianza from Celler Joan Sangentis. The wine itself was full of ripe up-front bramble fruit, vanilla and toasty finish was declared a favourite by many around the table. After the classy and sophisticated Old World style wines from earlier in the evening, I found it rather up-front and primary, but it was a superb match for the lamb which, for some reason, always matches well with this style of Big Red, brambly, fruit-driven wine.

As desserts had already been served at the start of the meal, there was nothing left to do but remember not to scratch my nose or make any other gestures conceivably resembling a bid during the charity auction, enjoy the banter and chat and quietly re-sample the wines to make final notes.

I also popped into the kitchen to say my hellos and thank yous to chef Ben Pope, though I suspect he remembers more of the conversation than I do.

And finally, after chatting with owner Paul about the evening and his plans to hold the event every quarter with a seasonal theme, it really was time to admit defeat and head home.

There were a few leftovers and I took a quarter bottle of the most impressive wine, the red Burgundy, with me, but by the following day, the truffley, mushroomy nose had faded even if the lovely acidity, texture and long toasty finish were still showing well.

Recommended wine

All the wines here were good – even the Australian Riesling with enough air, eventually.

However, to find a good Pinot Noir around £15 is no mean feat – to find a delicious and classy one from Burgundy is quite something, so my recommended wine is the Maranges Vieilles Vignes Pinot Noir 2009, Domaine Bachey-Legros, £16.35 from Jascots

 

Links

The Punter – http://www.thepuntercambridge.com/

Jascots – http://www.jascots.co.uk/

 

Copyright Tom Lewis 2011

5th September – Monday Night Music – Cambridge

City Connect supports Cambridge events from numerous organisations. We are proud to promote these Cambridge events to our City Connect readers making them accessible to all. If you are interested in this Cambridge event, either leave a comment below or go to the CitySocialising website. If you have any suggestions for other Cambridge events for us to promote, contact us directly.

City Connect highlights the following CitySocialising Cambridge event:-

Event Name: Monday Night Music at the Devonshire Arms

Date: Monday 5th September

For more information and to RSVP online visit CitySocialising and sign up for free.

All new members are entitled to attend one free Social when signing up to the CitySocialising site.

Event Description:

Get over the misery that is Monday with a relaxing evening at The Devonshire Arms in the company of the majestic Tiger Blue (the soulful acoustic duo that sing & play like they mean it and perform like they feel it! Soulful acoustic duo with a massive range of covers, from well-known to obscure, 50’s to present… all done with their own Tiger twist ♫)

This what the group say. “Start your week as you mean to go on…with some Tigggrrr action at The Dev. This will be our first gig here, so hope some of you are free to come down. I’ve not even been in this blast-from-my-past since it’s rejuvenation by Milton Brewery, but I hear it’s jolly nice.

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Runkeeper – iPhone App for the Fitness Community

Fitness training is becoming more and more an integral part of our daily life. Gym memberships are increasing and more and more people, in particular young men, get personal trainers to help them built up their fitness on an endeavour to look healthier and increase their overall energy levels.

However, not all the time can we afford to get personalised and monitored training sessions as they may be time consuming and costly. Fitness training does not have to be confined to the gym and in particular during the summer we can enjoy outdoor sports.

There is a fantastic application on the iPhone, which can help you greatly to monitor your fitness and progress.

RunKeeper is a fantastic invention which enables you to track your runs using highly accurate GPS tracking. You can program the app to give you instructions, such as warm-ups, speed announcements, interval training and so forth. RunKeeper is also very easy to use and allows you to integrate a play list of your favourite running songs into your fitness program. You can program your runs by time or distance.

To make life really easy, all your runs are saved on the Runkeeper website where you can access the average speed, total time and distance of your run and even the change in elevation. The program automatically saves the runs by date and plots your performance over time. This gives you a very easy way to monitor your fitness and also build up a training plan.

Furthermore, you can invite your friends into your “street team” and train together, even over distance. This is a great way to motivate each other and put your training and training plan into perspective. For those who love social networking, one can also click the “like button” for facebook and automatically post your runs on your facebook wall for all your friends to see the progress of your fitness. This application has helped me greatly to monitor my fitness.

