SEPTEMBER 2020
SPOTLIGHT:
LOCAL CHARITY:
LOCAL ENVIRONMENT:
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arlier in the year I interviewed West Lothian’s “Sunday Dinner Lady” and published the article in our online version during lockdown. But they’ve been getting busier and busier and I felt it worth resharing the story in this edition.
Did you know Livingston has its own brand of rum? Liv launched in June, and has already picked up a prestigious award. It’s stocked in selected outlets in Livingston. So I’m delighted that they are offering Konect readers a chance to win a distillery tour and tasting session! I’ve done the tour and tasting so can say for sure it’s definitely worth getting your entry in! See page 32.
The Local Environment column is new since lockdown, bringing stunning photographs of wildlife by local photographers Scottish Sisters Photography. They have a permanent gallery on the BBC Wildlife Magazine website and are sharing in a monthly Konect column too. Please support local businesses where you can. This magazine is smaller than usual because some of those who usually brighten its pages are not able to get back to work yet.
Thanks for reading. As ever, drop me a line and let me know what you think.
u can know yo Did you to receive each e subscribissue of Konect e here new Subscrib online? scribe b u s scot/ konect.
THIS ISSUE Charity: Sunday Dinner Lady................................8 Local Environment: Azure Damselfly...............15 Property Matters......................................................16 Garden Project........................................................25 Charity: Carers of West Lothian.........................26 Health: Hair...............................................................30 Thought for the Month...........................................30 Win! Liv Rum............................................................32 Film Review...............................................................34 Parenting: Time to get going again!.................36
Konect is delivered to 20,000 homes throughout Livingston, alternating between two areas of 10,000 homes each. Copies are also left at libraries, community centres, convenience stores, post offices and other locations throughout Livingston.
HELEN-JANE SHEARER Editor
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CHARLENE GAFFNEY COVER IMAGE: Liv Rum: See P33. Photo Credit Matugga Distillers / PENNMANN @KonectMagazines
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Anne Wilson with dinner box
“Sunday dinner was always a tradition in my family,” says Winchburgh resident Anne Wilson, aka the Sunday Dinner Lady. “I love a Sunday roast. It brings the family together, and a plate of fresh hot food has an energy about it that you don’t get in the same way with dried and canned food. Dad and mum cooked, and we were all together to relax and eat, talk and laugh.” So when she heard about a friend who supplements the excellent work that the food banks do in East Lothian by providing fresh ingredients for a weekly Sunday roast, she immediately wanted to do the same for families in West Lothian. Since delivering the first box of dinner ingredients in January, Anne has been inundated with requests – and very positive feedback from the recipients. “We have delivered nearly 800 Sunday Dinners since January. During lockdown, we had more and more requests due to more people struggling financially.” she says. A box consists of everything you need to make a hearty roast from scratch: one fresh chicken (supermarket-wrapped, so cooking instructions are included), potatoes, three different vegetables, yorkshire puddings, gravy granules and a dessert. The size is suitable for the size of the receiving family. The servings are generous, and there are usually enough leftovers for a dinner on Monday night too or to freeze for another day. A vegetarian option is available on request, as are gluten free and dairy free products for families that have these intolerances. 8 | LIVINGSTON
“My family and I went through a hard time financially a few years back, and it was only through the support of friends and family that we survived. Gestures like inviting us out for a meal when money was really tight, meant the world to us. I want to be able to give that hope to others who are struggling; you can come through this.” In many cases, it’s a temporary period of difficulty, nothing to be embarrassed about, but a time when a helping hand can make all the difference between getting through or getting further behind.
There is so much about this that is good. Fresh food is logistically very hard for food banks to provide so for those relying on them, an injection of vibrant fresh vegetables offers a wonderful energy to start the week. “Many of the families we deliver to mention how much a good Sunday roast means to them, so to be able to offer it to their family, or to be able to invite friends round and share a hearty meal, means a lot.” This gesture of kindness, one meal, can give hope and a lift with benefits that last far beyond the time it takes to digest dinner!
