Latest news with #Jane
Daily Mirror
16 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mirror
The coffee factory that keeps its local community full of beans
When Nestlé opened its Tutbury factory in Derbyshire in 1901, it was primarily in the business of producing tinned milk, but switched to manufacturing Nescafé instant coffee in 1959. Now the factory can turn out an impressive 170,000 jars of Nescafé every day and 25 million Nescafé Dolce Gusto pods a week, as well as a variety of Starbucks at Home coffee products. And for the past 35 years of its existence Jane Downes has been working here, having started as a night cleaner before landing her dream job in the staff shop. But her connection to the place goes back even further. Her mum was employed in the quality lab for 18 years, and as a teenager Jane used to walk with her to the Nestlé staff shop and wait for her to come out with a bag of goodies – not realising that one day she would be running the shop herself. It was here that Jane started to build relationships with the employees and pensioners, and the shop became the hub of the Nestlé community. The community side of things is key. With the factory being a feature of the landscape for so many years, the bond between it and the local residents runs deep. And Jane is very much part of that. Her proudest achievement has been fostering that relationship with free events hosted by Nestlé, including annual Halloween and 'Butterflies and Bees' wildlife events for families, and a Christmas dinner for local pensioners. For Jane, it's clear that the special relationship between Nestlé and the local residents is a two-way street. 'It's a very giving community,' she says. 'All these events I do rely on a lot of goodwill from the local community. Without their support, it wouldn't be happening. 'And the feedback they give you afterwards is absolutely amazing. It makes all the effort worthwhile, because the people obviously get so much enjoyment out of them.' Like Jane, 26-year-old Alex Hardcastle grew up locally and is following in the footsteps of her mum and sister, who both worked at the factory before her. 'That made me feel quite settled from the get-go,' she says. 'But I was determined to put my own stamp on my time at Nestlé, and I think I've done that.' Since joining as an agency casual on the factory floor aged 19, Alex has worked her way up to become interim health and safety manager. 'Everyone is super-proud of what I've achieved,' she says. Thirty-year-old Joe Timmins has also forged his own path at the company. He is the third generation of his family to work at Tutbury, and after joining Nestlé as an apprentice at 16, he is now a project engineer. 'My dad's felt like big boots to fill,' he says. 'But I've gone down a different route – he was very hands-on, whereas I'm more office based.' Both Alex and Joe know how meaningful these events can be. 'When I was younger, my mum used to get involved in them, and I'd go along too,' says Alex, who now helps to run the events herself. 'It really makes you have that sense of pride in where you work,' she explains. Joe adds, 'My grandma attended last year's Christmas lunch with her sister, and I got the chance to go down and surprise them. It's really special that they're able to be a part of the Nestlé community too.'
TimesLIVE
16 hours ago
- Sport
- TimesLIVE
Captain Jane explains why Banyana failed to bring home a Wafcon medal
Banyana Banyana captain Refiloe Jane has made an honest admission about their Women's Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) campaign in Morocco, where they failed to successfully defend their title. Banyana finished fourth after losing to Ghana in the third-place playoff match on Friday on penalties. They went to the tournament as defending champions, but had a disappointing tournament. Jane said they let the nation down. 'We are disappointed to be going home empty-handed. Throughout the tournament, it wasn't easy for the players and there were a lot of challenges on and off the pitch,' she said. 'We tried to put in a great performance, we tried to do our level best and we tried to retain the trophy as the main objective. But going home, there's a lot of work to be done and we are hoping in the next Wafcon we can do well, starting with the qualifiers.' No cheers. No welcome. Just cameras and questions. Banyana deserved more than silence. Let's not only show up when there's a trophy. #RespectBanyana #WeSeeYou #QueensDeserveBetter — Sports Daily (@SportsDailyZA) July 28, 2025 Among key factors that seemed to stand against Banyana in defence of their title were the less than ideal preparations, as yet another pay dispute with the South African Football Association before a major tournament resulted in a two-day pre-Wafcon strike in Morocco. The players reportedly returned to training out of a sense of duty, not because they felt the matter was resolved to their satisfaction. The absence of star attacker Thembi Kgatlane after her withdrawal from the tournament was another huge disadvantage. Jane feels the team — hugely experienced, but with some ageing campaigners and question marks over the depth of emerging talent — is in a transition phase. She said Banyana have many plus factors to take from their Wafcon campaign as they start to prepare for next year's edition, also in Morocco, where they hope to do better. 'Given the situation in camp, given the players we had and a lot of transition that was taking place in the team, we are hoping a lot of positives can be taken from the tournament and build on that. [WATCH] Banyana Banyana have returned home from Morocco following a disappointing stint at the Women's Africa Cup of Nations. — SABC News (@SABCNews) July 28, 2025 'It's disappointing to sum up the tournament going home without a medal.' Midfielder Amogelang Motau has called for patience and echoed Jane's sentiments that Banyana are in a transition period. 'I will go back to the fact that it's a transition. You need time for different combinations so we can establish the chemistry of players who were able to qualify for the World Cup,' Motau said. 'These are the players who have been playing together for more than six years. We are talking about Fifi [Jane] and Linda [Motlhalo]. When I came into the midfield, I almost felt like I was lost because the two of them had so much chemistry, but with time I'm also getting there. 'I think with the group of players who are here, we have shown they have potential and are willing to get there. For me it's about playing more games together and attending more camps together, and I think things will fall into place. We need to be patient.'
