Cookham Matters

Some of you have been around long enough to know that just occasionally, I go To Church.  Indeed, I went To Church Saturday and I can honestly say it was a triumph! Cookham villagers Karen and Trevor Davison, and the team from their own Live Wire Productions , laid on a rare treat for us with the first of their innovative live music series christened (do you see what I did there?), Live@...  and in this case, it was Live@the church - our very own Holy Trinity.  Karen is a Lighting Designer for The Royal Festival Hall and so by the time we arrived, the church was beautifully highlighted with lasers and specialist lighting.  There was a small stage where Father Nick The Vic is normally seen to pace with his hands in his pockets and, oh joy of joys, there was a bar behind the font.  Of course there was, who doesn’t have a bar behind the font?  So there I sat, on my slightly uncomfortable pew, enjoying a glass or two as we waited for the line up - Gitta de ...

Christmas 2016 and I wanted a wreath for the front door.  I am Yorkshire tight and every time I looked at them in a florist, I found myself thinking "They want HOW MUCH for a bit of holly and a desiccated slice of orange"?  Shortly followed by "How hard can it be? Surely I can produce something that looks charmingly home made as if by Kirstie Allsop herself?"  Poor naive woman-child. So I purchased the perfect base to set my creative talents afloat - a rustic looking wood bound love heart from a charity shop for £2.99.  And I then set sail to the  the garden centre to buy appropriate glittery things.  Only sophisticated glittery things obviously, no multi coloured tinsel, no tired looking fake mistletoe.  Granted I was a little surprised to realise that I had spent £23 on classy glitter but hey ho, what price for talent?  As soon as I started affixing the glittery things, I knew I was in trouble.  To cut a painful memory short, by the bot...

I think it’s fair to say that thunder and lightning would not be the preferred conditions to host a dog training walk.  It’s August as you recall, you kind of hope that it might be like high summer?  Sort of hot and maybe even a bit sweaty?  If not hot, then warm?  And sunny?  As it was, Cookham Dog Walkers showed their mettle – they are a hardy lot it seems, they just pulled on their wellies, turned up the collars on their sowesters and grabbed their sodden dog treats to attend regardless.  Of course, the dogs were entirely oblivious to the wet, they were just thrilled to meet some new friends.  Jia, a Tibetan Terrier decided the best way to demonstrate her enthusiasm was by running everywhere, extremely fast and preferably whilst jumping.  Which was fine because Honey, who purely by coincidence is also Tibetan Terrier (X Poodle), was easily her match.  Milo the Bichon Frise was a little overwhelmed by the girls, so he very sensibly kept h...

Due to an epic house-keeping failure on Saturday, we were forced to eat out.  Very fortunately, Cookham Matters HQ is within walking distance of every hostelry in the village – so we are spoilt for choice. Of we set to Uncle Toms and unsurprisingly, it was heaving.  You could barely move out the front and the back had reserved on every table.  The girl went to ask if it was possible to squeeze a couple of little ones in, but unfortunately not.  Packed to the gunnels.  Rammed.  This left us with a dilemma, and is where this post might become a little contentious, because we all have our favourite pub don’t we? By far our nearest pub is The Chequers.  We were Friday night regulars along with many in the area.  Carlos was quite simply the best front of house host I have ever come across and we were welcomed and very comfortable, even when just having a drink.  We ate there only for special occasions and it is true that I found myself wi...

We recently had our Sunday morning dog walk cut short.  We had stopped to chat to the owners of a similar, but much larger, dog.  Everyone was off lead and no-one, canine or human, seemed anxious about that.  Our dogs have been very well socialised from puppies and whilst they are never going to win the obedience class at Crufts, they are largely responsive and reasonably well trained.  Moments in though, play turned nasty and it was clear that the other dog became aggressive towards one of ours.  It was very noisy with fur flying and none of us knew how to intervene.  Fortunately, rather than run in panic away from us, our dog ran TO us and cowered as close to my partner’s legs as possible, screaming.  He had a nasty bite to his ear, but more upsetting was his fear.  The people obviously apologised and went on their way so we could head home in the same direction, to try and sort the wound out.  It was at this point that a family who had wi...

