An incredible spectacle of wonder and enchantment

Cirque du Soleil changed the face of Cirque style productions with their artistic interpretations of the world’s greatest acrobatic skills. From their base in Canada, they soon became the world leaders in this style of presentation with many sold out shows in Las Vegas and around the world. And now, from the award winning creative team behind "Spirit of the Dance" one of the world’s most popular Dance shows, comes the next generation of Cirque style productions.

The spellbinding and magical Le Grande Cirque is one of the most exciting shows you will ever see and we joined an enthusiastic audience at the BIC last night.

It has fast become one of the hottest tickets in show business history with sold out shows and standing ovations night after night. It has played to over 10 million people around the world, smashing all box office records on the way. Featuring an international cast of 50 world champion acrobats and performers from over 15 countries, including China, Russia and Monte Carlo, this award winning spectacle takes your breath away. This thrill a minute production delivers incredible talent beyond your wildest imagination that takes you to the edge of your seats - and back again! Le Grande Cirque is perfect for all the family, with fun and happiness written all over it. The mesmerising show brings beautiful costumes, dynamic lighting, and some of the greatest international talent ever assembled on one stage. The music for the show has been selected from the world’s most popular classical composers, and masterfully arranged with up to date rhythms to reflect the international appeal of the show.

Hurricane Dean taken by crew members on the space shuttle Endeavour

British holidaymakers travelling to the Caribbean face disruption as Hurricane Dean heads towards popular tourist spots with increasing strength.
Restrictions are now in force on inbound visitors to both Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. The Met Office predicted that Dean could turn into a Category 5 storm - the highest level for a tropical cyclone - within the next three days.

The storm, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, is set to pass directly over Jamaica at about mid-morning Sunday local time, according to weather company MeteoGroup. It is currently travelling at 18mph towards the island, with wind speeds of 150mph and gusts of up to 185mph.
In the Cayman Islands, where the hurricane is expected early on Monday morning, the Government announced that only Cayman nationals and residents can enter the islands until further notice.

Down!

After promotion last year, Verwood "A" bowls team have been relegated in both the Dorset and New Forest leagues.
With the end of the league matches, players can now relax for the rest of the season, which finishes the end of September and play out the remaining internal matches and friendlies.
The reason for the poor results this year could be attributed to several reasons. At the end of the day we did not play well enough but poor team selection and the fact that some players were moved into the first team to replace missing members did not help.
When the outdoor season finishes it is back to indoor short-mat bowls.

Stephen's Castle, Verwood

Taking advantage of a sunny evening and clear blue sky's, on Sunday we drove into the town and took the short walk to the northern common to Stephen's Castle.

There is no castle here but has a viewpoint above a disused sand quarry.

In 1993 the common was designated a Local Nature Reserve.

Grazing cattle have recently been introduced to manage the growth of the grass and ferns.

The view from the top proves that it is still a "Fair Wood" with scarcely any roofs visible of the thousands of dwellings beneath the canopy of trees. This is a peaceful retreat from the hurly-burly of the town centre traffic and affords panoramic views, on a clear day, over to the Isle of Wight, Bournemouth and Purbeck. We took our binoculars with us and were able to pick out various landmarks on the horizon.

You can see Bournemouth International Airport in the near distance and planes parked on the tarmac. The water tower at Tower Park retail park is also visible.

In the far distance you can pick out the various high rise buildings of Bournemouth and Boscombe with the Purbeck Hills beyond that.

To your left can be seen Hengisbury Head with the Isle of Wight in the background

Spirit of Broadway

"This glamorous, high energy Broadway extravaganza features an international cast of singers and the highest kicking chorus girls this side of New York! The huge cast bring you a red-hot performance that lights up the town with dazzling highlights from Broadway's greatest shows.
Chicago, Cabaret, Grease, 42nd Street, Les Miserables, Cats, A Chorus Line, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and lots more.
Lavish costumes, terrific lighting and an incredibly talented cast are all part of the success story of this breathtaking production"

That's the publicity put out by the Pavilion Theatre, Bournemouth.
The first half we found a bit heavy with songs from shows such as Cabaret and Les Miserables not being to our liking. However, it picked up in the end with songs from Grease & Chicago.
The singers had very good voices but they tended to be drowned by the music.
The sound quality in the second half seemed to improve and it picked up tempo with songs form Mama Mia and Saturday Night Fever amongst others, with the audience clapping to the music. Found The Rocky Horror Show song was a bit strange.

Overall not a bad show, although we wished we had gone for plan A and booked to see Spirit of the Dance which we last saw in Tunbridge Wells some years ago.