San Francisco Chronicle
20 hours ago
- Health
- San Francisco Chronicle
Oakland Zoo tries to save California condor that got poisoned in the wild
A wild California condor died from lead poisoning — the biggest threat to the critically endangered species — despite efforts from Oakland Zoo veterinary staff to save her on Saturday, officials said. The bird, named Jane, but also known as condor 1019, came to the zoo from Ventana Wildlife Society in Monterey and was so sick she was stumbling, then unable to stand, zoo officials said in a social media post, adding that her digestive system was unable to absorb any food. The zoo's veterinary team 'did everything they could,' including surgery on Saturday to remove lead fragments from her stomach, 'but sadly the lead poisoning was too advanced,' officials said. 'This tragic case is yet another example of how dangerous lead ammunition is to condors, who ingest it unknowingly when they eat (decaying flesh of dead animals) that contains fragments from lead bullets.' The Oakland Zoo is part of the California Condor Recovery Program that aims to rehabilitate sick and injured condors, a species that's classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Jane, named after the renowned conservationist Jane Goodall, was born at the World Center for Birds of Prey in Idaho in 2020. The 5-year-old dominant condor was friendly with less brave birds, according to Ventana Wildlife Society's website. On multiple occasions Jane was spotted standing over another condor in a pen as if to make sure the other bird got her share of food. In the wild, she stuck close to other female condors.
Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Corrie's Jane Hazlegrove: 'My wife and I still face homophobia every day - but I just smile'
With another wedding on the Cobbles next week as Bernie Winter ties the knot with corner shop owner Dev Alahan, actress Jane is celebrating her 10th wedding anniversary with wife Isobel Middleton - something the couple thought would never be possible Even after meeting the love of her life, Coronation Street actress Jane Hazlegrove never imagined she'd ever tie the knot. Jane and fellow actress Isobel Middleton fell in love after a chance meeting 30 years ago. But with same-sex weddings outlawed in Britain, their own big day seemed an impossible dream. Now the couple are preparing to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary and Jane admits it's a day she could never have hoped for when she was younger. 'I love a wedding, but I never thought that I'd actually get to have my own big party, full of all the people that I love and lots of laughter,' she says. 'It was a beautiful thing and a bit of a shock. I still can't believe it and I'm so proud that we've done it and I'm so proud of my love for Isobel. It's my greatest achievement, regardless of the career. 'I just can't believe that I'm allowed to love this woman and live the life that I live without being persecuted and hounded. Yes, you still meet homophobia every day, but I just smile at the homophobes and try to educate them and lead from the front.' Jane joined Coronation Street in 2019 as chaotic Bernie Winter, the mother of twins Gemma and Paul. And as she prepares to mark her own wedding anniversary, she's about to enjoy a screen wedding too, as Bernie ties the knot with corner shop owner Dev Alahan. In the world of soap however, weddings rarely go according to plan. And with Bernie and Dev's big day no exception, it remains to be seen whether the happy couple actually get to say 'I do'. Firstly, Bernie's grandchildren, the quads, fall ill and have to watch the wedding with their brother Joseph on a live stream. Then Bernie forgets her lucky charm locket, but when she runs home from the bistro to get it, she disturbs a burglar. 'Everything goes wrong,' Jane laughs. 'First the quads fall ill and can't attend, and then when she gets to the wedding, she develops an allergy and collapses. It's pretty serious. She can't breathe and she's taken away to hospital in an ambulance.' While Jane can't give away whether Bernie gets her happily-ever-after, she can reveal what her character wears for her big day - and in typical Bernie-style, it's far from conventional. 'I'm mad about the singer Elkie Brookes,' Jane explains. 'I adore her and have done since I was a nipper. 'It was Elkie's birthday just before we started filming my screen wedding and I was watching a load of stuff about her on television on the Old Grey Whistle Test. She was wearing a rather fabulous kaftan and I thought, 'that's got to be Bernie's wedding dress'. 