Friday 24th April 2020 – Day Thirty Two

Good morning all – hope that you are OK? This will be my last update until Monday. I am taking the weekend off!
It’s my son’s birthday tomorrow (he will be 12). It will be extra special as we have not seen each other for two weeks – so I hope you will excuse me for a couple of days!

Any suggestions what to get the boy who has everything?

I celebrated my 12th birthday by going to Carnaby street on the 134 bus from Muswell Hill with two old school friends in 1977. We thought we were so grown up and hip. We were inspired by The Jam single “Carnaby Street”. It was a great day, so exciting and new….

Do you have a favourite celebration – would love to hear from you!

What can I share with you today?

FOOD / SHOPPING – From Phil: Covent Garden Community Centre will soon be opening a food bank from next Wednesday (29th) to support the local community. The Food Bank will not be a “walk in” service. All users will need to register with us so that we know if they are a single person or represent a family unit.

They will then be invited to attend at a specific time to collect whatever food stuffs we have available on a given day. We will also provide a delivery service for the vulnerable and or housebound.

**if you know of anyone who might benefit, please contact me as soon as possible**

This service will be FREE, but must register.

From Chris: 19 Places to Get Food Delivered Other Than the Supermarket. With little or no online delivery slots at the supermarket, here’s a list of alternative places to shop where you can get your groceries (contactless) delivered.

ART & CULTURE – From Dominic: Southbank Centre. They’re going to be closed for a while – but believe that access to art, music and creativity is more important than ever, so stay connected for your regular culture fix of blogs, videos, podcasts and playlists on our website and social channels. Get your culture fix. Go deeper into the arts and get to know the artists and thinkers that make up their distinctive programme.

From Theresa: The show must go on! Tonight at 7pm UK time, as the legend returns to YouTube, with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to The Phantom of The Opera, Love Never Dies starring Ben Lewis as The Phantom and Anna O’Byrne as Christine.

From Helena: I’d like to suggest a funny, exuberant and anarchic film for the culture slot: “Women on the edge of a nervous breakdown

It’s a Spanish film by the director Pedro Almodovar from the 1980s; colourful, lively, full of ridiculous coincidences, a woman who throws her telephone answering machine out of the window in rage and a woman in a 1960s wig on the back of a motorbike trying to shoot one of her ex-husband’s lovers. There is something cathartic about its energy and zest despite referring to broken love affairs and suicide – no honestly, its a comedy! Only £2.49 to rent from Amazon, in Spanish with English subtitles.

INFORMATION – From Jean: We’ve looked into different ways we can help out and have decided to take the Uswitch Community events outreach programme from offline to online:

● Creating audio versions of our online guides to help reach vulnerable members of our communities. We have identified that some members may have challenges accessing our current online guides due illiteracy or to having visual impairments for instances. We have started by focusing on three guides relating to what mobile, broadband and energy suppliers are doing during the COVID-19 pandemic as it is very apt and timely.

● Our aim is to then expand these audio adaptations to our other guides on energy, broadband and mobile. Here are links to the three guides, have a listen and feel free to share them in your communications with your community members:

HEALTH – From Cindy: OnLine First Aid: Which mask should I choose, and will it protect me from Covid19? If you are lucky enough to get hold of a mask, it is important to know how well they will protect you. If you decide to make one at home, we will help with some advice.

From Marcos: Webinar: COVID Research Update. Speakers: Dr Claire Steves and Professor Tim Spector share an update on scientific insights they are learning from COVID Symptom Tracker. On this webinar, they bring to light the importance of studying COVID and frailty and new symptoms being reported by the 2.6 million contributors of the COVID Symptom Tracker.

CLASSES – At last Pilates is now online! Thanks to Rosy and Jimmy for uploading to YouTube!

Yoga and Meditation (via Zoom) – All are welcome!
Marcos Viliotti is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Marcos’ Meditation on Tuesdays and Chair Yoga on Thursdays
Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:30

That all for now:
Leah will be on duty during the day tomorrow: her number is 07716 480 049
Amber is on duty Sunday: 0751 360 5766

Be safe
John