Blog

Alex’s Best Albums 2022

Published January 11th

2022 was another year of fantastic music, from all different genres of music. Kendrick Lamar made a huge comeback to predictably critical acclaim, headlining the Glastonbury festival, closing off with an epic rendition of Savoir, while blood pours down from a diamond-crusted crown of thorns. I’m sure there is a profound metaphor in there somewhere…I think I found it…. capitalism is bad maybe? Yes, I think that’s it.    One of my favourite bands, from the last year, Black Midi, came out with another hellraising album, Hellfire, about a man stuck in hell after gambling away all his money and […]

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Alex’s Best Films of 2022

Published January 11th

The new Avatar film, Avatar: The Way of Water was the last big blockbuster realization of 2022. A fitting end to the year because it shares similar parallels to its predecessor Avatar 1 when it was released. The whole world was in a recession and our pockets were being tightened by austerity. There were rising tensions in the Middle East that would eventually lead to a raft of revolutions destabilizing those said countries, I have your favourite film of the year? I hear you ask. Or, is Avatar 2: The Way of the Water your favourite film of the year? […]

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Harjit: My Yoga Journey

Published March 29th

It is safe to say that life can be stressful at the best of times. Our social life, work life, physical and mental health, are just some of the big factors in determining our outlook on life whether that be positive or negative.  Unfortunately, there are also many things we cannot control that can have – and had – a huge impact on us. Over the last few years alone there have been several life-changing real world events one after another, which we’re still recovering from. However, there have been a few positives that have come from these hardships we […]

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Remembering My Mum, Alison Dukes

Published March 14th

Hi guys… it’s safe to say it’s been a long time since I last wrote a blog so I might be a bit rusty. My sharp wit and cutting satire will be even worse than usual, I’m sorry. In light of this fact, I’ve taken the tough decision to not make any such observations or ribs.  Well, thank God then that nothing has happened in the world of any consequence that could shape the future of the world for decades to come…am I right? But unfortunately, I have a better reason – rather selfishly maybe- then the possible start of […]

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Ramandeep’s Independence Journey

Published August 18th

It’s been a little over two weeks since the last of the restrictions were lifted – with the general public dubbing it “Freedom Day”. It’s been a long, hard 16 months or so, and perhaps understandably, many people are still adjusting back to their pre-pandemic lives, especially in the disabled community. Ramandeep Mann has been on a similar journey – in terms of taking the time to reflect. during lockdown and taking the brave decision to – for want of a better word – re-claim her independence. Ramandeep joined PACE in 2005. During her 16 years (and counting), at PACE, […]

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The Positive Impact of PACE Pals

Published June 28th

In October 2020, PACE launched a weekly online social session called PACE Pals. It was created to tackle isolation and the lack of person-to-person contact due to multiple lockdowns throughout the year. The aim was simple – to create a positive, safe environment for our members to connect, laugh and confide with one another, whether that be their weekly activities, what they have been watching or listening to or just sharing their favourite anecdotes. The response was incredible. Since day one, we have had a strong group of members who have joined every single PACE Pals session, thus validating why […]

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Jaspaul’s Work Experiences

Published May 3rd

Since the Covid-19 pandemic started more than a year ago, very few people would have thought that more than a year later we’d be just be taking the first few steps towards normality. Unfortunately, one of the biggest sufferers, as a result, was the job market, where thousands of jobs were lost on an almost daily basis. On the 8th of April session of PACE Pals, the topic of discussion was disability in the workplace, and Jaspaul, one of our serving members at PACE, spoke about his personal experiences. Let’s start from the beginning, when did you take your first […]

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Team Leader Amrit, on her love of poetry and her “PACE Presents Poetry” course

Published October 8th

Over the last six months, we have seen our day-to-day lives change. Our social interactions, activities such as music concerts, theatres and sporting events have all been abruptly put on hold or have been severely impacted. PACE Multi-Sport sessions had to be postponed, for example. However, as a collective society one of our greatest strengths is being able to adapt to difficult situations – and the PACE community is no different. PACE Presents was born!  At its core, PACE Presents is a four week programme of 30-60 minute sessions delivered by key team leaders, where they delve into a particular […]

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Life in lock-down: Reshad Saraj

Published April 28th

Hello again… As we approach (or surpass depending when this is published) a full month since the UK went into lock-down – March 22nd if anybody was curious. I want to take this time to congratulate everyone on this somewhat morbid anniversary. Look at it on the bright side, another 59 months to go (5 years) until the whole of the UK gets a piece of wood according to anniversary etiquette and traditions – I might do a whole blog on this subject, but until we reach this momentous occasion, I thought we’d mark the one month mark with something […]

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Ode to the NHS

Published April 15th

As we enter the fourth week of lockdown, or as I have dubbed it “A house pet’s dream,” I’m working on the name – please humour me. After experiencing, rather agonisingly, a beautiful sunny Easter combined with the sobering daily rising death toll, the extension of the lock-down and that the One show is still on every night where Eastenders got cut to two nights a week (yes, I’m still not over it), it is completely understandable that your/our resolve could start to weaver. (Side-note: my salted caramel Kit-Kat Easter egg was too salty – who would have figured). So […]

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