Age Concern return
AGE Concern Costa Blanca Sur president Maureen Payne announced that they have reopened their charity shops in Torrevieja (Calle Patricio Zammit, 41) and Los Montesinos (Avenida del Mar, 39b).
The opening hours are 10.00 until 13.30, with a strict protocol in place to protect their volunteers and customers.
The day centre in Calle Paganini, urbanisation La Siesta (Torrevieja) is also open, but just for two mornings a week at present - June 9, 11, 15, 17, 23, 25, and 29 - from 10.00 until 13.00.
This is to enable the return and loan of mobility equipment, and to receive donations. However, this will be by appointment only so please ring 96 678 68 87 before paying a visit.
During lockdown they have been contacting their beneficiaries on the Keep in Touch scheme regularly, volunteers who are willing and able have been shopping and collecting prescription medicines, and their Lifeline volunteer continued to care for elderly people.
Costa Blanca News’ weekly feature supporting local writers, in conjunction with Writers' Ink
WELCOME to our Writers’ Ink group’s weekly words. We provide news, views, tips and examples of writing by authors and poets, local and beyond.
Founded in 2010 by WordPlay, our purpose is to encourage writers to write and get them published and read. Keep writing! Greetings,
On reflection, it is one thing to stay at home when you want to, and quite another when you have to by law…
This is something, as you all know, that has happened to many of the planet’s inhabitants in recent months, like it or lump it. The infirm, sick and non-drivers have, obviously, had even less choice, and while I am a non-driver, I have been luckier than some in that I have a patio and communal garden for fresh air and exercise, and my husband – gloved and masked (not exactly like Zorro) - is usually first in the supermarket.
What effect such ‘lock-in’ conditions have had on people must vary enormously, depending on their particular circumstances, physical and mental health. Time, that elusive, mysterious ‘phenomena’ can, all at once, seem a golden gift or a prison-sentence.
As for me, why, I asked myself, was I suddenly suffering from ‘writer’s block’ – something I had never believed in?! I still wrote a daily account in my diary as it was factual writing, but anything remotely fictional was like hand-fishing in a tank full of tiny, slippery creatures. Hey ho.
And then, only yesterday, I wrote a whole page of fiction, and while crude, it wasn’t bad… phew!
So, if you are a writer and have been having problems, don’t worry, just pick up a pencil/pen, or open your laptop, and exercise your fingers. Worry is a strange thing which can lay you low, but if you can steel yourself and wade through it (I’m old enough to have ‘been there’), it’s quite amazing what fears - real and imaginary - you can conquer.
Now you’re ‘in control’, tell yourself, firmly, that you are, no nonsense, and if you are not in the middle of writing a novel or short story, play around with a 50-word tale. It will challenge your grey cells and set you back on the path. It has to have a beginning, a middle and an end, like these examples, both composed by ex-nurse-author Jean Sonntag-Wilson:
LEGS ELEVEN
He was wheeled unconscious into the etherpervading theatre. Everything was ready. The surgeon consulted his notes, then carefully amputated the patient’s right leg. It was an easy mistake to make. Right leg facing but patient’s left… Correct patient, wrong leg. “Nobody’s fault!” they said. “It could happen to anyone.”
A SMALL DILEMMA
The operating theatre echoed with busy feet and the vasectomy patient’s courage faded with each passing moment. “Just a little prick,” he heard the nurse say. “It will be over soon.” As she raised the syringe, all aspirations disappeared. He jumped off the trolley and escaped home intact, for tea and crumpets!”
Or, if you fancy your hand at Limericks, this example is by By Charlotte Lawrence: There was a fat lady from Cheam, who dreamt a ‘chocolate-cream’ dream. Then, with calories loaded, she simply exploded, and never again was she seen.
Here’s wishing you all un-blocked writing. We hope to meet again in July, but that doesn’t mean we should stop using our brain-boxes! Happy scribbling.
Sincerely,
Joy Lennick joylennick@gmail.com www.joylennick.wordpress.com Most of our writers’ books are available from Amazon and Kindle. Some from Apple, Nook (Barnes & Noble). Sribd, Kobo, 24 Symbols, Tolovo and Page Foundry.