'So, I went down to our brilliant costume department and said: 'Can I please look like Elkie Brookes on acid?' and that's what we've come up with! 'The dress is white and it's a bit Demis Roussos as well, so anybody who remembers the 1970s is going to watch it and go, 'oh my good Lord!' It's exactly what I wanted and it looks brilliant. I'm really chuffed with what the costume department have come up with - they've done a brilliant job.' Jane, who grew up in Manchester, began acting at a young age and made her TV debut at 13 in the Yorkshire TV series The Book Tower. Then in the 1980s, when she was 16, she joined Coronation Street as teenager Sue Clayton, staying in the show for a year. Since then, she has worked on a host of other TV series, most notably Casualty, where she spent eight years as paramedic Kathleen Dixon. She was thrilled to return to the cobbles 34 years as off-the-wall café worker Bernie, a character who has divided viewers, with many shocked over her poor mothering skills to Gemma, Paul and long-lost son Kit. But Jane insists that Bernie's pairing with Dev has changed her. 'Bernie and Dev are chalk and cheese, but he's just incredibly kind to her and I don't think Bernie has had a lot of kindness from men over the years,' she explains. 'Their relationship is not without problems, because she acts so impulsively through her heart and eventually it gets up to her brain, and he's the opposite. He's a great big deep thinker, so it shouldn't work on paper, but it does.' Jane, 56, and Isobel, 58, live in Derbyshire where Jane enjoys spending time walking in the Derbyshire hills and indulging her passion for classic cars. 'I've got a 1969 MGC. She's lovely - driving her makes me very happy,' she smiles. 'I've had her for 18 years. I called her Lulu because Lulu was No 1 when she came off the conveyor belt.' The couple met in 1995 when Jane starred in the sell-out play Boom Bang-a-Bang at London's Bush Theatre. 'It was directed by Kathy Burke and loads of big television people came to see it,' she recalls. 'Isobel came to see it one night and we started chatting afterwards.' The couple became civil partners in 2010. Jane recalls: 'Same-sex marriage wasn't allowed for many years because we were two women, so we had a civil partnership. 'We held it on a boat in Bristol – it was amazing – I was all dressed up and wore a really nice frock. 'We decided to do it because Isobel had been unwell. She was in London and I was in Bristol working on Casualty, and I wasn't allowed to know anything about what was going on with her operations and hospital treatment. I was just seen as her friend, even though we'd been lovers for ten years. They weren't allowed to tell me. So, we did the civil partnership because we thought, 'no-one can touch us then'. 'The wedding was five years later at a Bristol register office. I didn't want to do it originally. I didn't want to do it just because the government now said we could. I've never been part of a gang, I like to think of myself as being someone who doesn't conform. 'So, we didn't tell anybody, we just went and did it ourselves. All we had to do was take a gas bill and upgrade! Really romantic! We then invited six friends around for a curry.' Jane feels strongly that gay men and women around the world should enjoy the same rights and happiness as she does, and she is a passionate member of All Out, a global political campaign group fighting for LGBT+ rights around the world. 'Gay Pride was banned in Hungary this year,' she says. 'Visibility is key. There are so many men and women like me who can't be with their loved ones, because somebody has decided that it's unacceptable. That's just abhorrent.' While Jane has made her name at Coronation Street, wife Isobel works on the other side of the Pennines in Emmerdale, where she plays village detective DI Roberts. But she has also appeared on the cobbles too, in a cameo as feminist author Persephone Braxton, who held a book launch in Roy's Rolls in 2022. 'I wanted to come in and be her chaperone for the day, but she was having none of it,' Jane recalls with a laugh. 'She was in the café chatting with Ken Barlow and there was a fight when Tracy comes in and catches him with his mistress. 'I wasn't in work that day unfortunately. Probably just as well, I don't think her character would have liked Bernie very much!'
