Brand new Chearleading Club for Colchester

HRC All Stars is Colchester's brand new Cheerleading Club and they are celebrating the premier opening of their classes at the Hythe Community Centre in Colchester this weekend.

HRC All Stars offer open cheerleading classes for all ages and abilities. Sessions incorporate the dance, cheer and pom work elements of cheerleading and is a great way to exercise, make new friends and most of all have fun!!

So if you've ever watched High School Musical, Bring It On or Glee now's your chance to shake your pom poms!

First classes are taking place at the Hythe Community Centre this Saturday 3rd November with classes launching at the William Loveless Hall in Wivenhoe on Monday 5th November. 

 

Details and times for classes can be found here: http://yourcolchester.co.uk/hsc-all-stars-cheerleading-classes-i1512.html

And if you are looking for ideas for birthday or Hen parties, HRC All Stars also provide parties and team building sessions. For more information visit www.hrcallstars.com

Goulish Goings On In Colchester... it must be Halloween!

Like it or not, the 31st October and Halloween or All Hallows' Eve is fast approaching. Halloween is a time when adults and children alike get dressed up in spooky outfits, play games such as apple bobbing, go trick or treating and watch Horror films .

Each year, I think we embrace the tradition of celebrating Halloween more and more, and there is certainly a lot of fun to be had dressing up in scary costumes and playing spooky games.

Now, I am going to lay myself on the line and probably appear a bit of a bore, but I am afraid I am just not much of a fan of trick or treating.  I just don't see the fun in disturbing people who do not want to be disturbed on a chilly Autumn evening, especially the older generation, who could be quite alarmed by a knock on the door after dark. 

Having said that I am all for groups of parents who live near each other getting together and arranging something between themselves where their children can knock on each other's doors to Trick or Treat. But I can quite definitely say that I won't be dragging my little ones around on a cold and dark All Hallows' Eve and will be opting for a nice, warm, indoor celebration of our own instead!

Fortunately, there are loads of Halloween activities happening in and around Colchester, for adults and children, to get into the spooky spirit.  The ever popular Shriek Week returns to Colchester Zoo during half term and runs from 27th October - 4th November with late night opening on 26th, 27th, 29th & 31st October.

There is also the chance to do some Halloween Willow Lantern Making and a Potions Lesson at Fingringhoe Wick Nature Reserve and become a Halloween Super Sleuth at Highwoods Country Park.  Go Bananas are holding two Halloween Parties and Layer Marney Tower are offering a Lantern Tour followed by a glass of mulled wine to warm you up!

And if that wasn't enough, the fantastic Understar Cinema are doing their first ever double feature, showing Roald Dahl's The Witches and The Exorcist.


Full details of Halloween Events in Colchester can be seen by visiting our main website.

Santa Is Coming To Colchester. A review of the children's Christmas book written by Steve Smallman

I must confess to being a little bit keen when it comes to books, films and TV programmes that feature Colchester, so I was always going to get a bit excited at the discovery of children's Christmas book "Santa Is Coming To Colchester" by Steve Smallman.

As a Mum of two young children aged three and six, I really wanted this book to be good.  I was actually a little bit nervous as I sat down to read it to them, I wanted to like it that much!  I have read personalised stories before and my fear was that it would be just an ordinary Santa story with the word "Colchester" fitted in every now and then. 

But no, I definitely wasn't disappointed!  This is a very sweet story about what happens to Santa when he visits Colchester, with lots of references to local areas and towns he passes on his way here.  

I don't want to give too much of the story away, as that would spoil it, but some of my favourite parts are when Santa gets lost in a blizzard, but is guided into Colchester by the sound of the bells of St Peter's Church and then gets stuck at the top of the Town Hall!

The book is beautifully illustrated by Robert Dunn and features Jumbo, the Town Hall, Colchester Castle, the Red Lion Hotel, Firstsite, St Peter's Church plus more Colchester landmarks within the illustrations.

We all really enjoyed Santa Is Coming To Colchester and no doubt wil be reading it again and again and again!

Santa Is Coming To Colchester is part of the Hometown World Series and is available to buy from Amazon.



I have also listed some of my other favourite Colchester books in the About Colchester section of www.yourcolchester.co.uk