Download pdf - Out and About in Sutton local guide

Delivered to homes each month :: Issue No 20 :: April/May 2011

The Largest Showroom in the areaVisit us today!!Tile Studio available

HUGE SHOWROOM AWAITS YOU!

Why not visit our showroomsto view the wide range of baths,whirlpool baths, showers and accessories that we have on display? We have a huge range of items that we can supply. Our showroom staff will be pleased to discuss all aspects of your installation and advise onyour choices…

T: 01543 270 800 Walsall Road, Norton Canes, Cannock WS11 9NS

E: [email protected] www.nortonbathrooms.co.ukOpen 6 days a week

Welcome

for loss, damage or omission caused by error in the printing of an advert. All artwork is accepted on the strict condition that permission has been given to be printed

endorse any material included in the publication. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form - electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise - without the written permission of the publisher. Details upon request.

contact us: 0845 303 9414enquire or comment about our services - email: [email protected]

Pete & Clare

April/May 2011WelcomeWelcome to the April / May Issue of Out & About Sutton Coldfield

Welcome to the April / May issue, well it’s been very busy for the Out and About team. We have some a great editorial for those readers who may be getting in the garden or interested in sponsoring a local business woman. We have some great features coming in the future issues, we are now recruiting staff too!! Email Peter at the address below with Jobs in the subject -Distribution, Sales and Project Management roles needed. Forward you CV Today.

Do you have a local business that you believe should be in the guide?? Get in touch [email protected]

We are always looking for local stories, so please forward your stories to [email protected]

02 Norton Bathrooms04 Your Garden in Summer / Gilberts Landscaping05 SheffieldSheds/WordSearch06 Oakley Paving / The Woodworks / The Pine Shop / Loft Company 07 KC Electrical / AF Plastering / Pieceword08 Halpin Plumbing / P&S Multitrades / JV Digital Systems / Premier Doors09 Pampered Pooch / Mark Cassidy Plastering / Unique Conservatories10 Kilimanjaro Trek11 Devlin Wholesale12 - 13 Tradmark Flooring - Naturally Oak14 Cleaning Up Your Windows Clutter 15 AP Designs16 Squire Automotive17 Professional Computer Services / The Small Room18 - 19 Visiom Guard / Bakk Bathrooms20 Sutton Road Tyre / Four Oaks Glazing / UPVC Installations21 Roofguard / Dream Kitchens / ST Gas22 Internet Safety / SDS Painting / Richard Powell23 Suddz Bathrooms24 Adam Askey Windows

to advertise here call Pete 07946028080 03

Tips and advice from Deborah Barnish, award-winning garden designer, at Angel Tomney Design

May is such a glorious month – there’s some new delight emerging every day. Multi-coloured swathes of tulips hold sway from early in the month while the heavy buds of voluptuous scented paeonies promise a fragrant show later on. But don’t forget the bulbsthatfloweredsobravelyearlierintheyear. Now is the best time to lift and divide over-crowded clumps.

If the sun is shining it is tempting to begin planting out tender plants such as cannas and dahlias, and bedding plants. But, do remember to listen out for warnings of late frosts which could spoil your summer displays and cover plantswithalayeroffleeceiftheovernighttemperature is going to approach freezing point.

The same applies to pruning slightly tender shrubs such as ‘hardy’ Fuchsias.Now that everything is in full growth, lawns need their weekly mowing and hedges may

bereadyfortheirfirstcut.Pleasedocheckfor nesting birds before picking up the hedge trimmer and don’t disturb them until the chicks havefledged.

And if you haven’t already done so, consider putting up a nest box or two – somewhere out of the direct sun and out of reach of neighbourhood cats.

In the kitchen garden, keep making regular sowings of salad leaves, radishes and carrots for constant supplies of tender leaves and roots.

Late maincrop potatoes can be planted now. Youmaystillfindseedpotatoesingardencentres, or order them on-line – be quick. Earlier potatoes should be earthed up for the best crops and to keep tubers out of the light where they will turn green.


