Sandra Sampson

Last Thursday I was invited by our Motiv-8 team in Honiton to welcome guests to our inaugural launch event of the Restart Programme at The Beehive in Honiton. It was a fantastic event attended by representatives from The Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership, Devon County Council, the Lord Mayor of Honiton, Seetec Pluss, Cosmic and dignitaries from all those organisations involved with Restart in the East Devon area. The team laid on a wonderful spread of locally made cupcakes, teas, coffees and decorated the room with balloons and a slide show highlighting our work. It was a real celebration and enabled those present to meet our amazing team personally. During 2020 the Government’s spending review identified a need to help people into work post Covid and the chancellor allocated £2.9 billion as part of the “plan for jobs”. Anyone who is currently claiming Universal Credit and has been out of work for between 12 to 18 months can now access enhanced support to find jobs. The Restart Scheme will help to break down employment barriers that could be holding people back from finding work. Motiv-8 will work with employers, local government and other partners to deliver tailored support for individuals. This chimes exactly with our own philosophy of “Every Individual Matters” which always remains at the forefront of our work. Referrals will be made over a three-year period and the Restart Scheme will benefit more than 1 million Universal Credit claimants nationally, who are expected to look for and be available for work but have no sustained earnings. The scheme will provide up to 12 months of tailored support for each participant. Early access can be considered on a case by case basis where conversations with a Job Centre work coach suggest this is the most appropriate route for the individual. Seetec Pluss were selected as the prime contractors in the South West of England and Motiv-8 are working in partnership with Seetec Pluss to get 2,000 people back into work in East Devon. Based out of The Honiton Beehive, the team have already started on this challenging mission. They have already had some wonderful successes as people have moved into local jobs, thanks to the amazing coaches within the team. The wonderful thing about all of this is it is a local organisation helping local people back into work and this was pointed out by Phill Willis from the Heart of the South West LEP during his speech at the opening. Previously large Government schemes have meant that people from miles away would be expected to help local people back into work. The advantages of the current local arrangement are for all to see as the success rate already shows Motiv-8 appearing at the top of some of the South West league tables for their work in East Devon. Localisation is surely something that has come out of Covid particularly in the agricultural, food and beverage and manufacturing industries. The empty supermarket shelves, the predicted shortage of turkeys, the threatened slaughter and disposal of healthy pigs are all evidence of the national systems’ failings. I hope and believe localisation is here to stay because local money then stays in and supports the local region through Jobs and local buying. Motiv-8 itself has already created eight new jobs in the region as a result of Restart even before it starts in its own role of bridging the gap between potential employees and employers. If you live in East Devon, within the Honiton Job Centre catchment area and you are interested in getting onto the Restart scheme please contact your local Job Centre or speak to your Job Coach. If you are a local employer who is recruiting please do get in touch with Robbie at Motiv-8 on 01392 873939 or Robert.Gardiner@motiv-8sw.co.uk. They are all here to help East Devon get back on its feet again post Covid.

Last Thursday I was invited by our Motiv-8 team in Honiton to welcome guests to our inaugural launch event of the Restart Programme at The Beehive in Honiton. It was a fantastic event attended by representatives from The Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership, Devon County Council, the Lord Mayor of Honiton, Seetec Pluss, Cosmic and dignitaries from all those organisations involved with Restart in the East Devon area. The team laid on a wonderful spread of locally made cupcakes, teas, coffees and decorated the room with balloons and a slide show highlighting our work. It was a real celebration and enabled those present to meet our amazing team personally. During 2020 the Government’s spending review identified a need to help people into work post Covid and the chancellor allocated £2.9 billion as part of the “plan for jobs”. Anyone who is currently claiming Universal Credit and has been out of work for between 12 to 18 months can now access enhanced support to find jobs. The Restart Scheme will help to break down employment barriers that could be holding people back from finding work. Motiv-8 will work with employers, local government and other partners to deliver tailored support for individuals. This chimes exactly with our own philosophy of “Every Individual Matters” which always remains at the forefront of our work. Referrals will be made over a three-year period and the Restart Scheme will benefit more than 1 million Universal Credit claimants nationally, who are expected to look for and be available for work but have no sustained earnings. The scheme will provide up to 12 months of tailored support for each participant. Early access can be considered on a case by case basis where conversations with a Job Centre work coach suggest this is the most appropriate route for the individual. Seetec Pluss were selected as the prime contractors in the South West of England