As we slowly progress further and further out of lockdown, start to slowly integrate back into society and try to adjust to “the new normal”. At the fifth PACE online, we continued to hear stories of venturing out to the high-street on public transport or the opportunity to finally go to the hairdressers to get a much-needed haircut. All while remaining vigilant and safe while the threat of the pandemic still remains. 

This is evident by what we hear from our members who are starting to go out far more frequently. They convey public transport has changed dramatically, becoming less crowded and therefore more subdued, which some may say is a good thing. The shopping experience as well is something we have never seen before – having to queue for the majority of shops resulting in 20-minute shops turning into 40-minute excursions. It is heartening to see though our members feeling confident enough to venture out. Hopefully we continue to hear more stories like this in the weeks to come.

August is fast approaching and now is probably the perfect time to tend to the garden; cut the grass, trim the plants and possibly – if you are feeling brave enough – try and grow some fruit and vegetables. This is exactly what one of our volunteers did; growing marigold flowers, and tending to the garden in general.

Elsewhere PACE’s baking craze continues with a member producing a scrumptious Victoria sponge cake that would not look out of place on The Great British Bake-off. 

The PACE presents poetry group shared some of their favourite poems they have created over the past few weeks with the wider PACE community. These poems reflect the thoughts, hopes and fears some of our PACE members feel transmitted beautifully into these poems. We are incredibly proud of what the PACE Presents Poetry group have created so far and cannot wait to see what they produce next; as PACE Presents Poetry enters its third week. 

To round things off in true PACE fashion, everyone took part in a full-body stretch, but with a twist. Pillows and a t-shirt were mandatory, and were used to stretch your arms and legs, as props to also help stretch and balance your core. It proved to be a successful work-out with lots of noise and strained, contorted faces. 

We also celebrated a PACE members birthday, which of course was accompanied with a brilliant rendition of Happy Birthday. To cap it off another amazing PACE online session, the group sang and danced along to an all-time classic Bollywood song, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, from the 1998 Hindi film of the same name. 

A truly fitting end to another incredibly uplifting PACE online.