Spurred on by the devastation of losing loved ones to dementia, three girls will be cycling across America to raise money and awareness of the condition. Kirsty Loveridge, 21, from St David’s Road, Southsea, Katie Stephenson, 24, of Cleveland Road, Southsea, and Amy Hawkins, 25, of Trevor Road, Southsea, will be raising money for the Alzheimer’s Society.
‘It is a cause very close to our hearts. My grandad is 74 and I’ve seen first-hand how dementia has affected him. He’s at the stage where he knows he is forgetting things, but can’t help it. He used to be able to drive and was quite independent, but he can’t be like that any more. My other friends have also been affected by family members suffering from dementia.’
In July the trio will be cycling 3,000 miles and have called the journey ‘miles for memories.’ Their adventure will see them cycle through 15 states finishing in California towards the end of September. The idea came from Katie and Amy, who have both graduated from Portsmouth University, where all three girls met.
You can keep uo to date with the girls progress over at their blog milesformemories.wordpress.com. All the best and good luck.
The following is a message from Edouard Carr. Please read, follow the web links and take in to consideration. “I was talking with my sister in-law and she mentioned that should I ever decide to cut my hair, I should look into donating it to a charity, as there were Cancer charities out there that wanted hair. Now the time has come for me to cut my hair and in doing some research on the Net I found my chosen charity (www.littleprincesses.org.uk). It is a charity which makes real hair wigs to children suffering hair loss due to cancer treatment. After watching their videos and seeing the good work that they do for the children, I knew they were the right choice for me.
Being a father of a little princess myself, I could not bear to imagine how families out there feel when discovering a child has Cancer and to know tht my locks could go to helping a child and their family, brings a smile to my face. I am aiming to raise £250 as after talking to a spokeswoman from the charity, I was told this is the minimum a real hair wig can cost (I hasten to add the wigs are given free to the children). So If I can break this target it would be great.
So there it is, the long hair needs to go but this time not in the bin! Please visit their site and find out how your money and my hair would go to benefit Cancer victims and if you ever feel the urge to cut your hair, please don’t forget this charity. You can donate at www.justgiving.com/Edouard-Carr
Strange how you end up researching something and end up going off down a random tangent, which is how I first started looking in to UFO sightings over Portsmouth in recent years. There was a high profile fake (according to popular opinion, of course) that made it in to the national press in 2008 and this image ended up linking through to photos, reports and even videos of strange objects spotted over our city, opening up a subject that is both fascinating and peculiar.
Portsdown Hill has been identified as a hot spot when it comes to sightings and does host sky watching evenings with people vigilantly observing the skies, hoping to view, film and photograph something out of the ordinary. Now obviously, living in an area with major military activity, the logical first thought is that all sightings will probably be something like a Chinook helicopter or oven something more ordinary like a light aircraft or Chinese lanterns caught in high breeze but not all the eyewitness accounts and even videos match those simple answers…resulting in literal unidentified, flying objects. The truth is out there, or something.
You can read many sightings over Portsmouth here and If you have any stories of your own we would love to hear them! Don’t be shy, please add them as a comment.
“I filmed these two strange metallic spheres floating in the sky late this afternoon (28th Feb 2011). Completely silent, no smoke contrail and the spheres where really shiny metallic and very reflective. Very bizarre!!”
“This astonishing, (and what we believe to be structured), object was filmed by a witness who was out trying his brand new, Sony HD handycam for the first time on a Skywatch. He initially saw this ufo as a red orb rising up from an area which is Farlington Marshes, Langstone Harbour, looking towards Hayling Island, Hants, UK.”
Happy Easter! Get stuck in to that chocolate and sunday roast and then if you want to burn it all off pop down to the Bridge Tavern for 12ish and then maybe go for a ride on your bikes, you know, sometime around 2ish, if you like. Pop past The Round Tower too to see the live painting going on and the exhibition, if you haven’t seen it yet.
My Dog Sighs put up a crucifixion outside The Round Tower in his own inimitable style on Good Friday, the free eggs went in minutes but it’s been photographed all weekend, including these by Diana Goss. Hope you have a good Christian and/or pagan holiday (or simply a fun, relaxing Sunday) in the sun.
Capt. Zebedee & crew presents t’ all new and much improved. 4 sums o’ treasure t’ be won, amongst ‘em one for best pirate fancy dress! One ‘ell of a rat race and a secret destination, swash-bucklin’, post hunt knees-up with the notorious scoundrels of the sonic seas; Civilisation of the Rough & the Durty 45 DJs runnin’ t’ decks! Press gang y’ crew members and swap sterlin’ for y’ tickets now!
Not sure exactly what happened here, possibly someone trying to escape the police…possibly someone forgetting they weren’t driving a 4×4…possibly someone being a bit daft. Either way, got to admire the persistence in getting up that first bank and it inspired a load of people to take a photo, including myself.
A friend who lives in Melbourne, Australia recently took this photo from ‘The pier at Portsea’. For a second I had to wonder just how and when he travelled 10,000+ miles to Portsmouth as at first glance that could be a view over the Solent. It is always interesting hearing about places with the same name around the world too, which Google always throws in the mix of results when doing searches on Portsmouth, etc.
Anyone know of any interesting name twinning? If so please post them as a comment.
Rusty Sheriff is a good friend of Strong Island and we were saddened to hear Fanny the cat went missing on Saturday. If any residents of Oxford Road, Goodwood Road, Inglis Road, Albert Road and surrounding areas could have a look for her in and and around your houses that would be amazing and any news please get in contact.
As you may know each year we run a home brew competition in February where the winning brew has the opportunity to be brewed by Irving & Co Brewing Co. and sold around the city in the summer. Last year’s brew, the Strong Island Hopper Ale, was hugely successful being one of Inving’s best selling ales and selling out so quickly it went through a second brew run. This year’s winning ale is Dry Dock No. 1, originally brewed by Lee Immins, went on sale in some of Portsmouth and Southsea’s pubs over the weekend.
We spoke to The Hole in The Wall in Southsea who said the new ale went down a storm with it being their best seller on Sunday and with almost two barrels empty by the end of the Bank Holiday weekend. Those guys at the Hole in The Wall and their regular ale drinkers know their stuff so for us this was amazing early news with the ale.
To officially launch Dry Dock No. 1 we are having a launch party with the lovely souls at The Belle Isle on Thursday evening. The ale will be on full flow, come down and try a pint or two. As well as being on sale all around the city the ale will also be available in Chichester’s Belle Isle too, so you can drink it away from home for the first time too.
Just over a year ago, a group of Strong Islanders were sat on the Isle of Wight ferry on our way to the yearly Randonnee cycling event; 60 miles around the island spread across 5 checkpoints. Whilst on the crossing we couldn’t help but admire various enthusiasts and their custom team jerseys. Fast forward a year and it is my great pleasure to unveil the Strong Island cycling jersey. Made as a one off for the event, the jersey is our way of representing this city and all the values that come with it. Thanks to the combined designing efforts of Chris Ballingall and Tristan Savage, we were able to produce this clean, retro looking jersey that 11 of Southsea’s finest could wear to conquer the island’s endless hills. Well done chaps.
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