and Motiv-8 are working in partnership with Seetec Pluss to get 2,000 people back into work in East Devon. Based out of The Honiton Beehive, the team have already started on this challenging mission. They have already had some wonderful successes as people have moved into local jobs, thanks to the amazing coaches within the team. The wonderful thing about all of this is it is a local organisation helping local people back into work and this was pointed out by Phill Willis from the Heart of the South West LEP during his speech at the opening. Previously large Government schemes have meant that people from miles away would be expected to help local people back into work. The advantages of the current local arrangement are for all to see as the success rate already shows Motiv-8 appearing at the top of some of the South West league tables for their work in East Devon. Localisation is surely something that has come out of Covid particularly in the agricultural, food and beverage and manufacturing industries. The empty supermarket shelves, the predicted shortage of turkeys, the threatened slaughter and disposal of healthy pigs are all evidence of the national systems’ failings. I hope and believe localisation is here to stay because local money then stays in and supports the local region through Jobs and local buying. Motiv-8 itself has already created eight new jobs in the region as a result of Restart even before it starts in its own role of bridging the gap between potential employees and employers. If you live in East Devon, within the Honiton Job Centre catchment area and you are interested in getting onto the Restart scheme please contact your local Job Centre or speak to your Job Coach. If you are a local employer who is recruiting please do get in touch with Robbie at Motiv-8 on 01392 873939 or Robert.Gardiner@motiv-8sw.co.uk. They are all here to help East Devon get back on its feet again post Covid.

Last Thursday I was invited by our Motiv-8 team in Honiton to welcome guests to our inaugural launch event of the Restart Programme at The Beehive in Honiton. It was a fantastic event attended by representatives from The Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership, Devon County Council, the Lord Mayor of Honiton, Seetec Pluss, Cosmic and dignitaries from all those organisations involved with Restart in the East Devon area. The team laid on a wonderful spread of locally made cupcakes, teas, coffees and decorated the room with balloons and a slide show highlighting our work. It was a real celebration and enabled those present to meet our amazing team personally. During 2020 the Government’s spending review identified a need to help people into work post Covid and the chancellor allocated £2.9 billion as part of the “plan for jobs”. Anyone who is currently claiming Universal Credit and has been out of work for between 12 to 18 months can now access enhanced support to find jobs. The Restart Scheme will help to break down employment barriers that could be holding people back from finding work. Motiv-8 will work with employers, local government and other partners to deliver tailored support for individuals. This chimes exactly with our own philosophy of “Every Individual Matters” which always remains at the forefront of our work. Referrals will be made over a three-year period and the Restart Scheme will benefit more than 1 million Universal Credit claimants nationally, who are expected to look for and be available for work but have no sustained earnings. The scheme will provide up to 12 months of tailored support for each participant. Early access can be considered on a case by case basis where conversations with a Job Centre work coach suggest this is the most appropriate route for the individual. Seetec Pluss were selected as the prime contractors in the South West of England and Motiv-8 are working in partnership with Seetec Pluss to get 2,000 people back into work in East Devon. Based out of The Honiton Beehive, the team have already started on this challenging mission. They have already had some wonderful successes as people have moved into local jobs, thanks to the amazing coaches within the team. The wonderful thing about all of this is it is a local organisation helping local people back into work and this was pointed out by Phill Willis from the Heart of the South West LEP during his speech at the opening. Previously large Government schemes have meant that people from miles away would be expected to help local people back into work. The advantages of the current local arrangement are for all to see as the success rate already shows Motiv-8 appearing at the top of some of the South West league tables for their work in East Devon. Localisation is surely something that has come out of Covid particularly in the agricultural, food and beverage and manufacturing industries. The empty supermarket shelves, the predicted shortage of turkeys, the threatened slaughter and disposal of healthy pigs are all evidence of the national systems’ failings. I hope and believe localisation is here to stay because local money then stays in and supports the local region through Jobs and local buying. Motiv-8 itself has already created eight new jobs in the region as a result of Restart even before it starts in its own role of bridging the gap between potential employees and employers. If you live in East Devon, within the Honiton Job Centre catchment area and you are interested in getting onto the Restart scheme please contact your local Job Centre or speak to your Job Coach. If you are a local employer who is recruiting please do get in touch with Robbie at Motiv-8 on 01392 873939 or Robert.Gardiner@motiv-8sw.co.uk. They are all here to help East Devon get back on its feet again post Covid.

