Category: General Interest Articles

Articles of general interest on no particular subject

Diamond Wedding Anniversary

 

April Letters

(The Editor

Pen+ink

s are not responsible for opinions expressed, although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information. The editors reserve the right to protect the anonymity of anyone who wishes to contribute articles or letters for the magazine provided they are aware of the identity of any such person. )

 

 

 

We would like to thank all friends and neighbours for the good wishes, cards, flowers and gifts on the occasion of our Diamond Wedding Anniversary.

Because of lockdown, what we thought would be ‘just another day’ turned out to be something special.

Our mystery – A lovely card came through the door, envelope written in gold but they forgot to sign it.

Thank you

Joyce & Eric White

 

 

 

Parkinson’s Disease Appeal

PARKINSON’S DISEASE APPEAL

Many Wenvoe residents will remember Helen and David Blessley and their contributions to village life. They moved to live in Penarth but still maintain village connections. Helen, being a superb cook, wrote a column called ‘Helen’s Kitchen’ for the magazine for over 15 years. This appeal has been written by their son-in-law, Marc Dunmore. 

The first thing we would like to say about David (Sarah’ s Dad, my father-in-law) or as I like to call him, Mr B, is that he is funny, strong, determined and not one to complain about anything. He is 78 and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease around 25 years ago.

Parkinson’s is the fastest growing neurological condition in the world. There are over 40 symptoms, from tremor and pain to anxiety. Some are treatable, but the drugs can have serious side effects. Mr B struggles to move, he struggles to eat, struggles to remember, he struggles to speak clearly and sleep is uncomfortable and disrupted. He has a hospital bed, walking frames, inflatable cushions and 2 wheelchairs to try and help. The alarms sound every 3 hours to remind Helen (Sarah’s Mum, my mother-in-law) to give his medication every 3 hours to deal with these symptoms but although the medication is supposed to help it can cause confusion and hallucinations. Parkinson’s Disease gets worse over time and at the moment there is no cure.

Helen is Mr B’s wife and main caregiver. She plays an integral part in his health, helping him to get the right treatments and help that he needs. As a result, he has been able to maintain the best possible lifestyle in the circumstances. However, this disease is not easy for anyone involved with the person living with it, whether family members or caregivers.

Not only do we want to help fundraise for Parkinson’s UK to help find a cure but also to provide funding for the local side of Parkinson’s. Our local Parkinson’s support group has been a lifeline for both Helen and Mr B. Not only can these groups introduce you to other families with Parkinson’s but can provide wonderful assistance for families like ours with information and events to help support everyone involved.

Mr B faces many challenges every day and we wanted to experience our own challenges. Over the course of the year Sarah will be virtually running Lands end to John O Groats (874 miles) culminating in both of us running the London Marathon and then…when one marathon isn’t enough, we will be running the Newport marathon a couple of weeks

later. The training for all this will most definitely be a challenge to fit in alongside dodging Covid, home schooling and working. However, when put into context with the challenges that Mr B and others like him face seems humble.

As you may be aware we have in the past run a few marathons between us so we wanted to make this one different and demanding. We did enquire about pushing Mr B round the London Marathon course in his wheelchair; however, this is not able to happen. So, instead Mr B will be joining us in his wheelchair, pushed by us, on some of our training runs around Cardiff. I’m sure there will be hard days for us both when the effort of running seems too much but we will take a leaf out of Mr B’s book and be strong, determined and try not to complain (not much anyway!!).

Through Virgin Money Giving, you can sponsor me, and donations will be quickly processed and passed to Parkinson’s UK. Virgin Money Giving is a not for profit organisation and will claim gift aid on a charity’s behalf where the donor is eligible for this.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please donate to this fantastic cause! We really appreciate all your support and thank you for any donations.

Donations can be made via https:// uk.virginmoneygiving.com/marcdunmore. Once on the page you can click “donate” and then there are easy step by step instructions.

 

 

Research On Remembrance In Wales

POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH ON REMEMBRANCE IN WALES

Dear Wenvoe Community Library,

I read about your library from the https://libraries.wales/ website, and I hope you would not mind me asking for your help for my research. I know the importance of libraries in local communities, even if the current pandemic context makes your work and social sharing more difficult.