AsiaOne
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- AsiaOne
'I was just a very silly father': Jet Li, dad of 4, reflects on parenting, Entertainment News
Jet Li got candid about fatherhood in two videos uploaded to his Xiaohongshu profile on July 24 and 25. The 62-year-old China-born action star, who has been Singaporean since 2009, said the meaning of parenting changed for him throughout the years. "The first time I became a father was when I was 25 years old. At the time, I wasn't clear of my role as a father, because my dad died from a work accident when I was two, so I didn't have a clear idea of what it means to be a parent," he shared. He added he was working hard in his career and his mindset then was just to earn more to ensure that he could provide for his daughters and give them a good education. Jet has four daughters: Si, 37, and Taimi, 36, from his first marriage as well as Jane, 25, and Jada, 22, from his second marriage to former Hong Kong actress Nina Li. Jet said that when he became a father in his second marriage, he was already in his 30s and had different thoughts about parenthood. He shared: "I felt that I had missed out a lot when it came to accompanying my daughters. My girls [from my first marriage] had grown up so much and were already in school, and when we met, I could only ask how their studies were. It felt like I was just doing my parental duties." He added that he gave up some of his filming projects as he wanted to spend more time with Jane and Jada. "Now, I am able to talk to my daughters like we are friends, and we find time to let them talk about my shortcomings and provoke me," Jet laughed. 'I was just a very silly father' In the process of these conversations, he also learnt to be a better father. He recounted an incident that his daughters had discussed with him: "There was once when my daughter's tooth fell out. She placed the tooth under her pillow, covered it nicely and said a fairy would send some money to her the next morning. "I was just a very silly father and told her, 'Don't fret about it, there wouldn't be any money the next morning because unless your parents give it to you, no fairy would come.' "She cried and I didn't know what to do. As I was growing up, I didn't have such experiences with fairy tales and unrealistic things. My daughter was heartbroken, and I had to really stuff some money under her pillow the next day." Jet added that his daughters told him that as children, they would have some beliefs about fairy tales and instead of exposing them directly, he should accompany them instead. As his daughters grew older, they would also share their problems or injuries with him, which he would explain to them from his own experiences. Jet said: "I would tell them, 'What's so frightening about an injury? Be persistent, I also had many fractures before, nothing to be afraid about.' And they would be very sad, because they feel that when they are injured, they need consolation and care and that I should look at things from their point of view. "As they were growing up, they told me they would want to talk to me sometimes about certain things, not to get my response but to just have a listening ear." 'Parents hope that their children would exceed themselves' In a separate video, he reflected on whether to let his daughters pursue their dreams or live up to parents' expectations. He shared that Jane and Jada grew up with a schedule every day: "This seems to be the culture and society that Asians grow up in, where parents hope that their children would exceed themselves [in their abilities], and feel that this is the best form of love." He said Jane grew up with life choices meant to please him and his wife, such as studying at Harvard University. "When she was in her first year of university, she asked me some questions and said that throughout her life, she didn't know what she wanted to do because she always had to fulfil her mother's wishes and ensure her father was happy. So, when it came to choosing her major, she couldn't find what she likes," Jet shared. He added that many years later, when she graduated from university and they had a talk about it, Jane revealed she would have pursued the arts, instead of going to Harvard. According to a South China Morning Post report in 2019, Jane majored in East Asian Studies at the prestigious university. Jet said: "That was when I realised, in my children's education, have I really thought about what she wants or what I want my child to be? Because those are two different things. Is our desire for their success what they really want?" He added he apologised to Jane, and that he and his wife had thought they knew what was best for her, but that in fact didn't make her happy. He also told Jane he would support her in whatever she does from then on, as long as she is happy. Jet concluded: "I can't say if my direction is the absolute right or wrong way, but it makes me question whether we really discussed and respected our children's opinions. That's what I reflected on, that perhaps I should have tried to be friends with my daughters earlier and accompany them in the life they wanted." [[nid:720268]] No part of this article can be reproduced without permission from AsiaOne.
