People have been heaping praise on Asda for launching a £1 meal deal for over 60s at all in-store cafes to help with the cost of living.
With the cost of living crisis continuing to make its impact felt nationwide, and inflation now at a 40-year record high of 10.1%, one of the UK’s largest supermarket retailers has announced a range of new ‘winter warmer’ initiatives to support its customers and community groups who are struggling with the rising costs.
The supermarket is offering all over 60s the chance to enjoy soup, a roll, and unlimited tea and coffees for just £1 in any of its 205 cafes.
The offer will be running all day and every day throughout November and December.
Asda says it is “stepping up its support for older customers” as they continue to be “disproportionately affected” by spiralling living costs – with the supermarket’s latest Income Tracker showing those aged 65 to 74 experienced a £163 drop in disposable income in August, compared to last year.
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Age UK also estimates that 2.8 million older households will still be living in fuel poverty this winter, despite the Government freezing the energy price cap.
We’ve announced three new ‘winter warmer’ initiatives to support customers and community groups struggling with the cost-of-living crisis, including a £1 meal deal for the over 60s in all our cafes throughout November and December. Read more here: https://t.co/3OepkMkBJRpic.twitter.com/dHCdHBO4Ht
The new £1 meal deal initiative for over 60s will also run alongside the supermarket’s current ‘kids eat for £1’ offer – which the retailer says continues to be hugely popular.
“We know that this winter is set to be incredibly hard for thousands of pensioners as they worry about how to keep themselves warm in the face of rising living costs and a fixed income,” Asda co-owner Mohsin Issa said on the launch of the meal deal initiative.
“We’ve already been able to serve over half a million meals through our Kids Eat for £1 initiative in our cafes and we’re hoping our new offer of soup and hot drinks for over 60s will prove just as impactful for those who need it most.”
Other initiatives announced by Asda during economic uncertainty include the supermarket’s charity, the Asda Foundation, providing funding worth £500,000 in the form of grants to support community groups that are struggling with rising operating costs or increased demand for their vital services.
Asda has been praised for launching £1 cafe meal deal for over 60s to help with cost of living / Credit: ASDA
Priority for grants of up to £2,000 will be given to groups and charities that need financial help to cover increased energy costs, or to those who want to use their facilities to create ‘warm banks’ – which are spaces where people can keep warm this winter if they are unable to afford to heat their homes.
The supermarket is also running a ‘Community Cuppa’ campaign in its cafes.
This will be done by creating spaces for community groups who “may otherwise struggle to meet due to rising energy costs”, with spaces available on weekdays in November and December from 2pm – 6pm and all those visiting receiving unlimited free tea or coffee.
Manchester City loanee João Cancelo looks ‘possessed’ in viral post-match interview
Danny Jones
Manchester City loanee João Cancelo has gone viral after countless people online said that he looked “possessed” in a post-match interview over the weekend.
The 29-year-old City star, currently on loan at Barcelona, scored the winner for the Spanish giants in their game against Celta Vigo on Saturday, 23 September.
has already grabbed a couple of goals and an assist this season — one of them being the third in Barca’s 3-2 victory, which came in the 89th minute of the game.
So, naturally, Spanish media wanted to chat with him after full-time and we’d pay good money to know how this particular interviewer reacted after Cancelo suddenly started pulling these extremely weird faces mid-chat:
Seriously wtf is going on with Joao Cancelo in his interview after the game
We’re sure there’s an explanation but Cancelo being possessed by some kind of demon is much more entertaining.
What the hell is going on? We have no idea but it’s certainly amused and intrigued people online.
With many commenting that he looks as though he’s suddenly become “possessed” by some sort of supernatural force and others joking that he must have just “come straight from a rave” to play a quick 90 minutes, people have been genuinely scratching their heads at the bizarre clip.
The video has been viewed over 12 million times on TikTok and reshared by countless other users across various different social media platforms.
Maybe he just had really dry eyes and an even drier mouth? Either that or he was still riding an absolute adrenaline high from this moment:
The ever-dynamic fullback, who regularly floats between the wing and central midfielder, arrived at the Bernabéu this summer after spending half a season on loan at Bayern Munich.
Despite being arguably one of the best players in the Premier League and winning plenty of silverware under Pep Guardiola, the two seemingly fell out sometime last season and Cancelo was ultimately sidelined by the Catalan coach sidelined.
Now playing at Pep’s boyhood club and enjoying regular minutes thus far (after also being out of the Bayern squad earlier this year), it remains to be seen whether the two will mend fences and the Portuguese star will return to the Etihad at some point in the future.
Peter Kay wants to do a Phoenix Nights film and has already written multiple Max and Paddy Christmas specials
Danny Jones
Comedy legend Peter Kay has revealed that he wants to revive Phoenix Nights in the form of a feature film and has been writing down ideas for years.
Writing in his upcoming memoir, TV: Big Adventures on the Small Screen — which releases on Thursday, 28 September this week — Kay has confirmed that he’s been workshopping possible ways to do it ever since the hit show ended in 2003.
As per multiple outlets who got their hands on extracts from the follow-up to his best-selling autobiography from 2007, The Sound of Laughter, the Bolton-born comic, actor and writer says: “I still write down ideas.
“I had an idea only today of Brian getting Young Kenny [played by fellow Manc funnyman, Justin Moorhouse] to paint an enormous letter ‘H’ on the roof of the club so he can advertise they’ve got a helicopter pad. The chance of a helicopter ever landing is, of course, zero.” Kay also returned stand-up at the AO Arena this weekend.
The 50-year-old goes on to write that, “As the years pass, I’m becoming more like Brian, but if Phoenix Nights rose again it’d have to be for something very special, maybe a film? Perhaps Brian could get visited by three ghosts. Now, wouldn’t that be an idea?”
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time Kay has floated the possibility of a feature-length Phoenix Nights comeback, having told producers that a script was ‘ready to go’ back in 2011 around the same time and success of The Inbetweeners Movie.
In fact, a few years later in 2017, he told BBC Radio Manchester that he’d “love to go back” to the series and said, “There’s a whole series three been written for about 15 years” but insisted that other projects and real-life simply gets in the way. As for whether this was turned into a film script, who knows?
Furthermore, the sell-out standup (whose return to the stage broke records and the internet late last year) shed even further light on the show’s spin-off, Max & Paddy’s Road to Nowhere and its potential return for a Christmas special or two. In fact, co-star Paddy McGuinness talked it up earlier this year too.
He detailed how a script he’d written revolved around the two bouncers as “overly aggressive” elves working in Santa’s grotto.
Like his lifelong friend Peter, McGuinness insisted he’s always been keen to bring the equally popular comedy duo back and has said in the past that there’s “always talk about doing another one”, but that the issue is simply “time” and “getting everyone together”.
We’re keeping everything crossed that the time is just around the corner.
Emily Sergeant -
7th October 2022 
