Sophie Mei

City Hearts are steps ahead – Sheffield’s round walk

Sheffield is synonymous with its seven hills and great walks – something of which I feel I have neglected, so I decided to get stuck right in… literally.

Last weekend a team from City Hearts, a local charity, completed the 14-mile ‘Sheffield Round Walk.’

A scenic opportunity and a bit of exercise not to be missed – I felt it necessary to participate.

After all, what could go wrong?

Sophie’s Slimy Encounter

As we embarked on our route from Endcliffe Park, I found myself three miles in when I began sinking into thick black sludge, and we hadn’t even reached our first pit stop.

I had been talking to City Hearts’ director Siobhan Bullock when I realized that we had gone the wrong way and, I was knee deep in thick black mud.

Siobhan Bullock, project manager at City Hearts, said;

“I’ve never seen Sophie Mei in such dramatic conditions. I couldn’t stop laughing and taking photos. Sophie managed to get herself out of her sticky situation and the rest of the walk was a lot less dramatic.

It was great to see so many people turn out for the event and a sign of the love and support that is continuously donated to the charity.”

City Hearts is a residential programme for women overcoming serious life issues such as drug and alcohol addictions, self-harm, unplanned pregnancies, depression and eating disorders. The project also provides a refuge for women coming out of prostitution and exploitation.

Colleen Brownlee, development director of City Hearts, says:

“We are so thankful of the help Sheffielders have given us with the round walk and other support. This recently came to fruition when we made a ‘Challenge Anneka’ style plea to help furnish a new home that the charity have converted to house twenty women in need. We were overwhelmed by the amount of furniture that was offered and it was a true sign of Sheffield spirit.”

Most of the City Hearts team managed to complete the full 14 miles through the parks, woodland and countryside of southwest Sheffield.

The walk was organized by businesswoman Fiona Jagger, from the IT Trainer, who separated the distance into four legs which allowed some of the women from the City Hearts programme to participate.

To find out more about City Hearts log on to: http://www.hopecitychurch.tv/community/city-hearts

Some of us may hurl at the thought of public displays of affection but when it comes to simple hand-holding that’s acceptable right?

It seems our society embraces friendliness amongst heterosexual couples but are not so tolerant when it comes to same-sex couples.

I got news for you, times are – a – changing and Saturday 25th September marks ‘SSH’

Over the last year, this silent revolution of same-sex hand holding (sshh) has established itself in over 20 countries. For many participants it has changed the way they feel about themselves, their loved ones and their place in the world. Watkins continues, “No longer victims, hand holding people in same-sex relationships are now fighting to be the agents of their own equality. They are becoming the change that they seek. Their courage has been infinite. They are living their love and have realised that if they want to live in a world where they can hold their partner’s hand in the street, they’ve got to hold their partner’s hand in the street. ‘Sshh! Saturdays’ and A Day In Hand have created spaces for many LBGT people to see that the more ‘out’ they are, the easier being ‘out’ is.”

A Day in Hand heralds a revolutionary way of making the world a more liveable place: a revolution in which anybody, on any day, can be a part of. Same-sex hand holding (Sshh) is a silent revolution because we simply have to show the world that same-sex love exists in all places and in all cultures. The campaign is designed to promote equality of respect for people who wish to hold hands with someone of the same gender in public. It launched on May 2009 and is now featured in over 20 countries worldwide. By holding hands we visibly challenge stereotypes and show we love and commit like everyone else. Events like Sshh! Saturdays remind people that each individual has the power to change the cultural zeitgeist. Holding hands with your partner or your friend, where you can, is about being true to yourself and to those you love.

Website:    http://www.adayinhand.com

Sheffield-born fashion designer Gemma Slack will showcase her latest line at London’s fashion week. The 24 year-old fashion designer who has already designed for stars such as Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Elle McPherson as well as being labelled as one of the UK’s top 100 designers.

“Last year, I designed a Heavenly Metals collection for London Fashion Week, which received international praise, and this year my range has been featured in the New York Times as well as Vogue online.”

Gemma grew up in Pitsmoor, Sheffield with her creative family, which includes her younger sister and local media lady, Sophie Mei.

Gemma attended King Edward V11 School and Sixth form where she completed her A-Levels in Arts and Linguistics. Gemma then moved to London to pursue her career as a Fashion Designer.

