Farewell drinks tonight for Joe at the Ash, 7pm onwards

Joe Curran has been lured back to the Queen's Head, Piccadilly, his other pub, where the lights are brighter and the footfall more frequent. Even Joe, capable as he is, can't be expected to run both pubs, so, short of cloning, a man's gotta go where a man's gotta go.

It's our loss, especially as Joe's been a very great help at the street party for two years running now - last year he sourced most of the food. This year his salsa once again spiced up the beefburgers terrifically, his barbecue cooked them, and his electricity powered the cooking. Recipe for the salsa: tomatoes, chillies, red onions, coriander.

His leaving drinks are tonight in the Ash from 7pm onwards. He says we can probably show street party (or possibly other) photos on a wall screen, including a 6-minute video we've got of the street party, made by Greenwich university student Mylie Kefford. So bring your photos and share them, if you like.

See you there! The Thai Pop-up is in action.

Good fun at the Street Party

Biscuit decorating at the South Street Baptists’ Church stall

The sun didn’t come out for this year’s street party, except for a very brief interlude. But Triangle residents did in large numbers, with their friends, for a great afternoon’s entertainment and relaxation. The children were happy with unlimited turns on climbing walls, bouncy castle, spin painting, Alison Haworth’s colouring-in table, and the South Street Baptist Church’s ever-popular biscuit and balloon crafts. Nearly all the children had their faces painted.

Everybody had the choice of top quality burgers, sausages, quiches, salads, home-made bread and cakes, and a superb vegetarian curry cooked by the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

‘Come on, Enzo. Through the hoop!

Dogs had a good time too, at Tina and Adam Pugh’s highly successful dog show. An enthusiastic audience cheered on at least a dozen canine entrants in the obstacle course and waggiest tail competitions. Winners were awarded prizes and rosettes, and all competitors enjoyed the doggy treats that lured them through the course.

Just as happy were the human winners of more than two dozen great prizes for adults - and even more for children. The right answer to the guess-the-weight-of-the-cake competition was 2.708kg, said Tina Pugh, who baked and then decorated it in ATA colours.

Whether or not you were a big cake-eater, you could have your BMI checked at the Seventh Day Adventist Church’s health check tent – or just listen to members of the church’s impressive choir, which is always an uplifting experience.

The Seventh Day Adventist Church singers

We had more fantastic music from local singer and keyboards player Jo Honey, and from Ruth Currie and the Jazz Ashes, who gave us a cool but rousing finale.

And the plant stall provided a pleasing patch of green to the street party scene.

There are more party pictures to come, plus a video by film student Mylie Kefford, and acknowledgments and thanks to all those helpers and raffle donors who made the party possible.

Neil Sinclair

ATA Street Party in full swing!

The dogs are exhausted and the music’s started - we’ve only just begun! Plenty of food left and the massive raffle draw is at 6pm - don’t miss it!

Street Party set fair with huge raffle prize bonanza

Our gardens may be desperate for rain after a scorching start to autumn in London, but the rather cooler weather with some sunny periods forecast for Saturday (17th September) should be just fine for the annual Street Party. Don’t just rely on the weather and the entertainment on offer when deciding whether to come to the Play Street, just take a look at the range of raffle prizes on offer, all donated by local businesses.

Barbara and Maureen (right) on the raffle stall at our 2015 Street Party

• 2016 ATA Street Party raffle prizes 
• Meal for two with bottle of house wine donated by The Guildford Arms 
• Meal for two with bottle of house wine at Davy’s Wine Vaults 
• Meal for two with bottle of house wine donated by Zeytin Turkish restaurant 
• Meal for two and bottle of wine donated by the Richard I pub 
• Meal for two with bottle of house wine at the Prince of Greenwich pub 
• Dinner for two to the value of £40 (excluding drinks) at Kitcho 
• Meal and glass of wine for two donated by Baba’s Café & Bar 
• Three bottles of fine Italian wine donated by Davy’s Wine Shop 
• 2 x Fish and Chip suppers for two donated by The Golden Chippy 
• 2 x £10 dry cleaning vouchers donated by Vina Launderette & Dry Cleaners 
• Dry cleaning vouchers donated by Soma Dry Cleaning 
• Two cream teas donated by Royal Teas 
• Bottle of Argentinian red wine and jar of Dulce de Leche milk caramel spread donated by Buenos Aires Cafe 
• Family ticket to a forthcoming performance donated by Greenwich Theatre 
• Two cinema tickets donated by Greenwich Picturehouse 
• Tea/coffee and cakes or pastries for two at Al Pancino deli and café 
• An electrical item donated by Hane Services 
• A £30 voucher for pilates classes run by Ellie Brown 
• Ten free digital prints at Snappie Studios 

The raffle, along with the food stall, is one of the main fund raisers for the Ashburnham Triangle Association. And all surplus funds from the Street Party will, as usual, go towards good causes in and around the Triangle and, of course, help to buy or hire equipment for next year.

