speakwithmaria

Good morning everybody I am available for freelance work to help a VCS / local charity interested in applying for the digital inclusion fund from Lambeth Council - more info below. Please contact me privately for a preliminary discussion and / or arrange meeting if your organisation is interested in putting forward an application, clearly stating the name of your organisation / registered charity number and its main mission. What is the main aim of this fund? The main aim of this fund is to supply people with the equipment needed to be actually connected and digitally empowered. Therefore I will be able to respond to individuals contacting me in their personal capacity or without quoting the organisation they represent. Please note training skills programmes cannot be funded and sole traders / individuals cannot apply. How can I help? I can explain the technical, ergonomic and cognitive / emotional needs of different audience groups with regard to digital media, tools, software and hardware. I can do background research, extract data from marketing and technical sources, write business cases, compare and explain the characteristics and benefits of different technical specifications. I can provide further information on a wide range of mobile devices and computer platforms from reliable sources. I can write or review your application to give it more chances to be reliable, convenient and successful. More information I paste here Extracts from News from Lambeth, 17 Nov 2023: Link to the website: https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/digital-inclusion-fund/what-will-be-funded

Hello! I am looking for about 6 hours of work per week doing activities that I can organise flexibly in my own time, compatibly with other self-care requirements. Do you have collections of manuscripts, musical sheets, books, CDs and vynil discs, stamps or other objects that need to be catalogued? I am happy to help on a freelance basis at very convenient rates. Either because you want to sell them or because you just want to enjoy sharing the data with others, use them for a publication or for an inventory of your assets for probate reasons, cataloguing your collection is the first step to move forward, create new memories, services and value. I can use your choice of software, websites and apps or suggest the most suitable for your purpose, fill the the estate inventory asset spreadsheets you have already or design some bespoke worksheets you can then upload on different platforms and operating systems. I can offer a wide range of skills for the job: semiretired, former librarian, information officer and ICT consultant, project manager, local housekeeper, I am still trying to remain active and healthy as a freelance. Writer (pen name Brunella Longo), private language tutor and nutritional coach are the roles I can currently work for. Do not hesitate to contact for rates and availability. http://www.linkedin.com/in/mariabrunella http://www.linkedin.com/in/brunella https://www.pantarei.it

Hello! Do you want to briefly explain what do you need in a private message to me? Self-assessment for self-employment people with none or just 1 to 3 dependants can be sorted out in one or two hours max. Happy to help, my hourly rate for admin support starts at £25 per hour. If there is anything really complicated I can direct you to good accountants or contact HMRC on your behalf. Get in touch privately to arrange a phone appointment as first thing because I am quite busy for the next two / three months and I have limited availability.

Have you tried googling 'boarding schools for tennis'? There are a lot of commercial results but also interesting clues.

In case you do not know them there are few organisations at national and local level that can direct you to the right type of persons. See the NHS page Where to get autism support - NHS (www.nhs.uk) and the National Autistic Society website first. NAS has also a local branch in Lambeth.

Hello Andypops18 good to see somebody is looking for Italian language speaking workers in the community! I do not offer babysitting, nanny, carer services (and I cannot even say I would like to because I have health conditions that make me unsuitable for such roles) but - good news! - in case it is useful for you, your nannies or for your children I do work as a freelance language tutor locally so I am more than happy to discuss any realistic work opportunity - see my previous posts at https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/topic/301745-english-or-italian-as-foreign-languages-private-tutor/ I can also offer help as a nutritional coach: effective and rapid results guaranteed in terms of organising diets, grocery shopping, meals / food preparation with and without some technological support. Do not hesitate to get in touch! Buona serata Maria Maria Longo 0788 7990108 [email protected]

Sorry to hear about people going out of business. Agree about Herne Hill market on Sunday: it offers great variety of local produce whereas the shops on Lordship Lane have high-quality foods from all over the world not always very convenient, Morrisons Sainsbury's M&S Lidl and other supermarkets may disappoint occasionally but I think all in all the quality of the fruit & veg they offer is quite high with a great number of suppliers that is worth to check and try from time to time because you discover new varieties and new tastes. Lambeth Community Shop in Vale Street (between West Dulwich and West Norwood) is a good place to buy fruit and veggies that are close to their Best Before / Use by date. The shop is a social enterprise for those who cannot afford market / supermarket / shop prices and qualify for support: membership is only for people that receive means tested benefits and carers, it sells surplus food so supplies can be zero one day and tons the day after, you need to be very flexible and committed to eat well no matter your earnings.

You can alway follow advice from Humanists UK - I think they have a campaign focussing on the idea of teaching young people to be curious about beliefs that means also learning about various religions https://humanists.uk

Just updating this post now since I have heard on the radio that the issue is in the news today to say that following a 1:02:00 waiting time last month I eventually re-claimed my refund over the phone and this time around the money was back in my bank account after 10 days.

