by MARK McCARTHY, owner of MARK DAVID SALON in Henderson Row
With current pandemic it’s so important for us to take time for ourselves at home to relax, indulge and have some self-care time. The colder months can also play havoc on our hair and leave our hair looking dry and frizzy and therefore it’s so important that we look after our hair and ensure we are keeping it moisturised at all times.
In the salon, after you have had a treatment with us, we provide you with a hot towel with lavender, which accentuates the hair treatment and allows you really unwind and feel good. To do this at home we have put together some simple steps:
1. Wash your hair in the shower and once you come out, dry out your hair and get rid of any excess water by patting it with a hair towel (not rubbing) before getting changed into your favourite lounging outfit or dressing gown.
2. Get a hand towel and drench this with water.
3. Wring out the water and add some essential oil to the hand towel. (If you do not have any essential oil you can use a few sprays of your favourite perfume).
4. Heat your towel in the microwave to a temperature that suits (be careful as the towel can be very hot!)
5. Apply your favourite treatment to your damp hair.
6. Wrap your hair in the hot towel and set up your sofa to enjoy 15 minutes of bliss!
7. Once you’ve finished this step you can rinse and then dry your hair as normal with your hairdryer and it should feel soft and silky and the experience will have made you feel a lot more relaxed and pampered!
Hospitality Group Warns of House Party Boom if Lockdown Tightened
A group of Scotland’s most successful restaurant and bar operators have pleaded with customers to stay away from house parties this weekend, after Scotland’s National Clinical Director highlighted household mixing was a major driver of the upsurge in Covid infections.
The Scottish Hospitality Group, whose members employ over 6,000 people, has also warned that any further tightening of lockdown in the sector will drive a boom in illegal gatherings in homes across the country and will force many pubs, restaurants and hotels to close their doors permanently.
SHG spokesman Stephen Montgomery, who runs two successful hotels in Dumfries, said: “Professor Jason Leitch was spot-on when he identified household mixing as the major cause of increased infections.
“Unlike in bars and restaurants, where there is track and trace, social distancing, PPE and strict hygiene rules, if you go to a house party this weekend, you’re just playing Covid Russian Roulette.
“We’re urging people to follow the official advice not to take the huge risk of socialising at home, and to do so safely in Scotland’s bars and restaurants, where they can be sure that all possible precautions have been taken to look after them properly.
“Scotland’s bars and restaurants are a vital part of the fight against the spread of Covid. If we are locked down or the restrictions on us are tightened, it will simply drive more people to socialise at home, with the inevitable increases in Covid that will follow.”
Kenny Blair, founder of Buzzworks, which operates 12 venues in Ayrshire, said: “Publicans and restaurateurs have followed Scottish Government guidance to the letter. We are a vital part of the solution to combatting Covid.
“We’re the only safe place people can socialise, and the figures from SHG members – over 1.8million customers served since July, with only 17 confirmed cases – show that the Government’s own measures are working really effectively.
“However, the clear feedback we are getting from many in our industry right across the country is that they are only just managing to stay afloat. If we have further restrictions imposed or, God forbid, another lockdown, it will be Armageddon for a sector which employs more young Scots people than any other.”
The Scottish Hospitality Group comprises many of the country’s largest and best-known restaurant and bar businesses, including The DRG Group, Buzzworks Holdings, Signature Pubs, Montpeliers, Manorview Group, Lisini Pub Co, Caledonia Inns, G1 Group, Siberia Bar & Hotel, Mor-Rioghain Group, and Caledonian Heritable.
Education Scotland wants to celebrate the fantastic work we know has taken place right across the country over the last few months – and we need your help!
The COVID-19 pandemic led to the sudden closure of school buildings and other learning sites. There were many examples of extraordinary work across the entire education system to support learners and communities.
For many learners, this was through distance and online platforms, with different forms of on-going contact with their teachers, childcare workers, youth workers, tutors and others. Of course, for children and young people, support from parents and carers continued to be key to their learning.
We’d like you to share your stories with us and we’ll use as many as we can to create a book of celebration to showcase the important work carried out by educators, learners, parents and communities at this unprecedented time.
Three people in North West Edinburgh are celebrating after winning £1,000 each thanks to their lucky postcode.
The North Bughtlinfield neighbours netted the windfall when EH12 8XZ was announced as a Daily Prize winner with People’s Postcode Lottery on Thursday (1st October).
People’s Postcode Lottery ambassador Judie McCourt sent her well-wishes to the winners. She said: “Congratulations to our winners. What a great surprise to hear on a Thursday morning!”
A minimum of 32% of ticket sales goes directly to charities and players of People’s Postcode Lottery have raised over £600 million to date for thousands of good causes in Britain and beyond.