Street Party set fair with huge raffle prize bonanza

Our gardens may be desperate for rain after a scorching start to autumn in London, but the rather cooler weather with some sunny periods forecast for Saturday (17th September) should be just fine for the annual Street Party. Don't just rely on the weather and the entertainment on offer when deciding whether to come to the Play Street, just take a look at the range of raffle prizes on offer, all donated by local businesses.

2016 ATA Street Party raffle prizes

Meal for two with bottle of house wine donated by The Guildford Arms

Meal for two with bottle of house wine at Davy’s Wine Vaults

Meal for two with bottle of house wine donated by Zeytin Turkish restaurant

Meal for two and bottle of wine donated by the Richard I pub

Meal for two with bottle of house wine at the Prince of Greenwich pub

Dinner for two to the value of £40 (excluding drinks) at Kitcho

Meal and glass of wine for two donated by Baba’s Café & Bar

Three bottles of fine Italian wine donated by Davy’s Wine Shop

2 x Fish and Chip suppers for two donated by The Golden Chippy

2 x £10 dry cleaning vouchers donated by Vina Launderette & Dry Cleaners

Dry cleaning vouchers donated by Soma Dry Cleaning

Two cream teas donated by Royal Teas

Bottle of Argentinian red wine and jar of Dulce de Leche milk caramel spread donated by Buenos Aires Cafe

Family ticket to a forthcoming performance donated by Greenwich Theatre

Two cinema tickets donated by Greenwich Picturehouse

Tea/coffee and cakes or pastries for two at Al Pancino deli and café

An electrical item donated by Hane Services

A £30 voucher for pilates classes run by Ellie Brown

Ten free digital prints at Snappie Studios

The raffle, along with the food stall, is one of the main fund raisers for the Ashburnham Triangle Association. And all surplus funds from the Street Party will, as usual, go towards good causes in and around the Triangle and, of course, help to buy or hire equipment for next year.  
Neil Sinclair
 

Barbara and Maureen  (right) on the raffle stall

The plant stall at the Street Party, 3pm onwards

The plant stall at the Street Party

Calling all gardeners! The plant stall at the street party is very like the plant swap and sale held in May - many contributions, excellent bargains, and a good chance to talk to other gardeners. The same people run it.
The only difference is that many gardeners don’t notice it’s happening - the news gets lost in the publicity for the Street Party in general. And maybe others don’t want to wade through people eating burgers and waiting to go up the climbing wall. But you don’t have to go all through the street party to get to the plant stall. It will be positioned at the Ashburnham Place end of the Play Street for easy access.
It will run for a limited time of 3pm until 6 or 7pm, whenever the plants run out.

The plant swap in May

Could you lend a hand at the street party?

Lysanne, Annabel and Steve setting up the food stall

A fair number of people help with the street party. Good fun and the more the merrier. Listed below are places where there are some gaps still to fill.

• Food stall - flipping burgers, selling food
• Putting up gazebos, tables, etc in the morning 
• Raffle - circulating to sell tickets

And seated places:

• Gate duty - taking donations
• Guess-the-weight-of-the-cake - recording guesses 
• Face painting - seated, but active later on
• Plant stall - selling plants

Lee face painting

Facepainting is something your young children would love you to do. If you’re willing to try, Lee and Frances can show you how.  Contact Frances on francesdangerrussell@yahoo.co.uk or Lee on leeleebamsey@hotmail.com

Sometimes a queue forms for face painting

Stalls already fully staffed are: spin painting, dog show, children’s crafts, raffle stall, climbing wall, bouncy castle, music.

