Well, that was a weekend of Cummings and goings… There is nothing like a bit of good old-fashioned political hypocrisy to liven up a Bank Holiday weekend is there! Twitter went wild and even Facebook held back on the videos of dogs waiting patiently to eat treats to wade on the should he, shouldn’t he debate.
Never has a trip to County Durham been so contentious! No matter which side of the social distancing barrier you sit on, one thing that I noticed is that people seemed more open to hearing the arguments of others without taking offence that their own opinions weren’t shared. It was a nice change to the usual echo chamber that social media can usually create. Perhaps lockdown has taught up a bit of tolerance and common sense?
Although it does not seem to have taught news crews and photographers anything about social distancing – have a word!
Anyway, take your mind off it all and enjoy this week’s newsletter full of news about what’s happening and what’s happened in and around your front door.
Stay Sensible, Stay Kind, Stay away from County Durham (wink)
Jon, Kevin
& the #FUFighters.x
Obligatory Bad Joke
There are so many bad Corona Virus jokes out there; it’s a Pundemic.
FU LOVES – UNSUNG HEROES
Charlie Slack who is now 7 and is from Gaddesby School is running a mile a day ‘til Christmas, whatever the weather and however he is feeling – and he’s this week’s Unsung Hero. He started this the day after schools closed due to COVID19 to do a good deed whilst having his daily exercise.
On day 43, Charlie really wasn’t feeling well but, true to his word, he did his run as he didn’t want to let the charities down. He didn’t want to run for the NHS directly and opted for smaller charities instead – including Meningitis Now, Young Minds and Alex’s Wish.
He’s raised over £1000 already for charity. Well done Charlie, we think you are an absolute star! Feel free to sponsor him www.virginmoneygiving.com/alexslack3
ENJOY A NIGHT OF TOP COMEDY AND SUPPORT LEICESTER COMEDY FESTIVAL
Fans and supporters of the annual Leicester Comedy Festival are being invited to enjoy a special online comedy event to help raise money for the festival. Comedians including Al Murray (The Pub Landlord), previous Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year winner Seann Walsh and political comedian Matt Forde are donating 50% of ticket income for the event, organised by Just The Tonic on Saturday 30th May to help support the festival, as long as people use the booking code LCFJTT.
Tickets cost from just £5 and are available now by visiting www.justthetonic.com
HONEY I SHRUNK THE PAC MAN…
Of all the drunken late-night, online purchases during lockdown this limited-edition quarter sized PAC-MAN arcade machine might just be the daddy!
Created to celebrate the cheeky chap’s 40th birthday, PAC MAN is undoubtedly one of the most iconic video games of all time, arriving and revolutionising the gaming scene in 1980. The limited- edition PAC-MAN 40th Anniversary Quarter Arcades cabinet is the ultimate man-cave accessory and you can even get one signed by the original PAC-MAN creator, Toru Iwatani.
256 signed and 256 standard Quarter Arcades are being produced, (256 represents the number of levels in the game) priced at £299 for signed and £129 for standard editions. The Quarter Arcades offers a ¼ scale replica of the original arcade cabinet and is fully playable. It stays true to the original arcade cabinet, with everything from its artwork, button/joystick sizes, and coin-mechanism shrunk down proportionately. Get yours at http://www.numskull.com/pac-man/ Just take our money.
CO-OP LAUNCHES NEWS CALL AND COLLECT SERVICE
Central England Co-op has announced the launch of a new call and collect service for its Members to provide help for those who need support with their shopping. The Society, which has over 240 food stores across 16 counties, has created the new service as part of its ongoing efforts to provide access to food and vital essentials to people across the communities it trades in during these uncertain times.
The service will see Members call a dedicated number and place their order, their local store will then pick and pack the order that day before having it ready to be collected in the afternoon the day after. The Member, or a nominated person, will then visit the store and collect the shopping. Payment for the food and essentials will be taken over the phone via the retailer’s head office.
Full details of the service can be found here
FANCY BEING A LEICESTER LANDLORD?
Everards are doing all they can to help and support their business owners to be in the best position possible when they can open once again. This includes attracting new business owners to take on some great pubs that they have, including King Richard III, in the heart of Leicester City Centre.