While it might sound quite simple – assemble ingredients for a dinner and deliver it – there is a huge amount of work behind the scenes. Anne works full time as a sales team manager at Sky, has a husband and three children; the Sunday Dinners are all done in her “spare” time! She needs to be constantly applying for sources of funding and donations. Currently it is mostly funded by generous individuals donating on the Go Fund Me @KonectMagazines
page as well as some local supermarkets who donate fresh vegetables.
She has been joined by five other dedicated Sunday Dinner Ladies to help out. Anne, Mo, Tricia, Jude, Ann and Martha collect the donations, purchase the chicken and any other items needed and assemble the boxes. Then Friday afternoon is spent delivering.
Seven volunteers currently help with deliveries: Lisa, Jenni, Katharine, Fiona, Karen, Deborah and Thres. “My teenage daugher also help assemble the boxes and come with me to deliver, since she too is a fan of a Sunday roast!� says Anne. DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO WOULD BENEFIT FROM A SUNDAY DINNER BOX? You can directly refer, or self-refer to the Sunday Dinner Lady. Find the facebook page @Sundaydinnerlady and message them to start the process. You do not need to be in receipt of foodbank vouchers to receive a fresh Sunday dinner box.
Ultimately it will most likely be based on referrals from other organisations, but at this stage they are happy to help as many people as they can via direct referrals. CAN YOU HELP? Monetary donations are needed to buy the ingredients and to be able to increase the number of dinners provided each week. Please donate via Go Fund Me: www.gofundme.com/f/westlothian-fresh-sunday-dinners
Can you help assemble boxes or deliver on a Friday or Saturday? Please email wlfreshdinnerboxes@gmail.com or message them via the facebook page www.facebook.com/Sundaydinnerlady For more information visit www.facebook.com/sundaydinnerlady This article was written by Helen-Jane Shearer after meeting Anne in Livingston. Helen-Jane is the editor of Konect magazines and lives in West Lothian with her family. @KonectMagazines
** Sunday Dinner Lady - West Lothian Fresh Sunday Dinner Boxes is not yet a registered charity but status will be applied for as soon as possible. LIVINGSTON
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AKT Bookkeeping Tax Returns • Accounts, Bookkeeping • Payroll, CIS • VAT Phone Kevin on 01506 201459 from 8.00am to 4.00pm or emailkevin@aktbookkeeping.co.uk
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LOCAL ENVIRONMENT
Little Boghead’s Blue Jewels At this time of year many of our wetland areas are alive with insects and what may stand out most is the dainty blue of the azure damselfly buzzing about the grass. At Little Boghead Nature Reserve in Bathgate, there are hundreds of them, plus common and large red damselflies. The little brother to the larger dragonflies, they’ve become somewhat of an addictive species to watch and photograph. As we come into the time of year when both can commonly be seen you might wonder how to tell the difference between the two species. There are a couple of things to look for: • Dragonflies have larger, broader bodies with eyes that face forwards. Their flight pattern can best be described as jerky as they zip back and forth making sharp turns as if they’ve just hit a forcefield • Damselflies however have a very small, thin body plus a large gap between their eyes. They tend to flutter or hover in flight and are much less erratic than dragonflies Damselflies also hunt in cold weather, which is why they can be found much earlier in the year but will be around until September @KonectMagazines
meaning, there’s still time to see them. Whilst they’re easily disturbed, we’d suggest just waiting a few minutes because they’ll normally come back to land at the same perch. Little Boghead Nature Reserve is an excellent place to visit, with boardwalks surrounding the ponds giving a perfect viewing platform to watch the huge variety of wildlife. This column is contributed by Clare Harte and Kate Stevenson, who grew up in Edinburgh and now live in West Lothian. Together they run Scottish Sisters Photography and travel around the country to watch and photograph amazing wildlife and scenic landscapes. www.scottishsistersphotography.com LIVINGSTON | 15
PROPERTY MATTERS
Since the re-opening of the property market in June, sales activity across West Lothian has been nothing short of spectacular! This was predicted in the usual city ‘hot spots’ however I doubt anyone could have expected the market to bounce back quite so strongly.
