for more info, click here

Next Week: Midsummer Night's Dream at Royal Observatory

Quantum Theatre presents a brand new production of Shakespeare's most enduringly popular play of love and intrigue, magic and celebration set on that most dangerous of nights when fairies are abroad and nothing is as it seems….

It is thought that 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' was written originally to be performed outdoors for a private wedding party and indeed it lends itself perfectly to an open air setting. Using not just the stage but the surrounding greenery Quantum Theatre's brand new production presents the play as a flight of magical fancy, with willow-the-wisp fairies, unsuspecting artisans and ardent young lovers woven together by the finest gossamer thread: "I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was…"

Performances will include a 20 minute interval. Do bring warm clothes, a folding chair or rug. Picnics welcome but no glassware please. Performance is suitable for all ages.

Time : 1- 5 July, 2008

Tickets: £10 Adults (concs £8), £7 child, family (£28), Group (schools only) £28

Booking: 0845 450 5157

Times: 1pm & 6:30pm

For more info, click here.

Arches Stink!

It's definite. Absolutely. I truly hate the Arches. They smell and I think that the staff there are the nastiest I've ever come across. Yuck!

Shop of the Week: Fashion Nails (4.5/6)

This place already has a lot going against it before you even decide to go in. It's in West Greenwich, specifically on Trafalgar Road. It's got a flashy window sign with a big flashing American Flag and if that weren't enough it looks almost shabby. When you walk in, things aren't any better as you discover that none of the staff there speak much English and so a lot of sign language and patience should be at the ready. So, why is this place among my most recommended salons in the area?

Simple: Once you're done with explaining what you want done with your nails and you've gone through all the polite nods and smiles, the girls are fantastic. Acrylics are very professionally done although you can opt to have a regular manicure or pedicure. They do have some really funky designs to add onto your nails that they can either brush paint for you or opt for glue on tiny shiny diamonds. I had mine done on my big toe in the shape of a flower and with the warm weather we've been having, they've made wearing my flip flops a very trendy occasion.

I have been going there for some time now and the place is definitely undergoing many changes.Two months ago they brought in this really fantastic pedicure chair that gives glorious back massages as you get your feet done. Heavenly. They have also increased the number of work tables and they have introduced a few other niceties that is not only a sign that they are obviously on the road to appearing more professional but it also means that they are having enough of a regular clientele who they are wanting to do this for.

The service is great, the girls very friendly (as much as they can be given the language barrier) and they are very accomodating if you come in with kids. They are quick, efficient and the results are well worth going again and again. Only for quality of work and service, this place gets my highest recommendation. A lot of other salons down East Greenwich who may look better have a lot to learn from Fashion Nails. Booking is essential as they are busy.

Fashion Nails

Tel: 020 8858 6281

169 Trafalgar Road,

Greenwich

London, SE10

Opening Times: Mon - Sat 10am - 7pm

Ferris Wheel In Greenwich

A London Eye-styled observation wheel is to be erected by the Thames in a historic maritime site this summer.The Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich is due to open a 60-metre high Greenwich Wheel on Saturday, June 21.

The wheel's 36 capsules each seat six adults and two kids and will rise above the London skyline between 10am and 10pm every day, every 12 minutes.

Greenwich council originally opposed the application for the wheel on the grounds that it would spoil the skyline.Traders in Greenwich Market supported the tourist attraction during the temporary closure of the Cutty Sark.

Prices start at £7 per adult and £4.50 per child. Private capsule hire costs £30, and a VIP capsule including leather seats and a DVD player costs £50. Champagne can be taken up for an extra £30.The wheel will be open until September 28. Tickets are expected to sell out fast. To book visit www.greenwichwheel.com, or visit the site in person from June 21.

From Bexley Times

Christmas Greenwich!

Greenwich will be hosting a wide range of events in the run-up to Christmas. It starts with the switch on of Greenwich Market's Christmas lights on Friday 30, November. The event includes a variety show of family entertainment from 3-7pm. It starts with a visit by Father Christmas at 3pm and ends with the lights switch on by the cast of Greenwich Theatre's panto, Dick Whittington at 5pm.

The indoor market will host a special Christmas market trading everyday until 7pm up to Christmas Eve.

Deciphering the Greenwich Bin Code!

From 21 January 2008, Greenwich Council's refuse and recycling collections will be changing. From then the waste team will be collecting as follows:

Green-Top bins: There will be a weekly collection date.

Plate scrapings, meat fish & bones, fruit and vegetable peelings, grass cuttings, leaves. You are to use paper to wrap food (not plastic bags).

