Telscombe

YOGA: With Natalie Heath every Tuesday from 6pm to 7pm in the Civic Centre. This class is back after the summer break on Tuesday September 4. Contact Natalie Heath email: [email protected] phone: 07738538094.

LIVING LIGHT PILATES: Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning in the Civic Centre. £6.50 per class or class pass for £44 (eight classes plus one free session). Contact Nicola Murray-Smith email: [email protected] phone: 07776 457752.

FITNESS PILATES: Every Monday morning and Thursday evening in the Civic Centre. Get fit, tone up, prevent back pain, improve flexibility and posture. Equipment provided, just bring some water. Only £6 per class or £40 for eight weeks. Contact Jennie Palmer email: [email protected] phone: 07825 702775.

FLOWER CLUB: Peacehaven and Telscombe Flower Club meet on the third Wednesday of each month, 2pm for 2.30pm start, at the Civic Centre. Contact Christine Webb email: [email protected] phone: 01273 586191.

YOGA: Every Monday from 7.15pm to 8.15pm in the Civic Centre. Contact Jane email: [email protected] phone: 07703 167895.

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

COUNCIL MEETING: There will be a full council meeting on the third Wednesday of March, May, July, September and November, 7.30pm in the Civic Centre.

COMMITTEE MEETING: The Planning and Highways Committee meet on Monay, 7.30pm in the Civic Centre. If there is insufficient business, meetings may be cancelled. Please therefore telephone the Civic Centre on 01273 589777 to ensure that a meeting is being held (an Agenda will be placed on the website). 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, relevant to that Committee.

TOWN COUNCIL ELECTIONS: Elections are taking place on Thursday May 2 for Telscombe Town Council. Why not become a councillor yourself? We have information on our website and further information and nomination papers are available from the Electoral Commission website https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/

FOOTNOTES: Chaplin stared balefully at me. ‘There is no point in adopting that attitude, they are going to have to be washed’, I said, referring to his four paws, which were caked in mud and firmly resisting all his attempts at licking them clean. How he had got into that condition, I have no idea, the garden’s flower beds are not muddy, despite the recent downpours and his expeditions never take him very far. I fetched a bowl of warm water and with a struggle managed to clean the paws until they were able to be finished off by himself. In my long experience of cats, very few like water. I once watched an Indian Gazelle escape from a leopard by leaping into a river and swimming to safety on the other side, whilst the leopard pawed at the earth on the other bank, frustrated, but unwilling to enter the water. On the obverse all my dogs have been lovers of all forms of water, sea, river, ponds you name it my retrievers have loved it. The Golden I had in South London, became a celebrity for his habit of having people throw stones into the nearby river for him, and then diving underwater, pawing at the pebbles already there until he found the one he was looking for, swimming to the surface and depositing it at the thrower’s feet. Whether it was the right stone or not no one could tell or indeed seemed to care, but he made front page news in the local paper with a photograph of him grinning at the camera. My last retriever, Rupert, was a sea lover. Immediately we arrived on the shore, he would make a bee-line for the water and then refuse to come out, until tempted with biscuits. There are exceptions. In a theatre production of Alan Ayckbourn’s play ‘Way Upstream’, the stage is dominated by a river running across it, with a cabin cruiser moored centre stage. The theatre had gone to enormous expense building a water tank on the stage and getting the local fire brigade to fill it. They had then crane lifted a cabin cruiser to float on it. We were, as the cast, very impressed. The director decided to introduce a character walking along the tow path with a dog on a lead, something not in the original script, a ball to be thrown into the ‘river’ and the dog jumping in to retrieve it. They chose a very pretty poodle for this part and all through rehearsals he dutifully jumped after the ball and swam back to the bank, clambering out with it in his mouth. Came the first night, the actor walked on with the poodle, who was met by loud murmurings of ‘ahhh’ from the packed house. It was then that the dog turned out to be a total diva. It promptly sat down, facing the audience and refused to move, despite tugs on the lead. The audience, of course, reacted to this blatant piece of scene-stealing with bursts of laughter, which just served to encourage the dog. Eventually his actor handler picked him up and carried him off stage, where sadly, he never appeared again, thus endorsing the old adage, never work with children and animals.

Go safely and have a good week.