APOLOGIES must come first this week. When I was talking to Mike Edwards last week, I made a point of clarifying with him the distinction between the various levels of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

I knew that I frequently confuse MBE and OBE in particular. So, I checked with him which decoration he had been awarded, and wrote it down carefully as we were talking. The trouble was that my hand wrote down something different from what my mind was instructing it (it often happens after a certain age). If you are wondering which of the two articles in the paper carried the right three letters, I have to admit it wasn’t mine.

However, Mike’s remarkably different route to his MBE award was extensively covered and I hope you can do your own substitution of my erroneous letters. It has been an excellent project, and it has far to go yet.

ANOTHER piece of very interesting reading came my way this week, from a county information distribution service. About osteoporosis, it was publicising a project planned by Aylesbury Vale District Council. Although directed mainly to the north of the county and probably out of convenient range for most local people here, they seem to share their literature and information readily with people from outside their own area.

Seeing a lot of information from AVDC, it impresses me that they seem to be much more community active than WDC. One of their contacts explained that they don’t spend as much on stadium projects and similar activities as Wycombe but spend more on their council tax payers. How revealing, I thought, and this was even before the stadium had become such a toxic subject publicly.

For detailed information, AVDC directs you to the National Osteoporosis Society Helpline at 0845 450 0230, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday or email info@nos.org.uk. The Website is www.nos.org.uk. It’s relevant to all ages as it addresses everything from avoiding it to coping.

LOCAL Big Band fans have two gigs to attract them next week, and both at the Royal British Legion Hall. On Tuesday, January 24, Marlow Jazz Club are very proud to have secured a date with the highly acclaimed Five Star Swing Big Band. This 13 piece outfit are big favourites on BBC TV and Radio and feature the classics of the Swing Era including Glenn Miller and Count Basie, plus vocal tributes to Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. One of many stars is alto saxophonist and vocalist Simone Smith. More details on www.marlowjazz.co.uk Then, two days later, on Thursday the very popular Berks Bucks and Oxon Big Band play their monthly charity concert. The BBO also have a web-site. It is www.bbobigband.co.uk HAVE your Say is back in the valley next Wednesday, January 25 at 3pm. If you have a burning police issue come to the former Visage kitchen shop. They are eager to hear your views, but their schedule means they won’t be back again until June.

VALLEY Plus will air that confused issue of digital TV conversion at their next meeting, on January 31.

It will be at the usual venue of the Methodist Chapel, starts at 2pm and non-members are asked to contribute £1 towards costs.

I have always felt that this community, in particular, has been very poorly served by DigitalUK, the quango set up to guide the population through the convoluted task of conversion from analogue TV.

The very expensively produced, and largely self-congratulatory, pamphlet distributed to valley households earlier this week, has only one sentence of its 20 pages relevant to those who receive their TV from the Marlow Bottom transmitter. Even that essentially directs you to a web address that starts by suggesting you retune to Crystal Palace or, failing that, Midhurst in West Sussex.

We hope the Valley Plus speakers may be better informed.

AMBULANCE services, locally, have had to deal with up to 40 per cent of all 999 call-outs being inappropriate. To avoid this situation, and with immediate effect, 999 should be used only for genuinely life-threatening emergency support.

For all other urgent medical needs that preclude getting to an NHS site under your own steam, you should not call 999. Unfortunately the South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) press release fails to mention an appropriate alternative action, and so does its website.

I tried to ring Gill Hodgetts, Head of Communications and Public Relations, SCAS, but her number, 01869 365097, provides a recorded message that indicates that she does not subscribe to the organisations voicemail system.

Maybe we need to rely on NHS Direct by using the police non-emergency number, 101, but I can't be certain.

SCANNAPPEAL is 25 this year. But there is little chance of any expensive celebration. The recession is hitting the Wycombe and Amersham based charity to fund medical scanners very hard.

They need funds for The HeartScan Appeal (Wycombe Hospital) The Brain Injuries Unit Appeal (Amersham Hospital) and The Cancer Fighting Fund.

Through Rebellion's biennial open days, the valley has a particular and pleasurable link with Scannappeal. If you can help, please phone 01494 734161 or email info.scannappeal@buckshealthcare.nhs.uk, visit www.scannappeal.org.uk.

You can even use your mobile by texting SCAN01to 70070 followed by £1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 to make the respective donation.

The scanners in Wycombe, Amersham and Stoke Mandeville hospitals help a patient's treatment every ten minutes.

Burford’s Georgia Keys, is now well installed in the ski community in Austria, on her sabbatical from school.

Temporarily living in Soll, in the Tirol, she has been competing in UK races (based in the Alps) and local races too where she is pitting her skills against the Austrians.

At the start of the year she travelled to Les Houches in France - and stormed to victory winning two gold medals in the Anglo Scottish Cup in a field of around 20 competitors.

Then came her first Austrian race, and a podium finish, coming second to a local racer with a gap of only a second. Such experience should help her understand how she fares against European competition that ski every week of the season.

To enhance that experience further, Georgia is now a registered Austrian racer and is a member of the Soll Ski Race Club and has already won a cup for skiers born in 2000 or 2001.

The family hopes Burford's head, Mrs Whittington, will be gratified that her cooperation is paying off already. Could we be seeing the early days of yet more Olympic glory for the valley?