Blue-Top Bins or clear bags (get them from the council): Mixed-Dry recycling. There will be a weekly collection date.

Cans, cardboard, glass, plastic & paper.

Black Sack (buy your own, the council doesn't provide these you know): A fortnightly Collection

Polystyrene, waxed cartons and any other non-recyclable waste.

Families with children in nappies will be able to register for a weekly collection (thank heavens for that) and all three types of waste will be collected on the same weekday (the council is going to personally contact each and every one of you to let you know when).

Going On Tonight

Fair trade fashion show for Black History Month. Dance by Greenwich Dance Agency's NrgDance and original designs by fashion students from Greenwich Community College.

7-8pm. Greenwich Heritage Centre, Artillery Square, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich SE18

La Boheme at Greenwich This Bank Holiday!

The Garden Opera Company presents Puccini's La Boheme in the open air, a play of romance, joie de vivre and heartbreak this Monday 27 August, 2007 at 3pm at The Old Royal Observatory Gardens, Greenwich Park, SE10. Tickets £15-£22. To book call Greenwich Theatre box office: 020 8858 7755. www.gardenopera.co.uk

Summer Break!

Well, The Greenwich Gazette is taking its summer holiday. We're off to do things here and there. But I've left you all with a few events that are coming up this week. See you back here on Tuesday 21 August, 2007!

Will bring back tales of my travels. Maybe!

The Greenwich Gazette Guide to Events This Week:

Wednesday 15 August, 2007:

Docklands Old & New: Family walk explores Docklands and its buildings. For families with 6 year olds. 11am, 1:15pm. Advance booking essential. (0870 444 3855)

Thursday 16 & Friday 17 August, 2007:

Indian Summer at Canary Wharf: 6-8pm. Free event: Angel Dance Academy have dazzled audiences around the world with their exotic Bollywood dance moves. Routines include a mix of Eastern and Western steps, perfectly integrated and stunningly produced. Angel Dancers have appeared on stage, TV and in films including Bend It Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice(Thursday) and August Bollywood Grooves who will execute their wonderfully fast paced and exciting "Bollywood movie' style performance to the backdrop of Bollywood songs with influences ranging from Folk to jazz with some fantastic Dhol beasts. (Friday). For more go to www.canarywharf.com

Saturday 18, August, 2007:

Jacobean Cosmetics and Make-Up Workshop, Charlton House, SE7: 10am-11:30am and 12noon - 1:30pm. Come along to this lively workshop and find out what was used 400 years ago. Recreate the 17th Century face for yourself using safe modern products. (020 8856 3951)

Sunday 19 August, 2007:

Invicta Concert Band: 2-3:15pm and 3:45-5pm. Bandstand at Greenwich Park.

Monday 20, August, 2007:

Pekko's Puppets at playground at Greenwich Park: Performances at 11am, 1pm, and 3pm.

The Greenwich Gazette WeekEnd Guide

Saturday August 11, 2007

Market at Cutty Sark Gardens: See here.

Pirates at Greenwich: Activities, themed trails & performances. 11am - 3pm. For ages 5+. Free. Painted Hall, Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, SE10.

Ruffs & Cuffs Workshop: Find out about the clothes worn by the people who lived in Charlton House in 1600s. Create your own Jacobean 'look'. For accompanied children of all ages. 10am - 11:30am & noon - 1:30pm. Free. Charlton House, SE7, (020 8856 3951)

Meet Grace O'Malley: Twice widowed, twice imprisoned, condemned for piracy but finally pardoned in Greenwich by Queen Elizabeth I. Hear about her exploits and life on the ocean. Suitable for all the family. Free. Noon, 1pm, 2:30pm, 3:30pm. Painted Hall, Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, SE10.

Yoruba Festival: Royal Arsenal Gardens. 12 - 9pm. Food, music and culture showcase. (www.yorubafestival.co.uk)

Hospice Garden Party: Cream tea & live music in tranquil setting. 12 noon - 6pm. 6pounds in advance only. Greenwich & Bexley Cottage Hospice, 185 Bostall Hill, Abbey Wood, SE2. Tickets : 020 8312 2244 or email: appeals@gbch.org.uk

Greenwich Playhouse: Nest of Evil (until August 19). Greenwich Station Forecourt, 189 Greenwich High Road, (020 8858 9256). boxoffice@galleontheatre.co.uk

Sunday August 12, 2007

Military Games Fair: Firepower, the Royal Artillery Exhibition, is hosting the Military War Games Fair which will feature traders, artillery displays, games and memorabilia. There is also the chance to look around the Firepower permanent museum, which tells the story of artillery, scientific discoveries made through warfare and human stories of courage and endeavour. Firepower, The Royal Artillery Museum, Woolwich, SE18 (www.firepower.org.uk).