T: 0800 4488280M: 07702 702719E: [email protected]

www.loftcompanyuk.com

Aluminium Ladder+ 100sq ft Boarding£289.00 supplied& fitted Bespoke loft conversions

& bathrooms supplied &fitted

Free quotes &Friendly Service

Veluxe Windows

Trap Alterations

06 to advertise here call Pete 07946028080

Clean, Reliable, Professional Service

Skimming, Boarding, Repair work,

Insurance work, Artex skimmed over.

Call Andy for a free quotation

0121 749 523707814 475 350

No job to small or big,

All areas of Sutton Coldfield covered.Please quote Out and About in Sutton Codlfield, when calling.


Your Fast Local Servicefor the Home Emergency

35 Years Experience

HALPINPLUMBING0121 351 552507757 810257

for all your problems from taps, toilets,immersion heaters, loft tanks, sink

blockages, leaks and overflows and bursts.

AM and PM APPOINTMENTS TO SUIT YOU!!

Please mention Out & About Sutton Coldfield magazine, when calling. Thanks

08 to advertise here call Pete 07946028080

MARK CASSIDYPLASTERING


Two Staffordshire businesswomen are stepping up to some serious training to help them walk to the top of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and raise £3,750 each for Compton Hospice.

Natalie Aldred, 26, from Cannock, and Gill Fitzpatrick, 50, from Handsacre near Rugeley, are getting special instruction from personal trainer Emanuel Hamilakis at Fitness First in Cannock to prepare for the 10-day trek to climb Africa’s highest mountain in August.

The pair are also going for broke to reach their fundraising target with a Las Vegas style ball on Saturday May 14 at the Premier Suite, in High Green, Cannock, above Bar Sport.

They are betting the evening with a full casino, live entertainment and auction with a three-course meal will help them reach the £3,750 target they need to join the trip.

Gill has also organised a rock night at St Marys Social Club in Cannock on Saturday April 2, featuring Cannock band Sixteria, tickets are £5 and doors open at 7pm.

The pair have been raising funds for the challenge since the end of last year, including a curry night at the Chase Balti in Cannock.

Natalie who runs Cannock-based Express Advertising said: “It is quite daunting climbing 6,000 meters to the top of Kilimanjaro so we’re making sure we’re in top shape to get there.”

Gill who runs The Local Bookkeeper in Cannock said: “We’ve had great support so far with lots of people giving us venues and services for free, we’re just hoping people can a bit more money down for us at the Las Vegas night and get us to our fundraising target.”

To buy tickets for the ball, priced £40, contact Natalie on 07971 664986 or for the rock night contact Gill on 07851 577557.

Caption: Gill Fitzpatrick (left) and Natalie Aldred (centre) getting in to shape for the Kilimanjaro trek with help from trainer Emanuel Hamilakis.

to advertise here call Pete 0794602808010

Kilimanjaro TreK

Bringing out the very best in Wood flooring.Naturally Oak is a distinctive range of specially sourced European oak flooring which is hand crafted and finished using specialist oils.

Naturally Oak offers three ranges incorporating engineered, semi-solid and solid oak floors. Our engineered floors even come with a glueless locking system making it very DIY friendly. Alternatively our solid and semi solid floors can glued or nailed in the traditional manner.

Whether you are looking for solid or engineered wood flooring you will gain a floor which is personal to you and totally unique. All three of the ranges are finished on site at our factory in Tamworth using Rubio oils, one of the worlds most durable surface treatments, while still offering an almost endless array of colours.

If you cant find quite the right colour in our standard range, we also offer a bespoke coloring service which allows you to match your wood flooring furniture and fittings in your house.

Maintenance of the floor is kept to a minimum as the surface finish is very resilient when cured and normally only requires cleaning with a damp mop and a hoover. Should repair or restoration of the floor become necessary, it is is made very simple and easy using our range of dedicated maintenance and repair products.

