On 23^rd June 2012, Coventry Cathedral will be filled with the sounds of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, St Michael’s Singers, a choir of local children and world renowned tenor, Ian Bostridge. The event will showcase James MacMillan’s ‘Gloria’, which has been written to commemorate the Cathedrals Golden Jubilee in 2012.

The event comes as part of Festival 2012, a country-wide event which will see the worlds of art, carnival, dance, film, music, food and many more, join together to celebrate the arrival of the Olympics at the end of the July.

David Moorcroft, Chair of the West Midlands Leadership Group for the 2012 Games, said that the event would be “enormous” and something which “everyone can get involved in”.

Aside from the Cathedral event, people from Coventry can also visit a series of Shakespeare plays being shown in Stratford-Upon-Avon, including ‘The Comedy of Errors’ and ‘Julius Caesar’. Tickets are priced at £12.50 each and can be bought now.

The plays are part of the World Shakespeare Festival, which has been produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Seventy productions will be put together in total, running from April – November 2012.

Moorcroft says of the World Shakespeare Festival: “The Royal Shakespeare Company is partners with 2012 and it’s obviously great for our area and Stratford. Shakespeare will be interpreted in so many different ways and will make connections with young people and people all over the world”.

There are currently 326 events being scheduled to run throughout April all the way through to November. One of the big attractions is an Opera written by Damon Albarn. The opera, called Dr Dee, is about an influential political adviser, mathematician, magician and scientist during the reign of Elizabeth I, and is being performed at the London Coliseum between 25^th June – 7^th July.

Stonehenge is also being transformed into a magical place with dancing fire sculptures and cascades of candles, giving a fairy tale feel to one of the most mysterious places in the United Kingdom.

National, free events are also being run, including BBC Radio 1’s Hackney Weekend which is being held on 23^rd and 24^th June 2012 and will feature some of the top UK and international artists in music.

Festival 2012 begins on 21^st June and will end on 9^th September. Tickets for some events are available now, while others will be sold in January 2012.

Tickets for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra event will be sold from 4^th January at the Cathedral Ticket Office.

In a recent Coventry Conversation, speakers from within the industry were invited to give students and professionals an insight into how they decide what is put into their programmes and newspapers when the audience is ‘local’.

Coventry Telegraph Editor, Darren Parkin, said that the newspaper thinks that “community is local” and that he feels it is important that the newspaper is “prominent in the community”. He described newspapers as a “collection of knowledge” and in order to gather this knowledge, reporters have to “listen to what people want”.

Steve Orchard, the CEO of Touch FM, said that “local is in the eye of the beholder” and that what one person may see as local, another person may not. He also said that he believed the main factors which people use local radio for in particular, was the weather and travel, as well as “news which is relevant to me”. There is also a sense of emotion in which journalists need to “engage with the audience, have a sense of emotion and a sense of place”.

CEO of Mercia and Orion, Phil Riley, echoed the views of Steve Orchard, in that local has different connotations to different people. Although the radio station recently moved out of its buildings within Coventry, Riley remained certain that the programmes “will remain local”. Riley explained why the company had to move out of its buildings in Coventry and make the move to nearby Birmingham, with the main factor echoing a common theme across the journalism industry at the moment – a lack of money.

Someone who doesn’t have to worry about money so much is the Managing Director of BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, Jeremy Pollock who added that “speech radio is very expensive to produced”, although as part of the BBC, the radio station gets a proportion of money to help with costs. He also described how the radio station has a “utility switch on”, where “people turn on the radio to hear the weather and travel and then switch off”, much like what Steve Orchard had previously been describing.

Neil Fowler, the Guardian Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, took a different approach to the topic, showing how local media directly affected him. He described ‘local’ as “a word which means different things to different people. For me, it is what affects me and my family directly.”

The founder and editor of Litchfield Live, Ross Hawkes, said: “I don’t think local newspapers are dying – they are evolving!” while Andrew Adamson, the General Manager of the Tenby Observer, said: “It is very easy for a journalist to sit at a computer waiting for the email which has news”. He said that he liked to encourage his reporters to go out and find the news for themselves, again echoing the views of Darren Parkin, that you need to get out into the communities to find the news for yourself.

