Tag: prizes

The Centre Livingston set to host an Autumn/Winter style event with a £300 giveaway

The Centre, Livingston will be hosting an Autumn/Winter style event on Saturday, 14th September, 12 – 4pm with local stylist and colour expert, Leigh Maybury, where shoppers can get top tips on key trends this season and be in with a chance of winning a £50 Gift Card to treat themselves.

The free event follows on from the success of Leigh’s first Spring/Summer event in May this year where visitors travelled from around the country for style tips and a colour analysis to find out which shades compliment them the most, and ones to avoid, when it comes to shopping for clothes, accessories and make up.

Leigh, a former Director at the jewellery company, Sella & Dot, qualified at the London College of Style and trained in the art of colour, before launching her own company, Life with Style in 2016. Her aim is to give people the confidence to get out of their comfort zone and try something new, not just on special occasions, but every day.

The event, which will be located near M&S, will give visitors to the shopping mall the chance to get an insight into style trends including animal prints and how to incorporate the season’s key colours, like red and chocolate brown with good neutrals to help build an easy to wear Autumn/Winter capsule wardrobe.

There will also be mini colour analysis sessions on a first come, first service basis, with limited spaces available, and a live ‘Style Talk’ at 1pm and 3pm on dopamine dressing and how to wear bright colours that give you a natural boost and make you feel happy.

Six lucky shoppers will also be in with a chance of winning a £50 Gift Card each to spend on a new outfit on the day.

Leigh said: “I’m delighted to be back at The Centre, Livingston on the 14th September to share my top Autumn/Winter style tips and trends with shoppers.

“Whether it’s an event you are going to or looking for advice on everyday wear, I’ll be able to help you to find exactly what you are looking for in the wide mix of fantastic shops which will make you look and feel great throughout the season.”

Patrick Robbertze, Centre Director at The Centre, Livingston, said: “We are really looking forward to having the expert stylist Leigh Maybury back into the shopping centre this month.

“Our last style event was such a big hit with shoppers who travelled far and wide to get advice on new trends and colours which is why we wanted to host another one which focused on Autumn/Winter key trends, and this time give shoppers the chance to win a Gift Card too.”

Aldi celebrates opening of it’s 100th Scottish store

£6000 OF PRIZES UP FOR GRABS

Aldi reached a huge milestone this week when it opened its 100th store in Scotland. The grand opening took place yesterday in Edinburgh’s Hermiston Gait Retail Park. 

To thank its customers for their ongoing support, the supermarket is giving out prizes worth a total of £6,000 across all its Scottish stores from 25th November. The first 1,000 customers in each Scottish store that spend £25 and over will be eligible for a scratch card, with various prizes up for grabs, including two vouchers worth £1,000 each.

Aldi opened its first Scottish store in Kilmarnock in 1994, and has since expanded operations significantly in Scotland, employing nearly 4,000 people across the country, with the plan to increase their workforce by nearly 400 by 2023. The growth doesn’t stop there as Aldi is constantly looking for new site locations and on upgrading and extending their existing stores.

Aldi Scotland is incredibly proud of their local sourcing, working with 90 Scottish suppliers and stocking over 450 Scottish products, with a target of reaching 500 within 2 years. It is this commitment to supporting local that saw Aldi crowned Scottish Sourcing Business of the Year at the 2019 Scottish Food and Drink Awards and the reason they are widely celebrated as the number one supermarket for supporting Scottish farmers and food producers.

Richard Holloway, Regional Managing Director Aldi Scotland said: “Reaching 100 Scottish stores is a huge achievement and one that really is a team effort. We would not be here if it wasn’t for the hard work and dedication of all our Aldi staff and I want to thank them for their continued commitment over the years.

“We could never have imagined 27 years ago when we opened our first store in Kilmarnock that our customers would take us into their hearts and homes in the way they have.” 

Graham Nicolson, Group Buying Director Aldi Scotland added: “We are so lucky to work with the most talented suppliers that Scotland has to offer to allow us to bring the very best of Scotland’s larder to our customers and I want to thank them for working in partnership with us so we can offer top quality, award-winning products at everyday amazing value.

“We are always looking at opportunities to expand our supplier base and are proud to say 30% of our range is now locally sourced in Scotland.”

To celebrate this milestone further, Aldi is issuing reusable plastic water bottles to all staff in order to be more sustainably responsible.  Aldi has committed to halving its plastic footprint by 2025.

Aldi is committed to helping local communities through initiatives like the Scottish Sports Fund, which has now donated nearly £300,000 to over 500 Scottish sports club since its inception in 2016 and the Neighbourly partnership, which intends to donate 10 million meals, to those who need it most, in 2021.

Aldi has also been the Proud Supermarket Partner of the Kiltwalk since 2019. 

Edinburgh writers awarded RLS Fellowship

well, one’s a Leither!

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Edinburgh-based writer Lynsey May (32) and poet and playwright Michael Pedersen (30) have been named by Scottish Book Trust as two of four recipients of a 2015 Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, involving a month-long writing residency in France (above).

