Volunteers Welcomed!

Although we already have a "core" of dedicated cleaners, we are looking for extra volunteers to be part of the Church Room Cleaning Teams.

The Church Room is thoroughly cleaned and tidied by 2 people early in the given month and thereafter checked on a weekly basis for the remainder of that month.

Any volunteer would only be required to help ONCE A YEAR. If you are able to help please contact Michael on 710364 who is currently drawing up the 2010 Rota. Your help would be much appreciated.

Many thanks.

Michael Ball

Christmas Letter From Llyn Evans

Dear Perran friends,

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

It was lovely to be back in Cornwall last summer, especially to spend some time in Perranuthnoe and find most of you in great health and spirits. What struck me generally is how busy you all are! I’ve no doubt got used to a gentler pace in India, so that I’ve forgotten how to pack every minute with action.

As you probably know, I decided to rent a small flat in Penzance, which made it easier to get around without a car. I made full use of the bus service, which I think is an undervalued blessing that we can all enjoy. If a bus is late, so what? All the more time to watch a bluebell open…. I was enchanted to be back in time for the bluebells, and the burgeoning of an incomparable Spring.

The summer was full of interest, joy blended with unexpected turns of fate for me, with an extraordinary series of setbacks of the type I thought occurred only in India. They were, if anything, more striking in UK. All my efforts failed to get my visa through in time, so I had to miss my flight back and expensively book another one.

But I did get here eventually, and the 9-hour car journey from Delhi to Rishikesh was uplifted by an incident on the road that I’ll never forget, perhaps like the animal who caused it. 6 hours into the dusty, bumpy ride, we got stuck in traffic for about50 minutes, with honking getting louder, pushing more aggressive, heat hotter, and window-selling more pressing. Every time I opened a window to let some air in, someone would try and sell me household goods. The driver bought a saucepan. Would he use the rising heat to cook us a meal, I wondered. But he needed all his skill to hold his own against tractors honking as if it were a Last Trump competition.

At last we reached the source of the hold-up: an elephant! Lumberingly lifting one toffee-coloured foot after another, he plodded forwards with a tree-trunk on his back, taking up the entire width of the road. He was helping with the harvest. The tractors bore sugar-cane; the elephant bore a tree. He made all the difference to my journey, lifting me to the status of a character in the Mahabharata. I no longer cared how long it took: the elephant and I had shared the road to Rishikesh.

It’s great to be back in the ashram, where I’ve been welcomed very warmly into the heart of this close family. Even by the cows. Our Head, the revered Swami Veda Bharati, decided that what the ashram lacked was cows, so he bought 14 of them – 6 adults and 8 calves – who travelled all the 15-hour way from Rajasthan, arriving here just before me. Students have turned into cowherds, the animals are fed a sattvic diet to keep them placid and milk-producing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I woke up one morning to see them practising Yoga.

A few of us drove up the mountains last Sunday, to walk in the pure air of the pine forests. Donkey-bells sounded across the valleys and the snow peaks of the high Himalayas seemed very near in the sharp light.

In a place of such natural and spiritual eminence, it seems ridiculous to mention technical problems (I am just gratefully amazed to be able to communicate with you at all). But I may just mention that there are major roadworks taking place outside the ashram, and I’m told that every day a different piece of our telephone line is cut. We have 3 lines to the outside world, and the one that connects me to the Internet has been cut for a long time. For the only active one, which serves the Meditation Hall (and the cowshed) I have positioned myself where I can hear both Om and Moo, and am hoping for the blessing of being able to send this with a few pictures.

Wishing you peace and joy in 2010,

With love and blessings,

Llyn

Raffle in support of Sandrose Project & Marazion Pre-School

My youngest daughter Ivy attends Marazion Pre-School and they are holding a raffle next week (Friday 18th). Half the proceeds will go towards sensory equipment for the Pre-School children and the other half is going to this brilliant national charity - The Sandrose Project - which happens to be located a hundred yards away in Marazion. The charity leases 3 cottages with gardens near the quiet beach in Marazion which they make available to families suffering from bereavement. The cottages help bereaved families (particularly those with very young children) to get away for 1 or 2 weeks, to reflect in peace, to re-bond as a family unit, to gather themselves together away from the pressure of well-wishing neighbours and the strains of daily life. The Charity works closely with national bereavement organisations and it is very well managed by a high calibre board of Trustees.

Tickets (£1 each, or £5 for a book of 5) are on sale at Perran Crafts, The Victoria Inn, Tim's Veg stall, Jenny's hairdresser's in Perran and most shops & pubs in Goldsithney too.

Prizes include £100 cash, lunch at the Mount Haven, a helicopter trip to see the Mousehole lights, Kids R Us tickets, a Christmas hamper including veg from Tim's stall, various leasure activities (spa day, swim at the Penventon Hotel pool, a month's membership at PZ leisure centre), Skinners Polypin, local attraction tickets (Minack, Eden, Newquay Zoo, Blue Reef Aquarium, Crealy, Seal Sanctuary), £20 Tesco voucher, 2 Kidzworld VIP guest passes, St Justin gift package.

The raffle will be drawn next Friday 18th December at the Pre-School's Christmas Extravaganza so I'll need to collect all ticket stubbs from local outlets on Friday morning next week. The tickets will be drawn for each specific prize.

