Beer Festival- Easter weekend

You don't have to wait for summer for this Beer Festival! The Club at Hanslope are holding a Beer Festival from Friday 3rd April until Sunday 5th, open from noon-11pm every day. There will be a number of Real Ales and Ciders from local breweries, with live music every day, quizzes, games and competitions for all the family.

On Friday there will also be 'The Wheel of Fortune', and on Saturday there'll be a quiz to see how well you know your beers, with great prizes to be won. The Clermont vs Northampoton rugby kicks off at 5.40pm, and there will be live music with The Jazz Collective from 8pm.

Easter Sunday (5th) includes a great variety of Easter-themed events. There will be a giant Easter egg raffle and drawing and colouring competitions for children, with chocolate egg prizes. From 5pm there will be live music with Chaos Theory, and at 7pm the festival will close with a quiz night.

All are welcome, and admission is free, sky and BT Sports available every day. Don't miss out on a great event this Easter weekend, in just over a week's time.

This Weekend's Events

Friday 20th March:

The Pad Presents: Ian McCulloch (Echo & The Bunnymen) + Guests @ Bedford Corn Exchange, starts at 7.30pm. Echo & the Bunnymen were formed in Liverpool in 1978 and became one of the UK's most important bands. They have had numerous hit singles along the way, including Seven Seas, Never Stop The Killing Moon and Lips Like Sugar. Front man Ian McCulloch will also be performing solo, in a fully acoustic show with stripped down versions of their songs. A one-off experience. Tickets cost £18.50.

Quiz Night @ Olney Rugby Club, starts at 7.30pm.
All are welcome, cost is £3 per person, with a maximum of 6 people per team. The money raised will go towards the U18 girls rugby tournament in Gent. To register a team, email: christinebebbington@hotmail.com.

Saturday 21st March: 

Easter Coffee Morning @ Westbury Grange, Newport Pagnell, from 10am-12 noon.
Come and join the fundraising coffee morning, raising money for outings and treats for the residents of Westbury Grange. All are welcome to come along, there will be a selection of stalls, raffle and a wide selection of cakes and coffee.

Race Night @ Lavendon Village Hall, first race is at 7.30pm.
Plougmans supper will be provided, bring your own drinks. Tickets cost £8.

Olney Ward Councillor Surgery @ The Institute, Emberton from 12.30pm-1.30pm.

Newport Pagnell Singers: Great Choral Masterpieces @ Newport Pagnell Parish Church, from 7.30pm. Including excerpts from the following works: Gloria- Vivalidi, Messiah- Handel, Requiem- Mozart, Elijah- Mendelssohn and Requiem- Jenkins. An evening for all those who appreciate fine choral music- don't miss out. Tickets cost £10 in advance or £12 on the door.

ArtFULL Monthly Show @ The Centre:MK, Sidbury Arcade between doors 13 and 15, all day.
This is a free event, and the first of ARTfull's monthly shows in the centre:mk is 'Over the Top'. Featuring the limited edition bronze sculptures of Tim Cotterill, the Frogman and a special custom made Over the Top frog, there will be art to see, artists to talk to and more, including a free raffle.

MK Dons vs Notts County, and family fun day @ Stadium MK, from 12 noon.
Another chance to enjoy a family fun day at the Dons, with a selection of activities taking place around the ground from midday, and discounted ticket prices for all the family. Adult tickets start at £10, and under 18s go for just £1. For an extensive list of stalls and activities, click here.

Bark in the Park @ Furzton Lake, from 10am.
Bring your four-legged friends to meet other dogs and discover a new dog-walking route. Pre-registration is essential, costs £1 per dog. Walks are not suitable for dogs under 1 year old.

Sunday 22nd March: 

Museum Lunch @ Donzella restaurant, Stanley Court Olney, 12.15-3pm.

Open to friends, volunteers and partners of the museum. An opportunity to mix socially and contribute to raising funds for the museum. Cost is £15 for a two-course lunch. Email friends@cowperandnewtonmuseum.org.uk to reserve a place.

Orienteering @ Linford Wood, starting from 10am-12 noon.

The first of informal orienteering events which will run throughout 2015 for beginners, more experienced orienteers and runners. No special equipment is needed and no need to pre-register, just turn up! There are a number of different courses to choose from, in varying levels of difficulty and length. Costs £5 for individuals, couples and families, and £10 for groups with more than two adults. Click here for more information.

