The Sommelier (one of only 299 Masters of Wine in the world) introduced himself and how it would be a relaxed evening of wine comparison and tasting – it’s up to you if you prefer each classic region vs New world wine. With each new delicious dinner course, two mystery wines A & B were sampled, slurped, savored and compared before their grape and origin revealed.

The set menu included a tasty starter of beetroot & dill marinated salmon, cornish crab, pink ginger and coriander. The next three courses followed the same relaxed, yet informative setup as the wine master visited each table to discuss the intricate flavours of each glass. Further wine-tasting and other events to follow at the Wharf!

Retro Bistrot continues their popular Jazz nights this Tuesday, 29th May with a quartet that includes international guitarist Robin Banerjee, who played with Amy Winehouse and in classic venues such as Ronnie Scott’s and the Jazz Cafe. The band will be playing a blend of Jazz/Latin/Soul and Reggae takes on a mixture of original and arrangements of well-known jazz classics.

Retro’s Vincent Gerbeau: “We’re very excited to get a talent such as Robin to play at the restaurant. Our jazz nights are fun and informal with a great atmosphere and the passion of the musicians plays a big role in creating that relaxed feel”.

The now regular evening has been described as “Thoroughly enjoyable evening, great band, wonderful food, lovely people.” and “An excellent evening, good music, good food and good company.”. Clearly the award-winning Retro Restaurant is a perfect setting for dinner and jazz!

The Kings Head are just nearing the end of their special seafood week, have just started their new dine with wine menu, their next monthly live music is on June 1st and their summer menu will be launched on June 28th.

The Kings Head new fortnightly Quiz ‘n’ Chips quiz night starts this Tuesday 29th May at 8pm – it’s free entry, includes free chips and you can win big prizes! The terrace has been packed out lately with drinkers and diners enjoying the hot weather. Remember there is a garden at the back if the front terrace is full.

Red Peppers has re-opened after their extensive refurbishment – regulars are enjoying the fresh new look as they dine at this popular local restaurant.

La Cloche at The Lion have been hosting popular CineClub nights that have been selling out – check out their website for up-and-coming events including the next cinema nights for £15 per person that includes a glass of wine, canapés and a two course set dinner.

La Cloche also host a quiz night every Wednesday at 8pm, run by local journalist & author Sarah Onions. £1 entry per person with a maximum of 6 per team with bottles of wine, rounds of drinks and cash prizes to be won.

If you’re looking for somewhere to enjoy fine food in the recent hot weather, try one of Teddington’s best kept secrets – Shamble’s beautiful Mediterranean garden where you can relax and enjoy eating outdoors. Shambles also has a bowling alley and does a ‘cozze e bocce’ (moules and boules) if you book in advance. You can enjoy the brunch menu and a full English breakfast in the same surroundings for only £5.95.

Hosted by Nicholas Owen, the Mayor was in attendance at one of her last public engagements, MP Vince Cable also dropped in to join 12,000 other visitors that helped raise approx £10,000 for two local charities. It shouldn’t be forgotten of course that the bus garage was open as usual and the fleet of 120 buses still managed to run on time for the whole day!

Photo: Peter Denton.

A wide selection of historic buses and support vehicles were on show for families and children to happily clamber over and look around – the first time for some young visitors and bringing back memories for the older crowd. Some historic buses looked out-of-place in Bushy Park at Chestnut Sunday but as local resident Alan points out, buses used to run through the park on their routes during the 1940′s/50′s – quite the scenic bus route.

The weather always has a strong bearing on how well attended Chestnut Sunday is and the relentless rain in the run-up to this year’s festival was casting a shadow over the weekend. Fortunately this stopped before the weekend with enough time to dry out the ground and the sun shone strongly on the day.

Over 10,000 people (and slightly more than last year) lined the route of the parade and joined in the fair and displays afterwards in the park. The usual suspects paraded along the historic Chestnut Avenue (designed by Sir Christopher Wren) including classic cars, military vehicles, police horses, historical actors and marching bands.

A huge queue showed how popular Park Lane Stable’s pony rides are and riders from the Horse Rangers Association performed choreographed formations to music.

There are plenty of Jubilee & Olympic events coming up for the area (news to follow soon) but in the meantime put this in your diary for next weekend. On June 8th-10th, Friday to Sunday, The Teddington Society and local businesses are hosting a Charity Celebration Weekend to help raise money for local charities.

Various goodies will be available in and outside shops on stalls and there will be live music, bubbles & balloons, quizes & games, raffles, 1940s tea party, design a tiara, cupcake competition and more!

Also on June 10th is this year’s Teddington In Flower where private gardens are open to the public to also raise money for local charities and not forgetting the first charity Vet4Life Dog Olympics – even if you are not entering any events, please register your interest if you are planning on attending.