Lynsey, a previous Scottish Book Trust New Writer Awardee, lives in Leith and will attend the residency in June. She has placed fiction in a variety of journals and publications and has read at a number of literary festivals across the country. During the residency she will work on a new novel set in Leith. Lynsey has lived in and around Edinburgh her whole life, attending university and starting a career in the city.

Lynsey said: “I couldn’t be more grateful for the wonderful gift of time, space and inspiration the RLS Fellowship offers -and plan to make the most of every minute! I’m particularly looking forward to briefly disengaging with all of the stresses and distractions of everyday life and completely immersing myself in the novel I’m working on.”

Michael, who will attend the residency in November, has published two celebrated chapbooks, and a debut collection Play with Me with Polygon. He is a Canongate Future 40, a 2010 Callum McDonald Memorial Award finalist, the John Mather’s Charitable Trust Rising Star of Literature 2014; as well as a budding playwright and lyricist, and co-founder of the Neu! Reekie! collective. During the residency he’ll work towards a second collection of poetry and on sculpting a feature film script – a collaboration with Scottish Director Robert McKillop.

Michael said: “I’ve had my lasers set on the RLS Fellowship for a couple of years now but 2015 (for a veritable swarm of reasons) is the paragoning point for it – there’s something more tectonic at play. 

“As well as my poetry taking on fresh shapes and forms, I’m exploring a new medium in script writing. Sequel collections and inaugural scripts are both formidable endeavours and what more inspiring a place to tackle such literary behemoths than Grez-sur-Loing. Not only to tackle but to have an arsenal of anointments behind you – those being the RLS Fellowship and its history of lustrous literary and artistic visitants – steam to the engine and then some. 

“I was elated to receive the call. There may have been a jump and some sort of rhythmical shimmy that resembled a cumbersome dance-move from decades beyond.”

The Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship was initiated in 1994 by Franki Fewkes, a Scottish RLS enthusiast, and is supported by Creative Scotland. Intended to give writers a chance to escape the hustle and bustle of their everyday lives to devote time to their writing, it provides residencies for four writers at the Hôtel Chevillon International Arts Centre at Grez-sur-Loing. Travel and accommodation are paid for, and there is a grant of £300 per week to cover living expenses.

Grez-sur-Loing is situated at the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau (top), and was chosen because of its connections with Robert Louis Stevenson who first visited in 1875. It was there, at the Hôtel Chevillon, that he met his future wife Fanny Osbourne. Stevenson found both the place, and its community of writers and artists, highly attractive and he returned to Grez-sur-Loing for three successive summers.

Caitrin Armstrong, Head of Writer Development at Scottish Book Trust, said: “We’re delighted to offer this fantastic opportunity to such talented, engaging writers. These residencies are a great opportunity for writers to spend time on their work without the distractions of everyday life. I look forward to reading the work Lynsey and Michael produce in such inspirational surroundings.” 

The two other successful 2015 Fellows are writer, director and translator Alan McKendrick and debut author Malachy Tallack.

Read all about it: local Forum lifts literary prize!

We-CTV Award for North Edinburgh Young People’s Forum

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North Edinburgh Young People’s Forum (NEYPF) has won second prize in a national competiton organised by the Scottish Youth Parliament. Josh, Laura and Brandin’s entry was the only submission from Edinburgh to win an award at this week’s presentation ceremony (writes Dave Pickering).

Launched last June, the We-CTV Competition asked young people to address issues of interpersonal violence in communities. Groups were asked to produce a piece of creative work on themes like knife crime, abuse and online bullying in one of three categories: Art (drawing, painting, textiles), Literary (creative or discursive writing) or Multimedia (video or audio).

NEYPF decided to take part in the competition and agreed to write a piece on bullying.

It’s been a long process. Entrants were first asked to submit an expression of interest by the end of August 2014. The creative concept deadline was 31 October and a National Creative We-CTV Production Day took place on 11 November, giving entrants an opportunity to meet with creative experts and share ideas. The final submission deadline for ‘creative solution’ entries was 16 January and this was followed by an online vote.

The group has had an anxious wait since voting closed on 8 February, but the NEYPF were rewarded for their hard work when they were announced as runner-up in the Literary category at Wednesday evening’s awards which were held in Glasgow’s Film Theatre.

Josh Ward (13), Laura Hulbert (14) and Brandin Sharpe (13) – all of whom took part in a training session with NEN last Autumn – attended the gala event with NEYPF youth worker Danielle Ward and were delighted to win second prize in their category. As well as the Award, each team member received a certificate and vouchers from Pizza Express and Vue Cinemas.

Their certificates read: ‘Their contribution helped raise awareness of interpersonal violence against young people‘.

Prizes aside, the highlight of the event for the Forum members was meeting Sanjeev Kohli, Still Game’s Naveed, who was MC for the evening! His quote: ‘I am just a monkey in a suit’ was the group’s favourite.

The final words, quite rightly, go to the NEYPF members. “It was an emotional rollercoaster!” said Brandin, while Josh added: “It was fun and I met Navid and we came second!”

Short and sweet but says it all! Well done, NEYPF!

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