Category: THINK

‘Tis the season of goodwill: ways to share and care this Christmas

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Ah Christmas!  A time to welcome all the excesses of the season with open, slightly flabby arms and settle into a uniform of elasticated waists while proffering friends, loved ones and sworn enemies ‘just one more mince pie’.  While it’s a wonderful time for families to come together it’s not without pressure and it can be easy to feel torn between wanting to splash out and not being in the position to do so financially without getting into debt.  It’s also a time when hundreds of charity letters come through the letterbox, each cause every bit as deserving as the last but it’s not always possible to support them all financially at this time of year.

There are still ways we can celebrate and share the joy without breaking the bank.  Here are just a few ideas I’ve come across

* Support your local food bank

The Trussell Trust is an organisation which operates throughout the UK though I’m sure there are equivalents all over the world.  Why not have a hunt through your cupboards and donate any cans of soup or vegetables to your local food bank.  We all have a few tins lurking at the back of the cupboard that seemed like a good idea at the time – (tinned ratatouille anyone?) – but we’ve never quite got around to eating.  Our local food bank is currently on the lookout for cereals, pasta, tins of fruit, veg, soup – basically anything that’s non-perishable that could make the next few days a little less stressful for people in need.  If you’re in the UK click here to find your nearest food bank.

* Get knitting and help older people combat the cold

It’s no secret that fuel companies do very well out of the cold weather that Christmas ushers in but older people are especially vulnerable at this time of year.  With pensions only stretching so far Winter is a potentially dangerous time for older people in the community.  Age UK Lambeth – a London-based branch of the nationwide charity which supports and empowers older people – is encouraging nimble-fingered folks to Get Their Knit On by knitting squares which will be sewn together and made into blankets which the organisation will distribute to people who need them in the New Year.  The charity has partnered with the Southbank Centre so if you’re local to London you can pop in and knit in a social setting on a couple of dates.  If you’re a little further afield but would still like to help you can knit a square or two and send them in to:

 Louisa Pestell, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, UK

* Support your local animal shelter by clearing out your closet

Santa's little helper, Bob, is a fan of this idea

Santa’s little helper, Bob, is a fan of this idea

Christmas is one of the busiest times for animal shelters with the novelty of receiving a puppy for Christmas wearing off when new owners realise that their gift of choice while amazing is a LOT of hard work.  Animal shelters and rescue centres are always crying out for bedding to make the animals feel comfortable at what can be a scary time for furbabies.  I don’t think the condition is all that important so if you have some old blankets that have acquired a few holes over the years or bedding that’s now a bit worn or out of fashion shelters will make great use of these and you can free up some storage space at the same time.

* Lend a hand at a free Christmas dinner

Last year I made a wee film featuring a coffee shop called Common Grounds Cafe who host an annual free Christmas dinner for anyone who would otherwise be alone on December 25th.  Common Grounds is an amazing place that encapsulates the true spirit of the festive season and while they have sufficient volunteers to man the turkey and peel the spuds this year I’m sure there are plenty more of these kinds of events who could do with an extra pair of hands  – especially when it comes to washing dishes.

* Call in on a neighbour who lives alone

Loneliness is rife in darker months and the older we get the less mobile we can be making this time of year very isolating for some.  If you need a hand whittling down your waistline before squeezing into your New Year’s party outfit consider joining Goodgym which partners runners with coaches – older people in the community.  The runners have to call in on their coach once a week and the two motivate each other for the week ahead.  A great idea for both mind and body!

So there you have a few ideas that will soothe your soul without breaking the bank.  You might just make a friend for life out of a small act of kindness.  Is there anything special happening in your community this Christmas?  Comment below and share the joy!xx

Blood Swept Lands & Seas of Red: A visit to the Tower of London

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Even though the installation has been around since August I only managed to get down to see the poppies at the Tower of London properly this weekend when some friends came to stay.  I had attempted a visit the previous week but I left it too late to head down and Tower Bridge was completely packed so by the time I made it to the Tower it was dusk and the light had all but disappeared.

