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Iceni News New Hope At Minidonk HQ
New Life And New Hope At Minidonk HQ
Miniature Donkeys for Wellbeing (Minidonks), a Norfolk-based social enterprise which delivers mood-boosting miniature donkey visits across the region, has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, losing over £30,000 of income since lockdown in March. But now there is new hope, and a new life to celebrate at Minidonk HQ.
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Founder and Managing Director of Minidonks, Sarah McPherson, explains, “One of our Minidonks, Saffy, was pregnant, and held on to her baby for the full 13 months of her term. We were so relieved when she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy donkey on 1st August. After a bit of a rocky start, mum and baby are now doing very well. When he was born we nicknamed him Little Jack Rabbit, because he was so small, with these huge ears, and beautiful brown/grey coat, and the name has just stuck. He will be a huge hit with people when we can resume our wellbeing visits for people with life limiting conditions.”
“And the news just gets better. After being turned away from many funding sources because they were just completely oversubscribed, we are delighted to hear that South Norfolk Council are making us a grant of £5,000. We
cannot thank South Norfolk Council enough, and this funding will ensure that we will be able to survive, source suitable PPE and retrain all our volunteers in covid-safe working practices.”
People can support Mindonks by sponsoring their new donkey Jack. All details can be found on their website, www.minidonks.org.uk
Miniature Donkeys for Wellbeing Ltd (Minidonks) is a social enterprise (not for profit) that provides therapeutic visits by miniature donkeys to people in a wide range of settings. They take their donkeys to care homes, hospitals, psychiatric units, dementia groups, special schools, youth groups, autism groups and more. They have delivered over 350 visits across Norfolk and Suffolk since their foundation in April 2017. The motivation for setting up the enterprise was the founder’s experience of both her parents developing dementia and benefitting from interacting with the donkeys.
www.minidonks.org.uk
FB @minidonks.org
The Diary of a Norfolk Family By Mark King
As you read this article, my family and I will have been back from our eventual holiday about a week or so.
What adventures we hopefully have will have to wait for another day. Our planned two weeks in Bulgaria went the way of everything else we Above: Mark King had planned for this year, and that was nowhere. Cancelled. That would make a great title for the first author that decided to write a book about this whole Covid-19 affair. 2020, The Year That Was Cancelled.
After the stress of having to sort out our now postponed holiday to Bulgaria, and the general cock-up that seems to be the government’s handling of all international travel not only pre-pandemic, during it and now with the 14 day quarantine periods for countries that changes on a weekly basis, we decide to stay as close to home as possible.
As we already enjoy the beautiful beaches of Norfolk as often as we can, we decided to try out for the first time the delights of the Cambridgeshire Fen lands, and booked five nights in a dog-friendly lodge at Ely Marina.
The main benefit of not travelling abroad is that we no longer have to put Percy our dog into kennels for two weeks, although we did lose our £60 deposit.
Now he is a fully integrated member of the King family, the closer we got to going abroad, the more it had tugged on our heart strings. It has come to the point that we now realise we can no longer have him caged up for even a day, and especially not for two weeks!
Next year, we already have him booked into my parents who will devour him with love, affection and enough cuddles for any mutt, plus we have people offering to help out taking him on long walks as well!
Which is quite ironic in a way, because here I was looking forward to life getting easier as the children grow up, becoming more independent, and less of a financial burden, and what do we go and do? We go and get ourselves a dog. A third child in the family!
www.always-hanging-around.blogspot.com
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Do You Believe In Ghosts?
It’s a question that is often asked and the honest answer for me is I am a fence sitter.
Above: Keri Beevis
Sixty percent of me believes there is something out there, while the other forty percent searches for rational explanations to any odd occurrences.
And there have certainly been a few of those.
As a child, I would often stay with my grandparents, who lived in the pretty Suffolk village of Long Melford. Now my grandparents were lovely, however, their house definitely had a vibe. In particular in the back bedroom where I would sometimes sleep. I can’t explain it, but when I was very young I would often become hysterical about staying in there, so much so that for a few years the sleeping arrangements changed so I didn’t have to, and I vividly remember having unsettling dreams in that room when I was a teenager. Dreams that didn’t actually feel like dreams.