Everards say that the current situation has actually brought pub communities together and although the role of pubs has changed during this time, many remain as the hub of their communities providing food, drink, support, and a cheery face at this difficult time – and there’s been a huge spike in enquiries from would-be landlords and landladies.
The King Richard III has been in the Everards estate for many a year and is a pub they want to see live to its full potential: “We haven’t got it quite right with this pub – we’ve worked with some great business owners who took the pub on as an additional site and added a fantastic food offer, however, we’ve all learnt that the King Richard III needs to be more of a relaxed “proper local, in the city” with the same friendly face behind the bar to give that warm welcome and character you expect each time you visit your local, ” says Everards. Could that face be yours, they ponder?
King Richard III is a beautifully restored, Victorian pub in the thriving city of Leicester; it’s in an excellent location sitting just to the side of Jubilee Square and the food court of the Highcross shopping centre. Over the last few years, a lot of love and attention has been poured into the restoration of this beautiful pub, so it’s ready to go.
Its expansive upstairs private accommodation also provides great city centre living. Sound interesting? Give the Everards team a call on 0116 201 4260 to find out more or email [email protected]
WIN! A £5000 PUBLICITY PACKAGE WITH FU MEDIA & DLUXE MAGAZINE
Publicity specialists, FU Media, and luxury magazine, DLUXE, have joined forces to offer an exclusive competition to win a year-long publicity package – worth over £5000.
To be in with a chance of winning, simply CLICK HERE.
T&Cs apply. Competition closes 31st May 2020.
FOLLOW THE LIVE LAUNCH OF A ROCKET INTO SPACE THIS WEDNESDAY
Join Anu Ojha, Director of the National Space Academy, tonight for commentary and answers to your questions during the LIVE launch of the Crewed Dragon capsule on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The live launch with commentary from Anu will be hosted on the National Space Centre’s Facebook page from 21:15 – 21:45. The mission will see NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken take part in the first crewed launch from American soil in nine years as they blast off towards the International Space Station.
PROGRAMME TO IMPROVE WORKPLACE MENTAL HEALTH LAUNCHED BY LLEP
To mark Mental Health Awareness Week (last week), the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership Ltd. (LLEP) have launched a three-year programme set up to support employers across Leicester and Leicestershire and the wider Midlands region.
Good mental health is hugely important for a happy, productive workforce. Unfortunately, mental health issues cost UK employers up to £45 billion each year, due to absences or decreased productivity, a rise of 16% since 2016 and the impact of the coronavirus crisis on people’s mental health is projected to exacerbate this. To address the issue, the LLEP is one of nine Local Enterprise Partnerships to participate in the Mental Health and Productivity Pilot programme. The MHPP is funded by a £6.8 million Midlands Engine grant and is designed to support employers to provide working environments that are conducive to good mental health.
Working with employers of all sizes and from different sectors across Leicester and Leicestershire, the MHPP will create and test a range of existing and new interventions for improving mental health. ’Interventions’ are small adjustments that employers can make to ensure that their workers are able to thrive in the workplace. According to MHPP, “any individual can have a serious mental health problem but – with the right support – can still thrive at work.”
For example, a business can improve the mental health of its workforce by promoting an open culture around mental health. This would include changing the way people talk and think about mental health issues by removing any stigmas around them, encouraging those conversations, and highlighting the support available for people experiencing problems.
The MHPP website has toolkits and information for employers looking to make changes in the workplace. These can be found at www.mhpp.me/employers.
JOIN SOPHIE ELLIS BEXTOR FOR HER LAST LOCKDOWN KITCHEN DISCO
Sophie and her lovely family have been a constant mood lifter during lockdown streaming a free live concert from her kitchen involving all the children, cats and craziness of family life along with some amazing tunes to get you ready for the weekend. Calling themselves the Family Von Trapped, their live Instagram posts have lifted spirits and acted as a hugely positive touchstone throughout all of this – someone make this woman a Dame!
You can watch the last kitchen disco this Friday on Instagram at 6.30pm. – link here Watch last week’s above!