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DSCF0017We headed down on Remembrance Sunday, together with thousands of others, hoping to catch a glimpse of artist Paul Cummins’s 888,246 ceramic poppies.  If you’re not familiar with the installation, each poppy represents the life of a member of the British military who died in the First World War, 1914 – 1918.

A sea of crimson surrounds the Tower, ebbing and flowing around the brickwork, waves of ceramic poppies spilling out from turrets like tears saturating the ground below.

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It was humbling to walk with people from all corners of the world that day, all of whom paid their respects to relatives and unknown military personnel whose lives were lost in the Great War.  Most visitors wore paper poppies which they fastened to their lapels while some favoured more intricate, even handmade, designs.  Along the railings people had left mementos and markers to commemorate fallen relatives they never got to meet.

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As we wove our way along the path, in amongst groups of tourists taking selfies and families on days out the mood became sombre as it neared 11am – the time of the two minute silence.  When the time came the whole crowd fell silent.  Cameras stopped clicking, nobody moved a muscle.  It was quite an emotional experience to be there during the silence, reflecting on the lives lost in the First World War, and those lost in all the wars since.

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Over the past few weeks it seems that everyone has had an opinion on wearing – and not wearing – the poppy, which is widely regarded as a symbol of the British lives lost during WW1.  Personally, I always wear a poppy, irrespective of various parties’ attempts to politicise it’s meaning.  For me, it’s a reminder that war is gruesome and cruel and not something to be entered into lightly.  I wear my poppy as a mark of respect, to remember all those lives lost, from John Condon, the child soldier from Waterford who died in Ypres after a mustard gas attack to octogenarian Lord Roberts who was recalled to service in his 80s and everyone else who bravely fought, shoulder to shoulder, until the very end.

A horn signalled the end of the silence and, out of nowhere, the crowd came back to life with rapturous applause.  Before we dispersed, to different corners of the city and beyond, we remembered the sacrifice that strangers made for us so that we might be able to go about our business freely, as though the war had never happened in the first place.

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Thank you for reading

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Boys-a-dear! In the last 24 hour hours my blog has, (much to my surprise), had more traffic than ever before. Who knew so many people love Scandinavia like I do? Interestingly one of the top searches driving traffic to my page was named ‘nordicana moans’. I’m not sure what reveals more about my predominantly British readership – the desire for a good old moan or that search engines led wanton readers to me. Either way, I am delighted you stumbled across my blog – whether you intended to or not! I hope you weren’t too disappointed with what you found and I hope you’ll stick around!

Now is as good a time as any to thank you all for reading and interacting with me since I started my blog last year. Whether you followed way back in the beginning or you joined us just yesterday I am so glad that you did! I hope you enjoy what you read and I would love to hear more from you. After all, blogging is a two-way street and I’d really like to know what kind of stuff you are interested in – or not, as the case may be! I’ve had an idea for a project I would like to work on over the next year but it’s really dependent on a little a lot help from my friends. If you’re intrigued then please do follow / subscribe and comment to let me know you’re in!

I wanted this post to be about sharing a recipe I discovered for Chocolate Chia Cookies I came across the other day. Now don’t they just sound lovely? It was going to be all arty farty pictures and everything. I went out the other day and even bought something called ‘buckwheat flour’ especially. Well I am very sorry but out of a recipe that was meant to make 10 I now have about 30 dense misshaped mounds of nut-rich, taste-poor muck. And because buckwheat flour is expensive – even though it seems to taste of nothing – I am going to eat them because a) I don’t like waste and b) they are too dear to throw away. I suspect I’m also going to have to up my exercise intake due to all the nuts in said muck burgers so if you see a girl power walking through a London park eating what looks like a little patty of dog mess don’t be alarmed, it’s probably me.

Boggin'. If you don't know what boggin' means, the first thing that springs to mind is probably about right.

Boggin’. If you don’t know what boggin’ means, the first thing that springs to mind is probably about right.

So it seems I’ve given you a big fat nada with this post and how apt I found the picture below which I took in a shop on Brick Lane that appears geared towards people with too much money and too little sense. I promise my next post will be more interesting! In the meantime, thank you for sticking with me through the good and the muck!xx

Don't worry mama, I didn't buy it! ;)

Don’t worry mama, I didn’t buy it! 😉

(Incidentally, if anyone knows of a good use for buckwheat flour and chia seeds please send it my way so I can use this stuff up!)

