A Week in the Life column with Keith Tordoff

I now know what the Harrogate Inner Wheel group is. I wrote last week that Gloria my wife and I were going to give a talk to the women of the Inner Wheel group in Harrogate and I suspected it would not have anything to do with vehicles or bikes.
Good luck to Donna Clark, Alice Clark and Julia Everard from Just Delicious in the Yorkshire Taste Awards. Photo by Jonathan PowGood luck to Donna Clark, Alice Clark and Julia Everard from Just Delicious in the Yorkshire Taste Awards. Photo by Jonathan Pow
Good luck to Donna Clark, Alice Clark and Julia Everard from Just Delicious in the Yorkshire Taste Awards. Photo by Jonathan Pow

I am obviously pretty astute as it is in fact a worldwide women’s voluntary organisation which has its origins going back to 1924. It now has more than 100,000 members in 104 countries.

We were welcomed at the Ascot Hotel by the president of the Harrogate group Cheryl and provided with a very nice meal before giving our fascinating and interesting talk – well I would say that!

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Last Friday I was interviewed live on BBC Radio York for a debate about the advantages and disadvantages between living in an urban or rural area. No contest – rural every time – just visit London for a day and feel the palpable relief when you drive back into Nidderdale.

Friday also saw me having a meeting with our constituency MP Julian Smith.

Well I say ‘meeting’ when actually what happened was Mr Smith who was coming down the High Street in his car wound down his window, waved, and said hello.

I was stood in the doorway of our shop and took the opportunity to speak to Mr Smith until cars started to back-up behind his. Not wishing to miss an opportunity to promote Pateley, I walked alongside his moving car down the High Street chatting away as he looked at me in a bemused way.

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Mr Smith has kindly provided a statement as a foreword for the Nidderdale Community Hero Awards. No I didn’t get him to write it as he was in the car although that would have made a good story!

The Nidderdale Community Hero Award will be presented on Saturday 28 October at the Memorial Hall at the inaugural Nidderdale Food and Drink Festival.

The Nidderdale Food and Drink Festival will be opened by Frances Atkins – one of only six female Michelin-starred chefs in the UK (a new feature in this paper called ‘Nidderdale Voices’ this week has Frances as the subject). This free event starts at 9am with local businesses supporting it offering samples of their produce around the town. There will be a range of products being showcased in the Memorial Hall with samplings so make sure you try and call in. At 2pm in the Memorial Hall, the Nidderdale Community Hero Award is being presented by Anne Jones the Mayor of Harrogate along with our own Town Mayor Chris Hawkesworth. Also at 2pm we are thrilled to be welcoming in the Memorial Hall TV and Radio broadcaster Clare Balding OBE.

Clare is also an award-winning author who has recently released her second children’s book called ‘The Racehorse Who Disappeared’. The book will be available for purchase at the event and anyone can come along to meet Clare.

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One of the exhibitors in the Memorial Hall will be Waqar Mughal who will be demonstrating his skills in the area of Asian cuisine. Waqar has appeared on TV and radio and will be preparing a meal for 60 people at the Memorial Hall for the Saturday evening. Tickets for this event are available from the Oldest Sweet Shop priced at £15 per head. I have a real sweet tooth and I am really looking forward to sampling baking made by Donna from Just Delicious.

Donna will be in the Memorial Hall where you must try her Bakewell Tart. Good luck to Donna who is a finalist in the Deliciously Yorkshire Taste Awards being held in November in Harrogate. Another exhibitor at the Memorial Hall will be local Nidderdale gin maker Whitaker’s. I’ll drink to that!

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