Afternoon tea was such a treat

Ithink I’d like smoked salmon and cream cheese’, Mrs B said after a lengthy perusal of the chalkboard. We were in the restaurant area of the Bybrook Barn garden centre and were taking advantage of the decorative card/voucher which had been given to us at Christmas by Mrs B’s sister, entitling us to afternoon tea there. We are not the sort who would go in for afternoon tea as a daily routine but it seemed like a nice thing to do. There was some consternation when we presented the voucher; one of the young ladies was not sure that there were enough scones. She went off to look and hooray! There were just the two that were needed. We seated ourselves and, after a short wait, two stands arrived, each bearing our choice of finger sandwiches, a selection of small cakes, the precious scones, a pot of clotted cream, a pat of butter and a small jar of strawberry jam. All in all, a very pleasant experience reminiscent of an Enid Blyton story ending and one to be recommended.

Last week, I made mention of a lady tripping on an upraised paving brick in the High Street. Since then I have seen two people trip. One landing flat out on the ground and having to be helped to his feet. I mentioned this to a lady who has a stall in the Lower High Street market. She told me of an elderly woman who had fallen and cut her head so badly that an ambulance had to be called. She also pointed out two dangerously tilted paving slabs which, she said, have caused many a fall. The purpose of the Portas Pilot scheme was to rejuvenate our high street. We have a plethora of duplicated services which have led to any number of readers’ letters in this paper’s opinion pages but have done nothing to reduce the dangers arising from poor maintenance of the street itself. Planters of pretty flowers may make the place look attractive but they are merely a distraction. There is an element in authority which cares more for window dressing than for people’s safety.