All in all, the Conference was a huge success, leaving students pondering what local meant to them, and media professionals considering how they would be able to make their broadcast programmes or publications reflect more of a local angle.

Imagineer Productions entered a national competition called ‘Artists Take The Lead’, and won the West Midlands commission out of 133 entries. Their idea was to ‘awaken’ Lady Godiva in the 21^st Century.

A ten metre high mannequin of Godiva is being created and will deliver the ‘Book of Intent’ to London. This is a document created by young people across the West Midlands containing pledges to make positive changes to the world that they live in.

The mannequin will be mounted onto the ‘Cyclopedia’, a custom made cycling structure powered by a total of one hundred cyclists. The cyclists are of mixed ability and are being led by the British Cycling Champion, Mick Ives.

Coventry University students will also have a part to play in the event, as the Fashion students will be helping designer Zandra Rhodes to create the shift and corset which the mannequin will wear.

David Moorcroft, Chair of the West Midlands Leadership Group for the 2012 Games, is excited for the event to take place.

‘It’s really innovative and it’ll be really quite different. The event represents the heritage of Coventry, Coventry as it is now and the future of Coventry.’

The project is part of the Cultural Olympiad, which Moorcroft explains shows that “the Olympics are not just about sport, culture is a major part of it to and there are lots of cultural programmes going on across the country.”

It is believed that Lady Godiva stands for justice, humanitarianism, courage and positivity, values which the Olympics also represent.

Lady Godiva will be travelling through Rugby, Northampton, Milton Keynes, Luton, Hatfield and Waltham Abbey.

The poll, which opened and is run by the magazine, The New Humanist, strives to discredit people who have been the ‘most outspoken enemy of reason’.

Dorries is up for the award based on her views towards. In the past she has been very vocal about her views to lower the abortion time limit to as low as 20 week and more recently her views of the need for optional counselling for women considering the abortion process. She also believes that sexual abstinence should be taught in schools.

Dorries abortion bills have not been received well by Parliament, with the most recent bill about counselling for women being rejected by the House of Commons with MPs voting by 368 to 118.

Reacting badly to the nomination for the award, which she is currently winning with nearly 2,000 votes, Nadine Dorries posted two blog posts on her website expressing hers views.

‘I feel slightly disgusted that such an extreme group of people even print my name in their glossy (we are ever so innocent really) magazine.’

‘I am not sure why anyone would admit to being a humanist and part of an organisation which has such extreme views.’

The news editor of The New Humanist, Paul Sims, said of the nomination: “As soon as we opened the awards, given to this year’s outstanding contribution to irrationality, there was a flood of nominations for MP Nadine Dorries, who seems to have set up a one-woman campaign against reason with her attack on abortion rights and suggestion that abstinence be taught in schools.”

Comments on the New Humanist website have not been complimentary to Dorries, with one contributor saying: “quite frankly most of us are just embarrassed by Nadine Dorries’s conduct and her comments. She doesn’t speak for most of us and is certainly not representative of opinons in Bedford.”

The poll comes at a bad time for Nadine Dorries as the proposed changes to the electoral boundaries could mean that she will lose her seat in the House of Commons.

Dorries is up against Anjem Choudary, the leader of Muslims Against Crusades; Michele Bachmann, the American Republican; Tom MacMaster, an American who pretended to be a kidnapped girl in Syria whilst the Arab uprisings were occurring; Rick Perry, an American Republican who is sceptical of evolution and global warming; and Melanie Phillips, the Journalist for the Daily Mail.

Voting is open until the 28 November 2011.

One is to stuff our faces with food that we know is not even a little bit good for us. The other is to find gifts for family and friends which we haven’t got them before and that they will enjoy.

Tricky.

But the manager at the Duchess’ Tearooms, Woburn Abbey believes they have the answer to satisfy both needs.

For the first time, they have created the Christmas themed Duchess Anna Maria Afternoon Tea.

The tea consists of a selection of Christmas themed sandwiches, such as turkey and cranberry sauce and roast chicken and stuffing, the traditional English scone with clotted cream and jam, and a selection of mini cakes including mini mince pies and small squares of Christmas cake. All of this is served with the customer’s choice of around ten different flavoured teas or coffee if they desire.