While she was at NPL to discuss TeenTech, an initiative she has developed to give teenagers hands on experience of real-world engineering and science.

Happy Potter Ceramics were featured in Woman’s Weekly this week, showing you how to make your own Jubilee commemorative teapot for your own street & Jubilee parties!

A collage of a walk in the park by Deon Scheppel – showing the many seasons in one day that we have experienced with the poor weather lately!

The wall of fame in Teddington Studios – past and present stars that have recorded TV shows here in Teddington. Photo: Ian McGraw.

Vince Cable & team campaigning & handing out balloons on Teddington High Street before the recent elections. Photo: SirSmartin.

“Swan and Statue – an hour before sunset. Altered slightly to give it a moonlit feel”. Diana Fountain is again under scaffolding for repairs. The current drought might also lead to the fountain being switched off alongside various water features in other Royal Parks. Photo (c): 4orty7even

“Romance” a moment captured at the station by gwingwyn.

First off, “Poetry in motion”: a bustling kitchen behind the scenes at Retro Bistro’s most recent Jazz Night with Goodstuff band.

A Back to the Future Delorian was spotted this week at Teddington Studios – as you might guess from the license plate, it is being used for filming Keith Lemon’s new Jim’ll-Fix-It style show LemonAid which starts airing tonight at 6:15pm. Photo: Andrew Clough.

A glimpse of the filming in action from the nearby Haymarket offices. Photo: Lynsey Row. Keith and crew have also been spotted in nearby Anglers pub for lunch and was happy to have his photo taken with fans.

Teddington Tigers Under Under 9′s team celebrate becoming champions. Photo and proud dad: Richard Keogh.

Mollie’s Easter Egg Hunt with chocolate eggs hidden by the Easter bunny amongst daffodils in full bloom – captured in Bushy Park’s Woodland Garden by photographer Jess Morgan.

One of many great sunsets we have been experiencing lately during the hot spell. Photo: Mike Pearce.

The NPL’s primary objective is to improve the accuracy of measurements and support UK businesses. It does so by employing world-class scientists – many of whom had an exhausting but enjoyable day of hand-gesturing and translating complicated processes into layman’s terms for the visiting public!

Various antenna and acoustic testing chambers were the most visually recognisable experiment areas. The liquid-nitrogen produced ice-cream was as popular as ever, earning the crowd a chance to rest their brains before they continued their educational tour.

Elsewhere displays and equipment showed NPL’s work in many scientific fields in including realistic & dynamic holograms, biometric recognition methods, nanotechnology, neutron measurement, energy-efficient lighting, fuel cell technology and energy harvesting (to name but a few!).

One innocuous-looking room holds the atomic clock and bank of servers and devices that pump out the time signal that calibrates over a million radio-controlled clocks in the UK. A secure room in another lab holds the UK’s copy of the universal Kilogram weight – one of the seven base units of the International System of units (SI).

Although there were a multitude of labs open to the public with interesting and thought-provoking displays and experiments, some remained closed and only the extraordinary name plates on the outside hinted at what lay beyond. Our favourites were: Strontium Optical Lattice Clock, Time Transfer, Creep of Metals, Acoustal Wedge Storage and of course the unforgettable “Multifunctional Materials through to F8L21 Multiferroics and Spintronics”.

Proudly displayed in the main reception are many various accolades and awards that the centre and staff have received over the years and some unique memorabilia including Alan Turing’s work card and some punch cards from the ACE (Automatic Computing Engine) – one of the world’s first electronic stored-program computers. Also if you ever wondered how long a piece of string is, it’s actually 319.442mm.

More pics available here and from NPL’s official stream.

Recent Open Days have proved to be so popular that they may now be held every two years.

A bird has a cheeky paddle whilst the water is low at Teddington Weir.

Photo: Sunshine Soon.

Our beloved baroque Carnegie library – one of 600 built in the UK by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Photo: Jonathan Creaser.

Carluccio’s is coming! Work is well underway to refurbish the space for the new restaurant.

“The sun over bushy park” by Dan Jones.

A long camera exposure of the footbridge at night made a bit more interesting with the addition of the Met Police Helicopter overhead. Photo: John Frye.

Cook last week celebrated a year since opening it’s store in Teddington and providing “remarkable food for your freezer”.

A close-up of the wiring that is weaved within the green broadband boxes on our street corners – these are growing in number due to the local roll-out of the new high-speed BT Infinity. Peter Denton.

Spring is definitely upon us! Daffodils and crocuses have been seen peeking through the grass. Photo: DodderyIceDry.

As part of the hospice’s volunteers campaign, the Business Secretary aimed to show visitors to the shop that even in these hard times of austerity, giving your time can be just as rewarding and invaluable for local charities.