All of the naturally oak products are available to see at our showroom in Tamworth where you are welcome to take advantage of free samples and our measuring service along with expert advice from our sales team. More information available at www.naturallyoak.com

naturally oakelegant bespoke flooring

A stunning collection of sustainable wooden flooring which lends warmth and atmosphere to any environment.

Tredmark Flooring StudioUnit Z Riverside Industrial EstateFazeley Tamworth, Staffs. B78 3RW

01827 262627 - naturallyoak.comOpen: Mon - Fri 9.00 - 5.30Sat 9.00 - 4.00

01827 262627 www.naturallyoak.com

naturally oakelegant bespoke flooring

A stunning collection of sustainable wooden flooring which lends warmth and atmosphere to any environment.

Tredmark Flooring StudioUnit Z Riverside Industrial EstateFazeley Tamworth, Staffs. B78 3RW

01827 262627 - naturallyoak.comOpen: Mon - Fri 9.00 - 5.30Sat 9.00 - 4.00

OPEN YOUR WINDOWSNow that Windows 7 is here I thought I would take a look under the hood - there is a lot to like about Windows 7, not least its many improvements over Vista: the new OS is faster, less demanding on resources, has better designed security and contains many new productivity-boosting features. However the system is still open to spyware and will become slower and more unstable the more you use your PC, adding and removing applications, the more junk builds up throughout your system. You need to treat the problem, detoxing your PC on a regular basis to remove the leftovers – but how, exactly? and what’s the best way to remove it all and restore your system to its optimum performance?

SORT IT OUTFor many years the default idea was to run the built in windows disk defrag but now free software called auslogics disk defrag is available for all windows platforms at http://download.cnet.com/Auslogics-Disk-Defrag/3000-2094_4-10567503.html.Wetoldtheprogramtooptimiseourfilelayout (go to ‘Settings | Program Settings | Algorithms | Move systemfilestothebeginningofthedisk’)andsetittowork.Thisdeliveredrealbenefits.Boottimefellfrom29to26seconds; IE was usable after 107 seconds, a 23 per cent improvement; and launch time for Outlook fell by a third. We can’t guarantee you’ll see similar results, as every defrag situation is different, but it’s clear that Windows 7’s defrag tool alone won’t necessarily do the job. We advise you click Start, type defrag, click ‘Disk Defragmenter’ and make sure that scheduled defrags are turned off for the moment. Then install auslogics disk defrag turn on the option to relocate yoursystemfiles,click‘Settings|ProgramSettings|Schedule’ and set it to run every few days to keep your drive running optimally.

AT YOUR SERVICEA near two-minute wait before we could access the web was far too long. To cut this down we needed to reduce the work that Windows had to do during the boot process, and one effective way to do this was to work on our Windows services. Launching the Services applet by typing in the search bar (‘services.msc’) revealed the many changes that could be made. For instance, the Distributed Link Tracking ClientmaintainslinksbetweenNTFSfilesacrossanetworkand is started by default. You don’t use the this service, though, double-clicking it and setting the Startup Type to ‘Disabled’ will turn it off. IP Helper is similarly pointless unless you have access to an IP6 network, and the Windows Media Player Network Sharing and Media Center Extender services can go unless you’re using them to share your musicandvideos.Otherservicescanbeconfiguredtostart with a delay, giving priority to other tasks and helping your PC to become usable more quickly. The Background Intelligent Transfer Service is important when downloading Windows Updates, but it doesn’t have to be available when you start your PC. Double-click this and set its Startup Type to ‘Automatic (Delayed Start)’. Try the same with Disk Defragmenter, Windows Backup, Windows Search and Windows Update.

FIRE IT UPFilling up a PC with numerous start-up programs will really slow it down, yet software authors continue to do this by default, so it’s a good idea to prune your start-up tasks on a regular basis. Start by quickly browsing your ‘Start | All Programs’ menu. Is there anything you no longer need?

