Whispering Smith Column published in the Littlehampton Gazette February 15th. 2018

It opened on Monday with whisper rather than a shout: Friendly staff, great coffee and snacks, cakes, croissants to die for and dog friendly to boot, all within a bow shot of Littlehampton. The newly refurbished Edgcumbes coffee shop on the Ford Road is The New Edge Cafe. They even sell reusable bamboo cups which come with a free coffee first time use and 10 percent discount thereafter. I bought one and felt good about it. A drop in the ocean perhaps but thousands of drops make a bucketful and that is one small step to saving those oceans. The Cafe is warm, comfortable and will be staging cooking classes in the long workshop as well as outdoor events in the summer. Alice, the enthusiastic owner is promising good things – maybe even an outdoor jiving session on a ‘vintage fair’ day, now that is something to look forward to. Only a short ride out of town and well worth the effort.

I wish I could understand the thinking behind the government’s thinking behind school funding. Allowance per child attending an inner London school in 2015 was £5,918. A pupil in our part of the world it was only £3,916. Bit of a difference there and our schools are suffering considerably with some schools having to cut projects – sadly, usually the more creative classes and others asking for parents to chip in for school materials!

An elderly lady suffering from dementia was brought by her carer to the Honey Hush  Jive Club. She chatted with the dancers and it was lovely to see Colin Tenn, the club’s founder, whirl her around the floor for a ‘proper’ dance. Reportedly she thoroughly enjoyed the evening. It only takes a little to give a lot and I hope it becomes a regular outing for Eileen and others…

My cat prefers to sleep outside ‘neath the stars so I built her a straw-filled shelter under the barby.  However, with this sudden icy weather she has moved back indoors and, apparently, sub-let her pied-de-terre to a stray tom. Well this isn’t Bournemouth or Windsor and I haven’t the heart to move him on, we shall have to see what happens when the weather improves.

June the 16^th is SUSSEX DAY, watch this space for details of events planned for our town.