It is evident from the media that many people are struggling to make ends meet and currently it appears to be the likelihood of many weeks and months ahead of shortages and increased prices. Maybe even another lost Christmas! It got me thinking of my childhood and also some of the stories my parents and grandparents told about hard times. After World War II people became used to making do and hence there was a new generation of people who made their own clothes, grew their own vegetables, and serviced their own machinery. Granted that in many ways things were a lot simpler then, but I think some of us are suffering from “learned helplessness” in this modern world. What do I mean by this? We are a consumer driven society, where everything is done for us by someone; everything is quickly and easily accessible either online or in our supermarkets. And when there is a problem people generally seek help from others via the iPhone and internet. Have we been slowly losing the ability to sort and fix things ourselves? Maybe we have to think about how we can become more robust and resilient in helping ourselves as households. I remember my mother making us clothes using her sewing machine and my father’s vast collection of tools and gadgets was a manufacturing unit in its own right, apart from serious electrics and plumbing he would fix anything and everything around the house. Have we lost many of these skills today? Self-help is great within a community and we have seen so much more of it during lockdowns but it is also great within a household and equally so in the workplace. I recently reminisced that as a child I did not watch much TV, we only had three channels that eventually became four. So, myself and my sisters explored the wilds of Combe Martin. We entertained ourselves. We did not need to be entertained by our busy parents. We did not have new clothes, we wore hand-me-downs. We walked or cycled to places when buses were unavailable. When something broke we mended it and we did not take it down to the tip for disposal. We built or created our own toys from the remnants of things around the house, our expectations of owning the latest iPhone or gadget did not exist. We were truly resilient and not so dependent on state support or easy borrowing. If you could not afford it you did not have it or saved for an age to buy something new. We went shopping twice a year to buy new school shoes and the odd new dress or item of school uniform. My eldest sister used to get the new clothes and we were so excited to receive her clothing that we had admired for so long. Now I know that life has changed and we will never return to those days and many may say thankfully so. There are many new technologies and advances that have improved our lives immensely but I do worry as we enter another period of post-Covid shortages that many of us will not remember or understand just how robust we can be as a nation, a community and as a family. I question how some of the younger members of our consumer society, who have never known anything different, will be able to cope if certain commodities become unavailable and they lose the immediacy of getting what they want when they want it. I would never tar everyone with the same brush, I do realise that there are many people who are genuinely unable to help themselves. But there are also many people out there who can help themselves better and by learning to do so they may well realise the satisfaction and fun they can have in making do with what they’ve got.

It is evident from the media that many people are struggling to make ends meet and currently it appears to be the likelihood of many weeks and months ahead of shortages and increased prices. Maybe even another lost Christmas! It got me thinking of my childhood and also some of the stories my parents and grandparents told about hard times. After World War II people became used to making do and hence there was a new generation of people who made their own clothes, grew their own vegetables, and serviced their own machinery. Granted that in many ways things were a lot simpler then, but I think some of us are suffering from “learned helplessness” in this modern world. What do I mean by this? We are a consumer driven society, where everything is done for us by someone; everything is quickly and easily accessible either online or in our supermarkets. And when there is a problem people generally seek help from others via the iPhone and internet. Have we been slowly losing the ability to sort and fix things ourselves? Maybe we have to think about how we can become more robust and resilient in helping ourselves as households. I remember my mother making us clothes using her sewing machine and my father’s vast collection of tools and gadgets was a manufacturing unit in its own right, apart from serious electrics and plumbing he would fix anything and everything around the house. Have we lost many of these skills today? Self-help is great within a community and we have seen so much more of it during lockdowns but it is also great within a household and equally so in the workplace. I recently reminisced that as a child I did not watch much TV, we only had three channels that eventually became four. So, myself and my sisters explored the wilds of Combe Martin. We entertained ourselves. We did not need to be entertained by our busy parents. We did not have new clothes, we wore hand-me-downs. We walked or cycled to places when buses were unavailable. When something broke we mended it and we did not take it down to the tip for disposal. We built or created our own toys from the remnants of things around the house, our expectations of owning the latest iPhone or gadget did not exist. We were truly resilient and not so dependent on state support or easy borrowing. If you could not afford it you did not have it or saved for an age to buy something new. We went shopping twice a year to buy new school shoes and the odd new dress or item of school uniform. My eldest sister used to get the new clothes and we were so excited to receive her clothing that we had admired for so long. Now I know that life has changed and we will never return to those days and many may say thankfully so. There are many new technologies and advances that have improved our lives immensely but I do worry as we enter another period of post-Covid shortages that many of us will not remember or understand just how robust we can be as a nation, a community and as a family. I question how some of the younger members of our consumer society, who have never known anything different, will be able to cope if certain commodities become unavailable and they lose the immediacy of getting what they want when they want it. I would never tar everyone with the same brush, I do realise that there are many people who are genuinely unable to help themselves. But there are also many people out there who can help themselves better and by learning to do so they may well realise the satisfaction and fun they can have in making do with what they’ve got.