Was there something in that house? I am open to the possibility.
Then we move on to the home in Norfolk where I grew up. In contrast, this always felt like a safe and happy place. Regular readers may recall I posted a few years back about the time I was home alone and the piano started playing. I am not going to lie, I completely pooped myself - in fact, it’s possibly the most frightened I have ever been - but I just don’t buy that it was a supernatural presence. It is far more plausible to me that Cody, our unsettled black Labrador, managed to get on his hind legs and press the keys.
Despite part of me remaining sceptical, it is a subject I find fascinating. Ghosts, spirits, anything unexplained, immediately piques my interest. I love
walking in the woods late at night, I am quite happy watching scary movies alone and with the lights off, I once played with a Ouija Board (have to admit that I would NEVER touch one of those again), and I have been on organised ghost tours on the Norfolk Broads and to Dudley Castle.
Have I ever felt anything that I can’t explain? Yes.
Have I ever seen anything that I can’t explain? No.
Would I like to see something that would give me proof? Now that depends.
With a group of people when I am feeling brave, the answer is yes, but home alone in the dead of night? That is a resounding no thank you.
I have teamed up with bestselling author, Stuart James, on his podcast, Stu’s Reviews, on Spotify for a series of shows where we will be discussing our love of the paranormal, as well as interviewing thriller authors and reviewing our favourite scary movies.
Please do come give us a follow.
My crime thriller, D For Dead is available to buy in paperback and Kindle now.
Follow me on Facebook or Twitter for more information.
How Quick Are You To Judge What Someone Does For A Living?
‘What do you do?’ is often an opening gambit when meeting a stranger. It’s deemed to be a safe, fairly neutral way of starting a conversation and getting to know someone.
But how influenced are we by someone’s reply? How much difference does it make if they say they’re a brain surgeon, nuclear scientist, cleaner or supermarket worker? How impressed are we by their answer?
Interestingly, many job titles have changed over recent years, presumably to deliver greater importance and gravitas to the roles: the use of ambiguous words like consultant, operative and adviser are now used liberally in job descriptions. Sometimes, it’s impossible to guess how powerful or senior the role is and some businesses prefer to keep it that way, wanting to maintain a more level playing field, with less apparent hierarchy. I know of at least one multi-millionaire businessman who refers to himself as a grocer!
And then there are those less common, perhaps more unusual jobs. If someone says they’re a taxidermist, funeral director or even a hypnotherapist, it can cause others to pause and be unsure as to whether they’re impressed or not!
Discovering what someone does typically results in us digesting that information and forming an opinion. For example, if someone says they’re a stay-at-home parent, do we automatically reflect on their circumstances, presuming them to be wealthy, privileged or lazy? Or if someone starts a cleaning job do, we speculate that they must be desperately trying to make ends meet? This was a comment I read on social media, prompting the writing of this article.
But each job, each role is a contribution to the overall running of a business, home or group. Different tiers in any organisation bring different levels of investment in its setup and smooth operation, with specific tasks designed to keep things moving. From management to maintenance to day-to-day operations, each has to pull together and appreciate the other’s role and value.
The surgeon needs a clean, well-maintained operating theatre in which to work. Then
there’s transport to and from the hospital, perhaps a morning coffee. Yes, highly qualified professionals are necessary but so too are the tradespeople, the joiners, electricians as well as the filing clerks, administrators and organisers.
We may be impressed by someone’s education, their commitment to their career, their status and wealth, but let’s not forget that there’s a back story to those who both have and haven’t achieved dizzy heights professionally.
Opportunity is a significant factor in education and career options. Where we’re born has a massive bearing on the opportunities open to us; from a supportive, stable family background, neighbourhood, to the right levels of teaching and encouragement. Family values and income levels are a factor. In some families gender is of significance, with a boys education being deemed more relevant than a girls.
Also, what else is going on in someone’s life, what juggling acts are they required to perform each day? Remember their reasons for how they fill their time are their business, not ours. We simply see the public face, the surface, not the level of difficulty required for them simply to get out of their front door.