This is of course great news for sellers, with more closing dates set in July than in any previous year and many ceiling prices across West Lothian reaching new levels. But what does this market mean for buyers, and how can they best navigate and negotiate the current conditions? In a ‘seller’s market’, the biggest challenge buyers face is competition from other buyers, and when properties are attracting interest from multiple parties, the position of each buyer can be the difference between a successful purchase or losing out. Only by fully understanding a buyer’s needs in context can an agent direct that buyer to the most suitable homes. A deeper understanding of buyers also means that the agent can discover what has prompted the move, the likely timescale involved, and whether there are related sale or finance issues to be addressed. This is where the skills of a good estate agent come in, and part of an estate agent’s job is to identify the most able and motivated buyers. The issue for agents in the current market is not a lack of buyer enquiries, but which of those enquiries will turn out to be
serious and in the best position to introduce and recommend to their selling clients.
With the market moving so quickly and demand for properties so high, closing dates have become very common. This process is still a very popular and fair method of buying and selling properties in Scotland, allowing buyers to submit offers on a set date and time. The primary aim of the agent is to achieve the best price for the seller. However, when multiple offers are received and competition is strong, the decision on which offer to accept doesn’t always go to the highest bidder. A buyer in a strong ‘position’ can be more appealing to a seller if they are, for example ‘chain free’, under offer, in rented accommodation, sold, first time buyers, funds in place etc, even if the price they have offered is not the highest. When registering with an agent or enquiring about a property, make sure you provide as much information to the agent as possible and be guided by their advice on maximising your buying position. A successful sale does not depend solely on the suitability of the property, but also on whether the buyer’s circumstances are compatible with those of the seller.
The monthly Property Matters column is contributed by Craig Turpie. Craig is a director at Turpie & Co Estate Agents and Letting Agents with extensive knowledge of the West Lothian Property Market and over 20 years experience in bespoke sales and marketing. Website: www.turpies.com 16 | LIVINGSTON
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Autumn Bulb Magic This is the time of year that we need to plant bulbs that flower in the Spring. This picture shows our autumn/winter pot reaching its peak display in the early spring. We planted maroon pansies after the middle of September, having taken out the summer flowering plants, teasing up the compost that had become quite compressed in the pot and adding some controlled release fertiliser pellets to feed the new residents. The pot is made of frost-proof recycled plastic and the maroon petals blended very well with the cheerful pink pot. The pansies delighted all winter and then the buried treasure of bulbs magically appeared in March: the small white starry Chionodoxa; the bold pink, fragrant Hyacinths; the airy white Daffodil Thalia. The three stars
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Autumn/Winter Pot performed at the same time, making a great ’wow’ on the patio. You can choose bulbs that flower one after the other to extend the display, we have recipes for several different displays. You can also choose other little plants to give the autumn/winter display in your pot. The gardening project is contributed by Dougal Philip, New Hopetoun Gardens. Inspiring, informing and entertaining, for more than 40 years.
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PUZZLES
CROSSWORD
Still very much here for all our carers, young carers and disabled adults
Solution in the October edition of Konect ACROSS: 1. Hairy and unkempt (6), 4. Detector (6), 9. Make comprehensible (7), 10. Vagabond (5), 11. Fear greatly (5), 12. Empowered (7), 13. Sections (11), 18. Replicating (7), 20. Ransack (5), 22. Presses (5), 23. Where plays are performed (7), 24. Required (6), 25. Remained (6). DOWN: 1. Firm (6), 2. Round fleshy fruit (5), 3. Your parent’s mother (7), 5. Surplus (5), 6. Type of onion (7), 7. Fast running waterways (6), 8. Make inquiries (11), 14. Detonate (7), 15. Sincere (7), 16. Activity (6), 17. Rely upon (6), 19. Publication (5), 21. Not lean (5).