WESTERN PARK’S WALL OF HOPE
Almost 200 Leicester residents have been adding to a ‘hope board’ everything they are looking forward to once the UK lockdown is over. The board was put up by home owner Matt Long and is attached to his front wall. Hopes range from meeting up with friends and family, fish and chips and “pints”. 36-year-old community worker Matt, told the BBC that he wanted it to be a “symbol of hope” in difficult times. Photo by Matt Long.
STILL GOT THE BAKING BUG? THEN WHY NOT PACK IN SOME PROTEIN
Breakfast brand Lizi’s, has created the perfect recipe for some protein packed power bars using typical store cupboard ingredients and items that people almost always have kicking about in the fridge.
They’ve also pulled together some gorgeous traybake and flapjack recipes -It is amazing, the goodies you can make with basic ingredients.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8Emh4P0phY
MINISTRY OF SOUND CLASSICAL RELEASES VIDEO FOR ‘YOU’RE NOT ALONE’ feat. ALEXANDRA BURKE LONDON CONCERT ORCHESTRA & THE NHS CHOIR
We might have got something in our eye watching this one: Ministry of Sound Classical have released a special video in collaboration with Alexandra Burke, the London Concert Orchestra and NHS Choir to give thanks to the incredible work of the key workers. Their cover of Olive’s 1997 classic ‘You’re Not Alone’, with its poignant, hopeful lyrics and combined with a purely symphonic arrangement, encapsulates what is currently a testing time for us all.
PICTURE PERFECT – DOORSTEP PORTRAITS CAPTURE LIFE IN LOCKDOWN
When life as we know it came to a halt a few months back, photographers Saul and Sue at Trent House Studios decided to take the opportunity to capture this moment in time. They reached out to friends and family, made sure social distancing was respected at all times and after a few weeks’, the Lockdown 2020 Doorstep Portraits project was created. “After our beautiful studio had to close, leaving us with very little that we could do, we started to notice that photographers up and down the country were out in their neighbourhoods capturing friends and families on their doorsteps.” says Saul, “After a brief discussion about whether it was the right thing to do, we decided that as long as we followed the guidelines, why not? We are really pleased with how the images have turned out and hope all those involved will look back at them with fond memories of a time in history when life as we know it stopped.”
To view the gallery, please visit the Trent House Studios Facebook Page
CELEBRITIES LAUNCH BATTLE CANCER’S ‘YOU ARE NOT ALONE’ CAMPAIGN
An incredible line up of internationally recognisable names including Chris and Liam Hemsworth, Matt Damon, Michael Fassbender and so many more have joined together to support Battle Cancer’s ‘You Are Not Alone’ project that aims to create a network of fitness professionals trained to serve those during or post Cancer treatment.
Battle Cancer is the world’s leading mass-participation, functional fitness competition, raising money for Cancer charities across the world. Founded in 2017 by Scott Britton, he turned his personal experience of loss, grief and struggles in to a drive to create unique events across the world that bring people together, create memories and raise life-changing amounts for Cancer research. In recognition that everyone has been affected by Cancer in some way, Battle Cancer brings people together to fight back, celebrate those who have fought and won and remember those we’ve lost.
HOW TO MANAGE YOUR MENTAL HEALTH IN UNCERTAIN TIMES
There are limits to what we can do to control the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus), but there’s a lot we can do to control our mental response to it. Brendan Street, Professional Head of Emotional Wellbeing at Nuffield Health, explains why you may be feeling anxious and provides some advice for managing your mental wellbeing.
Click here to find out more.
ARTIST INVITES US ALL TO ENGAGE IN A LITTLE BIT OF ART THERAPY
Renowned UK artist, Magnus Gjoen, has invited the nation to create their own masterpieces using printed versions of some of his most known works of art.
The ultimate antidote to boredom, the Art Therapy colouring-in set (£45) includes six 21 by 21cm designs, printed on the highest quality 250gsm archival paper. The works can be coloured-in or decorated however you see fit. While watercolours and a fine gold pen will give the best results, Gjoen encourages his audience to use whatever they have to hand to complete their masterpieces.
Find them here.
WORDS OF WISDOM
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started”
Mark Twain