Uninstallitnow.Next,welaunchedmsconfigbytypingin on the search bar once running click startup tab and often you will see programs like QuickTime, iTunes, Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat, Orbit Downloader, PowerDVD and RealPlayer are all very useful tools, but we didn’t want any of them to launch at boot time also there may be a few redundant start-up programs that have been there since your PC arrived. The precise results of all this tweaking will dependonhowyourPCisconfigured,butwesawimmediatebenefits.Therewaslessdiskthrashingatboottime,IEwasnow usable in only 71 seconds, and we’d freed up more than 100MB of RAM for the rest of our system.

CONFIGUREWe’ve concentrated on cleaning up Windows clutter, but your apps can also collect pointless add-ons. Take Internet Explorer, for instance. While installing software, we accepted every offer of a shiny new IE add-on, with the result being that we now had four extra toolbars. Clicking ‘Tools | Manage Add-ons’ and disabling these freed up a surprisingly high 28 to 36MB of RAM, cut four seconds off the time it took for IE to load and then shaved half a second off every subsequent relaunch.TypicalMicrosoftinefficiency?Apparentlynot.Wehad also accumulated eight Firefox extensions – AdBlock Plus, DownloadThemAll and so on – and uninstalling those halved the browser’s relaunch time and saved us around 26MB of RAM. So by all means keep the extensions you use, but remember that they come at a price – get rid of any that are surplus to requirements. It’s a similar story with MicrosoftOffice.Outlook2007,forinstance,comeswithmany unnecessary add-ons, and programs like iTunes will install more (without even asking). Disabling all but the key search add-on saved 19MB of RAM on our test system (see the ‘Optimising Outlook’ box for the details), and while the initial launch appeared little different, subsequent launches now required only around 0.4 seconds. Clear unwanted emails out of your inbox for a further speed boost, then checkWord,ExcelandotherOfficecomponentsforfurtherunnecessary add-ons (though don’t remove anything unless you’re sure you don’t need it).

CLEAN IT UPCongratulations, you’ve done the hard work – it’s time to clean up. Click Start, type cleanmgr and press [Enter] to launch Disk Cleanup. Follow the instructions and clean up as muchofthejunkthatitfindsasyoucan.Youcangetmorethorough clean-up help from a tool like CCLEANER available athttp://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/.It’snotamagic solution – we tried it, and cleaning our Registry made little difference at all to the system – but it does give you acentralplacetocleanupyourbrowser’stemporaryfiles.Thatreallydidhelp,cuttinganotherfivesecondsoffthetimeit took IE to load and become usable. Boot time, originally 22 seconds, had initially risen to 30, but we’d brought it back down to 24. The time it took IE to load and display Google a horrible 140 seconds, was now 35. We had 300MB more RAM available, and our applications had been tuned to require less than they previously did.(See our advert on page 17)

CLEANING UP YOUR WINDOWS CLUTTER

During this economic downturn you need

to stay one step ahead of your competitors.

So Call us now for a FREE consulation and

let us provide you with some fresh ideas for

2011. What have you got to loose?

You can call us on 01675 481527

or email us: [email protected]

www.apdesigns.co.uk

Grow your business in 2011 with us! Be noticed and get people to contact you.

Use affordable, eye-catching, effective websites and print solutions with AP Designs.

Struggling with social networking?We provide hands-on, practical training on Twitter, Facebook and Linked In.

A.S.G electricalSolutions ltd

Extra Lights & Power PointsRewires / Extensions Fuseboard UpgradesOutdoor Lighting / Power Inspection & TestingDomestic Intruder Alarms

All your electrical requirements from a local established family business with 40 years experience.

T: 0800 0379223 M: 07966 391405 (Steve)M: 07966 391407 (Gary)E: [email protected] Tamworth Road

Please mention Out & About when calling

The smallest room does nothave to cost the earth!!

