Cllr Roy Gerstner – Community Activist

So every now and then it’s time to be a bit less serious – Now I have a story…It is called…
‘Esmeralda – The Emu – Egg’
‘Esmeralda’ came about around 10 days ago, born near Stratford-Upon-Avon, she is beautiful, emerald coloured and weighed 562 grams…. What will we do with such a colourful egg?.
‘Esmeralda’ is around the size of 6 large chicken eggs, so we decided to ‘Bake Off’ and make a very special Cake.
Connie (My wife) hasn’t made one of these for around 10 years!!!!…The cake is an Austrian  ‘Gugelhupf’ (several spellings) …. some know it as a ‘Marble Cake’ Pic 1 shows the size of ‘Esmeralda’ sitting on a collectable ‘Sooty Egg Cup’.
We now need some serious ‘tools’
to tackle the job in hand….More Info
needed, and sure enough there are plenty
of helpful advice on YouTube™
Charge up the drill and make sure all the
‘bits’ are sharp enough to tackle the job.
Carefully drill a ‘pilot hole’ – not too bad..

      
Only ‘One Hole’ – this takes great expertise – the boy scouts always used ‘Two Holes’
It takes a lot of patience to get all the ingredients out….Next the ‘secret mixture’ for a ‘Classic Austrian Gugelhulf’
    
Sometime later – ‘Esmeralda’ is transformed into the ‘Classical Cake’ ours with ‘ Cocoa Swirl’.

Moral of the story could read……
Cake built from Australian Emu Egg
Cooked by Connie…Malaysian Chinese
For Roy of Austrian decent

My Grandmothers maiden name was’ Brandhoffer’
My descendants were the ‘Hapsburgs’

We will enjoy our very special cake.

Wishing all my followers and friends
A Very Happy Christmas, A Prosperous and
Healthy New Year.

Thank you for all your help and support.

Roy & Connie

(As usual click on picture to enlarge)

More about Littering issues, Former News night host said UK streets leave him depressed and angry. A recent report found Britain has made little progress at tacking this issue in 12 years.
‘The famous irritable broadcaster is patron of anti-litter group Clean Up Britain.
See the complete article Daily Mail© from 02nd December
http://dailym.ai/1Xwpnd4

Nice photo – but don’t see a Litter picker in his hand?

Maybe ‘Paxo’ should come to Whittlesey – we could show him how its done!

Talking constantly about how our town expands without ‘any’ improvement in its infrastructure, for many years, dozens and dozens of back yard/garden developments have happened. There was a period when the government gave guidance that this was unacceptable, but this didn’t last very long. Naturally if you or I owned a large garden I dare say we would all look into the potential.
When numerous developments took place along Station Road, everyone went through, even if it was argued that there were too many properties/over development.
The latest being along Station Road.

Most people know I am ‘passionate’ about keeping our town & villages clean and tidy, it also has been proven that when areas are kept clean, crime and anti-social behaviour reduces as well – When I came back from Peterborough this afternoon I saw sofa’s/settee’s just dumped in an area close to the centre, Coming back along Storeys Bar Road towards North Bank, I counted 7 different piles of Fly-Tipping, this is always a ‘favourite’ place for the low life to dump their rubbish. We have to be grateful that FDC still has a rapid response team – We are NOT Fly Tipping Free, as we are NOT Litter free, but between several individuals/Street Pride/and other groups we try and keep our town and villages in reasonable condition. We have even noticed LESS Dog Muck recently, but again we are still not totally and never will be free of these problems.

I am sure if people travel around they must notice how bad other areas are.
So although no longer on the management side of Street Pride, my commitment to the group in carrying on (For nearly 9 years now) Litter Picking and Rubbish collecting is still one of my pass times – (I find it very therapeutic)

On a windy morning around 12 of us turned out starting along New Road, we went our various ways, the group collected around 10 big bags of litter/rubbish.
I am very pleased that I only collected around half a bag from all the streets in/around the town itself, which proves the Street Cleaners are doing an excellent job – well done.

Agenda – looks like normal ‘business’ except for interest later on :
Update on ‘Showfields Development’ – will we hear what WTC are planning to do in respect of possible legal appeal.

(As usual click on picture to enlarge – click a 2nd time to enlarge further)
sorry about the quality – best I can do, since no longer a ‘councillor’ I don’t get sent the agenda electronically)

At last a Street Life© response from Cllr Boden regarding the Showfields ‘potential’ action on behalf of WTC – update at next weeks Council meeting – I hope to be there.

We celebrated our 39th Wedding Anniversary at the Alveston Manor Hotel in Stratford Upon Avon, excellent food and full of character. Good service all round.

Just don’t get it! – people complaining about ‘speeding’ all over the area.
Give me a speed gun – I’ll do it – one poster put up – where have you been Mrs….!!!
Here in Whittlesey ‘we’ have tried so many times to get a ‘Speed Watch’ group up and running – I’ve lost count. Tried over a period of around 6 or 7 years to get ‘just’ 6 members of the public to join – best we managed was ‘4’
Advertised all over the place – although ‘Street Life’ was not operating then.
Speed Watch has its +’s and -‘s – Public no too happy with getting zapped and a visit by the police. The last one I joined in was on my own with PCSO Moll, since then it has died’ a death.
So my answer to the Street Lifers complaints and offers – Get in touch with me – I’ll see if we can get ‘6 to 8’ like minded community spirited residents to form a ‘Speed Watch Group’.

There used to be 3 Speed Camera Vans operated by Cambs Police within Cambridgeshire.
There is now 1 Speed Camera Van shared between 3 counties – cuts to the police budget are to blame they said?

In answer to previous posts elsewhere, Oriental Gardens in Guyhirn was frequented by many local people, it ‘closed up’ some months ago and there has been the ‘usual’ rumour mongering as too its demise.
There has been activity by builders, I can say that it is now reopened under a ‘new’ guise as ‘Mama Tree’ it has been open a couple of weeks, a lick of paint and somewhat sparse furniture. I met a couple of businessmen coming out this afternoon and ‘they’ were happy with the food they had.
The restaurant has a ‘normal’ menu takeaway during Mon- Sat and a buffet on Sundays.

I/we have not tried it out and I am in no way making any recommendations – I’ll give it a go in a couple of weeks.
It is operated by ‘Mr Bento’ who runs the Imperial Bento in Peterborough.

Postscript : ‘Imperial Bento’ at Guyhirn (Also run by Mr Bento) has reopened as a ‘Cavery’

Maybe we can all learn something from this quote:

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything”
George Bernard Shaw