Telscombe

DANCE CLASS: Little Stars Pre-School Dance Class for pre-school children aged 2 to 4 years every Tuesday from 9am to 9.30am in the Civic Centre. £3.50 per session. Contact Anneli Smith 07930 490058.

BEREAVEMENT SUPPORT: Bereavement Support Group Coffee Morning on the second Wednesday of each month from 10am to noon. Bereavement can be a lonely journey so come and meet other people who are in the same situation as you in a friendly and informal setting. Contact Janet Quintavalle email: [email protected] phone: 01273 585818.

STROKE ASSOCIATION: Support Group on the first and third Thursday of each month from 2pm to 3.30pm in the Civic Centre. Come along to your local stroke group and meet other people who have been affected by stroke. Website: stroke.org.uk. Stroke Helpline: 303 303 3100.

YOGA: Yoga with Natalie Heath every Tuesday from 6pm to 7pm in the Civic Centre. Contact Natalie Heath email: [email protected] phone: 07738538094.

COUNCIL MEETINGS: The Planing and Highways Committee meet on Wednesday at 7.30pm. Meetings are open to members of the public who are able to ask questions for a 15 minute period at the start of each meeting. Meetings are held in Telscombe Civic Centre, unless otherwise stated.

FOOTNOTES: A murmur of voices had me glancing up from my computer where I was wrestling with the ‘twist’ ending I was trying to think of for a short story, and looking out of the lounge window, I saw a small group of people all staring into my front garden. Two of them taking photos with their phones. Now I do have a modest display of flowering daffodils there, but surely nothing to warrant this sort of attention. I went out to see what the fuss was about and there, in the midst of a large bed of daffodils sat Chaplin, gazing back at his admirers, as he airily performed his morning ablutions. He was, as I am sure he was aware, quite a picture, surrounded by flowers. I have often been struck by the way animals react to having their photographs taken. My Golden Retriever, Rupert was shameless, and would immediately begin to pose whenever anyone pointed a camera at him. I took him on a filming assignment on Wimbledon Common once and he upset the star of the film by what we would now call photo bombing. Every time the stills photographer attempted to take some publicity shots of this household name, Rupert found a way of intruding into the picture. Eventually I had to put him into my caravan, where he sulked until we went home. Chaplin, being a cat merely sat looking at his fans, occasionally turning his head so that they caught his profile. Then tiring of all the attention he got up and strolled indoors and the crowd dispersed. He looked disparagingly at me as if to remind me that I might have retired from the bright lights, but he hadn’t. I returned to my computer, still seeking that elusive ending to my story and reflecting that fame is, as the saying goes, a fleeting illusion. Have a great week and go safely wherever your journeys take you.