It is evident from the media that many people are struggling to make ends meet and currently it appears to be the likelihood of many weeks and months ahead of shortages and increased prices. Maybe even another lost Christmas! It got me thinking of my childhood and also some of the stories my parents and grandparents told about hard times. After World War II people became used to making do and hence there was a new generation of people who made their own clothes, grew their own vegetables, and serviced their own machinery. Granted that in many ways things were a lot simpler then, but I think some of us are suffering from “learned helplessness” in this modern world. What do I mean by this? We are a consumer driven society, where everything is done for us by someone; everything is quickly and easily accessible either online or in our supermarkets. And when there is a problem people generally seek help from others via the iPhone and internet. Have we been slowly losing the ability to sort and fix things ourselves? Maybe we have to think about how we can become more robust and resilient in helping ourselves as households. I remember my mother making us clothes using her sewing machine and my father’s vast collection of tools and gadgets was a manufacturing unit in its own right, apart from serious electrics and plumbing he would fix anything and everything around the house. Have we lost many of these skills today? Self-help is great within a community and we have seen so much more of it during lockdowns but it is also great within a household and equally so in the workplace. I recently reminisced that as a child I did not watch much TV, we only had three channels that eventually became four. So, myself and my sisters explored the wilds of Combe Martin. We entertained ourselves. We did not need to be entertained by our busy parents. We did not have new clothes, we wore hand-me-downs. We walked or cycled to places when buses were unavailable. When something broke we mended it and we did not take it down to the tip for disposal. We built or created our own toys from the remnants of things around the house, our expectations of owning the latest iPhone or gadget did not exist. We were truly resilient and not so dependent on state support or easy borrowing. If you could not afford it you did not have it or saved for an age to buy something new. We went shopping twice a year to buy new school shoes and the odd new dress or item of school uniform. My eldest sister used to get the new clothes and we were so excited to receive her clothing that we had admired for so long. Now I know that life has changed and we will never return to those days and many may say thankfully so. There are many new technologies and advances that have improved our lives immensely but I do worry as we enter another period of post-Covid shortages that many of us will not remember or understand just how robust we can be as a nation, a community and as a family. I question how some of the younger members of our consumer society, who have never known anything different, will be able to cope if certain commodities become unavailable and they lose the immediacy of getting what they want when they want it. I would never tar everyone with the same brush, I do realise that there are many people who are genuinely unable to help themselves. But there are also many people out there who can help themselves better and by learning to do so they may well realise the satisfaction and fun they can have in making do with what they’ve got.

Like many other women I have often felt vulnerable walking alone at night. Locally we have experienced the murder of Lorraine Cox in Exeter and we have all watched and read the unfolding stories of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa, two innocent young women going about their business murdered in the most horrific and terrifying of ways. We are lucky to live in a beautiful part of the world and recent crime figures for Devon and Cornwall show there has been a 9.7% decrease in crime up to March 2021. Statistics show that 89% of females who are murdered are killed by someone they know. Men who target women they don’t know is very rare. But unfortunately, the large-scale media reporting of the brutal London murders seems to skew our perspective and actually make us feel more in danger than we actually are. Having said that, I think we can all think about our personal safety and avoid taking unnecessary risks. My daughter regularly runs during the evenings after work around Battersea Park in London and yesterday for the first time she said to me she did not feel safe. Some of the recent surveys I have seen say that between 40-50% of women do not feel safe out at night on their own. I think we feel far more threatened after the Sarah Everard murder because it was undertaken by a serving policeman. We are all taught to trust the law and sadly, current perspectives will have been changed on this after Sarah’s murder. I follow some basic rules that my husband who has worked in the security environment has taught me. If you know that you are going to be walking alone at night, especially in a poorly lit or lonely area, ensure someone knows what time you leave and when you are expected at your destination. If the area has a reputation for being unsafe then take a taxi or walk with a friend or family member. Always carry a torch and an alarm. Rape alarms are relatively cheap and can offer some sort of deterrence. Pick your route carefully, avoid dark unlit paths, stick to major routes that are busy and are more likely to have cameras on them. Always be aware of your surroundings, if you feel unsafe in an area then remove your headphones and take your hood down so you can increase your own vigilance. If you think you are being followed, do something about it like seeking shelter with others or remaining in a public place. If you feel safe enough to double back on yourself or stop to let the individual pass you, this can often be an excuse for some quiet window shopping and will offer some reassurance. Keep the individual where you can see them. Quicken up and slow down in a public area and see if the person you are suspicious of does the same. If you are still feeling vulnerable and there is no public place to escape, call the police and ring on a doorbell where there are lights on and seek sanctuary. It is ultimately very sad that women feel they have to go to these lengths to feel safe and I would hope that our education system can start to consider looking at how we can influence the culture of respect and better understanding of how we should treat one another at a younger age. This problem is not purely about women, men can feel the exact same feelings on our streets. Men can also play their part, when they spot a woman walking alone at night, do not follow them, especially if you are slowly gaining on the women in front of you. Cross the road and keep a distance to avoid any woman feeling nervous or scared. Thankfully these incidents are very rare but we all have a right to feel safe on our streets.

