Spooktacular Half-Term Breaks at Whitecliff Bay

Whitecliff Bay Holiday Park in Bembridge, Isle of Wight are organising "spooktacular" family fun activities and themed entertainment for Hallowe'en.

Activities during the half-term break include pumpkin carving, face painting, gruesome food making, Laser Zombie Tag, crafts and ghost stories.

Plus there is, as always, lots to do elsewhere on the Island - including the Isle of Wight's first Festival of Light at Robin Hill and the Autumn Walking Weekend.

Dogs are allowed on the holiday park in selected accommodation and on the touring field. For more on Whitecliff Bay's programme for October please click here.


Reproduced with ackowledgements to The Holiday Zone

Minghella to Remain on the Island

Popular ice cream manufacturer Minghella has announced that it will be relocating to another premises, but that it will remain on the Island.

Currently based in Wootton, news of the company's plans coincided with the announcement of the retirement of its founder Eddie Minghella at the tender age of 93. According to Mr. Minghella's daughter Gioia, Eddie had originally intended to work on to the age of 100 but in the light of the sad death of his wife had decided to take early retirement.

The Wootton site is to be placed on the market and the company hopes to find a suitable new home on the Island by 2015.

Red squirrel and hedgehog under threat, study says

Red squirrel and hedgehog populations in the UK have continued to fall over the last decade, a report suggests.

The 2011 State of Britain's Mammals study says the species are still under threat despite efforts to protect them.

But it says conservation schemes have benefited otters, polecats and water voles and half of the monitored species have stable or rising populations.

Animal charity the People's Trust for Endangered Species commissioned the report from Oxford University.

It provides an overview of research by wildlife and conservation experts across the UK.

Researchers from the university's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) found the hedgehog population had dropped from some 30 million in the 1950s to 1.5 million.

Report author Professor David Macdonald said the impact of agricultural management and environmental schemes on hedgehogs would be monitored over the next few years and used to influence agri-environment schemes.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

The report found that red squirrels were almost extinct in England.

"We expect the future of red squirrels to be confined to a few islands, such as Anglesey and the Isle of Wight, or in the Highlands of Scotland," Prof Macdonald said.

He expressed the benefits of land being taken out of agricultural use and allowed to grow wild and called for the reintroduction of extinct species such as the beaver. Beavers have been brought back in a trial scheme in Scotland.


Republished with acknowledgements to BBC News.

The Be All And End All: IW Screening With Q&A

By Sally Perry

Regular VB readers will remember us raving on about feature length film, The Be All and End All, produced and directed by Island-based film-maker, Bruce Webb.

The film releases in the UK at the end of next with with a premiere screening at the Empire in Leicester Square, before heading North where the film was made.

Digital projection enabled screening

Sandwiched between multi-million pound films like Harry Potter and Narnia, Bruce was pretty chuffed to be able to share his film with fellow Islanders.

“The film is opening in the Empire Leicester Square and on screens in the North West where the film is set, so to be able to have it on at one of my local cinemas is great news, made only possible by new digital projection” said Bruce.

Many awards and accolades

The film has already appeared in over 20 international film festivals including Rome, Berlin and Cannes where it has picked up over six awards, and the prestigious Variety Critics Choice award in Karlovy Vary.

“I am busy writing a new film, when I get the time in between festivals and releasing Be All and End All, which is set in the Isle of Wight. I started the Isle of Wight Film Network with my friend Eric to try and increase film-making on the Island and though this has helped, there is only one way to increase what is filmed here, and that is to shoot as often as you can on the Island. I’ve shot for CBBC and BBC2 here and the locations are second to none and probably the most diverse landscapes this close to London."

Where and when

Make sure you pop over to Events on the Wight to check out times and how to book.

Reproduced with acknowledgements to Ventnor Blog

Lose Some Pounds for the Christmas Party Season

PTFit provides fun and effective personal training, delivered on a one-to-one basis by experienced and motivational trainers. The workouts can be accompanied by nutrition guidance that will boost your energy and support weight management.. Sessions can be delivered outdoors, at your home or even virtually via Skype.

