Dear all
Caring Together is also proud to be supporting Refugee Week this week too. I was chatting to Karen this morning who let me know Refugee Week 2020 this year is inspired by the theme ‘Imagine’.
The week is about inviting you to do one or more of their eight Simple Acts that can all be done at home. It can be chatting together as Karen and I have done this morning, or read a book, watch some talks on YouTube. It is a collective movement to imagine a better world.
I found this small yet moving poem on the below website.
“The poet Lemn Sissay once described his wonderment at the thought that everything around us was imagined first. Everything physical – the camera he was looking at, the microphone he was talking into – started as an act of imagination. He wrote a poem”:
I will not limit myself
I will not be afraid
If it were not imagined
How else could it be made?
sourced: https://refugeeweek.
final-refugee-week-leeds-1 – Copy
Thank you for sharing your inspiring thoughts and words of wisdom this morning Karen.
No? We didn’t either, but it is and you can watch it on YouTube this week.
Bjork Ballet by Arthur Pita and the San Francisco Ballet is a Ballet Rave featuring the music of superstar Bjork, and described as an imaginative spectacle that will make you want to jump up and dance.
The Guardian says: ” Visually, the work is a cacophony of glamour, craziness and fairytale ”
” Björk Ballet is a wonderful watch – surprising, mysterious and a ridiculous amount of fun ”
Available until 19th June – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98yI2LT26lw
I’ve written a poem about lockdown; a strange time for my generation.
It helps me express myself in this current situation.
I understand that lockdown is to keep me safe and sound,
But it makes me sad that I can’t have my family around.
The virus still scares me but I think I’ve been quite brave.
I like clapping for the NHS when having a shower, and having a good old wave.
I miss their smiling faces now that staff are wearing masks,
I’ve been kept busy by helping with household tasks.
I’m really missing sports but most of all rugby,
I’m really missing cuddles
Now that people can’t hug me.
I can’t wait to leave the house, further than the front door.
I can’t wait to go out to dance on the dance floor.
I really miss my family and I really miss my friends.
I can’t wait until this lockdown finally ends.
The lockdown is something I’ll remember forever.
We’ve all been so strong, let’s get through this together!
Luke Hazelgrave
I suspect there will be a sharp divide between those who think that the return of football is good news and those who think exactly the opposite.
But, for those who are excited about this – Premier League games start tomorrow and the Championship resumes on Saturday 20th. (Leeds United kick off away at Cardiff on Sunday 21st). All matches will be played without fans present to be broadcast on TV.
Although Leeds will have a crowd of sorts for their home games as they have offered all season ticket holders the chance to send in a photo to be made into a cardboard cut-out to occupy their usual seat. It’s intended to be of the person who holds the ticket but that’s not compulsory so they may have acquired a few unlikely celebrity supporters when they play the first home tie against Fulham on Saturday 27th June.
Many of the games are only available on a paid subscription channel but a third of the Premiership and FA cup games will be available to watch for free, in a variety of different ways:
BBC will show four Premier league games and four FA cup games including the final
Amazon Prime will be showing four league games – you normally have to pay for an Amazon Prime membership but they have said you will not need membership to watch these games – these will be internet streamed instead of on TV
Sky are making 25 of their games available free on the Pick channel this is free to watch and is on:
Freeview 11 Freesat 144 Sky 159 Virgin 165
Sadly, it doesn’t appear at the moment that any of the Championship games are being shown for free.
For a full list of all the upcoming games in both leagues and where you can watch them visit, www.live-footballontv.com
THE present lockdown has lasted so long that I’ve found myself watching far too much on the freeview channel Talking Pictures.
This specialises in British films, usually in black-and-white, from the 1940s, 50s 60s, most of which feature some combination of George Cole, Stanley Holloway, Alistair Simm, Jack Warner, Diana Dors or the cast of Dad’s Army when they were boys.
Nearly all films on the channel are preceded with a disclaimer to the effect that certain scenes may display language and attitudes which are not acceptable to modern audiences, particularly the ones involving Terry Thomas or the girls of St Trinian’s.
Incidentally, my partner Lynne and I often attended, in the far-off, per-lockdown days, Thursday matinees at the Cottage Road Cinema in Leeds, which serves free cups of tea and is thus irresistible to pensioners. One film – I forget which – came with a warning that it included sex, inappropriate language, nudity and violence, at which us pensioners erupted into spontaneous cheering while waving our polystyrene tea mugs like a bunch of delinquents.
But things have moved on and films should now also include a warning that certain scenes may appear to contravene hygiene, quarantine and social-distancing rules, which, although they have only been around for a tiny portion of my life, I’ve adopted so thoroughly that now it’s difficult watch any films at all.
When I see a couple jumping into bed together, I wonder whether they come from the same household. When I watch soldiers huddled together under fire in old war films, I no longer worry about the bullets, I’m more concerned that they might be exposing themselves to the Coronavirus, particularly as there don’t appear to be adequate hand-sanitising facilities.