This draw was promoted on behalf of Canal & River Trust which has received more than £10 million in funding thanks to players. It cares and brings life to over 2,000 miles of canals and rivers across England and Wales. It believes waterways have the power to make a difference to people’s lives and that spending time by water can make us all healthier and happier.
Many good causes close to the winners have also benefitted from players’ support, and local charities can apply for funding next year.
A charity that provides support for homeless people in Edinburgh has received a £2,000 donation from Amazon Development Centre Scotland.
Streetwork has been offering care and guidance to those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in Edinburgh for almost 30 years. The charity provides expert advice and compassionate support, working to connect people to the services they need. The mission of the charity is to enable a life off the streets, showing dignity and respect to everyone.
The capacity of Streetwork in Edinburgh is expanded by being part of Simon Community Scotland. Simon Community Scotland works to combat the causes and effects of homelessness, with a vision that everyone should have a safe place to live and access to the support they need.
Amazon has been a supporter of Streetwork since 2017, having previously donated £1,000 towards the purchase of heavy-duty sleeping bags for those who had nowhere to live. Earlier this year, the team from Amazon Development Centre Scotland hosted an International Food Day event and raised a further £500 for the charity.
Graeme Smith, Managing Director at Amazon Development Centre Scotland, said: “It is our pleasure to continue our support of Streetwork in Edinburgh.
“We know that those who are homeless are at greater risk during COVID-19 than ever before and want to ensure any individuals who need help have somewhere to find it. Streetwork is an excellent charity, doing great work, and we can’t thank them enough.”
Jan Williamson, Assistant Director from Streetwork added: “Like many charities, our resources have been stretched as we respond to COVID-19, so we are very grateful to receive this donation from the Amazon team.
“We strive to show people on the streets that they are cared for and supported, and we cannot do this without the help of the entire community. Thank you, David and the Amazon team, for continuing to support our work.”
Edinburgh Central MSP, Rt Hon Ruth Davidson commented: “Streetwork does amazing and important work across Edinburgh – work that has never been more important than at this time.
“I welcome this donation from the Amazon Development Centre, which will allow the Streetwork team to help more of our city’s vulnerable and homeless.”
Amazon Development Centre Scotland is responsible for innovations used around the world by the company, including machine learning to power Amazon’s smart features like personalised recommendations.
Streetwork received the donation as part of the “Amazon in the Community” programme, whereby the company supports the communities around its operating locations across the UK.
Community donations is one of a number of ways in which Amazon is supporting communities across the UK during COVID-19.
A decision was reached last week on the Iona Street development by the council’s Development Management Sub-Committee and unfortunately it has been approved to go ahead.
This is obviously disappointing news for many of us but it’s worth remembering that together we have made a difference. While many of the broader changes we were calling for have not been recognised, some aspects of the development have been changed as a result of all of our efforts.
A huge thank you for your support over the past year. Our local community feels stronger as a result of the campaign.
People who have been hospitalised with coronavirus (COVID-19) will have access to a new national peer support network to help their recovery and rehabilitation.
Backed by almost £200,000 Scottish Government funding, the charity ICU Steps will connect ICU survivors and their families across Scotland to facilitate patient-led support groups, as well as offering a range of wellbeing resources to help with recovery.
It follows the publication of a report showing up to one-third of patients admitted to hospital developed serious mental health consequences, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, and cognitive problems.
In addition to the expansion of peer support, the report, produced by psychiatrist Dr Nadine Cossette, made a number of other recommendations which will be taken forward, through consultation with health boards. These include a network of mental health clinicians across Scotland, and a personalised digital platform.
Mental Health Minister Clare Haughey (above) said: “We know that treatment in Intensive Care and High Dependency Units can be particularly difficult for patients. This has been exacerbated in recent times by the fact that families have not been able to visit their loved ones.
“Most will go on to make a full recovery, but for others there is a higher risk of developing mental health issues.
“We welcome the report by Dr Nadine Cossette which sets out a number of actions to improve mental health and wellbeing of patients. The creation of a national peer support network, led by patients, will be a significant first step to ensuring that services supporting those who have been affected are well placed to respond.
“We will now consult with health boards on how best to implement these proposals locally to ensure that people have the right support throughout their recovery from COVID-19.”
Dr Nadine Cossette said: “Mental health care is crucially important to patients recovering from COVID-19. I am pleased the Scottish Government has recognised this and I look forward to ensuring patients and families across Scotland have access to good mental health care that is well integrated with physical health recovery services.”
Chair of ICU Steps George Guy said: “As an ICU survivor myself I am well aware of the physical and mental problems that patients can be left with. ICU Steps gives survivors the chance to talk to others who have gone through what they have and we have found this to be very helpful.
