A SECOND World War veteran was joined by family and friends from across Europe to celebrate his 100th birthday.

Wladyslaw Lapot, of Copthall Road West, Ickenham, marked his centenarian with a lunch at The Barn Hotel, in West End Road, Ruislip, on Saturday (6).

The Polish veteran survived 30 bombing missions during the war and was even awarded with the Virtuti Militari - the highest Polish honour.

After the war ended he decided to stay in the UK to work for BOAC (now British Airways) for 15 years before retiring in 1959.

However, he went on to open Marinka coffee bar in Field End Road, Eastcote, where he worked for 13 years.

Other jobs followed, including a stint as a night watchman with Securicor before he officially retired 30 years ago to look after his wife Alicia.

The grandfather-of-two was treated to a celebratory lunch with his family and friends, some coming from as far as Holland, Poland and Italy.

His daughter, Alexandra Lapot, said: "He had a really lovely time and someone from the Polish embassy brought him a letter from the ambassador, which he was delighted by."

Mr Lapot lived in Ickenham Road, Ruislip, for 54 years before moving to his current home.

PLANNING permission to build a house in a road mainly occupied by bungalows has been granted despite neighbours' reservations.

The application to build the two storey three bedroom detached house at 33 Parkfield Road, Ickenham, was approved at the North Planning Committee yesterday (Tues).

A BUILDER who set up a competition to sell his house for £25 as a way of beating the credit crunch has been unsuccessful.

Kirk Clugston, 50, started the competition in December last year after attempts to sell his bungalow in Hill Rise, Ruislip, for the asking price of £570,000 failed.

However, after almost five months only 1,117 tickets were sold, falling short of the 28,000 that needed to be sold to give away the house.

The father-of-two from Swakeleys Drive, Ickenham, said: "I am absolutely gutted that it didn't work but I think the reason was because a lot of people knew about a similar competition in Devon that had to be stopped on the day of the draw and was being investigated by the Gambling Commission. People probably just assumed my one would be stopped as well.

"If I knew now what I knew then I would probably have changed the price of the tickets but I am not sure to what and I would have given myself an advertising budget.

"I don't think I would do it again personally because of the amount of money and time it takes. I have lost money on it and for eight months it is all I have done because I haven't had any other work.

"Four sets of people have already approached me and asked if I can do it for them though, which I would do for a fixed price because I have learnt so much over the last nine months about it."

Anchal Kharbanda from Harrow was announced as the winner after the draw on May 11 and she should be getting her winnings of £20,262 this week. The NSPCC is also getting £649.

Mr Clugston said: "When I called her she was over the moon and I think she's going to use the money for a deposit on a flat. She only bought one ticket but some people bought as many as 15."

Mr Clugston has now accepted an offer of £530,00 on the bungalow.

GARDENS across the area will be open to the public for a weekend to raise funds for charity.

Midsummer Weekend 2009, sponsored by Gibbs Gillespie and Ducks Hill Garden Centre, is taking place on June 20 and 21.

Twenty gardens in Moor Park, Northwood, Ruislip, Eastcote and Ickenham will be open all weekend to raise funds for various charities.

Tickets are £7 and many of the gardens will offer attractions such as tea, refreshments, plants for sale, raffles, live painting and a jazz band.

For tickets call Warren on 01923 451 616 or Tony on 01895 677 925 or go to www.localopengardens.com for more information.

When I looked on the Queensmead website for my next class I realised the only one I could do that week was 20-20-20. I had no idea what that was so I read the description. Basically it consists of 20 minutes aerobics, 20 minutes upper and lower body tone and 20 minutes floor work and stretching.

When I saw it was a class full of women and just two men, I thought it would be an easy one. However, when I saw the instructor I realised it was the same one who takes the Cardio kick class at Highgrove and I remembered I was in a lot of pain the day after that class.

This particular instructor likes to make you do the same exercise over and over again until your muscles pretty much can't take it anymore. After about 20 minutes of aerobics - you never would've guessed - we moved on to the upper bodywork. I thought that was hard enough but the next exercise we did was a killer. We had to do three sets of 16 side lunges on each leg. I could feel the lactic acid building up in my thighs, but I didn't realise how much they were hurting until the next day. I couldn't walk for three days after the class!

The floor work wasn't as bad. It involved a lot of sit ups, which always tends to hurt my neck more than my stomach.

I enjoyed the class but I didn't like the fact we worked certain muscles a lot more than others. There was also quite a lot of choreography involved as well, which I detest!

So, I have come to the end of my blog now. I didn't realise at the time of booking the 20-20-20 class that it was my last class. I said from the beginning that I would try out all the evening and weekends classes and I have - with a few exceptions.

I have done the Stretch and tone class and also the Step class so I don't think the Step and tone class is really going to be any different from these two. I haven't done Core stability, but that's because ever time I tried to book the class it was full. I also haven't done Pilates (which is a disappointment because I was quite looking forward to that). Even though it says on the website it's a class for all intermediate to advanced, when I called to book they told me the classes were run as a special course.
I also haven't done Ju-jitsu because it isn't included as part of the membership package...and to be honest with you, even though I did kickboxing for four years, I didn't feel comfortable with being thrown on the floor repeatedly.