I am a French PhD student in history and psychology at Swansea University and I am involved in a project with a Welsh and a French research team to study the memory of disasters. We developed an online questionnaire to gain a better understanding of memory and oblivion processes involved when we are to remember past disasters. Our main goal is to progress in the understanding of individual and collective responses to these events. More broadly, this study aims to make an important contribution to ongoing scientific debates on the management of communities and territories affected by one or several disasters.

We are currently struggling to make our study known and we need more volunteers participating to be able to draw relevant conclusions.

I would like to ask for the help of your library in distributing our questionnaire, for instance by adding information about our study in your newsletter if you have one, or via your library network. Our objective is to gather the answers from a large public living in Wales, no matter the age or the background. Your help in sharing our questionnaire would also be a great opportunity for us to inform Welsh communities about our scientific interests.

A detailed call for volunteers was also published by Swansea University on its website (swan.ac/gas), and on Twitter (https://twitter.com/SwanseaUni/status/1354806627447181316). I also gave a short interview that you can find on my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/lucrece.heux.1).

We wish to communicate our results to the volunteers who participated once our study will be finalised. If you are interested, we can also work with you to inform the visitors of your library about the conclusions we will be able to draw. The link to take part in the study is: https://survey.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/formSV_cMiOQgpbmi33U9f.

I remain entirely at your disposal if you have any further questions. Thank you for your attention,

Lucrèce Heux,

Doctoral Student/ Myfyriwr Doethuriaeth,

Swansea University/ Prifysgol Abertawe.

 

 

Making Steps Matter

MAKING STEPS MATTER

During the last year we were allowed and encouraged to walk. We kept fit (or in some cases got fit), often managing to greet people or make new friends at a safe distance and watched the seasons go by.

In Kenya, Florence walked 6 hours a day to collect water for her family as her previous water supply had dried up. She had managed to collect enough for cooking, and washing, until Christian Aid helped build an Earth Dam locally giving enough water for her family for her to water her crops. Rose, living elsewhere, still needs to walk to collect water with Coronavirus making this lack of reliable water more critical for the family for handwashing. Climate change for her is a matter of survival.

Every last drop is precious and this year Christian Aid’s challenge is: Together we STOP this climate crisis.

Our Local Challenge is to count our steps throughout the month of May. To keep on with our walking, whether around our neighbourhood or as far afield as the current restrictions allow. You may want to do this individually, with friends or family and get others to sponsor you for what you achieve to help women like Rose get an Earth Dam. You can set your own target, walk as far as you are able, but the challenge for those who are able is to reach 300,000 steps throughout the month.

Sponsorship can be set for a specified amount no matter how many steps are achieved. Forms are available in the Church Porch or can be picked up in Springfield Stores. Results and donations can be given to Rev Jon Ormrod or posted through the Church letter box (this will be emptied daily).

For more information contact me by email judebillingham@ yahoo.co.uk

 

 

The Tuckers Spring Plant Sale

THE TUCKERS

SPRING PLANT SALE

Saturday 1st May

 

Come along to our socially distanced Spring Plant Sale on Saturday 1 May. There will be six Wenvoe growers with plants to sell and there will be more gardening advice than you could shake a stick at!

There will be a small raffle with proceeds going to our Wenvoe Charity of choice, Wenvoe Wildlife Group. Glenys will be making cakes again which will be sold by the slice. Covid rules will be observed. Come and grab yourself some jewels for your garden and have a chat with our growers.

This will be held at our home at 29 Vennwood Close. We are so looking forward to seeing you.

 

 

Official Census Facts

I’M AN ARTIFICAL EYE MAKER AND FOLLOWER OF THE

JEDI RELIGION

 

Following our efforts in March, many will have been cheered by the news that the Government is exploring ways to gather information other than by census. Throughout history censuses have been unpopular, often because, as in the case of William the Conqueror’s Domesday Book in 1086, they have been used by governments to aid with the collection of taxes. Objections often relate to the right to privacy or suspicion of the Government’s motives. For many it is simply an onerous task even though it can now be done online. The modern census has been used in the UK since 1801 although evidence suggests that the idea goes back at least to the Babylonian Empire of 3,800 BC, when livestock and quantities of butter, honey, milk, wool and vegetables were counted. Unpopular or not, filling in your census form is not a matter of choice. Under section 8 of the Census Act 1920 people can be fined for a failure to complete census forms in line with the regulations. Exceptions exist for refusing or neglecting to respond to questions about religion, as stipulated by the Census (Amendment) Act 2000.

