Food hall busy despite price of ‘angry’ bread

‘Keep calm - smile’. Not a bad precept, I thought. Gurmeet Singh, the man maybe better known as Gary, or perhaps as the County Square Bag Man, has it covering his chair. We see him six days a week walking round his stall in the middle of County Square, checking on his stock of 100 or so handbags and about 50 purses and wallets, tweaking the position of this one, giving that one a rub with a duster - always appearing calm and always with a ready smile.

‘It’s to some extent a seasonal trade,’ he tells me, ‘holiday time and Christmas being good but many a thoughtful husband will treat his wife, maybe on her birthday or with a romantic gift at any time of year.’

Another familiar face in the town centre is Marcella, the lady who braves heat, cold, wet and dry weather to bring us our weekly Big Issue.

With all the Brexit nonsense, some of us were worried that the government would want to send her and her two young children (both born in Britain) back to Romania.

Fortunately, she has been granted ‘settled status,’ so we’ll continue to see her smiling face come rain or shine for the foreseeable future.

Last Saturday, the threat of high winds kept Paul, our regular bread man, away from the market (which is still in the Slough of Despond). So Mrs B and I wandered down to Macknade to see if they had any bread. They did.

They had a small basket with very small loaves made of stuff like ‘wild wheat’ priced at £3.50. Mrs B said ‘I don’t care how angry it is, I’m not paying £3.50’. There were quite a few people in the place eating and coffee-ing. They must be representative of the wealthier slice of Ashford life.

Nevertheless, we wish them well, though the shop would have done far more for the town situated somewhere in the High Street rather than under the Picturehouse cinema.

Strangely, I heard one person saying that the Elwick Road scheme is in the town centre. I do hope that nobody ever asks that individual for directions to the town centre.

‘Marcella braves heat, cold, wet and dry weather to bring us the Big Issue’