She went on to complete a foundation degree in Fine Art at Chelsea college of Art and Design. She then became one of the fifteen designers that were selected to study women’s wear at the prestigious London College of Fashion, where she later received a First Class Honours degree.

As well as showcasing her range at Paris, New York and London Fashion week each year she also designs regularly for A-list celebrities and Television series such as, Channel 4’s Frock Me.

Gemma, a protégée of renowned designer Gareth Pugh, has had major international success too with her designs regularly being featured in Italian Vogue and Elle Magazine as well as online success in fashion blogs and online features.

Not only does Gemma style for the stars but she also creates bespoke designs for clients in a range of materials but specializes in leather and metal clothing.

To find out more log on to: www.gemmaslack.com or follow her on: @GemmaSlack

September has been a big month for us females from Doncaster Races Ladies day on the 9^th to Oktoberfest (aka Dirndl day) in Munich at the end of September. Bavarian

Starting closer to home was our annual knees up at “donny races” where us self-employed ladies dress up, drink champagne and spend our hard earned money on ‘networking.’

We do this ‘networking’ at one of the oldest horse racing events in the country (around 400 years old) and it is Doncaster’s biggest event of the Autumn season.

As well as being a horseracing patent in the country, I believe it is a patent of fashion. We in Yorkshire really do rock the retro glamour with fascinators (bigger the better) and bright colourful hats galore.

This year, the sun was even shining in Doncaster, the horses were… err… running and I even saw a few of them. (This is something that sounds obvious but I find the champagne tent quite an obstruction to the rest of my should-be horse filled day.)

We had a fun time journeying around in a tacky white limo, schmoozing with some stranded business men and then finished off the night nicely eating at Antibo restaurant in Sheffield and a few ‘night caps’ in the lovely Bar 360.

The following weekend was… Cheers to Rugby

Sheffield’s Rugby Union Club held their annual Beer Festival at the beginning of September. I had to (willingly) participate in a scrum with the rugby players all for a good cause.

The Beer festival ran from 11^th – 13^th September and showcased twenty different types of beer at Abbeydale Sports club near Dore.

The event raised money through prize draws and lucky dips all in aid of local charities; Wooden Spoon Rugby Charity, Bluebell Wood and Floodlight Appeal.

My old school friend Lotoya and I had a great afternoon in the sun sampling beer and drawing the raffle. A regular on our Sheffield events lists me thinks.

I left the Dore – based rugby club for yet another beer fest, this one a little further a field, at the world’s most famous one – ‘Oktoberfest’.

DIRNDL-FEST

Beer-drinking, men in Lederhausen and eating sausages and pretzels, may be heaven for some but for me, It didn’t sound like my kind of fun.

I’m a vegetarian who doesn’t like beer and hadn’t got an acquired taste for a man in a Lederhausen ( a folkloric/dungarees style suit)

Until now…welcome to the world of Oktoberfest.

The Tunisian troupe of ladies gathered at dawn in a cold Sheffield train station as we embarked on our journey to Munchen (Munich, Germany). As per, the journey was not smooth as our makeup had to be bagged, some destroyed, to get through security. For once, I did not bleep (cheap jewellery) but I did nearly miss the flight due to a necessary stop at the Mac counter. No, I don’t mean the computer Macs etc but the beauty that is Mac makeup – a must for all performers and vein athletes as it just stays on.

Nonetheless, we made it to our gorgeous Marriott Hotel in the centre of Munich. We have been enjoying the spa, the American-clad Champions bar and we have been loving MUNICH.

On Saturday, we designed our own walking tour of the city and our first stop was the ‘English Gardens.’ This is basically a big park like Hyde Park in London or a not quite so celubrious Central Park in New York.

Here, we saw a ‘beer bus’ full of drunken English men on a stag do pulling moonies (yes, they really did live up to the clichee) and finally we found the more ‘refined’ Europeans sat in a beer Garden surrounding the Chinese Tower.

There was a brass band playing in the tower as well as sounds of cheers and “prost.” We sat, listened and ate German Sausage, red cabbage, pretzels and I ate… dates.

We then walked into the Old town where we found souvenir shops selling traditional Bavarian goods (Bavaria is the region in which Munich is placed).