Many thanks
Katie Kirk (nee Groves).

Can You Help

Does anyone know of a Crib or Christingle Service being held nearer Christmas than the service at Perranuthnoe, ideally on Christmas Eve afternoon?

We've got six grandchildren coming down for Christmas and this is such a lovely and important start to Christmas, putting the presents and Santa in proper perspective, that I would like to take them to a local service. Their own church in Hertfordshire has its annual service at 4.00pm on Christmas eve so they will miss that one and miss the Christingle here on the 13th December.

I'd be grateful for any help or suggestions.

Thank you

Sue Farrow

(Leave any answers in the comments below or email them through the contact page of this site.)

Broadband Problems?

For the past 10 days or so my broadband service has been slow and unreliable - download speed about 1.0 mbps upload about 0.35. Is it just me or has anyone else had this experience?

Ciaran Forristal

Update - Guy Fawke’s Night at the Cabin

Jenni and Lisa have decided to cancel this event. They wanted it to be something nice for the village and not something that would cause upset.

Jenni and Lisa are holding a traditional family evening of fireworks and food in the field opposite the car park on Thursday 5th November. Please see Village Events for more details.

There is concern in the village about the proximity of the fireworks with particular reference to pet owners.

Jenni and Lisa have said they do not want to cause upset. They are asking if anyone has any ideas for an alternative site.

Please send in your suggestions. You can use the contact form on this website or post you comments and suggestions below.

Personal Note:
As most of you know we ourselves have four dogs and although we love the idea and do not want to be killjoys we are very concerned. Our dogs get absolutely petrified by fireworks, not only do they quiver and shake like jelly whilst trying to squeeze in to the smallest space possible they also loose control of their bowels! Very upsetting all round.

Kay

Church Room Update

To recap the story so far…

Last February residents were invited to take part in a consultation event in the Church Room. Lots of great ideas were put forward to improve the fabric and use of the building.

The findings of the consultation event were published and are still available on the village website.

A working group was then pulled together with representatives from both the Church congregation and members of the wider community. This group worked hard to research the options, determine feasibility and to form a consensus on which of the ideas could be accommodated in the scope of the project. A strong project was defined.

Over the summer, some ‘quick wins’ were identified and a mini-project was funded to ensure that some action was taking place. The community’s own Open Gardens fundraising efforts paid for the new summer furniture and some small items of kitchen equipment in time for the summer events. Grants from the Parish Council (£622.23) and the former Penwith District Council’s Village Hall Grant (£ 1,377.76) have paid for the garden furniture store to be built to the rear of the building (work in progress), thereby freeing up valuable floor-space inside the building.

Latest news

Now that the summer is over, the hard work begins again in earnest. Applications are being written to the Church and Community Fund, Awards for All and others requesting funds for the all important final phase of the Church Room refurbishment.

This refurbishment aims to maximise the potential of the Church Room for use by all members of the community. Specifically we aim to:

1. encourage more people (beyond the usual Church-going congregation) to use the hall as a general community facility. We hope to bring the room up to a standard which is suitable for the wide range of community activity ideas put forward at the February consultation event
2. ensure the building design addresses the practical needs of the very young, the elderly and those with disabilities as far as is reasonably practicable
3. maximise and make best use of the space available with bespoke, creative storage solutions, compact equipment and sensible working arrangements
   

For further details please contact Katie Kirk on 01736 710907

Bus Campaign Result!

The 2b bus timetable from Perranuthnoe to Penzance has just changed:

There will be a bus leaving at one minute to 10 and then every hour thereafter until one minute to 3 every day.

It goes straight through to Goldsithney! (The first bus from Penzance is at 10.30 and then at half past each hour, arriving here about ten to the hour).

Well done all those who strove for a more sensible arrangement all those months ago!

Meg Pinfield.

Telephone Fraud Warning

Cornwall Council Information Services has received reports of a telephone fraud being attempted within the county.

The fraudsters are cold calling people claiming to be Windows XP service providers and then advising that they have detected that the person’s computer has problems (slow running, Trojan viruses etc.) This statement is false. They won’t have had access to the computer to identify any problem.

This claim is made with the intent to scare people into paying money to have their PC’s remotely ‘fixed’. They have also been known to infect computers with viruses once attached to prove their ‘repair’ has worked. They call from UK based numbers but all calls to these numbers appear to end up in India. All reports we have had so far involve people with Indian accents.

They appear to go under a number of names Supportonclick, logmein123 and Systemrecure.

As an additional warning. Random website adverts claiming to have found viruses on your computer are equally suspect and no attempt should be made to install any software offered by them.

This warning applies equally to your computers at home. Please ensure your computers at home have their security systems up-to-date, are fully patched and have a firewall in place.

Regards

Anthony Waters
Senior ICT Support Officer
Information Services
Cornwall Council
01872 323202
awaters@cornwall.gov.uk

Planning for Cliff House

Perranuthnoe Parish Council have today received plans for the proposed re-development of Cliff House.

The application proposes to knock down the existing building and re build it 3.5 metres further back.

Anyone wishing to view the plans can do so at Churchtown House this evening between 8pm and 9pm or Thursday afternoon between 3.30pm and 5.30pm. Alternatively the plans can be viewed at St. Clare.

If you know anyone who may wish to view the plans, please can you pass this message on.