For more information visit the website.

Overflow Parking at the Studio, Newport - Saturday, 20th November

A night of Bands and DJs to keep you dancing till the early hours.

DJ Leeboi (Winner of King of the Decks 2010) - First DJ set since winning the national King of the Decks final on October 15th.

Culver Jam - 5 Deck Special, Expect something special from the culver jam boys spread over five decks, a welcome return.

Golden Strands (Back by popular demand) Absolutely fantastic the last time we had them here and due to such an amazing response we're getting them back again, wicked band, not to be missed.

Plus others.

and only £3.00.

Isle of Wight Review is back!

Well, it's been a long time!

Too many other things on, and sadly IOW Review has been a casualty. To our loyal readers and visitors we can but sincerely apologise.

But the good news is that the Isle of Wight Review is back to stay.

As fate would have it we're off to Gurnard Pines tomorrow, two of us for the weekend and my wife and daughter for the week. I'm hoping to pay Rookley Country Park a visit at some point, most likely on Saturday evening.

If you enjoy this blog please help us to reboot it by sending us your news, comments and articles.

More soon...

Back to the '80s Fundraiser - Shanklin Old Town, March 27th

By Dizzy Daniels

Saturday, March 27, at Holliers, Shanklin Old Village come and join us and GO BACK TO THE 80S!!

This will be an all out 80s mania night to raise money for cerebral palsy sufferer, Gracie-May Fuller, who needs to raise £40,000 for an operation in America.

It will be 80s fancy dress and there will be a prize for the best dressed. There will also be a little raffle, bar dash and a dance-off competition, so make sure you come along and help this very worthy cause!!

Thank you to everyone who has supported the cause so far!!

There will be a charge of £3 to get in and every penny made goes towards Gracie's fund.

Please click here to read about this event or leave a comment on Facebook.

BootCamp IOW Island Run for Earl Mountbatten Hospice

By Mark McIntyre

My name is Mark McIntyre and the crazy act I will be performing is running around the IOW in one day... well, ideally in under a day but as long as it takes to get around the Island.

I will be starting at the Seashells Café by the Inshore Rescue Centre at Appley Beach on the 3rd April 2010 at 09:15.

As part of a BootCamp IW class I will begin the 64 miles heading initially to Seaview, then Sandown, Shanklin, and the Military Road, after this the run will take me ultimately to the Needles then up to Cowes, across the Floating Bridge to East Cowes then it's the home straight.

As you can imagine, running, walking, jogging and in the latter parts crawling this distance will be incredibly exhausting, to aid in this I will be supported by Nikki in the support vehicle and James who will run parts of the route with me.

With this I am hoping for clients or anyone really to run part of the course with me for about a mile or so, this stops me from going running crazy or just talking to myself too much.

I am now down to 4 weeks until the run starts, I know I will complete it but if the local media can find a way to get onboard and help push this, that in turn will increase my motivation to not only finish, but finish in the fastest time ever.

So why do something like this? Why not just grow a beard for charity or walk on hot coals or something?

Firslty I want to raise some money, expend blood sweat and maybe a few tears for a very good cause, it's good for the soul to do so.

Secondly this proves to my clients that anything is possible, we should all look at barriers in life not as obstacles but as a unique opportunity, after all if it weren't for barriers then everything would be blandly achievable to anyone, to attempt to overcome a barrier can teach us more than the reward at the end.

Thirdly, as I live on the IW - why not? It's an incredible place and one to be in awe of. Having moved here in September 2009 I haven't had the time to discover much of it, so this gives me the tourist type opportunity, lots of photos, a jog, more pictures etc. It's great fun..

All I ask you is this - when you see me in BootCamp why not stop me and sponsor me?

Visit the website and sponsor me or check out the FaceBook page.

Thanks for reading this.

Mark

www.ptfit.co.uk

STOP PRESS...Missing person found safe and well

A big thank you to all those who responded to our appeal to look out for missing missing pensioner Frederick Simpson (see below). According to the County Press and Ventnor Blog, Mr Simpson has been found and is safe and well.