“We offer empathy not sympathy. I’d like to thank Dr Pam Ramsay of Dundee University, Dr Stephen Cole NHS Tayside and Chair of Scottish Intensive Care Society, and Peter Gibb, CEO and founder of ICU Steps, for their invaluable help with this project.”
A team of Trinity Academy S3 pupils are the Scottish winners of Shell’s Bright Ideas competition, doubling up on last year’s success. The students’ Design and Technology Teacher, Trinity’s STEM Co-ordinator FLORENCE DONALDSON (pictured below (right) with the girls), explains all:
Wow! We have done it again, Shell Bright Ideas Scottish Winners for the second year in a row! What a phenomenal achievement!
In what has been an undoubtedly challenging time for all our students, five S3 girls worked tirelessly with their teacher Florence Donaldson throughout Lockdown to put together their outstanding proposal for Café Earth.
A huge congratulations to our fantastic S3 Design Team:
Ada Hayden-Joiner
Ava McKie
Cara Burnet
Iris Hughes
Rachel Baxendale
The Bright Ideas Challenge, which is organised by Shell, invited students to imagine what the world will be like in 30 years’ time, and to put their science, technology, engineering and maths skills to work to put together a proposal that would make the world a better place to live.
By 2050 there will be more than 9 billion people on Earth creating a need for 50% more energy than today. The competition asks pupils from across the UK to imagine innovative solutions to the energy challenges facing cities of the future.
The team researched the problem of sourcing food in a sustainable manner within cities. By using their science, technology, engineering knowledge, creative thinking, and problem-solving skills, they developed an innovative idea to solve the problem.
Their solution was create an eco-friendly café to help make our cities be cleaner and more energy efficient by utilising grants from the government and environmental charities to get started and with help from renewable energy professionals to ensure the energy produced is effective and safe.
Professional farmers, gardeners, chefs and waiting staff will make Café Earth run smoothly.
Most importantly, we will need the community: the community will keep our café running by coming to have a coffee, volunteer on our farm or visit Café Earth on a school trip.
Café Earth will serve the community. It will benefit everyone in the community, including families, teens, students and the elderly. The café will sell healthy affordable options.
The greenery around our café from our farms will provide short-term clean air. The plants will change the carbon dioxide we exhale into fresh oxygen. Our café will not contribute to harmful greenhouse gases. Not using fossil fuels will reduce carbon and make long term clean air.
Café Earth will also help businesses in the area. Products and from local businesses will be sold in the shop and produce we cannot grow ourselves will be bought from nearby farms. Finally, a part of our profits will feed back to community charities.
If you are interested, the full proposal for Café Earth can be found in the News section on Trinity Academy’s website.
The entry was Scotland’s winner, which means we will received £4,000 for our school to really bring our technology lessons to life, along with the pupil’s very own STEM themed prize packs to learn more about science, technology and engineering.
We are all incredibly proud of the girls achievements and we can only hope it inspires other young people to get excited about how designers, scientists, engineers and everyone in the technologies industries can make a difference.
Drive through clinics for the flu vaccination in Edinburgh will be closed tomorrow (Saturday 3 October) in response to a severe weather alert issued by the Met Office.
A warning for heavy downpours has been put in place for the region, during which flooding and travel disruption is expected. The Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership has taken the decision to temporarily pause drive through vaccination clinics, which operate outdoors, as a result.
A spokesperson for the Partnership said: “Keeping the people of Edinburgh safe and healthy is our priority, and we feel it is the right step to close our drive through clinics when a spell of such severe weather is expected to hit the City.
“While our clinics do not require patients to leave the car, they do involve our nurses and front line workers administering the flu vaccine outdoors. We need to ensure their safety and wellbeing should heavy downpours and flooding occur, as indicated by the severe weather warning, and we want to avoid encouraging our patients to make unnecessary travel during extreme road conditions.
“This is, of course, a temporary step and we’ll re-open centres as soon as it is safe to do so. Our plan is for all centres to be operating again on Sunday.”
Walk through clinics scheduled for Saturday will operate as planned and information is available through the NHS Inform website.
Residents are also advised to monitor the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership’s social media channels for the latest updates.
Hundreds of participants from around the world have signed up for the Great Scottish October Challenge.
We would like to wish all our October Challengers best wishes as they set out on their chosen events over the next month. Here are just a few of our overseas October Challengers.
Ross from Australia, Clare from Canada, Louise from Denmark,Heinz from Switzerland, Petra from Germany, Tracy from New Zealand, Svein-Erik from Norway, Victor from Kenya, Valtine from Romania, Janice from USA, Emilie from France, Aline from Ireland.
To all those who have not joined it’s still not too late to take up the challenge:
