Welcome to the July edition of the Tandridge Independent!
Another busy month has flown by but, this time, we were fortunate enough to have the help of two new work experience students to keep us on track! Neal and Beth are in the lower sixth at St Bede’s School, in Redhill, and joined us for a week in June to see how we put the paper together.
We were really impressed by their willingness to join in with our less than conventional working patterns: they soon found out that we are definitely not a 9 to 5 office! Despite this, we hope they enjoyed their time with us: amongst other things, they rewrote a press release in our house style, got involved with some sales calls, researched for and conducted an interview with Godstone Farm founder Jackie Flaherty, and learnt how designer Andy lays out the pages for printing. Oh, they also helped with distribution, and set up our new TikTok account! (You can find us @tandridge_independent, but we’re still learning how it works, so please be patient with us!)
We really enjoyed having Neal and Beth as part of the team: thank you both for your enthusiasm, hard work and great ideas!
Competition winner
One of the final tasks our work experience students were involved in was presenting Annabel, the winner of our children’s writing competition, with her certificate and prize, a family ticket to see David Walliam’s Awful Auntie stage show, courtesy of the Festival Theatre at Hever Castle. Her teacher hadn’t told her that we would be coming to see her in her classroom at Oakhyrst Grange School in Caterham, and it was lovely to see her happy smile when she realised that she had won! You can read her winning entry in this month’s paper, and Annabel will also be writing a review of the show for us, which we’ll publish in September.
Our regulars
As usual, we have a whole host of expert advice for you from our columnists: Hever Castle’s head gardener Neil Miller shows us the tasks we should be undertaking in our gardens in July, our nutritionist Christelle Page tells us everything we need to know about supplements and Adrian Van Aalst rounds up AFC Whyteleafe’s amazing season.
Gina Nicolas, from EJ Coombs Solicitors explains what to do if your partner disagrees with you over vaccinating your children, and leader of Tandridge District Council, Catherine Sayer, reminds us of what a great resource the animal warden is.
Telling stories
As you know, one of our objectives is to bring you stories from the people of Tandridge and, this month, reporter Rosalind Brookman spoke to Elaine Miller of Warlingham, who was diagnosed last year with the debilitating condition FND, or functional neurological disorder. She discusses how it affects her, and how people often misunderstand her symptoms.
Community support
I mentioned in my last letter about the trouble I’d been having with my car. Well, much as I’d love to tell you that it’s all sorted out now, I am still without a vehicle, and the last few weeks have been a logistical nightmare trying to work out how to get the members of my family where they need to be at the right time. The flip side of all this, however, has been another reminder of just what a fantastic community we live in. With three children to pick up and drop off at school and various clubs, there have been times where, without a car handy, I haven’t been able to get to where I should be, and so many lovely people have taken care of one or other of the kids until I could reach them. This is a heartfelt thank you to all ofyou who have helped me out recently – it’s very much appreciated!
A well-earned break
As I mentioned in my June letter, we won’t be printing a paper in August. As much as we love bringing you Tandridge news and information every month, we are a tiny team, and the researching, writing, editing, proofing, selling advertising space, designing and bringing it all together never lets up! We all have families, and this summer we all have children who will be making some big moves: either starting school for the first time, or making the transition from junior to senior school (if this applies to you too, check out this month’s column from Tutor Your Child, which is all about coping with these kind of changes!), so it feels like the right moment to be taking the pressure off. (I've got a few parties planned so, if you're passing my house you might well hear Ridge Radio's fabulous Mel DJ rocking my garden with some great music!)
We’ll also be using the time to assess what we’ve done so far this year, and plan for the future, so if there’s anything you would like to see in your favourite local paper, now’s the time to let us know! Email us: newsdesk@tandridgeindependent.com.
Have a great summer, and I'll see you in September!