As we made our way to the new town our ‘find Dirndl’ mission began as I had heard that a lot of the women dress in Dirndl’s (similar to that of a traditional milkmaid’s outfit), me being me, decided our condition to going to Oktoberfest, the world’s largest beer festival, was to dress-up in a Dirndl.

So we trapsed everywhere from C&A to designer stores to find our perfect Dirndls (of which there were plenty) and in a shopping-blur missed the dancing clock in Munich’s centre.

Nonetheless, we found our Dirndl’s, pinnys and even Bavarian style hats. After all, when in Rome…

After bustling round a busy Munich we stopped off for a Bellini and Apple Strudel before getting very lost and taking the U-barn to reach our hotel.

That was me done for the day, hot chocolate and bed – the party life I lead!

Sunday was OKTOBERFEST! There had been rumours that the smell of stale beer would spoil the atmosphere (as there is now a no smoking policy in the tents) but to my surprise all I could smell was…chicken. Sizzling roasting chicken for all the happy tables full of beer to gnaw at. Even being a veggie it looked good and salty and apparently went well with our litres of beer.

We had a table of 10, which had been booked since November 2009, and it was an eclectic mix of Sheffield ladies and Nottingham MBA alumni. One thing we had in common was the fact that we all dressed-up – ladies in dirndls and men in Lederhausens.

I even had a couple litres of Shandy as German beer tastes so good! I loved the festival atmosphere as it was my kind of event. No mud just wooden decking, no vomiting just merry drinking, no fastfood just fast service and most of all a lot of fancy dress! The ratio of men to women was also a nice surprise as I spend my days teaching women to dance that I rarely see the other ‘sex.’

After 2 litres of the good stuff, dancing on benches and learning ‘cheers’ in German (PROST) we then made our way around the festival.

The festival itself is open to all and looks like something out of Grease, the movie but one thing Germany is good at is eco-friendliness. Not only were the cups recyclable but they were re-usable as you had to pay a deposit on the class or cup you were using to make sure you gave it back. There were lots of bins, not much smoking and only a few people staggering as you have to sit down at a table to be allowed to drink.

There was no ‘drink your own’ Heineken in the mud here. And a note to all Dirndl clad ladies you can show off your cleavage but no skirts above the knee, I’m told it is snuffed at. Talking of Snuffing, there was a lot of ‘air freshener’ bottles being snorted along with the beer… all legal highs here though.

Our ladies trip, was finished off by a spot of self-contained ‘culture’ as we took a tour on a sightseeing bus.

Munich was a fantastic city, very clean, friendly and reasonably priced. It is an attractive city one of which combines the old and new but feels very safe and as a language student I’m happy to report that there was not much English-speaking going on.

Auf wierdersen!

Sheffield played host to eight thousand runners as part of the Bupa Great Yorkshire 10k Run last Sunday. One of whom was Eastender’s Nasty Nick who hurtled to the ground during the race.

The incident happened as the runners headed for Hillsborough football ground to reach the 5k mark. John Altman AKA ‘Nasty Nick’ sprinted in front of Richard McCourt “Dick” (from ‘Dick and Dom’) and tripped on a pothole, which sent him to the ground.

Altman who had his bleeding hand bandaged at the finish line said:

“It was quite a shock as I had just been gazing up at Hillsborough football ground and like them, I too went down.

I do hope to be in Sheffield again however, either for next year’s race or with my band at the 02 Academy.”

John Altman has now left the East End for a career in Rock music as he has recently set up his new band ‘Heavy Metal Kids.’ You can watch their first single ‘Uncontrollable’ here.

Amongst the elite athletes, running clubs and amateur runners were a few other familiar faces from Emmerdale, Coronation St and Eastenders.

Bupa’s nominated charity this year was the Alzheimer’s Society, which I ran for along with eight hundred others.  One of whom was Sheffield’s Richard McCourt AKA ‘Dick’ from the duo ‘Dick and Dom.’

Richard McCourt was back on home turf for the weekend to participate in the run and see his Sheffield-based family, which includes his mother who suffers from dementia.

Alzheimer’s Society Director of Fundraising and Marketing, Jo Swinhoe, said: ‘We really appreciate the efforts of everyone who fundraises for us as we rely on voluntary income to support people with dementia and their carers and undertake our vital dementia research.

The 10k race was finished off by a fun run for kids and a ‘Bands on the Run’ stage in Sheffield’s Peace Gardens.

By  Sophie Mei