Greenwich Park: Suffolk Phoenix Concert Band: The Bandstand, 2pm-3pm & 3:45pm - 5pm. Greenwich Park, SE10.

Tilda Jerk Cookout Festival: In association with The Write Thing. Sample the finest jerk in South London from the competing stalls. Listen to salsa. 2pm -6pm. Free. The Bandstand in the gardens of Honiman Museum, 100 London Road, Forest Hill, SE23 (020 8699 1872).

St Alfege Church Recitals & Concerts For August

Thursday 9 August

Catherine Leonard (piano): 1:10pm. Free.

Saturday 11 August

Aquilo Trio (flute, clarinet, piano): 1:10pm. Free.

Location: St. Alfege Church, Church Street, Greenwich, SE10

Dance Umbrella 2007: Mark Your Calendar for October!

Greenwich Dance Agency, The Borough Hall, Royal Hill, Greenwich, London SE10 8REBox Office: 020 8293 9741

gDA

Greenwich Dance Agency

gDA presents the UK premiere of

Andreja Rauch’s

Weavers

part of Dance Umbrella 2007

Thursday 25, Friday 26 and Saturday 27 October 2007

7.45pm £12/£9 concs

Meet the Artist: Friday 26 October; free to ticket holders after the performance.

In its ninth year of collaboration, gDA and Dance Umbrella host another unique event in the Borough Hall. This year, award-winning young Slovenian artist Andreja Rauch stages the UK premiere of Weavers, a creative mix of installation art, film and dance. Five dancers, four stories, two spaces... bound together like the warp and weft of a carpet.

This atmospheric and subtle performance begins its narrative in the heady heights of the Borough Hall balcony with a short film featuring Andreja and British-based dancer, Henry Montes (a mainstay of Siobhan Davies Dance). Then, guided to the main performance space, the audience is immersed in the action and surrounded by the choreography. Andreja and her dancers subtly weave together the four stories with gentle, mesmerising movement.

Andreja Rauch has been a regular Dance Umbrella performer with Charles Linehan Company. Trained at the London Contemporary Dance School, this Slovenian-born dancer/choreographer has been a notable presence in such Linehan pieces as Grand Junction, New Quartet and Happy Days. She now makes her Dance Umbrella choreographic debut with Weavers, which earlier this year won a special jury prize at the Gibanica - Moving Cake Festival in Ljubljana. According to journalist Donald Hutera: ‘In terms of performance, Rauch has been one of the best reasons to watch British dance during the past five years or so’.

gDA

Since its inception in 1993, Greenwich Dance Agency (gDA) has built an international reputation for quality and innovation. Based in the historic former Borough Hall, gDA is a meeting place for professional dance artists and the local community. gDA hosts and produces a vast array of activities from cutting edge contemporary dance events to a comprehensive programme of youth projects, tea dances, classes and courses. gDA also provides activities such as school dance clubs, youth collectives and chair-based movement sessions for older people in a range of other venues throughout the borough. gDA's extensive professional development programme for dance is recognised as one of the most important and valued resources for emerging and established artists in this country. Many of the UK's brightest choreographic talents - amongst them Michael Clark, Akram Khan, Jonathan Burrows, Fin Walker, and Russell Maliphant - have chosen gDA as their rehearsal and research base for creating new work.

gDA’s director, Brendan Keaney, was presented with the prestigious Dance UK Industry Award at the 2005 National Dance Awards, held at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in January 2006. The Dance UK Industry Award honours an individual working in dance who has made an outstanding contribution to the art form beyond the scope of their usual role. This special award aims to highlight the many important but often unacknowledged contributions that make a real difference to how dance is created, supported and seen.

gDA is funded by Greenwich Council and Arts Council England.

Dance Umbrella

Dance Umbrella celebrates and champions contemporary dance and is dedicated to the development of choreography, choreographers and dancers; it has been doing this successfully since 1978. Dance Umbrella’s annual London festival now ranks highly among Europe’s leading international dance festivals and the organisation is recognised as one of Britain’s most adventurous dance promoters presenting a year round programme of work in and across the UK.

www.greenwichdance.org.uk

www.danceumbrella.co.uk

Review tickets available on request

press enquiries to: Helen Maleed

tel/fax: 020 7732 4624 mobile: 07986 235 855email: helen@greendesk.demon.co.uk

Fancy a Picnic Tomorrow? It's lovely weather!