Creative Space @ The Stables, Wavendon, MK17 8LU, from 11.45am-1pm and 2.45pm-4pm.

Interactive music events for disabled children and their families. Come and make music, crafts and dance with the charity, 'Create'. The 75 minute event is unique, fun and interactive. Music will be performed by talented pianist, Derek Paravicini, who is himself blind and has severe learning difficulties. Tickets cost £6, call the box office on: 01908 280800 to book. 

Big old quiz of 2014

Did you manage to see the Big Fat Quiz of the year this year? It's always a fun way to see how much you can remember from the previous year, and be reminded of some of the most random and most popular news stories.

We've put together a short quiz for you, using a few of the top news stories from last year. Scroll all the way down to see the answers and find out how well you can remember the news of 2014, both local and national.

1. Luis Suárez bit a footballer during one of the World Cup matches, what team were they playing at the time?
2. Which Milton Keynes store last year had over £1 million worth of goods stolen from them in the early hours of the morning?
3. Where was the huge warehouse fire which took place in Buckinghamshire in January last year?
4. UKIP councillor David Silvester declared last year that he believed what had been caused by gay marriage?
5. What was the name of the robotic spacecraft which landed onto a comet, for the first time in history?
6. MK Dons thrashed which football team to which score in August last year?
7. Which animated film in March last year won two Academy Awards and became one of the few films to take more than $1 billion at the box office? (hint: there's a snowman involved)
8. Which ex-MK Dons player featured in this year's 'I'm a Celebrity Get me Out Of Here'?
9. Which famous former boy band member posted a video of his wife's labour, featuring him singing and dancing?
10. What was it that put Milton Keynes into the Guinness World Records last year?  

What's on in MK this weekend

The leaves have almost all fallen now and we're heading fully into winter, but we've still got a few of those sunny autumn days left (we hope). There's still a chance to get out and about this weekend, although you may need to wrap up a little warmer now. As always, we've collated a list of what's on in the local area to help you decide on what to do this weekend, and there's quite a lot to choose from!

Kids corner competitions

KIDS CORNER
If you're a kid or a parent of a kid- don't forget to enter (or get your kids to enter) our monthly competitions in the kids corner section of the Phonebox magazine! Have a look in the magazine, or in the online magazine by following the link here.

We've got a word search, drawing competition and 'power puzzle' to enter, and with a top prize of £10 and runners up prizes of £5, it's well worth entering!

Have a look at June's page here:

What are you waiting for?! 

Send your entries to:

Kids Corner,
Phonebox magazine,
Unit 2 Stanley COurt,
Olney,
Bucks,
MK46 5NH

The closing date is June 15th so make sure you get them in quick!

The British quiz obsession?

Quizzes- love them or hate them, are a huge part of our British culture. Even if they've never won a quiz, many people take part in pub quizzes regularly, often seeing it more as a social than playing to win each week (obviously a bonus though!) As well as all the pub quizzes out about, come all the television quiz shows that crowd our screens every evening. The number of different spins and twists they've managed to put on the general theme of answering questions and winning money is pretty impressive if you ask me, we've got pointless, the chase, ejector seat, university challenge, eggheads, the million pound drop, the weakest link and so many more, it seems Britain really does love the quizzes! Then on top of all the regulars, we get the big fat quiz of the year, which is basically a glorified pub quiz (with a few obvious differences, the fact that it's not in a pub and in a television studio for starters!)

So why do we like being questioned? Surely it reminds us of exams, interviews and tests?! Is it only the idea of winning that motivates us- would we take part in quizzes if there was no prize incentive?... I've got a feeling that many of us would. Maybe it's the challenge it provides, racking our brains for that fact we just know we know... somewhere far back in the memory bank.

With technology and social media has also come the unending stream of online quizzes, you can take a quiz to see which Simpsons character you are, what actor is your lover, what age you 'really' are and so many more... is the British quiz obsession getting a little out of hand?! Maybe we are better off sticking to the old fashioned pub quiz, then at least you get the social aspect and (hopefully) some questions that make sense and which you can actually answer! Why not head down to your local pub this week? Most pubs hold pub quizzes once a week or so, in Olney alone there are pub quizzes at the Two Brewers pub and the Cowpers Oak, just to name two! I might start truing and learning some random facts in preparation for the next pub quiz!...and the capital of Venezuela is...