Fairlight

MOPPs today and next Friday: Today, Friday, October 6, it’s Member’s Day, including a tombola and some bingo, and toenail cutting with Nicola. Lunch today is quiche, baked potato and salad, with Black Forest gateau to follow. Next Friday, October 13, there’s a visit from Bonmarché, and also from Sandra Stunt, with some cards, to get you ready for Christmas! For lunch next week, there’s baked salmon with Hollandaise sauce, and fruit cheesecake to follow.

Let’s get the show on the road: The Panto Group’s production for next January is to be Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Queen, which will be the first time they’ve tackled the piece. Last Friday’s auditions brought forth a good crop of talented and enthusiastic youngsters, though it was clear that several of the adult players who will be there on the night had been unable to attend the auditions. Never mind, there’s still six or seven weeks before rehearsals begin, plenty of time to complete the cast list. The Snow Queen is being directed by Group Chairman Ben Burford.

A note from the Royal British Legion: Margaret Pulfer, as befits the wife of the Chairman of the Pett Branch of the Legion, has sent out a thank you to all those who attended the Race Night with Fireworks last Saturday. Included in the thanks are those at the Fairlight Lodge Hotel who took part, and to Frank, Dot and Trevor for putting on the fabulous races! Lots of fun and plenty of chances for a real flutter. And the Legion profited to the tune of £213.10

Quiz time for the FRA: Our very own Quizlings, Bob and Dec, are ready to puzzle the lot of us on Saturday, October 14 in the village hall, at 7 for a 7.30 pm start. The £5 tickets are available from the Post Office, and there should be no more than six members in each team. Though lite bites will be provided, there is no bar at this function, so you should take your own booze and beakers. OK, Tracy? Bob and Dec are operating on behalf of the Residents Association, so proceeds are likely to find their way back to the organisations in the village who are in need.

The Parish Council: Nestling among all the details of the Business As Usual, which makes up a large proportion of each month’s meeting, the September meeting included a lengthy, but highly interesting in its detail, account of the 2,700 mile England Coast Path, which someone with a vision says will be completed by 2020. The path is divided into 59 stretches, or segments, of which we sit about in the middle of the Eastbourne to Camber stretch. The path here should be ready in 2019. Two ladies from Natural England gave a 20 minute presentation, followed by a 20 minute question and answer session. If you missed the meeting – and there were only eight members of the public present – and you’d like more detail, just Google it and have a read.

In a post-meeting note, District Cllr Chris Saint has corrected previous information about the Market Garden site, which will now be considered by the Planning Department in November. Meanwhile, Rother are awaiting a viability assessment on the affordable housing aspect of the site, with the assessment coming from the Valuation Office Agency.

Although it hasn’t been raised recently, there was a period in the life of the Parish Council when there were multiple complaints about the volume levels of the proceedings, and various remedies were suggested to redress the situation. None was persevered with or seems to have worked, and the problem has moved to the fore again, with a small number of Councillors speaking not so much conversationally as at a level more suitable for sweet nothings, which is probably not what they’re actually trying to say. Elementary poor practices, like hands in front of the mouth, and sitting with your back to the meeting and addressing only the Chair, are not helping either. Surely, those present and participating should be addressing the meeting, and not having a private conversation with the Chairman.

The Wine and Social Club: The club has its October meeting on Monday next, October 9 at 7.30 pm. It’s going to be a Wine Tasting with Tim Fletcher. Knowledgeable Tim has been here before, and is best observed through a glass darkly – at least as far as his reds are concerned. The pleasure level is practically guaranteed when he is here. Cheers!

The Gardening Club meeting for October: There was a good turnout on Monday afternoon for returning speaker Jackie Aviolet’s talk on ‘Herbs – Culinary, Cultivation and Folklore’. Jackie is always such an entertaining and informative speaker and it was encouraging to see several new faces at the meeting, where all could learn about the history of herbs and their uses in the past as well as the present day. As Autumn rains and a bit of a chill take us over, now’s the time to tidy up the garden. A good time to collect seeds from your flowering plants as they die off and then you could bring them along to the Gardening Club’s Plant and Seed ‘sale’ which takes place at their November 6 meeting, after a talk to be given by Whitney Hedges of Fairlight Hall. If you have a clump of perennials that need splitting, why not bring along your spare plants which may fit perfectly into someone else’s garden? All plants and seeds will be very welcome

and rather than items being individually priced, payment will be in the form of donations. This is a new initiative which will give members the opportunity of sharing the best from their own gardens with each other.

Now we’re into October, there are only four more Saturdays of the Gardening Hut before it closes for the Winter after the October 28 opening. Take the opportunity to go along and stock up on those last minute items before it’s too late.

A final flu jab reminder: Those on the books at the Harold Road practice are reminded that they have missed the first of the two flu jab sessions arranged for the village hall, as it was yesterday, but there is a second one to come, and it’s on Thursday, October 19, between 10 and 11 am. If you can’t make this date, there are sessions at the surgery on each of the four Saturdays in October, and you should check with them for times.

The Last Post?: Graeme has written that the Post Office will not be open on Sunday mornings for October, November and December. And who can disagree – we were being given more choice than we could reasonably expect or, indeed, justify and use. Similarly, the Post Office will no longer be open on any Bank Holiday. This is entirely due to non-use when it has been officially and actually open on previous Bank Holidays. As they almost say ‘Non-use it and you lose it!’ And finally, the Post Office counter will close at 5 pm on every Wednesday afternoon. This will allow Graeme to complete the mandatory weekly reconciliations as required by his Lords and Masters at the Post Office.

Street wise?: As I write this piece, much work has been done in Martineau Lane, and not before time, as this road always has a feel that it was laid, hurriedly, overnight, with a bit of tarmac just slapped down over a very bumpy stretch of clay. It looked as if they had a couple of buckets of stuff left over from Martineau Lane, and this they deposited on Fairlight Road. Not enough to do the couple of yards that sink and slip nearer to oblivion every day – that is going to take traffic lights and lots of workers, I guess. Nearer the village, but not by much, is the horrendous hole that is my perpetual moan, at present infilled and thus smugly perfect. But the filling in the one ten yards nearer to Hastings, that was only done less than a month ago, is already breaking up. Perhaps the foreman is a former dentist? ‘I’ll just put a temporary filling in this one’.

I submitted my Voice at about 8.30 on Tuesday morning, and hot-footed it to Eastbourne Hospital. passing some early detailed patching on the Fairlight Road, but with Stop-Go boards, not traffic lights which I had erroneously predicted. After a pleasant four hour stay in the Hospital, I returned to Fairlight to an acute attack of hubris, with Fairlight Road and Battery Hill potholes and surfacing having been generously treated and blitzed by East Sussex Highways. The whole lot has more and bigger patches than Wurzel Gummidge’s underpants. Thanks to all concerned!