Solution in the October edition of Konect
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Over the past few months we have adapted how we provide a service to our unpaid carers and disabled adult service users. We successfully moved all our support groups to Zoom, and have seen service users engage with us who have not in a long time. The groups include our weekly Coffee Morning and Young Carers groups; and our monthly groups include mental health support, our evening support group, bereaved carers and our young adult carers. We have also held our disability social groups through Zoom. We ‘ve introduced a virtual Power of Attorney Clinic and Benefits Advice Clinic. These services had been on hold and we wanted to get them back up and running as they are still very much needed. Our counselling service is also still going strong, also available via Zoom/ telephone. We recognise that times are tough, and thanks both to people donating their time and through our own donations fund we’ve been able to offer a lot of activities: dancercise, tai chi and mindfulness, fortnightly entertainment such as a magic show, quizzes (where prizes have been won), a silent disco – we have something planned right up until Christmas! We have held two afternoon tea for 80 service users. It was so nice being able to chat with them in person. Our young carers received activity packs through out the summer and participated in our online ‘Olympic Games’. We provide PPE for unpaid carers and personal assistants providing personal care. Service users just need to call us and if they meet the criteria, and we will deliver it. For more information please contact Carers of West Lothian: 01506 448005 office@carers-westlothian.com www.carers-westlothian.com @KonectMagazines
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How to manage unruly curls If you have naturally wavy, kinky, or curly hair then the most important first step to embracing it is to get the condition to its optimum. Moisture treatments will improve the elasticity and will smooth the cuticle, eliminating the dreaded ‘frizz’. Make sure your shampoo routine includes good quality moisturising shampoo and after treating your hair make sure to rinse it well. Rake your hair out with a wide tooth comb. The less tension the better, for more volume do this upside down.
Products ideal for taming the curl would be something with an oil, hold, and a conditioning element ( I love Davines, OI all in one milk). Saturate the hair in your product and gently rub in circle motions with either your diffuser or with your head upside down and using your hands to gently massage the hair whilst adding the heat from your dryer. Continue until it’s fully dry. Use an oil to twist your curls in to place, and if needed you can tong a couple of the looser curls to add to the effect. I prefer to do this without putting a parting in - let it fall really natural and embrace the texture you have.
The Hair column is contributed by Sophie Laidlaw. Sophie is Director @wonderland Livingston. www.wonderlandlivingston.co.uk 30 | LIVINGSTON
RESILIENCE: FINDING YOUR INNER STRENGTH Developing resilience is about being able to cope with adversity and push through difficulties.
The benefits include growing a deeper sense of well-being, feeling less anxious and irritated and bouncing back from life’s challenges with more ease. Also, when the waves of life come at you, you can meet them differently. It all sounds easy! But of course it isn’t! It takes work, cultivation of mindfulness and compassion, finding and building resource, growing gratitude and being courageous. But as we build a strong back to support ourselves we can also cultivate a soft front to be open and receptive to the challenges we face and hold it all with an open heart of kindness and love as we learn to care for ourselves. Resilient people know that life throws curve balls! They are impossible to escape - see if you can find someone who has managed a lifetime without any! Resilient people are really good at knowing where they select their attention. By realistically appraising situations, you can look at things differently. Change happens; good changes to bad, bad to good. This is life! By selecting attention through mindful practice you don’t have to live in the negative in the mind, you can see and grow the good that is always available. There is another aspect to resilient people; they ask themselves “is what I am doing helping me or harming me?”. Pause and reflect on all of this. As Albert Einstein said, “In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity.” Tina Gilbert lives in Livingston and teaches** yoga and meditation. Visit her website at www.yogamed.co.uk (**All my classes are currently running online) @KonectMagazines
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SPOTLIGHT
Paul & Jacine
The ingredients for making gold medal-winning rum You might think it’s all in the molasses, carefully sourced, distilled and teased into life in their copper pot stills. But you’d be only partially correct.