Small room, BIG Solutions!!

5 year guaranteeon all workmanship

All plumbing, tiling and plastering

Carpentry/ Electrics/Wetrooms/ Karndean Flooring

City and Guilds Certified

References available

FREE

heated towel

rail with all

complete

bathrooms

Call Nick Orgill on01543 303085 or 07825 334078Specialist in bathroom design and installationFree Quotes and advice



A well-maintained roofline is important in protecting your houseagainst the elements & making sure your roof doesn't leak. Your fascias, soffits and guttering say a lot about your property and with ourproducts you can rest assured that you will never have to face the ladders again to re-paint or repair either fascia or soffit and yourhome will look distinctly smart!Our maintenance-free PVC-U range comes in numerous styles &colours we have something to suit everyone.

Aldridge Windows have been a family run business since 1987Covering Cannock, Sutton Coldfield, Tamworth, Burntwood, Streetlyand surrounding areas.

Run and managed by Colin Smith a local tradesman who takes allcalls, undertakes the estimating and fits the work himself with a teamof trusted tradepeople, making him a person who takes personal service very seriously.

All Work Fully Guaranteed

Insurance Backed Guarantees Available

New Energy Rated Windows

Free Quotes and Site Surveys

First Class After Sales Service

UPVC Windows, Doors and Conservatories

Repairs and Replacement Parts

Replacement Misted Double Glazing Panels

Damaged UPVC Panels and Sealants

Fascias, soffits and guttering...

One recent testimonial for us!!

"nothing was too much trouble and would definitely recommend."Mr. S Cheetham, pelsall

0121 371 0325

If your considering replacment Windows at an affordable price, Then Call Colin today on

S u t t o n C o l d f i e l d

Everybody knows that the internet isn't the safest of “places”,so the types of people that your children are in danger of mixing with, and the undesired information that they haveaccess to, shouldn't come as a surprise.

So how can you help to ensure your child's safety?

EXPLAIN THE BASICSPersonal information should always be kept that way, so makesure your child understands that they must never give this outto anybody they do not know over the internet. The minimalistof information, such as gender and age, could easily be usedagainst them.

SET BOUNDARIES:Ask them to show you what websites and information theyare accessing, and make sure they understand what youwould consider to be inappropriate. If necessary, you could alsoinstall parental control software, which allows you to filter websites.

CHECK WHO THEY ARE CONTACTING:Make sure your child only talks to their friends who havedirectly given their email/SNS to them, and they have proof ofwho it is. People can be anybody they desire over the internet, and it is becoming more common.

NEVER LEAVE THEM ALONE:Keeping the computer in a family room means that you caneasily check what your child is doing, and knowing that you areinterested, and seeing that you are near, may prevent themfrom even considering to visit inappropriate websites.

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES (SNS):Social networking sites such as Bebo and Myspace have a minimumsubscribing age of 13 and 14 to protect your children. However, this doesn't always stop them from using fake identification, so make sure they take these restrictions seriously,and not take advantage of them. It may also be a good ideato take into account your child's behavioural changes. Thingssuch as an unusual lack of confidence, avoiding family members,and a sudden loss of interest in using the computer are typicalsigns of cyber bullying. A survey said that “58% of youngchildren did not tell their parents or an adult about somethingmean or hurtful that happened to them online”, so keeping aclose eye on who they are talking to, and monitoring whatthey are doing on the internet, could prevent this.

Internet Safety........Is your child Safe?

If you have concerns about your children's computer safety you can seek advice from your local Parent Support Worker, who

you can contact through your school. www.childnet-int.org

INSTANT RESPONSE!!For all your building & emergency

plumbing needs!!

coveringSutton Coldfield

and surrounding areas

General Builder Plumbing and HeatingLocal family business

est. 25yrs no job too BIG

or too small.

Free consultation call

Richard Powellhome office; Antrobus Road, Boldmere, Sutton Coldfield

0121 3553480 / 07788932795