Janine Britton, manager of the Tearooms said; “The Duchess Anna Maria Afternoon Teas are very popular throughout our busiest time of the season, which is July through to September. This is the first year we are creating the Christmas Afternoon Tea and we are hoping it will be a big success. We want to be able to make it really special for anyone who books – we already have bookings for Christmas Parties! – so we’re going to be putting up a Christmas Tree and decorating the Tearooms so that it has a real Christmassy feel.”

Another key selling point for the Abbey is that the tradition of afternoon tea was started at Woburn by the 7^th Duchess of Bedford, Duchess Anna Maria. As meals were often served as late as 9pm, the Duchess was alleged to have been left hungry throughout the afternoon. She is believed to have ordered sandwiches and cakes to be bought to her room and then decided to invite her friends to join her in the Blue Room of the Abbey for light snacks and tea. This proved to be a hit with the social elite of the 1800’s and was soon being picked up across the country by other high class women of the time.

Caroline Yardley, 19, who works at the Tearooms and assists with the making of the cakes and preparation of the afternoon teas said: “It’s lovely to see people enjoying the cakes that we are making. We get quite busy at weekends, but it’s great to see people having a good time. I’m looking forward to doing the Christmas Afternoon Teas as it will make a nice change and will really get people in the Christmas spirit.”

While the Abbey itself is now closed until March, visitors will also get the chance to visit the beautiful gardens and the Antiques Centre, which is full of wonderful, unique pieces.

The Duchess’ Tearooms at Woburn Abbey will close on 23^rd December 2011 and will reopen in March 2012.

The torch, which traditional travels around the country where the Olympics will be held, will arrive in the UK from Greece on 18^th May 2012.

It will start its journey on Saturday 19^th May at the most south westerly point of England, Lands’ End. It will then travel around England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales before finishing its journey at the newly built Olympic Stadium in London on 27^th July.

One of the locations it will be visiting on its journey is the village of Cotton End which has a population of only 1000 people. Despite this, the location has been chosen as it makes a good stop off point between the bigger towns of Bedford and Luton.

Lloyd Conway, the chairman of Bedfordshire and Luton’s London 2012 Group said in July: “It would be a logical way to go and it might be just the fact that it’s on a decent road and gives them a chance to re-group.”

Mayor of Bedford, Dave Hodgson was delighted to announce the news saying: “We are expecting tremendous enthusiasm surrounding the Olympics next summer, and I believe we have an opportunity to translate that enthusiasm into lasting benefits for all.”

Another location in Bedfordshire which the torch will be visiting is Dunstable. The torch will pass through Dunstable on the 9^th July after going through Luton.

Councillor James Jamieson, the leader of Central Bedfordshire County Council said: “Hosting the Olympic Torch Relay will shine a light on Dunstable and on our area as a whole. I hope that residents of all ages will join us for this historic occasion to share in the Olympic spirit and welcome the Flame to our area as part of the countdown to the start of the Games. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for local people to witness the spectacle of the Olympic Torch Relay and to support members of the community who have been chosen to run with the Olympic Flame.”

The Olympic Flame will be carried by 8,000 Torchbearers which all have inspirational stories. The torch itself has 8,000 decorative holes in the represent the people which will carry it around the country. The torch itself will travel around 8,000 miles across the UK.

The locations the torch will visit in Bedfordshire are Bedford, Cotton End, Luton and Dunstable between 8^th and 9^th July 2012.

The Head of Planning and Environment and Head of Environmental Projects outlined the airports master plan up to 2030.

Third year student, Belinda Ohene, 20, said: “I really enjoyed the trip. It was educational and very topic related.”

Senior Lecturer, Jenni Fernando stressed the importance of educational visits that took students outside of the University.

“Seeing how an airport works really benefits them as they get to see behind the scenes.”

Trips to different airports within the U.K. allow the students to gain first hand knowledge from people working in the aviation business. The current trips are so popular, it is hoped that they will be able to visit airports overseas.

The Aviation Management started in 2008 and sees its first class of students graduating in November.

Seventeen students studying the Aviation Management course attended the trip, which took place in October.

