OUT IN THE FIELD: Eastbourne Foodbank needs supplies, fire at Camilla’s and the coronavirus lockdown with a teenager

If you are one of the scores of people who have stockpiled goods from the supermarket shelves in recent weeks and now find yourself up to your ears in toilet rolls, pasta and rice, please spare a thought for those in our community who cannot afford to bulk buy. Any food now lying in kitchens, cupboards, and spare bedrooms could be donated to Eastbourne Foodbank which is now in desperate need of support and running out of tins and packets at a frightening rate. Please think about your extra supplies and consider donating a few of them and show support for others at this critical time.

Firefighters at the scene of the blaze on Thursday night. Photo by Dan Jessup SUS-200326-142215001

Last week I wrote about how sad it was for the Year 11 students across Eastbourne who discovered they were leaving school two months earlier than expected and were unable to say goodbye to their friends and teaching staff. Following on from the last day of school for our 15-year-old Little Princess here in Chateau Field, I have decided to teach her one life skill each day that we are quarantined so she doesn’t get bored and it will come in handy for when she eventually flies the nest. The first lesson was to teach her how to use the washing machine which, yes I know, I should’ve done five years ago. It turns out the poor child thought you could put washing machine pods in the dishwasher. Lesson Two was cleaning the toilet but she promptly informed me she ‘was born to wear diamonds and travel in a limousine - not be elbow deep in the u/bend of a toilet’. On the third day we got to grips with ironing and the simple joy of pegging the washing on the line when the sun is shining and as a reward she was allowed, seeing as the hair salons are all closed, to dye her hair (last time was a disaster and she looked like Ronald McDonald for at least two weeks and got herself banned from school). We have also learnt how to load the dishwasher, that elusive task of putting a new toilet roll on when the former one is empty, defrosted the freezer seeing as she and Himself, whose work on building sites has come to a halt, are eating the contents of it with them both on lockdown and at home 24/7, and also negotiated the workings of our complicated Dyson to hoover the stairs. For some light relief I have been out the door at 7am each morning walking to get in my daily allowance of exercise. This is due in part to the fact that while each customer is now limited to three bottles of wine at our chosen supermarket, there is a lot of sitting around and late afternoon drinking in our household and I do not want to end up the size of a house when we come out the other side of this pandemic with a backside like a swamp donkey’s.

I really hope the police catch the little rascals who torched Camilla’s Bookshop on Thursday night. The shop was so much a part of the town, a real Eastbourne institution and its owners Stuart and Camilla are devastated. Thankfully Archie, their blue fronted Amazon parrot was at home with them when the fire broke out and I am happy to report is safe and well.