The ingredients of the new and award-winning “Liv” brand of rum, which is distilled right here in Livingston by Matugga Distillers are: a rumdistilling Caribbean heritage, an East African connection with sugar, a passion for the land and what can be achieved when we work in harmony with it; and a large measure of serious scientific know-how. It’s as much to do with these ingredients as the molasses, the handcrafted alembic stills, and interestingly, the foraged botanicals that are going into some of their creative new rums. I visited husband and wife team Paul and Jacine at their distillery in Livingston to find out more - and of course to taste the rum. Paul grew up in Uganda. He is a civil engineer by training and has long been a whisky connoisseur. Jacine grew up in London and is a corporate marketer. Back in Jamaica where her family hails from, rum is the national spirit. Long evenings with family and friends enjoying good food, craic and camaraderie as a bottle of the finest slowly disappears has always been part of Paul and Jacine’s social life. The seeds of their rum journey were sown during family visits back to Uganda, where the sugar and molasses industry is massive. “We thought, why not take this molasses grown in our homeland and make rum from it?” Production of their first batch of Matugga Rum was outsourced to a distiller in England - they were living in Kingston upon Thames at the time and both working full time in their own careers. Matugga is the name of a town in Uganda just north of Kampala, where the family owns land. It’s an artisan range of speciality cask-aged golden and spiced rums, and was quickly picked up by a French distributor. They found themselves thrown in at the deep end with exportation! When contract 32 | LIVINGSTON
manufacturing quality concerns arose, they decided to take the plunge, leave their careers and go full time into distilling for themselves. Heriot-Watt University came up as offering worldclass expertise in Brewing and Distilling. So, with their two young daughters, they arrived in West Lothian in 2017 so that Paul could do the course and they could follow the dream. It’s been a good move in every way. “I knew Paul would be a good distiller,” says Jacine. And it seems she’s not the only one! As I was there for this interview the news came in that their new Liv white rum brand has just won gold at The Rum and Cachaça Masters 2020 competition. White rum is taken straight from the still, unsweetened and unaged, showcasing the distiller’s pure copper-pot craft, and to win a gold medal is an extraordinary achievement. The latest gold medal follows several other prestigious awards for the new distiller, such as winning the Women’s Enterprise Scotland Start-up of the Year 2019. They have a cask-exchange arrangement with Whyte and Mackay, so they use oak casks that have been used once for Scotch whisky. There is much more to come from this collaboration, watch this space. Innovative cask-ageing is in the DNA of this distillery, as they demonstrated through the release of an acacia-cask special limited edition rum last year. “We’re loving it here in West Lothian,” enthuses Jacine. “Our girls are thriving, and my mum has now moved up from London too to be with us. We also make regular trips to Uganda to keep up with Paul’s family.” In response to the appeal to distilleries to assist the country’s shortage of hand sanitiser, Matugga Distillers quickly switched the production focus at their rum distillery. They produced and donated over 1,000 litres @KonectMagazines
This article was written by Helen-Jane Shearer after visiting Matugga Distillery in Livingston, speaking with Paul and Jacine and tasting the rum! Helen-Jane is the editor of Konect magazines and lives in West Lothian with her family. @KonectMagazines
IN WHICH COUNTRY IS THE TOWN MATUGGA LOCATED? Send your entry to win@konect.scot to arrive no later than 15th September 2020. Please include your full name and postcode. Winners will be drawn at random after the closing date and informed via the email address used to enter.
PHOTO CREDIT: PENNMANN
Simply answer the following question for your chance to win:
PHOTO CREDIT: PENNMANN
of sanitiser to local healthcare providers, frontline services and community workers as well as selling critical supplies to local businesses. In time, the conventional suppliers of sanitiser were able to boost their production levels and Matugga Distillers reverted to prioritising their conventional business of distilling artisan rum. They officially unveiled their innovative new Liv Rum collection in June, and landed a regional listing with the Co-op. Liv is now available in the Bankton Retail Centre, Howden West and Craigshill Shopping Centre Co-op stores in Livingston. The next stage in fact relates to the family’s land in Matugga; they are planning to start a sugar cane plantation, so eventually the complete cane to cask process will be wholly owned by themselves. “There is a lot of unfairness in the sugarcane sector, and we want to better support the livelihoods of sugarcane growers in East Africa,” explains Jacine. They forage for local ingredients across Scotland such as lavender and heather to infuse into their new spiced and flavoured Liv rums, an innovative approach normally more associated with gin. They insist that the botanicals added are real plants, not bottled flavours. I tasted their Liv raspberry and hibuscus rum liqueur and their honey and lavender version. Needless to say, my verdict concurs perfectly with the judges who gave Liv a gold! The strap line “African soul, crafted in Scotland” is true in every detail.
