by Marc on October 30, 2009
What: Mistletoe Ball 2009
When: 27th November
Where: The Fennes Estate, Bocking, Essex
Contact: 01206 547616
Email: town.office@headwayessex.org.uk
Headway Essex is once again staging it’s popular Mistletoe Ball 2009 to raise much needed financial support for the caring of survivors of brain injury and their families and carers.
This year’s ‘Black Tie’ festive event will be held at The Fennes Estate, Bocking, Essex on Friday 27th November where guests can enjoy a sparkling reception with tasty canapés in the impressive Pavilion before enjoying a sumptuous three course dinner and coffee in the Banqueting hall.
Whilst enjoying your meal you will be entertained by local celebrity magician – Michael J Fitch followed by dancing to top quality music until 12.30pm. During the course of the evening there will be a short interval for a raffle offering fabulous prizes including vintage wines, Benefit cosmetics, a crystal necklace and a year’s golf membership. You will also be able to purchase “golden envelopes” where everyone is a winner.
A further break in the dancing later on will see the staging of a short ‘auction’ for some stunning ‘lots’ including a stay in the 5 star Mandarin Hotel in Prague, a weeks accommodation for seven in a cottage on the beautiful Scottish island of Mull, a golf & spa weekend in Wales, Dinner for six in your own home provided by the award winning Colchester restaurant –The Lemon Tree and an appointment with celebrity hairdresser, Lee Stafford.
The Mistletoe Ball 2009 is being sponsored by Irwin Mitchell Solicitors with all printing sponsored by Colchester Connected magazine. Joanna Wright, Director of Fundraising at Headway concludes, “This year’s event promises to be a spectacular evening for everyone attending and we look forward to receiving confirmations for both individual and table bookings by Friday 6th November.”
The tickets cost £60 each.
For further information contact Joanna Wright, Mary Beverley or Anna Smith on 01206 547616 or email town.office@headwayessex.org.uk
by Marc on October 29, 2009
I’ve lived in Colchester for 12 years approx. and we have never had any real bother with people “trick or treating” (touch wood). It is really good if it is a group of kids supervised by their parents all acting responsibly and having a bit of fun, but I don’t like it too much when it is a group of teenagers who want money instead of sweets (although this has only happened on a couple of occasions).
I would imagine it might be quite scary for elderly people or people home alone so it is important that everyone remembers that it is quite easy to intimidate and scare people when they are out and about knocking on doors – if someone doesn’t answer, move on to the next house not everyone wants to play 
Last year no one knocked on the door at all – so perhaps people are not trick or treating as much as they did these days?
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by Marc on October 28, 2009
Here are some pictures of Colchester Town Centre, I know some are not brochure quality (it was my first ever dslr camera) and I didn’t know how to use it very well. The purpose was to get some general photos of Colchester and to take my son out on the double decker bus tour which he loved. If you have some better photos of Colchester, new or old, then please send them to me as I would love to add them to this gallery.
by Marc on October 27, 2009
Colchester and the surrounding area has lots of things to do. So I thought I would highlight some of them in a series of articles, one each week.
Rollerworld – the atmosphere is fantastic, the sound and lighting are great, and you get to skate in Europe’s best roller-skating rink. Visit their website to find out more about prices, and opening times. Seriously, if you want to have a laugh then get down there with your friends and you will not regret it. There is also a facebook fan page to join as well.
Colchester Zoo – Fun for all the family. We are very lucky to have such an excellent zoo on our doorstep. If you visit often then it is well worth getting the gold or platinum membership cards.
Colchester Castle and Museums – Being the oldest down in Great Britain, we have some very good museums and a Castle. The museums include “Castle Museum”, “Hollytrees Museum”, “Natural History Museum”, “Tymperleys Clock Museum”.
Liquid Nightclub – I have not been to any Colchester clubs for a while , but by going from what people write about Liquid on twitter it is a great place to go clubbing in Colchester.
Colchester United Football Club – We have a new £14M stadium called “The Weston Homes Community Stadium”. I believe I saw a special offer at Highwoods Tesco selling tickets @ £10 (if anyone has more details on this please let me know). Apart from football, the stadium is also used for hosting other events such as “Colchester Connected” business breakfast networking meetings.
Odeon Cinema – A great place to go and relax to watch a movie. You can always look for special offers as Odeon is one of the largest cinema chains in the UK.
Highwoods Country Park – it must be the best park in Colchester. It has a fishing lake with some big fish in (I know as I’ve seen one been caught and it was really big!). If you just want to go out for a walk, or take a picnic you can just go and chill out and it is one of the best things to do on a sunny afternoon if you don’t want to travel far and not spend any money.
