Memo to HM Gov

Compared to much of the country, Storm Bert treated us fairly lightly. The following Storm, Conall, decided to visit the Netherlands.

But then we were told Storm Darragh was out to get us. Radio and television weather forecasters warned us to expect the worst with rare red warnings issued to parts of the country.

We were told that Darragh was expected to cause travel chaos across the weekend, hitting from 3pm on Friday, 6 December, the wild winds lasting throughout the weekend, eventually dying down on Sunday, 8 December.

This was very bad news for organisers of Christmas dos scheduled for that weekend. I was amazed at how quickly my village, Horsell, reacted.

The Christmas market, run by the Second Thursday Club branch of the Horsell Residents' Association, was to take place on Saturday 7: it takes months to plan with the various stall holders contacted and their sites arranged.

A diagram of the market was published on this page and in the village magazine. But the advent of Darragh meant the market could not go ahead – at least not in the advertised format. High winds could play havoc with the stalls, housed in gazebos all along the High Street.

The Scout HQ was offered and from there it was, said one of the organisers, like a row of dominoes with possible sites being offered.

Horsell Evangelical Church which has, for many years, housed some stalls, opened up further rooms.

The village hall is used regularly by Summerscales Performing Arts. As is possibly the case with many church halls and similar places, there is, in the contract, a note that in case of emergency they should vacate the place.

This was an emergency and they kindly gave up their space.

Within 36 hours of the decision to cancel the market in its original form all the new arrangements were in place.

Emails were sent advising of the changes and even flyers printed up with requests for several hundred to be delivered before Saturday afternoon. The new arrangements were posted on social media, including Horsell Wire , Horsell's Facebook page.

We went to the market. It was jammed with people at every part of the High Street's long venue.

The local shops were doing good business as well. All the many comments we heard were congratulating the team, especially Caroline Hughes, for the speedy, efficient, and successful rethinking of the Market.

If a handful of volunteers in an English village can achieve all that in such a short space of time it does make one cynical when considering the time taken, and wasted, by works organised – if that is the right word – by the civil service: I think of HMRC, DVLA, NHS and other initialled groups which plod so slowly they may appear on Ordnance Survey maps.

I mentioned that to Will Forster, our MP, and he pointed out that HM Government is somewhat more unwieldy that Horsell Residents' Association. He suggested it was more like an oil tanker which takes a considerable time to stop, let alone change direction.

But I still think HM Government could learn a thing of two from a group of volunteers in a Surrey village.

New Year's Day Ramble

The Brookwood Cemetery Society will be hosting a New Year's Day ramble to walk off the excesses of the festive season.

No theme to this walk around the cemetery, just turn up at The Lodge – inside the gates on the south side of Cemetery Pales for the Garden of Remembrance – from 12.30pm on 1 January.

Hot drinks and biscuits will be provided and donations will be welcomed.

To celebrate a highly successful walks season the society has decided to introduce Walks Vouchers – maybe a present for a person who has everything?

The vouchers are in units of £7.50 – that is one person per walk. If you like the idea contact [email protected] .

As water pollution is preventing some of the traditional Christmas and New Year's traditional dips in the sea and other expanses of cold water, this walk could be a good substitute.

Christmas Reading

I suppose most families have their own Christmas traditions, even if they don't think of them as such. In conversations about Christmas there will always be someone who says words the effect of “Oh yes, we always...”

It could be something simple like going carol singing. Or refusing to go carol singing. Just something that happens every Christmas.

Since I was given The Christmas Book by Enid Blyton as a child – it was published in 1944 so I guess that's when I got it – I have read it. Not every Christmas but when my children were small I would read it to them and as they grew the time came when all three were confident enough to take turns to read it aloud.

It even went to Australia and was read on the snow-white sand at Byron Bay on Christmas Day.

On 1 December this year the family in the Netherlands came through on WhatsApp and along with the other branch of the family, not so far away, in Goldsworth Park, we once again took it in turns to read a page of The Christmas Book.

This time the readers included the two elder grandchildren. Our Christmas tradition continues.