Like many other women I have often felt vulnerable walking alone at night. Locally we have experienced the murder of Lorraine Cox in Exeter and we have all watched and read the unfolding stories of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa, two innocent young women going about their business murdered in the most horrific and terrifying of ways. We are lucky to live in a beautiful part of the world and recent crime figures for Devon and Cornwall show there has been a 9.7% decrease in crime up to March 2021. Statistics show that 89% of females who are murdered are killed by someone they know. Men who target women they don’t know is very rare. But unfortunately, the large-scale media reporting of the brutal London murders seems to skew our perspective and actually make us feel more in danger than we actually are. Having said that, I think we can all think about our personal safety and avoid taking unnecessary risks. My daughter regularly runs during the evenings after work around Battersea Park in London and yesterday for the first time she said to me she did not feel safe. Some of the recent surveys I have seen say that between 40-50% of women do not feel safe out at night on their own. I think we feel far more threatened after the Sarah Everard murder because it was undertaken by a serving policeman. We are all taught to trust the law and sadly, current perspectives will have been changed on this after Sarah’s murder. I follow some basic rules that my husband who has worked in the security environment has taught me. If you know that you are going to be walking alone at night, especially in a poorly lit or lonely area, ensure someone knows what time you leave and when you are expected at your destination. If the area has a reputation for being unsafe then take a taxi or walk with a friend or family member. Always carry a torch and an alarm. Rape alarms are relatively cheap and can offer some sort of deterrence. Pick your route carefully, avoid dark unlit paths, stick to major routes that are busy and are more likely to have cameras on them. Always be aware of your surroundings, if you feel unsafe in an area then remove your headphones and take your hood down so you can increase your own vigilance. If you think you are being followed, do something about it like seeking shelter with others or remaining in a public place. If you feel safe enough to double back on yourself or stop to let the individual pass you, this can often be an excuse for some quiet window shopping and will offer some reassurance. Keep the individual where you can see them. Quicken up and slow down in a public area and see if the person you are suspicious of does the same. If you are still feeling vulnerable and there is no public place to escape, call the police and ring on a doorbell where there are lights on and seek sanctuary. It is ultimately very sad that women feel they have to go to these lengths to feel safe and I would hope that our education system can start to consider looking at how we can influence the culture of respect and better understanding of how we should treat one another at a younger age. This problem is not purely about women, men can feel the exact same feelings on our streets. Men can also play their part, when they spot a woman walking alone at night, do not follow them, especially if you are slowly gaining on the women in front of you. Cross the road and keep a distance to avoid any woman feeling nervous or scared. Thankfully these incidents are very rare but we all have a right to feel safe on our streets.

