Ian – Bare Community Association

A Very Merry Christmas

As 2021 comes to a close, I have been thinking back on a year that seems to have flown by! We continue with the restrictions around Covid but on the whole everyone seems to be handling it very well. I was in the crescent just yesterday and most people were wearing masks, everyone was in the shops. In fact I was chatting to one lady (socially distanced of course) about how masks keep your face warm on a cold day, while we were in the outside queue for the Chemist. While we were not able, as an association, to run …

Local Business

Seaborn Stores Does It Again!

Yet again, Seaborn Stores (Londis) has been nominated as one of the top 100 independent stores in the UK and Ireland by the Independent Achievers Academy (IAA). The press release below fills in the details. This comes as no surprise to those of us who shop there. Kelly and the team have been a rock during the pandemic and have always been able to supply when the major stores could not. The standard of customer service has been nothing short of fabulous. Many congratulations to the team. Well deserved! PRESS RELEASE Local community store recognised in UK and Ireland’s Top …

Opinion

Shiny Happy People

I have been browsing through local FaceBook groups, as you do, to see what is happening in our wonderful town. What I found shocked me. The sheer amount of negative things that local posters say about the town is incredible and makes me feel very sad. All I see is people saying the town is a disgrace, it is a mess, the grass hasn’t been cut, the council are doing nothing, why do I pay my council tax? I actually have heard people saying they are embarrassed by the state of the town! Whilst I understand why people are complaining, …

Bare Community Association Happy Mount Park

A Tidy Park is a Happy Park

We finally have had a few glorious days at the end of May and the beginning of June. Lockdown is beginning to ease and families are gathering on the beaches and parks. Businesses are starting to open again and life is full of hope once more. Some things however, do not change. Some are good things. For example, I still manage to walk through Happy Mount Park each morning, bump (not literally) into the same people each day and enjoy a socially distanced chat and the glorious sounds of the wildlife. Others are not so good… I have spoken about …

Bare Community Association

And So This Is Christmas

Who would have thought at this time last year just what was ahead of us all. Certainly life has changed for Linda and I. Losing our dear friend Bob in early February was a shock and we were fortunate to be able to hold his funeral just before restrictions kicked in. Then lockdown began and the ‘new normal’ started. For us, of course, apart from our loss, life has not changed that much. Being retired, we are used to having each others company day in and day out. We have missed our canal holidays and of course, going to the …

Bare Community Association Lockdown Opinion

Goodwill to all men

It’s easy to understand why there has been little mentioned about Christmas recently. Normally we would be starting to be overrun with adverts on TV, promising us the best Christmas ever if we just buy certain products. Not so as yet this year. There are good reasons for this of course. I am not a religious man but it seems to me that ‘The Season Of Goodwill To All Men’ is as apt this year as ever, if not more so. One of the tenets of most religions, if not all, is to be kind to each other, help those …

Humour Nostalgia

The annual Annual

While chatting with friends, the conversation turned to children’s TV (Don’t ask me how we got there?!) when we were kids. Of course, in the early days we didn’t even have a TV but later on, even in black and white, Blue Peter and the various presenters from that time. We mused for a while and started to remember a few other things. Entering a competition and winning a book! I am not sure how that would go down these days but at that time, the competition would have been well oversubscribed! That brought us on to Christmas and getting …

Uncategorised

Lexi’s Life

Please take a moment to read about our fundraising efforts for little Lexi. Lexi lives locally and has been diagnosed with a life limiting illness known as Krabbe’s Disease. Lexi’s Grandma Su is a local resident, member of our Facebook group and worked locally at the Simply Food and Drink store at the end of South Road until it closed. This is something Lexi’s mum has written explaining Lexi’s condition and telling her story. Lexi’s family want to fundraise to help Lexi experience life in every way she can in the short time she will have but also, despite what …

Bare Community Association

Bare Lines

All our members get a monthly newsletter, written by our secretary, Marisa Seddon. I would just like to thank Marisa for this months fabulous issue. I can only try to imagine the amount of work that has gone into this! There are 25 pages (count them…. 25!) of historical and local information as well as sections for our member businesses. Thankyou once again to Marisa! I am going to focus on one of the items in the newsletter in another blog post and I will be featuring businesses from the newsletter in our ‘Featured Business’ section on the website.

Grumpy Old Man Opinion

Whatever happened to common sense?

Sadly, it is a fact that we live in an increasingly litigious society. It would appear that we cannot understand anything unless we are told about it. We cannot know that hot water comes out of the hot tap unless there is a sign saying ‘Danger – Hot Water’ above it. I have even heard people complain, even though there was a sign, that they did not realise how hot the water was! Really? In the chip shop, there is a sign on the warmer above the range saying ‘Danger – Hot’. Come on, it’s a warmer! It is there …