Christmas - it is Next Month!

Christmas is next month - that's almost a scary as the Hallowe'en we've just had! Whilton Locks Garden Village Winter Wonderland promises to be extra special this year with an even bigger ice rink, Santa in his Grotto and our very own Ice Princess in her Ice Palace.

Focus on Family, Fun and Great Value
We have ‘Real Ice’ Ice Skating, Breakfast with Santa, Frozen-themed Meet a Princess, Turkey and Tinsel at Canalside, Santa in his Grotto, Frosty the Inflateable Snowman and the best of all? We have activities throughout the site to suit all budgets. We'd love to see you this Christmas.

A Winter Wonderland at Whilton Locks this Christmas

Great Skate Date!
Icy-er and bigger than ever before our 'Real Ice' Ice Rink opens Friday November 20th. Open air and with real ice you can experience an exhilarating skate with friends and family. Our real ice rink can be enjoyed by people of all ages and abilities. We have a team of trained ice stewards who ensure that our rink is safe and well maintained at all times. Ice skating sessions start on the hour and last for 45 minutes. Free skate hire is included in the ticket price.

Do you want to Meet a Princess?
Bring your little princesses (or princes) along for a series of magical events of Frozen fun. Meet our very own Elsa in her Ice Palace (11am - 2pm) and afterwards why not join Elsa for Afternoon Tea - pamper your frozen-fans with Tea with Elsa from 3pm until 5pm. Three extra-special dates: Saturday 28th November, Sunday 29th November and Friday 1st January (New Years Day)! Frozen-themed Meet Elsa & Sing-a-Long: Elsa will sing your Frozen family-favourites - OLAF will be here too on these days. Performances at 11am & 2pm. Booking is advised for Afternoon Tea with Elsa. With homemade cake so scrummy you’ll find it hard to Let it Go! You’d have a Frozen Heart to miss out... and yes Cupcakes are Better than Reindeer!

A festive family feast of fun this Christmas ho ho ho-nly at Whilton Locks Garden Village.
www.wlgv.co.uk

The Sun Scraps Online Payment

The Sun will scrap the paywall on its website just over two years after it was introduced.

Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of Sun owner News UK, told staff in an email it would make its online stories "largely free" by the end of November. She said the plan would add readers. The Sun first started charging customers £2 a week in August 2013. Other newspapers charging for access include News UK's Times newspapers and the Financial Times.

Ms Brooks rejoined Rupert Murdoch's News UK in September a year after she was cleared of conspiracy to hack voicemails, conspiracy to pay public officials and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. She replaced Mike Darcey, who had previously worked for BSkyB. The Sun was first moved behind a paywall in August 2013, although its sister paper the Times made the change in July 2010, when Ms Brooks was in charge of the parent company. It was the only one of the tabloids to charge for online content.

Facebook 'Others' Folder

There has been a mixed reaction to Facebook's changes to its Messenger service, announced this week.

In the next few days it will phase out the Other inbox, where members currently receive messages from people they are not Facebook friends with. Some members have expressed concern about harassment and spam gaining increased visibility.

Facebook users who run groups are also affected as they often communicate with group members who are not friends. Once the phasing is complete, all messages from people outside of a member's friend network will arrive as "requests" which the recipient can accept or reject.

Steam Car Hire Video

During the very early days of the twentieth century, different methods of vehicles were being produced with steam powered cars being chosen by the rich and famous for their transport. The traditional internal combustion engine was not really developed enough and steam cars were in their element.

Today, these incredibly rare, steam-powered machines are held in such High Esteem - we thought we would introduce Hire Steam - giving the opportunity to more people to see these magnificent machines first hand, to be able to hire them for jaw-dropping effect - even to have the opportunity to learn to drive one.
http://www.hiresteam.com

Wedding Car.
Your very special day can now have a very special car - choose one (or more!) of our beautifully presented, unique to the UK (possibly world) steam-powered wedding cars to hire. Both you and your guests will be spell-bound by the grace, beauty and craftmanship of these incredible vehicles. A steam car is a Classic Car showstopper; from the gleaming brasswork and paint, sumptuous leather interior to the sight and sound of movement via steam power. http://www.hiresteam.com/weddingcarhire.htm

Learn to Drive a Steam Car
The sights, the sounds - the exhileration of driving a steam powered car. Would you like to actually drive one?

We can now offer this fantastic opportunity to drive one of our steam cars - with you being fully hands-on and driving a unique, nostalgic car of yester-year; a truly unforgetable experience and one that is not available anywhere else in the UK. We have a choice of two cars and your experience will include an introduction to how a steam car works, you actually driving the car and lunch - an informative (and tasty) treat for both steam and automotive fans.

You'll head on out on a unforgetable road trip to one of our local delightful, traditional village pubs for lunch or grand house for afternoon tea.
http://www.hiresteam.com/learntodriveasteamcar.htm

London Marathon Sets New Fundraising Record

For the ninth successive year, runners in the race have set a new world record for an annual single day charity fundraising event. Runners in the Virgin Money London Marathon raised a record-breaking £54.1 million for charity, up from £53.2 million in 2014, which brings the total raised by runners since the race began in 1981 to more than £3/4 billion.

Battle of Britain 75th Anniversary

A flypast involving about 40 Spitfires and Hurricanes is set to take place to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. Prince Harry will join veterans to see the fleet of Battle of Britain aircraft take to the air - the most in any one place since World War Two.

75th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain

A service is being held at London's St Paul's Cathedral, attended by David Cameron and Labour's new leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The battle, in the summer of 1940, was a pivotal moment in UK history. A range of events have already been staged over the past few months to mark the aerial battle, which raged between July and October 1940 as Germany attempted to destroy the fighting capacity of the RAF.

New Google Logo

Google has unveiled a new logo for its core search services. 

The change smoothes out some of the features in the letters that make up the well-known colourful logo spelling out its name. It said the change was needed because people were now reaching Google on lots of mobile devices rather than just desktop computers. The change comes after Google put its many divisions under an umbrella company called Alphabet. It said that the logo, and its many variations, would work better on the many different-sized screens through which people used or encountered Google and its services.

As well as the full logo of the company's name, it also plans to use four dots in its signature blue, red, yellow and green colours and a single, multi-coloured capital "G" to represent it. Google announced the change on its official blog and illustrated what was different via a series of animated gifs. It said the revamped logo was "simple, uncluttered, colorful, friendly" and represented the best of Google.