I am going on holiday soon. I am so excited and cannot wait to get away from work and this miserable rainy weather for some sunshine. I have booked my travel and my accommodation, all I need to do now is sort out my travel to and from the airport. A colleague has given me the details for www.airporttransferoxford.co.uk Read the rest of this entry »
A charitable fan of tattoos in Oxford has come up with a novel way to raise money for sick newborn babies and their families.
30 year old Brian Adams from Littlemore is raising money by asking for sponsors for a new tattoo of a cartoon character on his rear! The charitable chap will have no say as to which cartoon character will be drawn forever onto his backside.
The final decision will be made by his sponsors. The money that Mr. Adams raises will go to Support of the Sick Newborn and their Parents (SSNAP), which supports the special care baby unit at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.
Everyone who donates to the cause will get to choose a character they would like to put forward for the tattoo. Every pound counts for one vote.
The charitable tattoo fan has said: “Having no control over what happens is a little bit daunting, though I have absolutely no preference at all. I just wanted to pick something that was a little bit child-based. That’s a part of my body that is not going to be public. But it also makes it a bit more quirky.”
He already has five tattoos: “It’s something I’ve always been interested in. I look at tattoos in an artistic way.”
The tattoo artist at Evolution Tattoos in Kidlington, Paul Humphreys , who will be doing the tattoo said: “I’ve done one charity tattoo before. It’s all good fun. We do quite a few tattoos on that part of the body.”
The worthy charity, SSNAP raises funds for neonatal care at the John Radcliffe Hospital.
Mr Adams visited the hospital recently and said: “To be honest I got a bit choked up. Being a father myself it really tugged on my heartstrings.”
He has already raised £300 in donations and some of the suggested have included Pepe Le Pew, My Little Pony and Winnie the Pooh.
Fans of folk music in Oxford were in for a treat with a hastily arranged celebration of the popular music that was set up to replace the cancelled Oxford folk festival.
The popular and long standing Oxford Folk Festival was called off when it was deemed too expensive. The Folk Weekend Oxford was planned my folk lovers in the area. The event attracted hundreds of morris dancers, musicians and singers to Oxford.
The new play area at Blackbird Leys was commemorated with a barbecue with local Mums and toddlers. Oxford City Council has invested £35,000 for new play equipment for the run-down playground in Falcon Close.
The council have put money towards 87 playgrounds across Oxford that are going to be revamped in a three-year improvement programme. The playground is aimed at children under 6, and there were plenty of them there on the day enjoying the new equipment.
An amazing £70,000 has been donated to the much deserving Sobell House Hospice from the Big Lottery Fund. The money is going to pay for a new minibus driver over the next three years for the hospice.
The amazing minibus service will transport terminally-ill patients from across Oxfordshire to the hospice’s drop-in centre every day.
Did you watch Britain’s Got Talent this Saturday? Well you may have seen Oxford locals and handbell ringers Alan and Gay Cooper performing Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’ to rapturous applause.
The audition has already had 240,000 views on YouTube. The couple have had a musical love affair that started when they met at a recorder class. They even had handbells playing at their wedding.
Jamie Leach and fiancée Kate Harvey said that it was “a dream come true” as they won the top prize in the Oxford Times Win Your Wedding competition.
The happy couple beat off 33 other couple who were hoping to win £12,000 for their weddings in Oxford in July 2012.
A group of old friends are taking up the mammoth task of cycling more than 960 miles in a bid to raise £10,000 for cancer research.
The fundraising effort was organised after Nathan Dale’s mother was diagnosed with a tumour in her throat in 2009.
City based art dealer Adrian Greenwood is putting a rare work of art by the famous and controversial graffiti artist Banksy up for sale in Oxford.
The piece is a 1970s bank safe that has been stenciled with artwork of parachuting rats. The guide price for the unusual piece is £60,000, but unfortunately you can’t use it as a safe, because it doesn’t have a key!
It’s the end of an era for pubs in Oxford as The Shelley Arms on Cricket Road has been boarded up and is unlikely to open again as a pub. Punch Taverns, who own the pub, have said that the changing demographics of the area are to blame.
Members of the Oxford branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), stated that the Asian community of non-drinkers that live in the area have meant a sharp decline in custom.