We have a pair of tickets for Matugga Distillers’ distillery tour and tasting on Friday October 9th to give away to Konect readers!
Liv Black Spiced Rum Matugga land in Uganda
Follow Matugga Rum and Liv Rum online to keep up to date with events. Social media: Website: Contact:
@matuggarum www.matuggarum.com info@matuggarum.com LIVINGSTON | 33
PHOTO CREDIT: Matugga Distillers
The award-winning “Liv Rum” is now available in the Bankton Retail Centre, Howden West, Craigshill Shopping Centre Co-op stores in Livingston. “Liv” in Nordic languages means “good living.” It expresses Jacine and Paul’s approach to life and references Livingston perfectly.
Saying Hamilton took the theatre world by storm is a bit of an understatement. The success of Hamilton honestly blew us all away as hip hop and theatre haven’t really meshed well.
But for almost five years the majority of people have not had the opportunity to be in the room where the show happens as tickets cost an arm and leg. This changed on July 3rd, when Disney released a recording of Hamilton onto Disney+. This contained the original Broadway cast, providing viewers with the ultimate dream performance that money can no longer buy. So, when I clicked play, I finally discovered what I have been missing out on by not seeing the show in person. >> >> Skip 2 hours and 40 minutes.
I was more than just satisfied with Hamilton; I was absolutely blown away. Hamilton is one of the best musicals I have ever seen, and this recording is one of the best filmed stage shows ever produced. The camera work is incredible and the only time it feels like you are watching a stage show is when you hear the crowd reacting to scenes. All of the acting is fantastic with Leslie Odom Jr. being the true standout but surprisingly creator Lin-Manual Miranda is the weakest of this extraordinary cast.
The songs are incredible and easily get stuck in your head, I have honestly been listening to the soundtrack non-stop since finishing the show and I can’t wait to re-watch it and experience it again. The Film Review is contributed by Robert Ewing. Robert is passionate about film as an art form, and shining a light on films that may not be on people’s radar. Robert is from Kirknewton.
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Time to get going again!? During lockdown all we had was time. Nothing but time… and the pressure to find things to do with the kids that would fill the unknown number of days stretching ahead of us. And at the same time there wasn’t enough time. Not enough time in the day to work and home school and learn a new skill (as apparently we were supposed to be doing with all the free time we suddenly had…or not as the case may be). Either way time seemed to stand still for a while. But now the clock has started ticking again. Yet still I find myself thinking about how we are spending our days. Before this pandemic our days were full. I spent my time rushing between work and school and the kids’ activities. I wanted to make sure they didn’t miss out on opportunities or things they wanted to try. I was always frantically shovelling food into
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them and racing out the door to the next thing.
The path out of lockdown has been slow and all these activities haven’t really kicked off again yet. But now that the kids are back at school I can see it looming ahead of us. And truth be told I’m not sure I really want to jump back on that hamster wheel. My eldest brought home a worksheet from her first day back at school with questions about her “time away”: What was the most fun thing you did? What are you most proud of? What have you missed the most?
want to drop local activity providers like a hot potato when they are desperate to get their livelihoods back up and running. But if 2020 has given me anything positive it’s a new perspective (sounds totally cheesy I know) and a need to find a better balance in our lives going forward. Starting with less rushing about, and more making the most of the family time we have together.
It occurred to me as we talked about it that all the things she came up with were things we probably wouldn’t be able to do much any more if we went back to the way things were. And she hadn’t really missed any of those activities that made our life so busy.
So while I vow to support local businesses as much as I can - hopefully doing my bit to ensure there is light at the end of this tunnel for all of us - I am determined not to get sucked back into the vortex of too many after-school activities. First step – reclaiming our weekends!
So as my inbox fills up with emails from various dance and drama and swimming teachers telling me how excited they are so get started again…I’ve found a new source of mum guilt. I don’t want to deprive my kids of activities they love, and I don’t
The parenting column is contributed by Laura Archibald. Laura lives in West Lothian with her family and their campervan Hank. She is mummy, wife, blogger and full-time personal assistant to her two girlie girls. @KonectMagazines
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