Their circumstances may mean that they need a flexible job due to childcare issues, or have elderly relatives who require a lot of attention. They may be in recovery for personal reasons, need a low stress, low responsibility job as their first stepping-stone on the way back to real life, taking things slowly as they improve their confidence levels.
Or they may be new to an area, have had a massive change in circumstances, domestic arrangements, finances and are coming out of an especially tough time. Work may be less about money and status and more about getting out and meeting people, making social connections, almost a rehab, gently edging into a new routine, having somewhere to be.
Sometimes, a job may simply suit us; we’re happy to drift along. We’re taking care of ourselves, don’t need stress and responsibility, may have even left a more high-powered role and that’s fine. Work provides a reason to get up, wash, dress, turn up somewhere on time, meet people and earn a little money.
There’s more to work than simply a job title. It’s provides a purpose, order to life, being part of a team, maybe with others relying on your being there, all hopefully helping with confidence and job satisfaction. As Martin Luther King said, if you’re going to a road sweeper be the very best road sweeper you can be and take a pride in what you do.
One final note. We’ve all on occasion found a fantastic cleaner, handyman, gardener; they’re worth their weight in gold. So much so that we scarcely dare recommend them to our friends for fear that we’ll never be able to get them back! With that in mind, won’t it be interesting next time you ask someone, what do you do?
Article By Susan Leigh
Susan Leigh, counsellor, hypnotherapist, relationship counsellor, writer & media contributor, has published her third book, 101 Days of Inspiration #tipoftheday (ISBN 9781910275160) based on her social media series. A glossy, pocket-sized book, it's full of inspirational quotes & pictures, a treat to give or simply keep for yourself.
Old School Style With Modern Sound
This month sees more yet more audio gadgetry, but in the form of 2.1 active bookshelf speakers with an 8" sub!
This month, I am reviewing the Edifier S350DB Active 2.1 Bookshelf Speakers with (hefty) sub-woofer.
First off, these are REALLY heavy speakers! The 8" subwoofer is pretty cumbersome and as usual unpacking equipment it’s encased in polystyrene packaging and then two protective sleeves, so lifting it out of the box was fun!
The speakers are really nicely presented in old school wood-effect and they really looked-thepart, reminding me of the speaker systems from the 1980s, but without any of the garish stickers and flashing lights. Instead, this looks really high-end indeed and feels like a great, solid system. You have three speakers, two titanium dome tweeters and an 8" Subwoofer and ‘hockey-puck’ style Wireless remote control. Everything plugs into the subwoofer which is power directed from the mains. Audio controls are included on the side of the right-speaker as well as the remote.
Connectivity is provided by Bluetooth 4.1 aptX, RCA, optical, coaxial or AUX inputs which can be selected by the remote. It’s nice to see so many options and will allow for users to connect to their TVs, BluRay and mobile devices.
On the side of the right-speaker are three knobs to control bass, treble and volume. There is also a power light and Bluetooth light to indicate connectivity.
The S350DB is equipped with two bookshelf satellite speakers that have titanium dome tweeters that aid in producing a sound that
On the side of the right-speaker are three knobs to control bass, treble and volume.
‘hockey-puck’style Wireless remote control.
provides clear highs when listening to either movies or music and of course, the 8-inch subwoofer is capable of shaking the ground. In fact, while I was testing it, my phone started walking across the kitchen table! Connect it to your games console and it will feel like the house is coming down around you!
There are ‘reflex ports’ in the sides of each when they are pumping out sound and I’m told the bass reflex gives the rumbling lows that you will experience. The S350DB has a built-in amplifier that helps power and drives the speakers using digital signal processing. This helps the speakers provide a clear and standardised level when
speaker, which allow for the speakers to breathe processing digital signals.
The S350DB comes with a built-in amplifier that powers and amplifies both the bookshelf speakers and subwoofer. This system uses a dynamic range control for amplifying quiet sounds as well as reduce loud sounds might be unpleasant to listeners.
If you are looking for a set of durable, hefty speakers, then the Edifier S350DB will not disappoint, this is 20kg or 42lbs of quality audio equipment, highly recommended!
Everything plugs into the subwoofer which is power See you next month!
directed from the mains Matt
www.thegadgetman.org.uk