The law has not prevented some people attempting to avoid completing forms or using the opportunity to make their point. In 1841, artist JMW Turner rowed a boat into the Thames so he could not be counted as being present at any property. The famous suffragette campaigner Emily Davison saw the publicity value afforded by the 1911 census. Emily hid in a cupboard in Parliament on census night and had her address recorded as the House of Commons. Sadly she was killed when she stepped in front of the King’s horse in a protest at the Epsom Derby in 1913.

Census questions tend to reflect the time they are taken and the kind of information required. The UK census seems to have become more intrusive as time has passed. Many objected when the 1841 census became the first to record names, alongside age, gender, occupation and birthplace. The 1871 census asked whether anyone was blind, deaf and dumb, an imbecile, an idiot, or a lunatic. When the British carried out a census in India in 1871, people were reluctant to participate because of rumours that the goal of the count was to identify girls to be sent to England to fan Queen Victoria. The British officials wrestled with an inappropriate standard list, which made it difficult to classify such occupations in India as jokers and story-tellers, hail averters and prayer mutterers. In the UK that year, professions with the lowest counts included one bee dealer, 19 peg makers and 9 artificial eye-makers.

Officials in the UK have often been challenged by responses on household occupations. In 1911 a family from Birkenhead included a tom cat, listed as a mouse-catcher and a family from Dulwich included Roger, their watchdog. In the same year there were questions on medical ailments. In this section, John Underwood from Hastings described his children as, ‘quarrelsome’, ‘stubborn’, ‘greedy’ and ‘noisy’, himself as ‘bad-tempered’ and his wife as suffering from a ‘long tongue’.

From 1951 until 1991, households were asked if they had an outside toilet. References to “housewife” for example, were seen in the 1971 and 1981 census but by the 1990s the term had been replaced with the gender-neutral option “looking after the home or family”. Religious belief was included in the census for the first time in 150 years in 2001. Beforehand an email campaign tried to persuade people to record their religion as Jedi and 390,000 people declared that they had adopted the Star Wars religion. Ten years later, the number of Jedi believers had fallen somewhat – but at 176,632, it was the UK’s seventh most popular “religion”.

 

 

Cold Caller

COLD CALLER

(A true story) I was awoken just after 7am the other morning by the telephone ringing. Staggering out to the landing to answer it, I was greeted by a gentleman informing me that there had been suspicious activity on the internet corrupting my computer. As this was not a recorded message but a real live person, rather than slam the receiver down I asked the caller if he knew what ungodly time it was; having established that he was probably ringing from the UK and not some far off country I decided that having been dragged from my bed earlier than intended I now had time to spare to play along with his requests.

As usual with these callers he requested I switch on my computer. I pointed out that this was in another room and it would take a few minutes. So off I went to the toilet before returning to inform my caller that the computer was now switched on. Next request was the information about what I could see and I dutifully described my screen saver picture to him. Very patiently he asked me to enter my internet provider screen; off to clean my teeth. Next request on my return was to go to the ‘page from where I could call up the internet’. Off to have a shave.

On my return, he asked if I had a mobile phone or a laptop to save my having to wander off to perform each request; regrettably I lied that I possessed neither. Next idea was maybe I could move the computer nearer to the phone, this I informed him that it may be possible but I would need to unplug everything and set it up nearby and it would take a while, he agreed to wait. I went off and had a shower.

A very patient operator was still there, as I dried myself. He dictated a web site address I needed to enter. Poor hearing! I got it wrong, returned to confirm what he had asked me to enter. Now fully dry, time to think about what to wear today.

Few more delays and he was obviously coming to the conclusion that I was somebody who had little knowledge about computers and he could see an easy scam on the horizon; I did nothing to change his views.

One or two more delays, and I was fully dressed and ready to go and have some breakfast. With having to interrupt my morning ablutions to chat with the fellow, nearly half an hour had passed. I thanked my caller for being so patient with a brief explanation of what I had been doing during my numerous absences and hung up.

On reaching the kitchen the downstairs telephone rang; again, it was my computer man upset at what my scam had cost him in time and phone charges. With a smile on my face I happily went about my daily business

 

 

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