If you’d like to join in, in any way, contact Tina Pugh on tina.m.pugh@btinternet.com, Tom Webb on thos.webb@gmail.com, Imogene Russell on imogenerussell1@gmail.com or Neil Sinclair on neil.sinclair@hotmail.co.uk.

On the gate, late on: Rob and daughters are just counting up now 

Another Greenwich business joins the ATA Discount Card Scheme

The latest business to open in central Greenwich, Snappie Studios & Sunshine Shoecare at 5 Nelson Road, has joined the Ashburnham Triangle Association’s Discount Card scheme.
Proprietor Freddie Kay is offering a 10% discount to all holders of the ATA discount card and is ready to welcome Triangle residents as new and hopefully regular customers.
Freddie believes there is great potential in central Greenwich for a shop that combines key-cutting, shoe repair, digital photography and printing. And the ATA discount card can be used to get 10% off any products or services. More details on their website: http://www.snappiestudios.co.uk/.
Shop manager and key-cutting/shoe repair specialist is Terry. He was trained at Timpson and has a decade’s experience in shoe repair and key cutting.
As the only shoe repair shop in central Greenwich, Freddie believes Sunshine Shoecare will plug a major gap in the local retail market.
Photography and printing expert at Snapppie Studios is Chis. He is looking forward to the completion next month of the shop’s basement photography studio. Chris share’s proprietor Freddie’s optimism that central Greenwich, with its huge visitor and tourist trade, campus for Greenwich University and major wedding venues at the Painted Hall, Queen’s House and Old Royal Naval College chapel will generate a high level of business for the photography and printing business.

It's all here in the Play Street on Saturday 17th

Perhaps you're one of those people who never win anything in a raffle. On 17^th September that’s likely to change, because the ATA street party is a local affair, with a limited number of contenders for the prizes in our prize draw. And they’re glittering prizes too - for a very modest investment you’ll have a great chance of winning meals for two (including wine) at the area's top restaurants, fish and chip suppers at the Triangle's popular chippie, bottles of wine, tea and cakes at local cafés, vouchers for dry cleaning and pilates classes, digital prints. The children's raffle has loads of prizes too.
So make sure you and your family and friends come along to the Play Street (aka Ashburnham Retreat) on Saturday 17th September from 1pm to dusk.

Bring your dog too, if you have one, to enter our own dog show and canine olympics at 2pm where local mutts and muttesses get the chance to strut their stuff.

The children will have plenty to amuse them - bouncy castle, face painting, spin painting, crafts, and the 30-foot climbing wall – suitable for adults too. There is also, for the first time, a baby bouldering wall which isn't, we hasten to add, something borrowed from King Herod's theme park, but a mini climbing wall sized for toddlers.

With high quality barbecued burgers and sausages, and salads, vegetarian options, bread baked by the Triangle's own bakers, cakes and biscuits, you won't go short on food. Or on hot and cold drinks. If you fancy something a little stronger, the Ashburnham Arms is right next to the Play Street where landlord Joe and his staff will be pleased to serve you.

Our local gardeners will run a plant stall stuffed with bargains. And there’ll be live music from Jo Honey on keyboard, and our headline band, back by popular demand, the Jazz Ashes, led by Ruth Currie.

Entry is free, and so are the activities, although we would welcome a contribution of £2 per adult to help meet ATA costs. After that all you pay for is food and raffle tickets, and guess-the-weight-of-the-cake. Any surplus proceeds will, as usual, go towards good causes in and around the Triangle.
Don't miss it! Street Party Saturday 17th September 1pm to dusk.

Neil Sinclair

Ready, Steady........Go!!!

Who will win one of these impressive Rosettes?

Here at Canine Headquarters, we are barking crazy with excitement for the first ever Dog competition at the Ashburnham Triangle Street Party on the afternoon of Saturday 17th September.  

Is your pooch ready to compete in Play Streets dog hurdle race?  With encouragement from their owners together with a treat or two, our furry friends will race against the clock to see who is the fastest and most agile dog in Greenwich.

Not into jumping, never mind, lets see whose dog has the waggiest tail to win an impressive rosette and more prizes donated by Pets at Home.

Dog jump/hurdle competition will commence promptly at 2pm so make sure your pooch is ready and raring to go.  The waggiest tail will commence at approx. 2.40pm so be ready to showcase your tail-wagger !

Tina Pugh

Canine Headquarters

SDA inspirational presentations, September 3-17