Has anybody received any refund on last year self assessment? I claimed a refund in October but nothing has come through yet.

Best ways to get in the City from here are by train or by bicycle or by a mix of both. Check out trains that depart and arrive from Farrington, City Thameslink, London Bridge or Cannon Street. From London Bridge - about 10 minutes by bicycle from Bank or Moorgate - you can also use the underground. The same is from Blackfriars or Farrington. Probably the best train station in terms of routes and flexible alternatives to choose is Peckham Rye (zone 2).

Towels can create problems for small charity shops because to be sure they do not pass germs they need to be washed at 90 degrees - and in certain cases, for instance spores of C.diff bacteria or some fungal infections, it seems that high temperature washing with domestic or commercial washing machines is not even enough to completely sanitize them. So perhaps the best thing is to hand them over to those who can manage some sort of industrial safe recycling. You can try TRAID Peckham - they take donations of linen in store (Rye Lane). Huge list of Southwark recycling sites for textiles is at this page: https://www.southwark.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/recycling/recycling-centres/local-recycling-centres?chapter=2&article

Hello Sanjay last year among other things I was offering something like the service you are looking for (it was called "family cook") but the business turned out to be not viable so I discontinued it. However, good news is that I work as a nutritional coach and I can give you all the support, the specific instructions and very quick guidance to sort out the problem very effectively, so that you always have very healthy ready meals in your freezer or fridge, good for your wellbeing, medical conditions or goals (such as loosing weight, eat less sugars, get more vitamin D etc). You do not need to become a cook but just take care of yourself! A basic nutritional coaching programme consists of three meeting each of 45 minutes online. Get in touch privately if you like the idea and you want to know more, no better time to start as there will be new year resolutions discounts coming up in a couple of weeks :) Best wishes Maria

Many thanks, grazie mille! I am pleased to offer a four weeks, hands-on new programme aimed at mastering English for international communications. It can be delivered in presence or online. Research has shown that over the 40% of English phrases commonly used in business, marketing and advertising communications targeted to EMEA customers and suppliers is not understood. Highly interactive and tailored, the programme will focus on functional and specialistic language useful for specific industries, targets or market segments. Please feel free to share and reach out for more. Maria Longo Mobile 07887990108 email [email protected]

I have prepared a short ESOL programme to improve spoken and written English for a family of five recently relocated here from Ukraine, three adults and two young boys. I was asked to suggest books or movies for the boys, 16yo and a 14yo, so that they make sense of their feelings and speed up their integration. I explain more in a moment. Perhaps you have encountered similar situations and you have some ideas of stories to recommend: I would really appreciate if you can share them. The boys are very fond of football and like to run with their dad. They seem very healthy and extrovert but for sudden melancholy. Their level of English is intermediate / advanced (B1/B2), they learn quickly and do not dislike to read at all but show signs of cognitive distress and tiredness very often. They need to better understand the emotional complexity of their lives, the fact that their family has gone through smear and shame punishement from other relatives pro-Russia and to process why they became isolated, particularly by cousins and friends, up to the point that their parents and uncle decided to leave. They are neither refugees nor exiles, technically speaking, as they did not have to apply for any scheme to stay here. Their wealth has shielded them so far from major hardship, but they cannot make sense, to the best of my understanding, of the fact they feel guilty and ashamed of what happened to them. The adults keep on saying that all the relationships they had in Ukraine disappeared out of the blue because of Putin. But the boys cannot make the connection. They understand it was not safe anymore for them to remain: this is not difficult to understand, but it does not explain the emotional tsunami they have been through and why close relatives suddenly refused to answer their phone calls or started to throw insults to their dad and say he should apologise.... to whom? for what? They told me the situation they were in was already very difficult following the annexation of Crimea few years ago - that is why the family had decided to move abroad. I have found difficult to pick up novels or movies for these boys and may be for their parents too. I have thought The Diary of Anne Frank but perhaps something more recent would be more effective. I have browsed many stories of refugees but they seem not very focussed neither. I cannot remember the title of a movie I saw many years ago, that may be appropriate, about the daily lack of kindness, little cruelties and acts of affectless in a busy family, perhaps it was a french film in the 1990s? Many thanks in advance for any suggestion.