The Head of Planning and Environment and Head of Environmental Projects outlined the airports master plan up to 2030, including the future of air transport and runway extensions. The students were also given the opportunity to ask any questions that they had.

It was hoped that the trip to the airport would help with one of the modules the third years are currently studying.

Third year student, Belinda Ohene, 20, said: “I really enjoyed the trip. It was educational and very topic related.”

Senior Lecturer in Aviation Management, Jenni Fernando was keen to stress the importance of educational visits that took students outside of the University.

“I think it’s really important for students to infuse with their industry. Seeing how an airport works really benefits them as they get to see behind the scenes, something that some members of staff don’t get to see.”

Several trips to different airports within the U.K. have taken place throughout all three years of study. This allows the students to gain first hand knowledge from people currently working in the aviation business and also gives them an opportunity to receive work placements and even jobs. With the current trips being so popular, it is hoped that they will soon be able to go overseas to explore different airports.

The Aviation Management course is relatively new, starting in 2008 and sees its first class of students graduating in November.

Ripley’s is a museum full of odd and bizarre artefacts which you cannot find anywhere else.

One artefact which i found particularly interesting was a sculpture of The Beatles made from chewing gum (seen below).

The items which appear in the museum are picked due to how unique they are, including the countries biggest rocking chair.

One exhibition is solely about the American superstar, Marilyn Monroe. This collection was put together to celebrate her life and rise to fame. It documented how she became the star she is known for being today. The collection included her hairbrush and makeup bag.

I really enjoyed my day at Ripley’s because there was so much to look at that you wouldn’t necessarily see anywhere else. I felt that it represented me, but that it could represent anyone as it would be universally enjoyed by all members of the public.

Grandma’s Wedding VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

One of the most important things which I own is my Grandma’s wedding veil, given to me by the lady herself. Both my Grandma and my Grandad mean a huge amount to me and I am fully aware that without them, I would not have been alive today.

Throughout my childhood, my brother and I spent a lot of time at my grandparents house; sometimes it would be for an afternoon, sometimes we would stay the night and sometimes it was just a passing visit.

When I was younger they would take me on a day trip to Margate in Kent every year until they got too old to take me. I have some really fond memories of these trips, especially eating chocolate éclair sweets on the coach to Margate.

Now, both my grandparents are in their 80’s and I try my best to do everything I can for them because they looked out for our family so much in the past.

They honestly mean so much to me, words can’t even describe.

I’m glad I will always my grandma’s veil as it is something I can always keep and treasure.

Luton At Wembley VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Everyone in my family has a strong following of football. If you don’t like football, there must be something wrong with you.

My Grandad has followed Luton Town FC for ‘as long as he can remember’, and up until recently has always been a season ticket holder. This love of football was passed onto my Mum, who would accompany my Grandad to matches, both home and away, sunshine or showers. My Dad is also a strong follower of Luton and so it was inevitable that me and my brother would be raised following them to.

Although my brother does have a stronger interest and more knowledge of the game, I like to think that I can hold my own in a discussion about football and that most of the time I do know what I’m talking about.

In April 2009, the whole family were delighted when Luton played in the cup final, which they eventually won. This orange wig which I have kept as a piece of memorabilia was worn by me to the cup final.

Apart from Luton winning the cup, the best part for me was the joining of people from different backgrounds to support one team. The train journeys were electric as more and more fans boarded and everyone was chatting to people they had never seen before and would never see again.

All in all, it was a fantastic day, one I will never forget, and the best part was that Luton won!

Emily VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Emily has travelled all around the world with me. She was the first doll that I really treasured as a child and would take her wherever I went.

As you can see, she has been patched up many times including both legs, both arms and her back.

One of the hardest things I had to do as a teenager was making the decision to put Emily in the loft. I’m pretty sure that she almost made it several times before I would whip her out of the box and put her back on my bed where she belonged.

Nowadays, Emily isn’t in the loft, she sits in my wardrobe, that way I get to see her everyday and it reminds me how carefree you are when your a child and the good times I had when I was a lot smaller and before stressed of the world became more apparent to me.

I hope that Emily will hold together for at least a few more years so that i can introduce her to my children and they can play with her as much as I did.