Rodmell and Southease

ADVENT SUNDAY: This Sunday is Advent Sunday and we have the Advent Service of Light in Rodmell Church at 4pm. The church always looks lovely lit by candlelight and it’s usually full. Let’s hope it is this year.

PIT-STOP GARAGE: I notice there is a sign at Swanborough saying that there is now a pit-stop garage there. Kingston has had a very good garage run by Tim Sharpe for years and he has some very loyal customers, including me, but should he have to move and maybe give up (and I’m not saying he will) it is handy to know that another garage would be nearby.

THE STORMS: Took their toll around here, with fence panels going (we lost one) and trees coming down, but on the whole we seemed to get off lightly. I would not have wanted to be out on the sea in that weather.

CHURCHYARD: Our churchyard is much admired by visitors and villagers alike for being so well kept. Thank you to the people who give up their time to do it.

BOOKS: I’m a great book person, I live books and my visitors always comment on my library. Some I have written, many I have illustrated and I get a free copy when they are published. Throughout the summer months, when we had various book stalls at various functions, it was lovely to speak to young people who just love books. Long may it be so.

TECHNOLOGY: I know I am not a follower of the latest technology and I am finding more people are like me. I feel that life has become more complicated because of it. As I’ve had to sort out my mother’s affairs lately, it has brought it home to me how difficult life without a computer can be for old folk. No phone books to look up numbers in, hanging onto the phone for hours waiting to talk to someone (you are now 26 in the queue etc). Doesn’t this fact alone let them know how many people are still technology illiterate and still will be for years? How much trade is lost, how much money not spent because there are not the places to spend it in? There are people out there trying to spend money because there’s no longer any point in saving it, because of none existent interest rates, but, everything is being put in the way to prevent them spending it if they don’t have technology. Fear of being exploited is yet another problem and many people just don’t trust on-line banking or paying on cards. How many mattresses are now higher than they used to be I wonder? My father didn’t trust banks and I remember when I was a child he kept his money rolled up in coco tins in his ferret pens because he said it was much safer there. I once had an aunt who used to store her valuables in the hem of her heavy curtains; this has always made me remind people when they clear relatives houses, upon death, to check everything.

FOR SALE: Reading the Sussex Drinker I found a couple of lines on page 12 stating the White Hart Hotel is for sale at £2,000,000. Why hasn’t this been in the local press? It’s a very important part of Lewes history and needs a god owner to make a success of it.

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