‘LEEDS FOR ALL’ Celebrating International Day of Disabled People

International Day of Disabled People

‘Leeds For All’, is a programme of free and inclusive activities to celebrate International Day of Disabled People this week.

The important day takes place annually on 3 December and is an opportunity for people across the world to celebrate the achievements and contributions of disabled people, as well as increase awareness, understanding and acceptance of disabilities.

This year in Leeds, local charity William Merritt Centre and Forum Central, a network of health and social care third sector organisations in Leeds, have put together  a series of online, accessible, inclusive performances, stories, exhibitions, discussions, information and activities

The Leeds For All programme kicks off on Tuesday 1 December and continues through to Friday 4 December

All Events are FREE. Read more info here or  download the full programme pdf.

There are also videos and activities you can get involved with at anytime during the celebration and beyond.

‘RED’ stage play from The Shows Must Go On -Tonight

From 7pm Monday 30th November and available to watch for 48 hours

John Logan’s award winning West End and Broadway play RED. Starring Alfred Molina and Alfred Enoch.

RED: Alfred Molina reprises his acclaimed performance as American painter Mark Rothko in John Logan’s Tony-winning 2010 play, Red. Under the watchful gaze of his young assistant, Rothko takes on his greatest challenge yet: to create a definitive series of paintings for the Four Seasons restaurant. Molina is joined by Alfred Enoch (the Harry Potter series) as Rothko’s assistant Ken.

‘Monday Mind Workout’ – Monday 30th November 2020

Dear all,

Today’s Monday Mind Workout is multiple choice, all the best

1.Which of these means a speech in a play where a character talks to themselves rather than to other characters?
a) Interlude
b) Revue
c) Soliloquy

2 In the Vicar of Dibley, what was the name of the vicar’s clueless friend?
a) Alice
b) Beatrice
c) Charlotte

3. How many novels did the Bronte sisters write in total?
a) Nine
b) Seven
c) Eight

4.Which breed of dog used to be sacred in China?
a) Cockapoo
b) Pekingese
c) Spaniel

5.Who was the fourth Doctor Who:
(a) Tom Baker
(b) Jon Pertwee
(c) Peter Davison

6.Which coin was first issued on the 9th of June 1982:
(a) two pound
(b) one pound
(c) twenty pence piece

7. In 2005, a painting by artist Lucien Freud sold for £3.9 million pounds; who was the subject:
(a) Marilyn Monroe
(b) Kate Moss (a nude painting)
(c) Kate Winslet

8. Proverbially, what is rubbed into the wound to make things worse?
a) butter
b) Vinegar
c) Salt

9. What name is given to a country’s song played on official occasions?
a) National anthem
b) National curriculum
c) National debt

10. In fairy tales, which item is used to transport people through the air?
a)Magic carpet
b)Magic mattress
c) Magic blanket

11.Which of these was a successful pop star of the 1980s?
a) Adam Ant
b) Billy Bug
c) Chris Cricket
d) Dave Dragonfly

12. ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ was a number one hit for which singer in the 1980s?
a) Stevie Marvel
b) Stevie Wonder
c) Sam Johnes

13. Sandringham and Balmoral are residences of which public figure?
Prime Minister
Queen
US President

14.Stephenson’s Rocket was an early example of which means of transportation?
Hovercraft
Bicycle
Train

15.Which animals metaphorically constitute a heavy rainstorm?
Frogs and toads
Cats and dogs
Lions and tigers

16.What is the reverse fold at the bottom of some trouser legs?
Turn on
Turn up
Turn off

17.If someone gets out of a difficult situation, he is said to have saved his what?
Ham
Bacon
Sausage

18.Which of these symbolises the election of a new pope?White feathers
White smoke
White doves

White Chocolate

19.Which ‘test’ was originally used to determine whether something was made of gold?
Reflex test
Acid test
Spelling test

20.If the information is from a reliable source, it is said to come straight from where?
Dog’s paw
Horse’s mouth
Pig’s ear

Shelter aims for UK’s largest Virtual Carol Concert

You are invited to ‘Hope, Home, Song’  which Shelter hope will be the UK’s largest carol concert. Tune in from the comfort of your own home at 7pm on Thursday 3 December

If you would like to join in you can register here: https://england.shelter.org.uk/support_us/carol_service#carol_service_form

The ‘Home Hope Song’ concert will be hosted in the candle-lit church of St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, where Shelter was founded in 1966. It will run for forty-five minutes, and be streamed via Shelter’s website. The service will be hosted by DJ and long-time Shelter supporter Edith Bowman.