You will also need to get a iPhone Armband Case Holder to attach the iphone to your arm whilst you are running.

Images reproduced from http://www.apfelnews.eu

4th September – Sunday in Grantchester – Cambridge

City Connect supports Cambridge events from numerous organisations. We are proud to promote these Cambridge events to our City Connect readers making them accessible to all. If you are interested in this Cambridge event, either leave a comment below or go to the CitySocialising website. If you have any suggestions for other Cambridge events for us to promote, contact us directly.

City Connect highlights the following CitySocialising Cambridge event:-

Event Name: Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon in Grantchester

Date: Sunday 4th September

For more information and to RSVP online visit CitySocialising and sign up for free.

All new members are entitled to attend one free Social when signing up to the CitySocialising site.

Event Description:

A gentle stroll from the centre of Cambridge through Grantchester Meadow to Grantchester (or meet in Grantchester if driving), lunch at the Red Lion and then either take drinks down to the river and watch the world go by or visit one the excellent Grantchester pubs. Either meet on the bridge at The Mill pub at 11.30 or at the Red Lion in Grantchester at 12.30.

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The Folkestone Triennial 2011

If the town’s folk wouldn’t walk ten minutes up the prom to the Metropole (Kent’s pre-eminent contemporary gallery until its closure three years ago) traveling to another gallery to see a show would seem a pointless exercise. But when galleries can appear intimidating and highbrow, walking into a local church, library or just nipping in off the high street is much less daunting.

Folkestone was once a thriving Victorian seaside resort and latterly a ferry terminal for the Boulogne day-trippers until it’s closure in 2000, but now art is the reason to visit and the net being used to fish it out of the doldrums.

The town’s second Triennial has been introducing art into Folkestone via the Creative Foundation, a local initiative headed by ex Saga boss Roger De Haan, and Its everywhere you look. Fine for an arts enthusiast like me but many locals may quite rightly ask, what’s in it for them. The answer starts with some big names in contemporary art whose work is attracting cultural folk to visit and stay for a weekend; new restaurants are opening to cater for the newcomers, and the local coffee shops are bustling with visitors sipping cappuccinos and lattes.

Curator Andrea Schleiker has chosen to introduce an international selection for this years “A Million Miles from Home” themed festival. Balanced between migration, home and otherworld, many works reflect a sense of being in a strange place or on unfamiliar territory, while others speak of journeys and wanderings. All are sited in new and unusual settings, some in overgrown, locked up or previously hidden locations.

As an invigilator for the Triennial I’m happy to chat to strangers, and if i can help someone to understand a work then so much the better. Having invigilated half of the 19 works thus far, it’s easy to see those which stand head and shoulders above the rest on the popular vote. Hew Locke’s installation in St Mary and St Eanswythe’s church For Those in Peril On The Sea – a colourful display of model boats suspended above the nave receives well over 250 viewings each day, people returning with friends and family to share the experience.

Atop a large rock by a sandy beach sits Cornelia Parker’s bronze The Folkestone Mermaid. The body cast of a local woman is a direct reference to a stylised version in Copenhagen (The Little Mermaid) and like that iconic piece is one which will undoubtedly stay, adding to the growing collection of permanent works from the previous triennial.

At the far west end is Christina Iglesias’s Towards The Sound Of Wilderness, a sculptural piece of polished steel and green, textured bramble cast in resin. Creating an impressive viewing point or passage onto an eerily overgrown Martello tower and one which few local realized was there, the combination of rampant nature over the hidden ruin suggests a portal towards other worlds.

At the opposite east end of the town, the National Coastwatch station is showing a film created by Indian based arts group, CAMP (Creative Arts and Media Practices). In The Country Of The Blind, And Other Stories, a title taken from a story by the once local resident H G Welles, refers to the Dover Coast Guard’s blind spot of the Folkestone harbor area, and as in the country of the blind the one eyed man being king, alludes to the telescopic views which are echoed by the films framed presentation. The film is an hour long sequence of 50 edited clips of interesting, bizarre and everyday sightings, made all the more entertaining by the narration of the station’s volunteer group.

