Good news from the Landmark Café & Toilet: last weekend, I was at the Landmark, along with hordes of others, and I had the pleasure of meeting Kay.  Kay was front of house manager under the old management and, of course, lost her job when that lot sunk ignominiously.  Good news for her is that the new management offered her back the job she loved, an offer she obviously accepted, so she is now back in that role.  It is good news for us, in that it is an indication of the thinking of the new management.  However, there is even better news, in that they are planning a full theatrical programme from January!  I look forward to the time when I can, once again, refer to the place as the Landmark Theatre!

Marcus Hutchins.  An American friend has written “Marcus should not accept any plea offer if he is innocent.  The charges are Federal Felonies.  The prison time can be decades.  The cost of his defense could easily be a million US dollars as this is a Federal Case in Federal Court and excellent defense is going to cost around a thousand dollars an hour for an experienced attorney.”  Thanks, Jim.  If you would like help fund his defence, the only way I am aware of is via the internet.  Here is a link to the page accepting donations: https://secure.lawpay.com/pages/torekeland/hutchins-internationalldf.

It is quite unusual for a resident of Ilfracombe to make the national news, let alone the international news, and it is extremely rare for the same person to do so twice in a few months.  Marcus Hutchins has achieved this rare feat.  The first occasion was when Marcus stopped a very nasty virus that was threatening to do damage to computers throughout the world, including many NHS computers here in Britain.  Then he was hailed as a hero.

The rather large headline on the front of last week’s Journal read “It’s time to make the link road safe”.  Much as I hate to criticise the incredibly intelligent and exceptionally erudite editor of that magnificent organ, I would respectfully suggest that that headline would better read “It’s long past time to make the link road safe”!

I read an interesting little report last week.  Apparently, people in the Southwest, i.e. you and me, not only give more to charity than anyone else in the UK, we also volunteer more than anyone else.  Not altogether surprisingly, volunteering was most common in people over 65, as well as those classified as “economically inactive”, in other words, lazy old gits like me, or, to put it more politely, senior citizens, the retired.  Not surprising since we obviously have more time to spare than someone younger who has to earn a living and possibly also has a young family to bring up.  Nonetheless, in Ilfracombe, I suspect that we probably exceed even the Southwest generally, at least in volunteering, and we see volunteers of all ages.