Like many other women I have often felt vulnerable walking alone at night. Locally we have experienced the murder of Lorraine Cox in Exeter and we have all watched and read the unfolding stories of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa, two innocent young women going about their business murdered in the most horrific and terrifying of ways. We are lucky to live in a beautiful part of the world and recent crime figures for Devon and Cornwall show there has been a 9.7% decrease in crime up to March 2021. Statistics show that 89% of females who are murdered are killed by someone they know. Men who target women they don’t know is very rare. But unfortunately, the large-scale media reporting of the brutal London murders seems to skew our perspective and actually make us feel more in danger than we actually are. Having said that, I think we can all think about our personal safety and avoid taking unnecessary risks. My daughter regularly runs during the evenings after work around Battersea Park in London and yesterday for the first time she said to me she did not feel safe. Some of the recent surveys I have seen say that between 40-50% of women do not feel safe out at night on their own. I think we feel far more threatened after the Sarah Everard murder because it was undertaken by a serving policeman. We are all taught to trust the law and sadly, current perspectives will have been changed on this after Sarah’s murder. I follow some basic rules that my husband who has worked in the security environment has taught me. If you know that you are going to be walking alone at night, especially in a poorly lit or lonely area, ensure someone knows what time you leave and when you are expected at your destination. If the area has a reputation for being unsafe then take a taxi or walk with a friend or family member. Always carry a torch and an alarm. Rape alarms are relatively cheap and can offer some sort of deterrence. Pick your route carefully, avoid dark unlit paths, stick to major routes that are busy and are more likely to have cameras on them. Always be aware of your surroundings, if you feel unsafe in an area then remove your headphones and take your hood down so you can increase your own vigilance. If you think you are being followed, do something about it like seeking shelter with others or remaining in a public place. If you feel safe enough to double back on yourself or stop to let the individual pass you, this can often be an excuse for some quiet window shopping and will offer some reassurance. Keep the individual where you can see them. Quicken up and slow down in a public area and see if the person you are suspicious of does the same. If you are still feeling vulnerable and there is no public place to escape, call the police and ring on a doorbell where there are lights on and seek sanctuary. It is ultimately very sad that women feel they have to go to these lengths to feel safe and I would hope that our education system can start to consider looking at how we can influence the culture of respect and better understanding of how we should treat one another at a younger age. This problem is not purely about women, men can feel the exact same feelings on our streets. Men can also play their part, when they spot a woman walking alone at night, do not follow them, especially if you are slowly gaining on the women in front of you. Cross the road and keep a distance to avoid any woman feeling nervous or scared. Thankfully these incidents are very rare but we all have a right to feel safe on our streets.

I would like to share this week two stories that I heard from two friends and my reflections on what they told me. The first story came from a friend who in conversation wondered whether he and his wife would now consider bringing children into this modern world if they did not have two already. Why did they say this? Their viewpoint had come from a list of current and ultimately overwhelming negative situations, that they feel are beyond their control. A global pandemic, climate change, petrol shortages, possibly another Christmas ruined, driver shortages, pigs being slaughtered and not entering the food chain, the shortage of CO2 etc. I began thinking about what is important and what do I really need to live a relatively happy and satisfactory life. Is my life so very different to say five years ago? I think a lot of us thought that working 15 hour days was some sort of badge of honour. But several factors in the last few years have really changed my perspective and my feelings about what I really want and need in my life. I have learnt that appreciation for what you have got is more important and hence to stop hankering after what you haven’t got; it makes life so much less stressful and complicated. I don’t need to listen to the news avidly, just pick up on the headlines so you know what’s going on in the world and don’t drown in the negativity and hopelessness of constant bad news. Yes, life is different, but we have dealt with lockdowns and social distancing. We are amazing, resilient people and we will continue to adapt and overcome. We are so lucky to live in a wonderful part of the world. We are able to walk and admire our beautiful countryside. We can choose to take a minute to watch the farmer going about his work, admire our waterways and the abundance of wildlife that depends upon them. It is our choice to view our world through positive or negative spectacles. My second story I think epitomises the challenges and perhaps heightened levels of mistrust we have in our fellow human beings. This friend had what she considered a very important meeting last week. She felt very vulnerable as she was undertaking a live recording and she was well out of her comfort zone. She prepared thoroughly, practised her script and arrived early. The other person did not turn up and she was very annoyed, her annoyance then turned to anger when she learnt that the event had slipped their mind. Now, we are all human, we all make mistakes and we also never know what is going on in other people’s worlds, especially as many of our lives have become ever more chaotic recently. Many of us would accept the apology and reschedule but events of the last two years have made this friend look at life very differently. She has re-evaluated what is important to her in life and she no longer tolerates people that don’t show mutual respect and understanding. I found this fascinating, and I think both stories show a current and worrying level of mistrust in our fellow human beings on a local and global scale. This is very sad but I feel it is a manifestation of the uncertain world we currently live in. But we must not lose sight of the good in people and our surroundings. We must continue to nurture and develop relationships and see the beauty that is all around us. Without positivity and hope and investment in our communities and our own wellbeing we may find ourselves on a path to isolation, fear and feelings of hopelessness. So, keep looking for those nuggets of light and beauty, they are still plentiful and all around us.