When kindness in the virtual world becomes a reality

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I recently applied for an internship with a forward-thinking social enterprise and one of the application requirements was to submit a piece of writing. There was no indication of what the subject matter should be and it took me a good couple of days to think of something to write that I thought might catch their eye.

After tearing my hair out for a while I decided to take things back to basics and write about something that’s been on my mind for a while – technology and our dependency on the virtual world. I was really conscious about waffling on too long (which I probably ended up doing anyway) but I thought I’d share what I wrote with you here. I’d be really interested to know what you think – any feedback gratefully received although please not too harsh! I’m also keen to hear if you agree with me or maybe you have a different opinion – please share it! I’d love to hear more examples of acts of kindness that have transitioned from the virtual to the real world! Here goes…

I don’t know about you but I am finding it increasingly hard to focus. What was the first thing you reached for this morning when you woke up? Each day, I’ve barely wiped the sleep from my eyes before I’m checking my emails, Facebook and Twitter feeds along with my blog subscriptions and whatever else catches my eye. Never before have we been so connected and so in control of how the world sees us thanks to unlimited Instagram filters, Photoshop and image crafting status updates. If it wasn’t for Facebook I’m not sure I’d remember anyone’s birthdays or get invited to nearly as many events!

I recently relocated from Northern Ireland to a city brimming with possibilities and excitement but it somehow feels tinged with loneliness. Everyone on the Tube looks glum as they do their best to ignore their fellow commuters in favour of their Kindle, iPod or copy of Metro. Despite being surrounded by people everyone strikes me as being completely – and wilfully – alone. And that’s fine if you are young, busy and able bodied with 500 Facebook friends to keep you entertained as you get from A to B. But what about people who don’t have access to all of this? What about the elderly?

James Gray Photo credit: www.irishpost.co.uk

James Gray
Photo credit: http://www.irishpost.co.uk

In the run up to Christmas I came across an article online about an 85 year old Irish immigrant named James Gray who travelled to the city for work as a young man and ended up settling in South London, where he continues to reside today. Spending his working life as a butler James reminisced of a busy social calendar where he enjoyed hosting parties at his flat until, one by one, his friends and colleagues paired off and acceptances to his invitations slowly but surely dwindled. James never married nor did he have children. The reason his story came to light is that James took out an advertisement in the Irish Post to see if he could find someone to spend Christmas with.

The Irish Post is the top selling newspaper to Irish people living in Britain yet only one person – a woman in a similar situation – replied to the ad only to later renege on her offer of spending Christmas with him. In all of London can you believe only one person reached out to this man? No? Well neither could Irish Post journalist Niall O’Sullivan who picked up James’s story and ran with it as a main feature in the paper. The article went viral – global – in a matter of hours and resulted in countless Christmas dinner invitations from Co. Cork to Chile and thousands of Christmas cards from everywhere in between.

What made people reach out to James Gray was the way O’Sullivan told his story and directly appealed to his readers’ empathic natures. He suggested if anyone wanted to write James a Christmas card so he would have something to open on Christmas Day they could send them to the paper and staff would pass them on. It can often be easy to ignore calls for help that we believe we are too detached from to really make a difference. However, as James’s story proves, many small acts of kindness can make a big difference to people in need and can reignite the faith in humanity we’ve allowed ourselves to tune out in recent years. James ended up breaking his 9 year tradition of spending Christmas alone and dined with a fellow Irish couple who had moved to England as he once did.

James enjoying dinner with new friends, Marian and John Photo credit: www.irishpost.co.uk

James enjoying dinner with new friends, Marian and John
Photo credit: http://www.irishpost.co.uk



It’s so easy to share an article or an image on social media and forget about it once you’ve done so. I’m definitely guilty of this. But perhaps the global reaction to James’s story proved that it is possible to connect people online and inspire them to carry out an indiscriminate act of kindness they may never directly see the benefit from. I wonder how many lives we could touch by taking some of our online actions offline to help someone in need?

If you’re interested in hearing more about James and how his story touched the hearts of thousands of people around the world take a look at the original article here.