However, 14 classes overall isn't too bad. It has been fun testing out the classes and writing this blog. I am going to try and keep up the exercise, so the classes I think I'll go back to will be the ones that involved a bit of kickboxing.

Hope you enjoyed reading, and if you want to have a look back at all my blogs, just type in fitness blog in the search bar to the right. Keep up the exercise!

Well, Fighting fit at Highgrove was very similar to Boxercise at Queensmead - except for the fact that it was in a studio and not a school sports hall and there were a lot less people in the class.

I did notice though, that both the classes are about working different muscle groups and there's not much room to concentrate on technique.

Like Boxercise, the class involved a circuit. I was quite happy to see punch bags and boxing gloves when I walked in.

After a very long warm up of running around the small room and doing a lot of stretches, we had to find a partner and pick a station.

Forty-five seconds on each station was definitely manageable. However, I found that when it came to the stations where you had to put boxing gloves on, the 45 seconds were almost over by the time I got started, which was a little disappointing.

After completing the nine stations I started to feel quite warn out, but to no surprise, we had to go round again doing different exercises like star jumps and shadow boxing.

It was then back to the station we started on and time for another round.

I was very sweaty by the end, so it was a little bit disgusting when we had to hold hands with other partner to do more exercises involving kicking our legs out to the side. All good fun though.

After a quick cool down it was over. The class was pretty straight forward and quite enjoyable, but still not enough punching and kicking for my liking.

Me next challenge is 20-20-20 at Queensmead.

Well, Classical yoga at Queensmead on Saturday was a very different experience to the whole range of other classes I have tried out so far. That's probably stating the obvious, but, in a way I was glad to being doing exercise that didn't involve getting out of breath.

It was everything I expected it to be - apart from the fact that there were only six people there! I thought it would be absolutely rammed. I was under the impression everyone was into yoga nowadays.

It was a much nicer experience being in a small group though, because the instructor gave everyone individual attention. As soon as I walked in she asked me my name and asked why I was trying out yoga, and she seemed to know about everyone else's body problems.

When I booked the class, however, I forgot that yoga was all about the breathing. I just remembered it being about flexibility.

The breathing thing was very different to me, which is quite amusing because that's the one thing you'd expect human beings to be able to do without needing advise.

At one point I felt like I was going to faint because we were doing an exercise where you had to breath in and out as fast as you could for about a minute - I think.

The instructor did say that you get better at it with practice though, which made me feel a bit better about the slow pace I was going at.

We had to twist our bodies into lots of awkward positions and stretch our muscles a lot, so I know if I keep it up I will be a lot more supple in a fairly short amount of time.

We also did a breathing exercise that is meant to cure everything, from depression to migraines. It involved breathing in through one nostril and then breathing out through the other. I must admit, I wasn't completely convinced.

It was quite a relaxing experience, so when I'm not in the mood to kick and punch things I think I'll definitely go back.

My next challenge (almost coming to the end now) is Fighting fit at Highgrove.

A bring and buy sale will take place on Wednesday (29/4) with guests invited to socialise as they hunt down a bargain.

The afternoon will be hosted by the Women's Fellowship at Ickenham United Reformed Church, in Swakeley's Road, Ickenham at 2.45pm.

It will take place in the Hardwick Room at the church, anyone wishing to find out more information should call Secretary Ann Daly on 01895 634986.

WHEN I booked the Total toning class at Highgrove I didn't notice it was a level 2 class. I didn't realise this until I went back on the website to check what time the class started. So I was a bit concerned about what I was getting myself into.

The instructor was the same one who takes the aerobics and stretch and tone classes, although I have a feeling she may have been covering for someone else.

The class started off very similar to her usual classes, but luckily there wasn't any cardio work. It literally was an hour of toning - especially the arms.

I think we must have worked on every single muscle, but the abdominals and the arms definitely took the most pounding.

There was a lot of lifting, turning, stretching ad bending involved in the class. At one point my arms almost gave up on me, but as soon as we moved on to working the legs it wasn't so bad.

Considering it was a level 2 class, I didn't find it that hard, but then again, maybe I am getting fitter. At last!

The class was quite fun but I don't think it would be sufficient to only do that class. I still prefer the more challenging classes. I don't think I even broke a sweat in this one.

My next challenge is Classical yoga at Queensmead.

ONE COMMITTED runner has been pounding the streets of Hillingdon in his efforts to get fit for the London Marathon.

As part of his preparation for the big run on Saturday, Paul Douglas, of Bracken Village, Ickenham, has been running regularly on weekdays as far as Harrow-on-Hill and back, taking in the sights of Ruislip and Eastcote along the way.

Mr Douglas is running the marathon for Sense, a charity for the deaf and blind, and is hoping to raise £2,000 and is already over halfway there having passed the £1,300 mark.

He said: "I ran the marathon five years ago with no training and I was in agony.
"So I am taking it seriously this time, I should do better, I am aiming to run it in under four and a half hours.

"Last time I ran I did it in four hours and 50 minutes."

Mr Douglas, 31, who works in advertising, also recently completed a 20 mile training run at Hemel Hempstead, and has been eating healthy in attempts to boost his training regime.

"I've lived in Ickenham all my life and have been pounding the streets raising money for a while so people should recognise me."

To donate money to Paul's run visit www.justgiving.com/pauldouglasrunslondon