Windsor Berkshire

Last night there was a special Police search and rescue team on the relief road at about 6.30 pm. It looked like they were a dive team. Anyone know anything about it?

Alex Lockton, who moved from Windsor a couple of years ago got in touch to say that the dream of changing the world for the better is becoming a reality with the launch of www.sunrisesolar.co.uk, dedicated to providing alternative energy resources over in west berkshire and wilts. Yopu may remember alex as the life and soul of the Prince Arthur pool table on Grove Road.

I need to get away from Windsor for a bit. After investigating Very Cheap Flights I think I can afford a holiday. But where to go?

LEGOLAND Windsor will be celebrating it 10th birthday on 8 & 9 April 2006 with an evening laser and pyrotechnic show. They will be giving away free goody bag for children whose parents can prove the sprogs are celebrating their tenth birthday on 8 & 9 April 2006 too!

Derren Brown the nearest equivelent to Lord Voldermort we have got is coming to Windsor on 30 April. Derren is Britain’s top psychological illusionist and all round spooky dude. He will be appearing at the Theatre Royal Windsor, so book early on Box Office tel. 01753 853888

Spent a lovely half an hour in Clewer park watching a young kestrel practicing swooping down to the grass after small mamals yesterday. Anyone got any good animal sightings in Windsor to share with fellow enthusiasts?

The West Windsor Residents association informed us that the Medina Dairy have resubmitted plans for a mosque in Vale Road. The locals, already fed up with the large tankers and delivery vehicles playing havoc with the traffic at all hours plan to fight this one all the way. Come back here for regular updates.

The business model for BAA is based upon getting ever more passengers and planes through Heathrow Airport . More planes means more opportunities to get money off the airlines who pay landing fees, parking fees and so on. More passengers means they can charge higher rents to the likes of sock shop and Avis for their shops and booths.

Therefore, last week's decision in the house of lords that heathrow cannot expand the number of flights is not the end of the issue. For BAA the issue will NEVER end. They will keep asking for more flights because they are competing in a capitalist market where you have to grow and give ever higher rewards to shareholders.

The only way to safeguard the future of the children living around Heathrow is to take the radical step of nationalising the airports. The government doesn't have to worry about share price and a nationalised airports authority could be tasked with ensuring the infrastructure of the nation's transport policy took precidence over profit.

Only 48.8% of people aged between 16-74 living in Windsor have Qualifications at Level 2 and above. This fact leads me to ask the question are we a bit slow? On reflection I can say No, we have many talents to be proud of.

Firstly, we can frighten tourists. From the cost of a cup of tea at Cayleys to mark and his guitar bouncing up and down like tigger in peascod street most weekends we can guarantee to leave a few visitors shell-shocked.

Then there are balloon animals. Windsor seems to have more balloon animal benders (is there a collective noun?) than any other town in England.

What else can we do? Come on Windsor, stand up for yourselves!

Archaeology in Windsor is almost always a good weekend option. It is saturday morning and I had been planning to go over to the archaeology dig site at Wraysbury to do some weeding, but the weather looks miserable so I think I will stay indoors. A trip to Mahjacks for some tools and then I might set about hacking our Laura Ashley TV cabinet to pieces.

The City of Windsor in Ontario is a cold place at this time of year. They don't have a castle or old father thames, but the do have snow angels; a volunteer group who pick up their shovels and get out in artic conditions to clear paths for those that are unable to do it forthemselves.

We have our volunteer groups here in Windsor, Berkshire but I was wondering which of them the local residents are most proud of?

We got a couple of magazines in a shrink-wrapped envelope through the letterbox this morning. Both came from the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, which is nice because I was begining to wonder about what to put in my black recycling box this week.

In fact the bigger magazine had an article thanking us for using the black boxes. I enjoyed the irony of that one.

I was less happy about the article on page 30 that proudly crowed that the borough is still one of the lowest for council tax. The truth is that the 5% increase hurts us a lot more than any benefit we get from glossy shrink-wrapped packages from the town hall.

Still, we all have our advantage cards which mean we can enjoy a sightseeing tour on the 22nd of April f just one pound. Where? Oh, go on, I think you can guess. What is the one town in the world that Windsor residents dont need a guided tour of? Yup, you've got it.

Cayleys is getting closed down. Windsor will be without its flagship store, but more importantly, there is a great big slice of prime real estate going begging in the middle of town. What would you like to see done with the building on the high street?

Very cold morning with ice on the relief road. And a swan up there too.