As VIP men go, Tony from Village Hardware is right up there with Father Christmas as far as I am concerned. This is mainly thanks to my complete ineptitude with anything that comes under the general heading of “handy”. Changing a light bulb is probably possible yes, but finding the correct light bulb in the first instance is another matter entirely.  I mean, who on earth decided to call it a “bayonet fitting”?  That’s like starting an argument even before you have tried putting it in the screw fitting. Anyway, back to Tony.  The point is, whatever your household requirement, all you have to do is go in there clutching your Exhibit A.  Very often you don’t even need to say anything.  You hand it to him with a bemused look on your face and he will say “Do you need another one"?  And even I can reply to that.  The shop is a tardis and off Tony will beetle to find a replacement of Exhibit A.  I actually don’t t...

If you are a small or medium sized business, you probably have two major headaches.  One being cash flow and the other being staffing.  MyHRdept was started by Bill Larke and his wife Catherine who live in Cookham Dean, over 14 years ago to help businesses with the second of these issues - managing the ongoing process of employing staff.  Whilst HR is a complex, litigated world, the administration of it need not be, if you are compliant and correctly informed.  MyHRdept have a range of services that in effect outsource HR, but this can be as simple or as comprehensive as you want it to be.  It could be providing or reviewing a staff contract to ensure you are up to date and conform with the most recent employment law.  Or, it could be the management of a complex recruitment or disciplinary issue.   Either way, you are free to concentrate on growing your business.  Don ’ t assume that the cost is prohibitive either.  They h...

Sadly, I am old enough to remember the novelty of my first email (and my first text message).   Now that technology and more, is ubiquitous in both our professional and private lives, and like many of you I would guess, I wonder how we ever did without it!   I have had reason to set up a new computer recently.   And i t ’ s not been a happy experience.   Twenty years in the IT industry in no way equips you for computer literacy. The process has been hugely time consuming and that was even before I managed to accidently lock myself out of accounts, forget security settings and my best to date – discover a completely different inbox I did not know I had, complete with the email replies I had been chasing clients for. My only saving grace throughout this process has been Peter Borcherds, who lives in Cookham Dean, from Red Squirrel ITSupport .   Thankfully his unruffled, professional approach has talked me through the worst of my connectivity panics. ...

I do a lot of dog walking.   This means that my Lardy Arse and I are clad mostly in easy-wash, sweat wicking fabrics.   And whist I am very grateful that someone, somewhere gave us Lycra, these fabrics are neither glamorous nor flattering – even with the addition of wellies.   Then there is the issue of fine hair and the English weather.   The damp means pretty much constant frizz.   So I would estimate that probably seventy percent of the time I look like a bag lady – and that’s just on the outside.   You don’t even want to know about my Hobbiton feet or hairy legs.   It’s true I’m quite conscious of all this because I meet plenty of other Cookham dog walking ladies, and they never seem to look like the village bag lady.   So, when I look in the mirror and I really don’t recognize the old bird looking back at me, I call on The Professionals. (Who else had a MASSIVE crush on Bodie and Doyle)?   Paula Fredman, who runs Vanilla Hair and Beauty ...

I was in Fleur de la Maison the other day admiring the most beautiful long stemmed rose.   Palest pink with a slightly scalloped petal which was tinged with green.   Absolutely stunning in an understated sort of way.   I’d like to look like that rose.   As it is, I am more of your filler foliage – an Aspidistra leaf or Eucalyptus.   But I digress.   “That would make a lovely bridal bouquet flower” Joint-Head-Flower-Wrangler Nikki said, whilst barely smothering a teenage giggle.   I ignored her and decided to treat myself to the flowers, but there were only two in the bucket.   It was at this point that Nikki’s business partner Chris, flung open the enormous fridge door.   Now I don’t know about you, but I would expect to see flowers in the chiller at the florist.   And to be fair I did – more of my lovely roses, some green chrysanthemums that went beautifully with the afore mentioned rose and plenty of I’ve No Idea Whats.   But al...