Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Yvie Burnett: It is difficult to take positives at the moment

According to GMB, local government workers across the north-east are struggling with the rising costs of living.
According to GMB, local government workers across the north-east are struggling with the rising costs of living.

Oh it’s all gloom and doom for everyone right now, what with petrol price hikes, energy bills going up and dreadfully depressing accounts from Ukraine on our news every day.

After the past two years of the pandemic, we were all looking forward to getting our lives back but now this.

And Covid, of course, hasn’t gone away, so we can’t even think about what will happen if it gets worse again.

We need some good news.

It’s the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year. Maybe a summer of street parties and bunting is going to cheer us up.

Yvie thinks a Queen’s Platinum Jubilee party might raise our spirits. 

Right now I feel dreadfully sorry for people who are struggling to pay their bills and most especially those with children who won’t understand if they have to miss out on things.

It’s just so tough that at a time when so many of us have been harder up because of Covid over the past couple of years, or have even lost jobs, that these increases in all our bills have come at the same time.

Apparently it costs around 12p to boil the kettle, but of course if you only boil enough for one cup at a time you will save yourself money.

The ridiculous thing is that if we go out for a cup of tea or coffee and pay £3 or over, that’s a lot of 12 pences!

When you think of it that way, you can make as many as you like at home!

Even the cost of making a cuppa is being scrutinised. 

Having a shower is more like 50p, but while you might have six cups of tea you will only be having one shower. Of course a large family will be spending a couple of pounds every day just on showers.

Petrol is a huge expense right now as well, so everything seems to have hit us at once.
The fashion for huge cars and people carriers might change when folk realise how many more miles they will get to the gallon in a small car.

Those people who have recently changed to electric cars will be feeling that they have timed that just right.

Electricity may be more expensive right now but filling your car up with petrol is going to be a lot dearer than an electric charge.

So what can we all do to help people who are struggling?

Donating to food banks is a wonderful way to help because so many more people are using them right now.

If you look up the website of your local branch you will see what they are in need of. In Bedford they urgently need hot dogs, tinned spaghetti, fruit juice, cup-a-soup, teabags, tinned meat and fruit, washing-up liquid and antibacterial spray

If we can afford to add the odd £5 to our shopping bill to get those things, every little helps as they say, and getting out actually doing something makes us all feel a bit better.

Donating to food banks is a very worthy thing to do in these difficult times. 

This week I’ve been very sad.

A wonderful friend of our family suddenly passed away.

John Catto was the local farmer’s son in the village of Methlick where I grew up.

Our house faced the Cattos’ fields and John used to drive his little red sports car across the fields to check on his animals.

John Catto pictured with his wife Sandra.

As a young girl I used to stare out of the window at this. I don’t know if I was more impressed with John or the car but it’s most definitely one of my earliest memories.

Later when John married his beautiful wife Sandra and moved in next door to us, I used to be their regular baby sitter and we laughed as we remembered the red sports car and how impressed I was.

John and Sandra had four daughters. Gillian, Gemma, Sarah and Jane.

John and Sandra eventually took over the farm at Auchencrieve in Methlick from John’s parents and have lived there ever since.

Many of you reading this will have known John and what a character he was.

Always smiling and laughing, incredibly proud of his four girls and his grandchildren and just one of life’s good guys.

John surrounded by his family. 

The village of Methlick will not be the same without him.

I feel very lucky to have known him.

Sending much love to Sandra and the girls.

Have a good week everyone,
Yvie x