Vince, Patron of Shooting Star CHASE said of his day at the shop: “It is a very successful, well organised and well laid out shop. I have helped on the till, steamed donated clothes and helped with some cleaning. The staff have made me feel so welcome, they have a great spirit… I would encourage anyone to come and volunteer for Shooting Star CHASE. Volunteers are vital and make a big difference to the charity.”

Val Hall, Shooting Star CHASE Senior Retail Co-ordinator added: “It was fantastic to have the Business Secretary volunteer with us. He really proves that donating your time is vital to charities. Shooting Star CHASE’s volunteers are so important in keeping our shops going, and although we have many dedicated volunteers, we still need more.

“We hope that Dr Cable’s example will spur local residents to follow suit and donate their time to make a real difference to over 500 local families that rely on our support.”

For those able to help out, Shooting Star CHASE are currently looking for new volunteers for their shops in Teddington, Twickenham, Hampton Hill, Shepperton, Whitton and Ashford. For more information on volunteering, click here.

“Blue Matrix” by Sunshine Soon – a shot of Park House after the recent blue paint-job.

The happiness-sapping weather finally broke on Wednesday and early risers were treated to a glorious orange and pink sunrise. Photo: Chris Meara.

A tree at the Hampton Wick gate to Bushy Park bows under the ever-growing weight of discarded trainers. Photo: Adrian Nabarro.

A member of forum talkphotography.co.uk got up extra early to bag this bright and colourful sunrise over a pond in Bushy Park. Photo: Martin Patten.

A curious deer stood still for long enough to grab a shot of its reflection in a stream in the park.

Another stunning set of colours from a sunrise over Bushy Park, this time at Diana Fountain. Photo: dodderyicedry.

Last Saturday Sally Willis was the 1,000 runner across the line at Bushy parkrun – a combination of mild weather, increasing popularity and the kicking off of many New Year’s resolutions saw the largest numbers at Bushy parkrun by a long margin. Exactly 1,000 runners joined the run and Sally was fittingly handed her finishing token by Paul Sinton-Hewitt, the parkrun founder. By chance there were only actually 1,000 finishing tokens available! Photo: Peter G Smith.

Our shops have really done us proud this year with their Christmas window displays and helped keep locals shopping locally.

Many businesses will be closed from just after midday on Saturday (Christmas Eve) and not re-open until the New Year so check at your favourite shops to see when they open again!

A huge double-rainbow stopped people in their tracks on Sunday – particularly striking against the dark winter sky.

A hack in Bushy Park with the winter sun keeping the riders just warm enough.

Photo: Nic Wiseman

The Littlest Star children’s book – on sale in local shops after a remarkable 23 days from concept to reality to be on sale in time for Christmas, raising money for Shooting Star Chase.

Winter berries in Bushy Park set against a blue sky.

Photo: Peter Denton

The Tearfund Christmas Carol Service filled the Landmark Arts Centre with heavenly voices last week.

Photo: Andy Wilson

The Teddington Society has pressured SWT to update, re-paint & glaze or just replace the ageing bridge for some time now. Vince Cable has added to this pressure and has reported that work will start early next year starting with scaffolding being put up in mid February.

The footbridge has been a sore point for many years with peeling paint, missing windows and any that remain not being cleaned.

Cable: “I am told that … the work will involve full decoration and refurbishment of the footbridge both internally and externally together with replacement of the windows with ones which are easier to maintain.”

Photo: jakepjohnson

The footbridge is a particular embarrassment because it is often the first impression that visitors experience when they visit the town. Although this clearly hasn’t scared too many people away judging by the flattering “Metro Moves” article in last weeks Metro.

Teddington is described in this as “an area offering a perfect balance between town and country” along with valuable assets such as Bushy Park, good commuting, excellent schools and then a breakdown of property prices to expect. Alongside the article is an advert for Hamptons International which is to move in to the office currently occupied by Fielding Gould.

Plans for the demolition of the previous Queen Dowager pub (North Lane) and building of 5 x 4 bedroom houses have now been submitted to Richmond Council.

In addition to the loss of the Waldegrave Arms (also to be turned into residential use) this will be one less pub in the area, but one that consistently struggled to keep up with other high street competition with several different landlords and temporary management companies all trying in vain.

Recent marketing of the pub has not successfully found either a lease or freehold manager so Youngs have decided to instead apply to turn the site into residential housing. Work has already begun on the site including removing a several large trees in the beer garden.

[Update 24/12/2011] Thanks to those who have emailed this info. Q Developments have published some images from proposed plans for the residential development of the Kingston Road ex-Shell garage site. Plans include 3 x 4 bedroom family townhouses, 4 x 4 bedroom contemporary family houses and one 2 bedroom flat. Plans will be submitted to Richmond Council soon and be available online for comment.