Sibford Scene Archive

January 14th, 2003

Greta welcomed us and told us about some forthcoming important dates, which got us scrabbling for our diaries. Firstly, our A.G.M. on March 11th. This will also be our annual ‘Bring and Buy’, so all those Christmas gifts you didn’t want (sh!!) please come and unload them.

The next West Oxfordshire Federation meeting is at Oxford Town Hall on 3rd April. Speakers are usually first class and it is hoped more of us will go along this time.

Other dates were for the summer, so more about them later.

Our speaker, Mr. B. Hadley, arrived in good time to setup his complicated and very heavy equipment. This was to show a selection of slides: “Plants and Birds”, in stereo. He brought appropriate spectacles to get the 3D effect, and so we watched, enthralled at the beautiful photographs. Pat Whitehouse, the photographer, died fifteen years ago. She was world famous in the use of stereo and had bequeathed her huge collection to the stereo society of which Mr. Hadley is a member. He told us how lucky we were to see them and we couldn’t have agreed more!

Rosalind thanked him and did a bit of touting for the Horticultural Society but, sadly, Mr. Hadley is retiring.

Maureen and Gaynor served our welcome tea. Our speaker judged the cake competition: 1st: Maureen; 2nd: Glennis; 3rd: Lynda. However, he chose to take Greta’s cake home, speculating that it would be unlikely to get that far!

Next meeting: February 11th.
Mrs June Partridge will speak on “Alaska”.
Competition: Handmade Warm Hat.
New Members are Welcome.

RP

I’m sure that many people in our communities have heard of the Tour de Trigs. It’s a tough 24 hour walk held on the first weekend of December every year for the last 37 years with just two breaks because of foot and mouth. Teams of three must complete 50 miles in 24 hours and are only given the route half an hour before they set off.

This year seemed to be something special because more than 20 people from the Sibfords were involved in some way. Three teams of three people actually took part and completed the 50 miles. Another dozen or more people went without sleep for most of the Saturday and Sunday helping with the organisation of the event. Catering, transport, house management, publicity and communications were just some of the tasks that Sibfordians take on each year. In fact the Sibfords provide the largest number of people from any single community who take part or help run the Trigs.

There must be something in the Sibford water!

High-speed broadband internet access at the Swalcliffe exchange could be nearer than we expect – if we say we want it. The latest information we have from BT is that their target for upgrading the exchange to support high-speed broadband Internet access (ADSL) is a total 94 subscribers registering interest. 50 have already done this, so we’re more than halfway there. Since there are also 2 schools and the surgery on the exchange, BT may be even keener to get the upgrade done. If we want to avoid remaining the poor relations of town homes and businesses, let’s see if we can register enough demand with BT for this to happen sooner rather than later for once.

BT is encouraging potential subscribers to register, but via an Internet Service Provider (ISP) rather than directly with them. To do this, one nevertheless starts with BT: go to www.bt.com/broadband, choose the green Getting Broadband tab at the top of the page and then choose the Broadband Suppliers link in the second line of the page. There’s a Reistering interest section in the lower left, through which you can register via an ISP of your choice. (The BT page also has an Availability & Registration tab, but it’s a longer process if you follow this. First, you will be asked to enter your telephone number, then you’ll get a discouraging message saying “It is unlikely that there will be enough demand to cover the cost of upgrading your exchange”. However, if you then follow the subsequent links “See how many people have registered an interest in ADSL at your exchange”, “What to do next” and “Find out which Suppliers you can register with”, you’ll end up at the same Broadband Suppliers page.)

Most ISPs seem to be pricing broadband access at about £25 / month for unlimited, “always-on” access over normal telephone lines. The line can be used for both voice calls and internet access at the same time. This is much cheaper and more satisfactory, than the satellite broadband service that BT has recently been marketing through leaflets.