Old dance musicals, with huge casts and much mingling, have become unbearable for me to watch because I have to pretend I’m Cecil B DeMille in order to mentally rearrange the dances into safe-distancing routines.
Apart from being traumatised by old films, I’ve spent much of the lockdown thinking about whether I should try and finish James Boswell’s Life of Dr Samuel Johnson, which is 1,700 pages long and which I started reading about 50 years ago.
The problem is that I only read it in the loo, opening it at random and reading a few paragraphs at a time. I did think that, during the lockdown, I could try reading it start-to-finish in a disciplined way, but decided quite quickly that the random method works best.
Nothing much happens in any of the 1,700 pages; Johnson is recorded writing and talking to just about every 18th century person living in London you’ve ever heard of – Oliver Goldsmith, Sir Joshua Reynolds, David Garrick, Edmund Burke and Jean -Jacques Rousseau are all there try to outtalk each other until, rather like many viewers Loose Women, you long for a bit more silence.
Written by Oliver Cross
Lovely Oliver, thank you kindly, until next time…
I have some more songs that were sent through – thank you to you all for kindly getting your answers to me. I have been able to have a listen to some of them on YouTube.
1. ‘One’ by U2
2. ‘It Takes Two’ by Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston
3. ‘7 Rooms of Gloom’ by The Four Tops
4. ‘8 Days a Week’ by The Beatles
5. ‘9-5’ Dolly Parton
6. ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ by Queen
7. ‘I Would Die 4 U’ by Prince
8. ‘When I’m 64’ by the Beatles
9. ‘One More Night’ by Phil Collins
For this week’s ‘Monday Mind Workout’, I am looking to you for the answers. I am inviting you to name as many pop songs (or other varieties) as you can think of with a ‘number in the song title’. Let’s see how many you can come up with.
I’m starting off with ‘Adam Ant – ‘Goody Two Shoes’
If you can let me know the songs you come up with, I will then collate them and publish the answers for tomorrow.
picture from spinditty
From today if you do travel on public transport you will have to wear a face covering and if you have not covered your face then you may be refused travel and could be fined up to £100. If you need to visit a hospital for any reason you must also wear a face covering. It’s very important to also continue social distancing and handwashing as before and the advice remains to avoid using public transport if you can.
Also from today some non-essential shops will be starting to open up and Leeds CIty Council have issued some information and advice:
From Monday June 15, sh
ops and businesses across the city will start to reopen. Our main priority remains on keeping people safe in public space and places, and ensuring people can adhere to social distancing rules to stop the spread of the virus.
Whilst we continue to work with partners and businesses to ensure the city centre is ready to open in a safe way, there are a number of things you can do to stay safe including washing your hands regularly, using contactless payments where possible, and maintaining social distancing guidelines.
Working with businesses, partners and stakeholders in the city centre including LeedsBID, the measures include widening pedestrian areas where possible, emergency trial pop-up cycle lanes, key information signage, one-way systems through shopping centres and shops and hand sanitiser stations. Whilst a number of shops will be open straight away from Monday, more are expected to follow in the coming weeks.
Guidance has been given to businesses to support them to operate safely, including ways to manage safe queuing systems including disabled access outside stores maintaining the two-metre social distancing rule, while the public messaging encourages people to use contactless payment wherever possible. Everyone is advised to wash their hands regularly, and especially before leaving home and when returning after being in public.
A new council team of ‘city centre ambassadors’ will be on hand in the city centre in the main retail areas to help the public, while other council teams will also be available to offer assistance and guidance to keep people safe.
Some but not all toilets in the city centre will be open, while parking in all council-managed car parks remains free of charge until at least July 4. For more information on parking in Leeds visit https://www.visitleeds.co.uk/resources/car-parking-in-leeds/
Measures are in place at travel hubs including Leeds Station and Leeds Bus Station to support social distancing, while additional cleaning is also taking place at transport interchanges. All park and ride services remain closed until further notice.
Leeds City Council’s cleansing services team will be carrying out enhanced cleaning in the city centre working with the LeedsBID rangers, with public benches available for use but only with the two-metre distancing being followed. Collections from recycling on the go bins and coffee cup bins in the city centre have also now resumed, with all items of street furniture including bins being regularly deep cleaned.
Anyone developing symptoms of the virus is advised to stay at home and follow the national guidelines in terms of requesting a test and the track and trace system if the test proves positive. Those in shielded groups are also advised to continue following the national guidance to keep them safe.
Leader of Leeds City Council Councillor Judith Blake said:
“It is a positive and welcome step to see our city centre start to reopen, but we would still urge considerable caution and ask people to follow the guidance and messaging they see in shops and public spaces, with patience and understanding so everyone can keep safe.
“We would encourage people where possible to think carefully about how and when they choose to travel, with active travel in terms of walking and cycling preferred and to allow more time for journeys and moving around the city centre.
“All of these measures are designed to stop the virus spreading, so if everyone takes care to follow them it will help us all.”