Many Christmas traditions are unable to go ahead this year. But Shelter hopes that encouraging thousands of people and families to come together to create the UK’s biggest virtual carol concert can be a new moment of festive connection for the nation.

The stream will be interspersed with stories from those who’ve been helped by the charity, along with guest appearances from the likes of Julie Walters, Stephen Fry and Rob Rinder.

The concert is free to watch but any donations made will support Shelter’s work. And event sponsors Nationwide Building Society will match pledges up to £43k.

 

An American in Paris – tonight with The Shows Must Go On

This week is the start of the Tony Award Winners season with The Shows Must Go On with the classic Tony Award Winning production of An American in Paris!

This breathtakingly beautiful Tony Award®-Winning Broadway Musical, inspired by the Oscar® winning MGM film, tells the impassioned story of discovering love in the ‘City of Light’. Featuring the gorgeous music and lyrics of George and Ira Gershwin (including the classic hits ‘S Wonderful and I Got Rhythm), stunning designs, and show-stopping choreography. Jerry Mulligan is an American GI striving to make it as a painter in a city suddenly bursting with hope and possibility. Following a chance encounter with a beautiful young dancer named Lise, the streets of Paris become the backdrop to a sensuous, modern romance of art, friendship and love in the aftermath of war.

Starts tonight Friday 27th November) at 7pm and available to watch for 48 hours

 

British Red Cross First Aid Skills

Dear all

Please find below some free online resources from the British Red Cross including some information on 2 First Aid Apps for you to learn key first aid skills.

And also what to do in a pandemic? The First Aid skills do need to be adapted to keep yourself and everybody around you safe. See below 3 bullet points covered at the beginning of the session which cover this:

  • All the First Aid learning is sound and appropriate for yourself and those that you are meeting on a regular basis.
  • For any first aid situations outside of your home or your immediate circle of contact please consider how you might adapt the skills to keep yourself safe.
  • This might be by giving instructions to the injured person or by keeping your distance and calling for help.

Here is a link to their guidance on Covid-19 and First Aid:

https://www.redcross.org.uk/first-aid/learn-first-aid/covid-19-guidance

.

Everyday first aid skills – http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/First-aid/Everyday-First-Aid

Baby and child first aid resources – http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/First-aid/Baby-and-Child-First-Aid

Their free first aid app featuring simple, easy advice on 18 everyday first aid scenarios, as well as tips on how to prepare for emergencies – http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/First-aid/Mobile-app

 

I hope this all helps, we will be hosting another first aid course next year either online again or in person. Details will be in our newsletter, as well as online and via email.

Until then please take care.

British Red Cross | Will Aid

LCC Parks and Countryside consultations

The council is currently consulting on two proposals:

  • Reduce, by 50%, the number of public outdoor bowling greens managed and maintained by the council.
  • Closing the West Leeds Country Park Visitor Centre in Pudsey Park and potentially replacing it with a cafe.

More information and details of how to share your thoughts on the council website:

https://www.leeds.gov.uk/your-council/consultations-and-feedback/parks-and-countryside-consultations?fbclid=IwAR0S7xvVmsPD2Yp5GWbKhpy8BIvCQkVaSp2Glw973bMiOE7yIheDdqvv3Xs

Leeds-City-Council-logo | Digital Leaders

Hyde Park Pantomime is on zoom this year

Dear all
The Hyde Park pantomime is on zoom this year. You can go on their website for more information, or yes you can!
Performances will be:
Friday 18th December
7pm stream open, 7:30pm performance
Saturday 19th December
7pm stream open, 7:30pm performance
Sunday 20th December
2pm stream open, 2:30pm performance

 

Shared Moments: ‘Oliver went to town’ written by Oliver Cross

This week, my most interesting activity was picking up a pair of repaired glasses from Boots opticians in Leeds city centre, which doesn’t sound convincing unless you’ve noticed what else has been happening over the past ten months or so.