Article 2 to follow next week – so be sure to let me know your favourite places so I can add them to the list.
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by Marc on October 22, 2009
I’ve just been doing some Colchester related searches, and thought it would be interesting to see what Google thinks are the most relevant websites related to the single-word search term “Colchester”.
I doubt many local people search on the word “Colchester” all by itself, but certainly, people outside of Colchester might do a quick one word search to find out a bit more about the Oldest Town in Britain.
So what is the Top 10 Websites for the single-word search term “Colchester”:
- Colchester, Essex – maps.google.co.uk
- well this certainly makes sense – most people who enter just one word about Colchester will probably be interested in knowing exactly where Colchester actually is.
- It is also a good site because it tells us a little about Colchester and places to visit such as Colchester Zoo, Universite of Essex, Colchester Community Stadium, Colchester Castle etc.
- Colchester Borough Council – colchester.gov.uk
- This site is run by our local Borough Council. It is functional, and currently has a big advert telling us what the cheap times are to park in Colchester (although I think it should always be cheap, or even free to park), and the busses too!
- Generally I think it is good site and I visit it now and again. There is an news feed that I would recommend everyone subscribe to it – Colchester Borough Council News Feed
- Visit Colchester Essex Tourism Tourist Information Guide Mersea Island Colchester Zoo – visitcolchester.com
- This is one of the best known (and official) Colchester Tourist Information websites. There is even a “Visit Colchester” online brochure which currently has an article worth reading called “Meet the time-honoured 7 Wonders of Colchester”.
- On the whole this is a good site, but I could not find any newsfeeds or newsletter subscriptions which would be very useful for people living in Colchester who want to keep up to date with new content.
- Colchester Zoo – colchester-zoo.co.uk
- Colchester Zoo is one of the biggest attractions in Colchester. It is a truly fantastic zoo and perfect for a great family day out.
- The Colchester Zoo website is good and has lots of useful information about the zoo.
- Buying tickets online saves you money – so it is cheaper to buy the tickets from the website than it is at the zoo.
- If you want to keep up to date with what is happening at the zoo then they have an online zoo newsletter you can subscribe to (which is found on their front page).
- Colchester United | CUFC Scores, News, Transfers, Fixtures – cu-fc.com
- Every CU-FC fan will already know about this website! All the information you need is here in one place.
- Has a mobile zone for your mobile phone which is cool. You can get mobile internet, text alerts, mobile wallpapers, ringtones, games and more.
- Colchester – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – wikipedia.org
- As it says in its name – a website that is actually about Colchester, covering a variety of different topics such as:
- History
- Climate
- The Army
- Governance
- Culture
- Twin towns
- Education
- Transport
- etc.
- Everything you want to know about Colchester and then some. Probably one of the best online resources about Colchester to be found on the web.
- My Score is 7/10
- Welcome to the Colchester Guide – colchesterguide.co.uk
- The Colchester Guide has a little bit of everything related to Colchester, such as history, what’s on, where to stay, eat and drink and more.
- Colchester.uk.com – colchester.uk.com
- This site is similar to Colchester Guide. It has information about attractions, arts, history, shopping, news, hotels and restaurants.
- Colchester Lathes – colchester.co.uk
- A business website – Colchester Lathes. Well, I guess the url “colchester.co.uk” is going to get high rankings in Google!
- BBC Sport | Football | My Club | C | Colchester – news.bbc.co.uk
- Well, the BBC Sport website doesn’t need any introductions. BBC has an excellent website. Not much to say apart from if you are interested in Colchester related sports then this an excellent website to visit for your local sports news.
- You can subscribe to the sports news.
If you could choose, what would be in your top 10 Colchester related websites?
Next time, I will post my favourite Colchester websites!
nb: list based on google.co.uk and the search word “Colchester” using Chrome browser.
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by Marc on October 20, 2009
Running a blog site is exciting, and it can be very random. In our case though, we feel that it should have some structure. So we have decided to introduce monthly themes.
So our first themed blog posts will start at the beginning of November, 2009. And will include:
- Local Photographers
- Local Sports Clubs
- Local Charities
So we have just ten days to start preparing some content.
Our plan is to then add at least one new theme each month, so please send us your suggestions for us to consider.
Also, starting in November will be our monthly competitions. The November competition will be a prize of £50.00 voucher (which can be used in conjunction with any other offers) to be spent at a local photographers. Rules for this competition will be posted in the next few days.
(+1 rating, 1 votes)
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