Rodmell and Southease

MOTHER’S DAY: Sunday March 26, Mothering Sunday. There will be a special service in Southease Church at 11am.

COFFEE CLUB: Wednesday March 29, Coffee Club in Rodmell Village Hall from 11am. This is a popular, chatty coffee morning held each month and all are welcome.

PUB QUIZ: Also on Wednesday March 29 there is a charity Pub Quiz at the Abergavenny Arms. 7pm start, price £10 to include a two-course buffet supper. This is to support St Peter and St James Hospice. Tickets from Maureen Ford (01273 474980) or [email protected]

SPRING SHOW: Saturday April 1, Rodmell Spring Show, 2.30pm in the village hall. This is always a lovely show and it’s well worth a visit.

TRAIN INCIDENT: I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the train driver who, according to the radio, had an incident in the area on March 1. No doubt this was someone who was hit by the train as it usually is, when they say an incident. Imagine driving a train full of passengers, and having this happen, especially if there was no guard to share the responsibility, and calm and organise the situation. I feel very sorry for families who have to deal with this, but the drivers who suffer these experiences have to live with it the rest of their lives. You don’t have airline pilots driving planes on their own, full of passengers, so why do train drivers have to cope on their own. Finances again obviously. Come to think of it, captains of ships always have back up too.

SPRING: I love this time of the year, and can’t get enough of seeing everything coming to life. Rodmell is starting to look so spring-like, with banks of flowers all coming out.

VISITORS: We had another visit from our old neighbours Roger and Marie-Monique Huss with their lovely old Beagle Carrington who is now almost 15½. Roger and Marie-Monique used to run Barn House as a B&B for some years, and were good neighbours. They now have a château, not far from Le Mans, called Château de la Mouchère, which caters for large luxury weddings. They seem to be enjoying life, but still love Lewes and now have a little bolt-hole in the town.

B&B BOOKS: Sadly the lovely little Lewes Town and Country B&B books are no longer to be used. Everything has to be done online now. I still leave those I have left in our pub where they are very popular, and go quickly, and I also leave some in a brochure holder outside my house. Lots of people still do not go online and would rather have a book to keep and look at. Another friend of mine, also a B&B owner, says she will miss these books, as she puts them at the port and on the boats because visitors don’t always have the know-how or availability to go online when they are travelling. I intend to do my own brochures as I send them out to people and it’s always worked well for me. I haven’t noticed a drop in clients due to the Premier Inn so I must be doing something right.

IN THESE DAYS: Of such horrific things occurring right across our world, does the media have to give so much time to the fashion shows and film premiers where the rich and famous gather in droves, but, horror of horrors a mistake is made with the Oscars. In the meantime, more and more children are being killed, abused, and are suffering the horrors of wars, but they will never have the red carpet treatment.

CLEAN-UPS: I’m pleased to see how many young people are now helping to keep the oceans clean and are devoting time to beach clean-ups. Perhaps they are becoming fully aware that their lives are in their hands and are prepared to do something about it.

DIESEL CARS: I feel sorry for all those drivers who were duped into buying diesel cars, as I see various articles in the Times about it, one being a quote that in short said ‘People bought diesel cars in good faith, thinking they are better for the environment’. It was also mentioned that a proposal last year by Policy Exchange, a think tank, for diesel cars to pay £800 extra in the first year’s road tax was ‘not unreasonable, given the level of excess deaths’, caused by the emissions from such vehicles. Another headline said ‘Give drivers cash to ditch diesels’ and another ‘Tax diesel cars more, doctors say’. I don’t think we’ve heard the last of this issue, do you? Thankfully I’ve always stuck to petrol cars.

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