Meet the staff of East Greenwich Pleasaunce tomorrow and enjoy a picnic with your young ones (under 5s) with the Under 5s Play Centre and the Friends of East Greenwich Pleasaunce. You bring the picnic and they supply the entertainer. Call Play Centre 020 8858 8114. Free entrance. 12 noon - 3pm

Basketball Academy Set for Greenwich

London United, the capital's leading professional basketball team, is joining forces with the London Borough of Greenwich's 2012 Legacy Team to establish a new full-time basketball academy in the borough. The aim of the link-up is to nurture home grown talent for the London Olympics and beyond when the new G plus academy opens in September.

Organisers will draw on Greenwich's already successful G plus college scheme, which has created a new network of post-16 centres across the borough.The academy will focus on a schedule of combined basketball training and academic study.

Academic studies will be based at Shooters Hill Sixth Form College, whilst basketball tuition will take place at a brand new training facility at the nearby Eltham Green High School. The G plus academy will accept applications from all over the borough and surrounding areas. A total of 20 players will take place in the initiative, who will compete in around 40 over the season.

Source: Newsshopper.co.uk

Greenwich to Russell Square bus route to run 24/7

Transport for London has announced that from 28 July 2007, route 188, which links Russell Square with North Greenwich, will run for 24 hours a day. The extension of operating hours follows a review of the existing service and means the route will provide a half-hourly service throughout the night, seven days a week, improving night-time links from central London to Bermondsey, Canada Water and Greenwich.

It will also provide an all-night service between central London and North Greenwich, serving the 02 arena. John Barry, head of network development for London Buses, said: "The new 24-hour service on route 188 is another accessible transport connection for late-night travellers in the Capital. London’s night bus network has expanded dramatically in recent years with passenger numbers more than doubling since 2000. Almost half the users are people travelling to or from work."

Source: Transport Briefing

St. Alfege Church Recitals For July

Thursday 5 July

Recital: Ivan Andrews, Cello & Piano, 13:10, Free.

Friday 6 July

Recital: Acroama Duo, Flute & Guitar, 13:10, Free.

Saturday 7 July

Recital: Mary Curtis, Mezzo-Soprano, 13:10, free.

Thursday 12 July

Recital: Shiho Izuno, (Soprano) & Ryoko Homma (Piano), 13:10, free.

Thursday 19 July

Recital: Shiho Izuno (Soprano) & Heidi Pinder (Mezzo-Soprano), 13:10, free.

Thursday 26 July

Recital: Edward Renshaw, Guitar, 13:10, free

Address: St Alfege Church, Greenwich Church Street, SE10

St Alfege Church Recitals & Concerts This Week!

Monday 25 June, 19:30

Concert: Trinity College of Music students: The Muse, Soprano: Iris Korfker. Tickets: 8 pounds.

Wednesday 27 June, 19:30

Trinity: Jazz Flute and Harp. Free event.

Thursday 28 June, 13:10

Organ Recital: Benjamin Kolodziej

Wagner, Frank, Durufle, Whitlock. Free event.

Saturday 30 June 13:10

Recital: Paolo Quaglia, Soprano

Nicole Panizza and Antonio Pappano Riccio (piano). Free event.

Greenwich Celebrates Veterans' Day This Wednesday

Veterans' day celebrations hosted by the Ministry of Defence and Not Forgotten Association will be a highlight of the Greenwich Alive celebrations. Starting at 4pm there will be interactive and participatory displays including a Battle of Britain simulator, paintball range, climbing wall and inflatable assault course together with fitness and skill demonstrations by all three Services including the Royal Marines Commando Display Team. The three Services will race against the clock in a grand finale before the 'Not Forgotten Association' Celebrity concert starts.

Two hundred members of the veterans' community will arrive at the Old Royal Naval College by boat and attend a concert in the Painted Hall starting at 8:15pm. Attendance is by invitation only but the concert will be shown 'live' on two huge screens in the College grounds. The concert will feature international entertainers including Engelbert Humperdinck, the Drifters and Rolf Harris. Actors including Robert Hardy, Michael Dotrice and Edward Woodward will give readings.

Veterans' Day Celebrations

Old Royal Naval College

Wednesday 27 June

4pm - 9:30pm

Tel: 020 8269 4747

Greenwich Wins Award for Cleaner Air

Greenwich is one of four boroughs in the UK to be awarded Beacon status for delivering cleaner air. Council Leader Chris Roberts outlines what lies behind Greenwich’s commitment to the environment in this article.