Pick Me Up! 30-Sep-2021

As soon as I saw the email land in my inbox, my face immediately lit up with excitement. I am a volunteer at Cat’s Protection, and thanks to the pandemic it has been an extremely difficult year for us at the charity. We’ve had an unusually high number of stray and elderly cats coming into us, and we always help them all, which means the veterinary bills have been higher than usual. With less donations coming in and fewer volunteers signing up, we needed all the help we could get. I work for the Weymouth and District branch, and I was looking through the volunteer emails to see if any new ideas had come up to help us with raising money for the cats. One in particular caught my eye…

Good to know Change is here, and it tastes fantastic. Everyone’s favourite Fairtrade chocolate bar, Divine, has had a rebrand! To celebrate their vibrant new packaging, Divine, the only Fairtrade chocolate company to be co-owned by cocoa farmers, is launching three delicious new flavours – smooth milk chocolate with orange crisp, smooth dark chocolate with pretzel and caramel, and smooth milk chocolate with almond and salted caramel, too. All the new flavours are palm oil free with natural ingredients and plastic free packaging, and they’re all Fairtrade certified. • Available from Ocado Good deed of the week Join Shirley Ballas, Fearne Cotton and Alison Hammond, to raise a mug for this year’s Macmillan Coffee Morning. Partnered with M&S Food, the official date is 24 September, but you can hold your coffee…

Directing traffic away from a car accident in my job as a police officer, I glanced over and spotted a gorgeous woman working as a security guard on the scene. She’s so hot… I thought to myself, feeling my heart flutter. I didn’t see if she’d noticed me and I couldn’t build up the courage to go over to her, so instead I walked away and immediately regretted it once I got home. Six months later, in September 2016, fate brought us together again at a break-in we had both been called to near where I live in Sydney, Australia. I got sent the security footage of the incident which was signed by someone called ‘Ashlee’. That must be her, I thought, knowing it was unlikely any other females worked…

Walking up to his cot, I could see George was already awake. ‘Hello gorgeous,’ I cooed at him as he stretched out his arms to be lifted up. He was born on 22 August 2020 and was only five weeks old. Apart from some severe morning sickness, the pregnancy and birth had gone smoothly, and now we were settling him into home life. I had two other sons, Joshua, 14, and Zac, 10, and they loved their new baby brother, too. As I picked him up, my hand brushed against his head, and I could feel something hard underneath his hair. Over the past few weeks, I had noticed a ridge going from the back to the front of George’s head, where the soft spot should be. He had such…

This week, our tip of the week will receive a great product from Addis! With a slotted design, this handy spatula has a high-grade Nylon anti-scratch Be a winner! head to prevent your pans from getting marked or damaged. There is also a serrated edge for cutting and separating. As well as being durable and easy to clean, it’s dishwasher safe. For more ways to make your life easier, visit addis.co.uk In the bag! Tip of the week To stop children putting carrier bags over their heads, always tie them in a knot before storing. Judith Cairns, Essex Scratch that Toothpaste is a great treatment to help fight the annoying itch that possesses you after a mosquito bite. It acts as a cooling agent on the bites. Amanda Hadley, Cradley…

Clue: Hardwood. Answer on page 47. ACROSS 1 Capricious (6) 4 Naval commanders (8) 10 Talk about the past (9) 11 A play (5) 12 _ of Man, 2021 heist film directed by 20 Down and starring 16 Across, 21 Across, 26 Across & 29 Across (5) 13 Citrus spread (5,4) 14 Rues (7) 16 _ Malone, ‘Rockstar’ rapper (4) 19 Wound mark (4) 21 Jason _, Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw actor (7) 24 Rules of acceptable behaviour (9) 25 Not drunk (5) 26 _ Eastwood, The Outpost star and son of fellow actor Clint (5) 27 Bad luck, informally (4,5) 28 Soldier who runs away (8) 29 Eddie _, actor whose film credits include Vice, Atomic Blonde and The World’s End (6) DOWN 1 Roman candle, say…