WE'VE only been away from home for a few days but several things have sprouted up in our absence, including heavy blossom on the trees, a fine crop of dandelions on the front lawn and a new motorway service station down the road.
The new M40 Beaconsfield stop-off is only a few minutes from us and it got me thinking: if I were ever chief of motorway services what would I change?
Well the food, for a start. At the moment we can choose from cold, flabby sandwiches, greasy fast food, massive muffins, or overpriced so-called 'healthy' meals.
Why can't we have sandwich bars at motorway stop-offs where we could choose our fillings and see them being made, or outlets with reasonably priced themed offerings such as Italian or Greek food.
A vegetarian section or an omelette bar would be welcomed, or even a proper soup kitchen with a variety of soups and stews served with tasty,WARM, wholemeal rolls.
And why not a snazzier salad bar with goodies like sun dried tomato and endamame beans? After all, most supermarkets can do it.
I'd also love to see a 'Make your own Ploughman's Lunch' bar with a straightforward selection of cheeses, breads and pickles to grab, with maybe a tomato and a handful of cress or rocket; simple, easy, tasty and quick.
Recently,travel-weary and hungry, I circled the counters like a hungry lion who'd being offered a banana instead of a bison burger, before practically having a stand-up fight with the well-meaning lad who served me.
"But your bean burger is cheaper if you have chips", he kept saying. "But I don't want them", I kept insisting. Even Winston Churchill would have found it hard to break this lad's defences.
Predictably, my order - the only thing I could find without meat - arrived WITH the rejected chips, and it took a lot of willpower to hand them back.
I just hope he didn't see my delight when I found a few tasty fries left behind in the paper bag containing my bean burger. Naturally I cracked, and had to secretly scoff them behind my newspaper.
I'd never have made a spy.
- Thanks for your emails on my new address - please keep them coming! Following my plea two weeks ago Louise Underwood sent me some great gaffes that her family have made. Mr F particularly enjoyed her then four-year-old son Owen's description of his dad in the garden 'moaning' the lawn.
Can't think why.