The book tells the story of the various things we now associate with Christmas – why do we have Christmas trees? When did carols start? Why do we hang mistletoe? And so on.

It has become dated: the family have a cook and housemaid and gardener, and no television or social media – which should be known as un-social media. And the family have a wonderfully Christmassy time and learn abut the old stories and traditions.

Enid Blyton's children make, and send, their own Christmas cards. I will not be sending many this year entirely due to the price of stamps.

I do think the Post Office shot themselves in the foot by hoicking the price of postage, especially when so many people can send emails instead.

You can get over this simply by getting yourself to Europe from where it is cheaper to post your cards to the UK: to send 100 cards in the UK costs £165. Fly to Serbia for £33 and the postage will be a mere £78. Other European destinations are available!

Another tip which, at first, sounds counter-intuitive, is to save on fuel costs by using an electric blanket. Surely such items are heavy on electricity?

Plainly not so and, of course, snuggling into a warm blanket does mean it is only you keeping warm, not an entire room. On average a 100-watt electric blanket used for an hour may cost around 2 – 3p in electricity.

Evidently reading can add years to your life.

If this is the case, does reading books have greater health advantages than reading newspapers or magazines? Researchers at Yale University School of Public Health designed a study to try to answer those questions.

The researchers studied the records of 5,635 participants in the Health and Retirement Study, an ongoing investigation of people who were 50 or older and had provided information on their reading habits when the study began.

They determined that people who read books regularly had a 20% lower risk of dying over the next 12 years compared with people who weren't readers or who read periodicals.

This difference remained regardless of race, education, state of health, wealth, marital status, and depression. These findings, which were published in the September 2016 issue of Social Science & Medicine, suggest that the benefits of reading books may include a longer life in which to read them.

Perhaps somewhat less scientifically Gyles Brandreth recently wrote of the importance of reading bedtime stories to children.

He also suggests learning poetry – and anyone who sneers at poetry should be reminded that many pop songs are poems set to music, and today's children seem to have no problem learning pop songs.

He was writing after a report by the National Literacy Trust found that half of parents read to their children every day, down from 66 .1% in the year before the pandemic.

The trust says, “There can be few things as powerful as regularly reading to a young child. It has astonishing benefits for children: comfort and reassurance, confidence and security, relaxation, happiness and fun.

"Giving a child time and full attention when reading them a story tells them they matter. It builds self-esteem, vocabulary, feeds imagination and even improves their sleeping patterns. Yet fewer than half of 0-2 year-olds are read to every day or nearly every day by their parents”.

How sad. Surely the most important thing you can give a child is some of your time.

My daughter recalled a World Book Day when, working at Halstead School, staff were asked to volunteer to read a chapter of a book during break time to any interested children. The group she read to enjoyed it so much they begged her to carry on, therefore willingly giving up their break time to listen to her reading Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Let's Read helps to improve literacy of young people in the Woking area by giving free books to pupils at primary schools, visiting schools, and reading to, and with, some of the pupils.

Over the past 20 years they have given over 40,000 books. Let's Read currently has two teams of volunteer tutors who visit four Woking primary schools on a Tuesday and Thursday morning during term time.

They take 10 or so children at each school and teach reading and writing skills using books and materials supplied by the charity.

Poor literacy skills can seriously disadvantage young people, and increase their risk of underachievement at school, which may lead to truancy and social exclusion.

For more details, visit letsread.co.uk/support-us

If you are still stuck for Christmas presents, remember the suggestion that you give them Something they Want. Something they Need. Something to Wear and Something to Read.

And do, please, remember the last of those suggestions.

Time

I have mentioned the importance of giving time so I was interested to see the following on social media:

“I'm really keen to volunteer somewhere in Surrey or SW London on Christmas Day this year – I have a car and will happily travel. If helpful, I’m an animal-lover, a confident and experienced driver, I love cooking and food prep and anything to do with reading, writing, storytelling and comedy. Does anyone know of any opportunities please?”

I am sorry I have no way of contacting that person but, surely, there must be others like them who have, and are willing to give, time.

We all know how good volunteering is for body and mind, so if you have some time...