Day 2775 Filling the gap.

21st March 2025

I woke up this morning to the news of disruption at Heathrow caused by a fire at a nearby electrical substation knocking out power to terminals 2 and 4.

I was able to check in to both my flights, but that could change. 

I wanted to try the breakfasts at Merkins farm shop and cafe just outside Bradford on Avon. I had never been there, and its reputation was well known.

The use of galvanised corrugated iron, brick and wood in the decor was a typical material choice in trying to maintain the “farm” image, but it does get overused. The choice of “tatt”masquerading as gifts, was typically uninspired. 

However the food was good, a generous portion filled the gap, and although my criticism might sound like a Tripadvisor write up, it wasn’t meant to be that. Whenever I visit farm shops and garden centres, this is what I look for, originality.

The US, especially around the Mid West are far behind in developing this concept.

But Merkins is good in what they offer, and I will definitely go there again.

I used the rest of the day to do all the cleaning and any small repairs and touch ups that are needed.

I  don’t understand why some people allow the chairs to rub the wall, with out realising it.

I moved the Eames lounge chair upstairs into the bedroom for that reason. 

In an attempt to reduce the risk of it happening again  I adjusted the mechanism on my two soft pads to reduce the tilt, hopefully that will stop the problem.

I did all the vacuuming in record time, my lunch consisted of whatever I had left in the fridge.

This consisted of the nobby end of a baguette and a small jar of marmalade.

It was like chewing a hand grenade, I had to naw at it like a rodent, eventually breaking the crust.

Fortunately I had an invite from Ryan and Louise to join them for a Chinese dinner. This was the first in many years (I might have been tempted before, but the one in the town had closed)

This was wonderful, as I had to return the beast, and there was nothing left except a pat of butter.

They had just returned from Barcelona, bring back with them typical Spanish mementos, a tattoo and nose piercings, and they did that sober!

Ryan had a brave attempt at explaining the reason why he let a crazy Spaniard loose with an electric drill, but it was lost on me, his generation have a different interpretation of a mid life crisis, I’ll stick to shouting at pensioners.