Hello

This site has been set up to provide an Internet presence for us and our friends. We have something to do with all the sites to which this page is linked. The links under other links are nothing to do with us and are only included because they are in some way useful to us.

Yet another campaign, the Herbert Strutt School has closed and Amber Valley seem to have decided to sell the sit to the highest bidder. You might think fine but it‘s not theirs to sell it was given on trust for the people of the town. Selling it just puts money on a box they can use, it gives us nothing for the future; go read the structured stuff at the campaign site, it seems to be being backed by the Belper Civic Forum.

I have not done much to this site for a long time as I have had nothing new to add well now I have TESCO, BATS (Belper Against Tesco Superstore), the meadow and new roads have all come up at one time and I have to say something so read my ideas about the proposed "Belper relief road"

Tracey writes stories, all sorts of stories, some are for children and some for adults, most are short but they are getting longer. In all cases they are well written and many of them are funny and/or thought provoking. Here is the first of hopefully many to be published here and by others, this is a simple childrens story inspired by one child and illustrated by another. "The Thing" is just simple magic children love it, particularly if you use their name.

We have both been interested in Speedway for a long time, Tracey is the real fan but I can claim to have seen it first as I was taken to what I believe was the Brummies as a child. My dad was a big fan and would have been as happy to see the Brummies return as he would have been sad to see the Cradley Heathens demise. We had both been going to Wolverhampton for a number of years on an intermitent bacis (It is nearly sixty miles away.) but Tracey now goes to Birmingham on a weekly basis complete with an assortment of children, most of whom come back convinced it's great.

Great news there is a good chance that The Heathens will be back. Knowing these things it'll not be next season but the one after but still the best news for them in a long time. Fingers crossed....

John is a very good friend and just possibly a distant relation (very very distant!!!!). He has been to Africa on tour a number of times and has now written two Blogs; both are full of his wonderful pictures as he trailed for miles across country in his Disco(very) which was specialy modified for the trips. Read about the first trip here and the Second here.

Nondas Corfu Holidays are some very good friends who operate a small Greek family holiday company in the small village of San Stefanos on the north-west corner of Corfu. A great place for a quiet restful holiday with the family, sun, sand and good food.

Charentel Ltd is a small Telecommunications Consultancy run by a very good friend. They are heavily into GSM and all the other mobile phone technologies including all the support infrastructure - cleaver stuff.

Belper Art Group is where I go to throw paint at paper every Thursday night. A great way to pass a couple of hours relaxing and meeting people. I used to be incapable and now I am just incompetent, so I have made some progress.

Finally we have been actively involved through the Derby Link in the Chernobyl Child Lifeline charity for a number of years.  Each year we host a couple of children for two weeks. It's wonderful to see a child arrive quiet, tired and more than a little frightened, blossom and become full of life. Some of them are quite ill, others are just weak, they all come from the area where the radiation is below the evacuation level but well above the acceptable level.

Life is hard for them without the radiation; if for instance they go to the dentist at home they get no aesthetic even for extractions. One of our girls had thirteen teeth out under a general and the first thing she said when she woke up was thank you; it still brings tears to my eyes.

To get some idea of what Chernobyl means have a look at Motorcycling through Chernobyl, I'm not sure of everything that Elena says but the truth of the pictures and what happened is clearly visible and people are suffering and will suffer for generations to come. People are so stupid, I still find it hard to believe what happened there.

Frank

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