It was my first trip to the city centre for in ages and I suppose I should have been excited by being once again at the heart of a vibrant city. Instead, I just felt worried.

I’ve worked in city centres for most of my life and, through slumps and booms, I’ve never felt any need to worry for them. They’re tough, noisy, often aggressive unpleasantly places which can look after themselves.

But during my visit to the opticians, at which the opticians and their associates outnumbered me by about ten to one, I worried that the staff, probably half relieved and half bored by the quietness around them, would become unsettled  by the possibility that this might not be a freak lockdown moment; it might be the future.

Anyone living in the old industrial north will know that, in cities particularly, times change with alarming speed; Victorian mills  built to last hundreds of years mainly lasted, at best, until the 1960s or 70s but at least left behind magnificent shells such as Temple Works in Holbeck, Leeds, or Salt’s Mill in Saltaire.

The worry is that the next wave of industrial readjustment will leave no monument other than acres of boarded-up pubs, sandwich bars, trinket stalls and maybe even opticians.

Off-line shopping in the big city stores could become a niche activity, like uni-cycling, and, as I noticed on my recent city centre visit, there will be a miraculous lack of litter and drunkards. This struck me as rather eerie, like the final scene in Planet of the Apes or, so I’m told, living in Liechtenstein, but I’m sure we’ll eventually recognise it as a huge improvement.

The downside is not, so far as we yet know, that city centre workers, along with the transport systems, feeding stations, entertainments, posh stores and other enterprises that depend on them, will disappear. It’s that they will scatter into cyberspace and the suburbs, leaving, say, Briggate in Leeds looking as much an archaeological site as an abandoned tin mine.

The factory system which shaped the north, gave way to an office system built on the same organisational principles; regular hours and a machine-driven division of labour which meant you could be in the typing pool or answering the telephones or working the Xeroxes but were not expected to do them all at the same time.

Now those limitations have gone; home workers – which quite soon might mean most workers – don’t have to keep factory hours, nor confine themselves to 20th century technologies, which means they’ll soon become hugely productive operatives, except, sadly, in the fields of enjoying  their lunch breaks or gossiping to colleagues.

Thank you once again Oliver, until next time…..

Photo of Leeds, Briggate 1951 - Francis Frith

Picture: Francis Firth.com – Leeds Briggate 1951

‘Lockdown Patchwork’ A Soundscape of Nature Sounds

Leeds Art Gallery are putting out a call to the people of Leeds to contribute to a new ‘audio artwork’  of nature sounds and celebrating the importance of nature and greenspace to us – especially during lockdown.  You don’t need special skills or any specialist equipment, see the information below from the organisers:

Two autumnal landscapes or hill scenes are placed side by side

“We need your help to create a soundscape of nature sounds recorded during lockdown, for a new crowd-sourced collaborative artwork by electronic musician Leafcutter John.

To raise awareness about issues of access to greenspace and to celebrate the important role that nature has played for many of us in a uniquely challenging year, Leafcutter John has been commissioned by Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and Leeds Art Gallery, to create an original audio artwork entitled Lockdown Patchwork. Drawing on our current Natural Encounters exhibition, which explores how artists have responded to nature, the piece will use submissions, videos, field recordings and interviews to capture and share the experiences of people who have been connected by their enjoyment of nature, parks and greens spaces during the pandemic.

What we need from you

If there’s an outdoor space that matters to you, no matter where or what it is, we want you to capture sounds from it. You might not think of yourself as a sound recordist, but if you have a smartphone, portable recorder or any other recording tool, then you most definitely are. Your submission could be birdsong recorded on your balcony, chatter on your allotment patch, a river flowing or a dog in the park. It’s anything you like, captured anywhere you like. The only requirements are that you must have made the recording yourself and you must be happy for Leafcutter John to use it as an ingredient in his final work.

More information and how to apply

The deadline for submissions is 11 December. If you fancy getting involved, download our information pack (PDF, 150KB) and follow our simple step-by-step guide.”