The Online Safety Bill should soon resume its journey. It could bring some clarity and fairness also to the labour market, plagued with fake recruitment ads and the crimes associated with these practices: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3137/news I have thought that people posting genuine vacancies and above all looking for work can be interested in knowing more about these scams. Here are few useful pages: - Understanding the impact of job scams Disclosure and Barring Service 22 November 2021 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/understanding-the-impact-of-job-scams - Major law changes to protect people from scam adverts online Gov.uk 8 March 2022 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/major-law-changes-to-protect-people-from-scam-adverts-online - The rise of fake job adverts and recruitment fraud Tom Pinder, Jisc's Prospects Luminate project December 2018 https://luminate.prospects.ac.uk/the-rise-of-fake-job-adverts-and-recruitment-fraud- - Tackling Fake Traffic from Artificial Engagement Data & Marketing Association 18 Feb 2021 https://dma.org.uk/article/tackling-fake-traffic-from-artificial-engagement Have a lovely day, and plenty of peaceful and decent work for everybody Maria Brunella Read my book The Unfindable Explained: on Amazon Kindle Unlimited for free or buy the ebook version for £1.99 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09S36PM3M/ Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariabrunella

Former consultant, TEFL qualified tutor in English and Italian as second languages, I assist adults and young people from levels pre-intermediate or intermediate (A2/B1 CEFR), at least in year 10 or 11 (that means age 15 or 16) for - exams preparation - citizenship tests - business, academic or legal projects - developing fluency and speaking confidence, understanding pronunciation (phonetics) - any other specific project. Face to face in Dulwich and surrounding areas and in Central London. Available also for online / hybrid sessions. Do get in touch for a free 15 minutes assessment of your level. Thank you very much

It seems there is no interest for this kind of work but from spammers

The situation is pretty grim. I sympathise with you and I hope you have found something in the meantime and, if not, you do not stop looking for it. Politicians keep on saying there is a record number of vacancies out there at the moment. Employers should be more encouraged perhaps with fiscal policies or other incentives to employ over 50 and over 60. If one has the skills needed to work full or part time in a role that is compatible with his / her own health requirements why shouldn't he / she be considered for it? Best of luck

Thank you for mentioning that very useful to know (Integrated Care Boards, another piece of the jigsaw of primary care services). The Care Quality Commission report I quoted earlier dated July (rating "overall good") was for the out of hours GP provided by SELDOC whereas the other parts of the "TJ health hub" mentioned have not been inspected yet.

Very challenging to compare services offered by two precise GP surgeries on the grounds of individual experiences or anecdotes also because of a complex web of "collaborations" that might have been started with good intentions but ended with a reality of obfuscating data about who is in charge of what since / until when. Anyhow, if you know of local surgeries that are genuinely and seriously looking for administrative members of staff, receptionists or patient liaison officers please let me know (NHS Job portal has plenty of jobs adverts that are either non updated or posted for advertising by providers with decommissioned services etc). I've had a look at several records of GP surgeries recently from a number of different sources: the Care Quality Commission database seems a quite reliable one and provides an updated "overall good" report for 306 GP( under the personal name of the Principal GP) whereas it records a change of provider for the TJ GP Surgery. In particular it seems that: - there is an "old" record for the TJ GP run by Omnes Healthcare with the indication that caring services needed improvement; - there is a new record under the name TJ Health Centre provided and run by SELDOC updated July 2022 with rating overall good. The very confusing picture gets even more confused if you check the TJ GP Surgery website that says they are run by South East London CCG but it has also a "company information" banner indicating the details of Omnes Healthcare.... The website is managed by a third company... that I guess could be blamed for the confusion of publicising inaccurate data. Perhaps caring still needs improvement on the site. By the way, searching the CQC database with postcode SE22 8EY and 5 miles radius extension produces 523 results that I imagine may include duplicate data so... where does the care start in the NHS ecosystem? I would say care starts with effective and clear, non ambiguous communications: it is not rocket science to update a website if you really want to.

I have a new programme ready for those interested in developing - English as foreign language for business and travel or - Italian as foreign language for A-Level and academic study. ELLRT, that stands for easy language learning by reading together, is my new formula: engaging, light and very effective. Bespoke one-to-one sessions and classes are possible. Discretionary up to 15 minutes free assessment offered to the right motivated students! I am happy to provide my ELLRT service to private students, companies and schools / colleges. Contact me privately with your details for more information and to require a callback. Maria Longo 0788 7990108 [email protected]

Everybody cn fall victim of scams - more or less sophisticated - including experts of scam psychology and financial scama! but perhaps two things are very useful in this instance: 1) keep reporting and sharing information about these cases 2) reassure victims that their reaction is quite normal and they did not do anything wrong in principle, BUT ... as a rule of thumb, if somebody that you do not know approaches you with requests that sounds weird, involve money or personal details you just say to call 101 because they will be happy to help more than you can do for the prevention of crime.

In my block of flats (residents are people over 55 only and many are over 80) we've had a similar case on Wednesday - white woman with a black pony tail, a white t shirt and black trousers pretending to be living "around the corner" and to be urgently in need of a phone in order to call her mother for help. Unfortunately she was able to enter the building and to con one of my neighbours who gave her his phone to make calls to an alleged mother. He also gave her 50£. He realised he had been conned only today when he was with his wife at home and they started receiving other fanny calls from the woman in distress saying she needed again money to be sent to her urgently and then from somebody else pretending to be in a similar urgent situation. I believe it may be not just one woman but very likely a group of people.