Other films in the Triennial include Promised Land by Nikolaj Larsen, screened in a disused bar by the beach in an area home to many asylum seekers. The film focuses on a group of migrants in camps near Calais at the end of long and dangerous journeys from Afghanistan and Iraq on their way to Britain giving an insight into their lifes and struggles just twenty miles away over the channel.

Light house In The Sea Of Time is a beautifully filmed and choreographed series of multiple projections of two Algerian lighthouses, built during the French occupation. Zineb Sedira has also included lighthouse keepers’ reminiscences of their life and love of the monastic lifestyle.

Smader Dreyfus’s film of Israeli classrooms, School, can be found in a series of darkened vacant offices above Boots. Each room has a screen, a representation of blackboards, where the spoken dialogue during lessons is projected as white text, the content emphasized in various font styles and sizes.

Upstairs in the main library you can find Charles Avery’s The Sea Monster. Skeletal remains of an unknown beast lays prostrate on the polished parquet floor, the combination of at least five different animals including horse, python and llama, and a continuation of Avery’s ongoing project, The Islanders. Illustrations help to decipher, but mainly add to, the visually cryptic clues of this strangely mysterious community.

One of those simple but brilliant concepts you wished you’d thought of is the Spencer Finch’s The Colour Of Water colour wheel. Most people when asked what colour is the sea would suggest one, maybe two colours at most. On various mornings I may text in my chosen matches of four different sea colours against the giant revolving pantone swatch, to be later hoisted as flags in the town centre.

A shop in the Old High Street has been chosen for the Boutique Kosovo, housing a rare and eclectic mix of traditional folkloric dress but presented in a fashionable clothes shop style. Erzen Shkololli has put together this collection as a reminder of the richness of traditional clothing design and their link to culture, whilst at the same time highlighting their fast disappearance and replacement by the bland uniformity of universal fashions through globalisation.

There are many others to be discovered and for me to invigilate, such as works by Tonico Auad, Hala Elkousy and Martin Creed. Some of which may perhaps be chosen to be added to the already impressive list from the first Triennial: Mark Wallinger’s Folke Stones and Tracey Emin’s series of Baby Things are just two. All seem to have been accepted by the community, and with a sense of pride as something important that belongs to the town.

2nd September – Friday Night Drinks – Cambridge

City Connect supports Cambridge events from numerous organisations. We are proud to promote these Cambridge events to our City Connect readers making them accessible to all. If you are interested in this Cambridge event, either leave a comment below or go to the CitySocialising website. If you have any suggestions for other Cambridge events for us to promote, contact us directly.

City Connect highlights the following CitySocialising Cambridge event:-

Event Name: Friday Night Drinks

Date: Friday 2nd September

For more information and to RSVP online visit CitySocialising and sign up for free.

All new members are entitled to attend one free Social when signing up to the CitySocialising site.

Event Description:

It’s Friday! After a long week why not come out tonight for a top night of socialising and getting to know each other, as we start the weekend off in style! Don’t stay in this Friday, come out and join a great crowd this Friday as we head to one of the city’s best bars. It’s drinks all round and a chance to let your hair down as we forget about the week and look forward to meeting new CitySocialisers whilst sharing a glass of wine or a cold beer.

Our host, one of our regular members will be meeting us in or reserved area where we’ll have a great chance to get to know each other and get to know another great bar in our city!

We love Fridays, come out and join us!!

We’ll have an area reserved for us at La Raza, where a host will be waiting to welcome you when you arrive and settle you in to the Social. (Make sure you check here before the Social to see who is hosting).

Keep your eyes peeled for a CitySocialising logo on the table or ask the venue staff for the table reserved under the name CitySocialising.

If you like this CitySocialising event as promoted by City Connect Events, you are only a few clicks away from being able to attend the event and meet new people. Please click the image below.

Create an acccount

Free to sign up & try the service. Attend your first social, join groups, search for people, send and receive some messages and more.

Find friends with shared interests

Use the site to find people who live or work near you or who share the same interests, send messages and create a friends list.

Attend socials and have fun

Meet people offline too at fun socials organised by others and organise your own!

Image reproduced from City Socialising
Press release: LC

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