Please find attached the West Yorkshire Trading Standards Newsletter Scam Alert. This weekly alert will outline trending fraud patterns during the current COVID-19 pandemic and what we can do to stay protected. This news alert will give you an indication of the current situation here in West Yorkshire.

Last week, (27/04/2020 – 03/05/2020) WYTS had 22 COVID-19 complaints and queries. A further 31 intelligence reports were submitted through our intelligence database relating to COVID-19 during this time period.

COVID-19 Weekly update 07.05.2020 – Copy

As of today it will be possible to apply for Pension Credit online, if you wish. If you don’t feel like doing this yourself we can go through this with you.

There is a link below for more information on Pension Credit:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pension-credit-claimants-now-able-to-apply-online?utm_source=f1d08559-a823-42be-b7d2-9085f40b53fc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate  

***

In addition, we can also help with checking what benefits you may be entitled to. Or you can have a go at looking at this yourself by using the Turn2Us benefits calculator by clicking on the link below:

Click on the online benefits calculator:

https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Benefit-guides/Beginner-s-Guide-to-Benefits/Checking-benefit-entitlement 

You have been sending some wonderful pictures to us, for which we are all grateful of. If anyone wishes to send in more then please do, along with a few words if you wish, yet not essential as I can add these as I have done already. I will be making this a weekly posting on our website/facebook.

They can be pictures of the present, of you, the locality, of nature when you are out getting your exercise, your garden, your creative side, what you have been making and other pastimes or even your home. Or they can be pictures of you enjoying other times in your life along with a memory or two :)) Or even some pictures of you as a child and we could try to guess who it is? I promise not to put the name of the person under it next time. Or you can send other pictures from the past. You can take a picture of them so they become digital. Call me if you need any guidance on this.

Does anyone recognise where this picture was taken?

I look forward to seeing more of your captured moments, past and present.

email: lisa@caringtogether.org.uk

Franche Primary School student Devon Simkin-Samways spent two days writing the below poem, entitled ‘Lockdown’, in the hope of bringing joy to all who read it.

Devon’s poem reads:

“Lockdown is a scary time,

So I thought that I could write a rhyme,

To put a smile on lots of faces,

From around the world in lots of places.

“Lots of time with my family,

Fills me with enormous glee.

Home school teaching from my mum,

With my brother who’s a pain in the bum.

“Missing my bike rides and playing out,

It really makes me want to shout.

Nannies and grandads can’t see me,

But safety really is the key.

“Watching movies on Disney Plus,

Stops us making such a fuss.

Eating ice cream in the garden,

Makes us burp but we say pardon.

“Missing our friends and all our teachers,

Watching YouTube to see who features,

In the Franche videos that set us challenges.

Hope noone fails and ends up in bandages.

“One day when this will come to an end,

Hopefully we won’t have driven mum round the bend.

We will look back and cherish the thought,

Of the lessons we learnt and the ones we were taught.”

Thank you Devon for such a wonderful Poem – www.kiderminstershuttle.co.uk

‘THE 2020 TALKING HEADS IN LOCKDOWN’

Out exercising this morning, I met a neighbour who told me about her son who is home for the virus, insists on 2 hours of vigorous online exercise every morning in the living room – boom boom – get that left leg out.  It’s driving her mad. He’s furloughed from his job as a set maker for soaps. No soaps without the close up and personal, she said.

BUT there is one old favourite which is perfect for a locked down country, and it’s being filmed at arm’s length and it’s about loneliness: Talking Heads! From 1988 . Julie Walters, Maggie Smith, Patricia Routledge, Thora Hird, Stephanie Cole were the original lonely ladies now being replaced with newcomers. In the 1988 version, the background was all about disapproving of leopard skin coats and avoiding interfering social workers. It was a world of surnames – Miss This and Mr. That, except where the interfering Miss Ruddock ends up in prison and discovers a richer world of first names, even nicknames.

So how will Talking Heads be changed?  Will it be left with 1988 ideas of what’s ‘common’, a world where the vicar’s wife says, ‘I’m glad I’m not married to Jesus.’  I wish they would show us those originals so we can compare them.

So watch this space, what’s your favourite?  For me, it’s Thora Hird equal with Julie Walters, who is one of my favourite people in the whole world.

Written by Pat Tempest, Caring Together member and volunteer

Thanks for sharing this with us Pat, I look forward to seeing this. Take care.

Well done to you all. If anyone wishes to have a go at writing some ‘Monday Mind Workouts’ email me: lisa@caringtogether.org.uk

Please see below the answers to yesterday’s lockdown workout.

1. Due to a decrease in pollution, penguins have returned to swimming in the river thames, true or false? False

2. What number do you get if you multiply all the numbers on a telephone keypad or mobile phone? zero

3. What is the best flavour of Haagen Daz’s ice cream? vanilla

4.What was the name of David Bowie’s flamboyant alter ego? ziggy stardust

5. What number Downing Street does the Chancellor of the Exchequer usually live at? 11

6. How many legs are there in a three legged race? four

7. What is tofu made from? Bean Curd

8. How are Cabaret, Mamma Mia! and Fiddler on the Roof connected? all have songs involving money

9. What year was the Sony Walkman released? 1979

10. The first four numbers that stay the same written up-side down are 0, 1, 8 and 11, What’s the next one? 69

11. What is the primary herb in pesto? Basil

12. In a standard pack of playing cards what are the Queen’s holding in their hands? flowers

13. Eurovision sensation ABBA came from which country? Sweden

14.Which of these birds is the odd one out? Cuckoo, Kittiwake, Swift, Curlew, ChiffChaff? Swift, all named after their call, swift named after how fast it goes

15. What are pontefract cakes made from? Liquorice

16. What musical movie has the song “It’s the Hard Knock Life? Annie

17.What’s the national animal of Scotland? unicorn

18. What type of pastry are profiteroles made from? Choux

19. Singer David Soul also starred in which iconic action TV series? Starsky and Hutch

20. What was the name of Frank Spencer’s wife in Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em? Betty

This may be because many pub quizzers are more drawn to quizzes than to pubs, which I find odd because it’s the combination of the two which has taken such a hold on the British public. Pub quizzes are a way of expressing our competitive, sporting spirit and the joys of teamwork, without having to get changed into inadequate clothing and run around on chilly sports fields.

Quizzes without the pub element can be found on most TV channels at most times of day, which is one of the most unwelcome lessons of the lockdown.

But even when I watch them armed with a bag of crisps and a can of beer and try to start pub-like arguments with my partner, Lynne, there is no real substitute for a room full of happily-occupied humans taking part in an activity which only makes sense to other humans; it’s rather like a chimpanzee like bonding session minus the frenzied sexual displays, ideally.

One of the casualties of the present catastrophe has been the end of prize money for winners of the weekly Chemic quiz. The money, which would only be life-changing if you found yourself in a very bad fix indeed, was in the pre-crisis folding form, which those of us on lockdown now see so seldom that they might as well be ducats.

There would now be no safe way to collect your winnings without washing your hands to the bone and, even if there were, you would probably feel obliged to hand over your  prize to any passing health or care worker in order to demonstrate your support for the NHS.

So now the only obvious incentive to do well in the quiz is to demonstrate your superiority to other contestants, which isn’t really in the ‘we’re all in this together’ spirit. Fortunately, since we isolated ourselves from our cleverer quiz teammates, Lynne and I generally perform no better than very respectably, which, in a suddenly over-heated world in need of reassurance and normality, is a result in the best traditions of pub quizzery.

Written by Oliver Cross, Caring Together Member

Thank you for once again sharing your thoughts Oliver. Take care