BIRTHDAY party or family reunion coming up, and can’t face having the house turned upside down? The Village Hall Committee meeting has told me that bookings for the hall during August leave a lot of opportunities for further reservations. Meetings, events or private parties can be well accommodated, with kitchen facilities, seating and tables, and newly refurbished toilets, including for the disabled. If you have not been to an event there, from personal experience I can say that it is a very practical and convenient venue and, of course, has ample parking and is easy to find if you anticipate having visitors unfamiliar with the valley.

It’s also eminently affordable at £7.50 per hour. If you need more information and available dates, please contact Kate Lewis on 07795 077140. There’s also an informative website at www.valleyvillagehall .co.uk HANDY Cross is a phrase that is bound to elicit an opinion, and probably raised blood pressure. I’ve been approached by a number of residents, directly and by proxy, to complain publicly about recent re-phasing of the traffic lights.

The fundamental problem is, of course, that the layout and basic management of the junction was poorly designed initially, has had four extra traffic flow streams added to it since its original construction, and policing is inadequate to enforce even the most basic of road disciplines. Jumping of lights happens many times a minute, and partly because it is far from clear to drivers unfamiliar with the area just which light applies to which stop line on the road.

Inappropriate timing of the lights in the last adjustment has resulted in long queues along the C100 road from Marlow, particularly at peak times.

The Marlow traffic queue is afforded time for as few as three or four cars to enter the roundabout during each green phase. Of course, that number is often but a theoretical quota as the traffic from the London M40, and the A40 stream wanting to access the Oxford M40 or the Aylesbury road will have ignored the yellow hatchings, making a blockage.

It seems that Handy Cross design has been the object of venom since shortly after Noah sorted out the blue-print for the Ark, but the current group of complainants from the valley want to hear from anybody else who might join them so that a vigorous representation can be made to the appropriate authorities. It will demand energetic negotiation, remembering that the same Government department took around four months to replace three failed bulbs in red signals there, a few years back.

PAUL Kay is safely back from France after his health scare under the Channel. He didn’t know he had so many friends – one ex-BBC cameraman colleague even hopped on a ferry and visited him in his Boulogne hospital. Paul endorsed my remarks from last week, in praise of the medical treatment he received in France; he was even sent home with medication to keep him going, and prescriptions that Raji was able to dispense. He also wants to thank all those people who helped him so much in his predicament.

He now waits to find out what further treatment and disciplines Wycombe Hospital advises for his full recovery.

While I’m not sure if Paul took his, the episode emphasises the importance of being properly signed up to the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). The old E111 was replaced in 2006, by the way. It’s easy to get it renewed on the internet. But there is a word of caution that must be observed. The card is entirely free from the NHS site, but many people have been misled by Googling and then being led to independent sites that charge a fee for doing it all for you.

As it’s quite trivial (so long as you know your NI number), it is just not worth doing it that way – it’s not an illegal service they offer, just quite unnecessary.

MARLOW Music Makers are performing this evening (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday) in the United Reformed Church in Marlow. Tickets for Movie Melodies (£10) may be obtained by telephoning 01628 484618 or 01494 883392.

I went to one of their previous concerts, and it’s an excellent group of local singers. If, like me, you have a passion for film musicals, I suggest you come along to this production – you won’t regret it. And Helen & Douglas House, which provides hospice care for children and young adults, will benefit from MMM’s proceeds from their 2014 concerts.

See you there one evening.

THESE hot nights leave me less than enthusiastic to make my bed the next day. Browsing through the internet news, I learned that Tracey Emin has sold her famous unmade bed for £2.2m.

Now, while mine may not have quite the same aesthetic allure, I’m open to offers – say, above the price of a really big luxury fan!

A FINAL word for this week. Please accept my apologies for missing some weeks recently and, moreover, forgetting to include some important events and news items.

I am still not fully free of whatever was ailing me earlier in the year, and I either can’t cope with an entire column, or the discipline to include everything fails me.