Lunch, Sugarloaf Café: bacon and brie sandwich, millionaire’s shortbread; sausage, cheese and tomato tortellini

Today we caught the little community bus down to the village, the only passengers as it glided silently¹ down roads and around crescents to its (our) destination, dropping us off before returning to base to be recharged, with instructions to return to collect us at 2pm. The afternoon shift is meant to be available by advance booking online only, but by driver instruction is apparently an acceptable alternative.

We wandered around a charity shop, where mum picked up a birthday card for my brother-in-law and I picked up a giant mug / bowl with a handle which will be great for my morning Weetabix when the weather cools down again later in the year. Then we hiked miles – or about 100 yards, but it felt considerably longer – to Sugarloaf Café for lunch and a much-needed sit-down. Our brie and bacon sandwiches were very good, with good-quality bacon, cooked until it was crunchy, and if the brie was a bit underripe that’s no great problem. A very small child, having lunch with her family, was openly intrigued by my crutches and watched me walk the short distance from our table to the counter, to buy a second cup of coffee and a bit of millionaire’s shortbread, with big eyes and her head on a swivel.

I noticed while eating that the café is up for sale, if anyone’s in the market for one.

By the time we got home I was exhausted and rather lacking in patience, and had to apologise to mum for a snappish response to one of her less decisive moments. (I asked my BIL for his address then, when I told her he’d responded, she asked me to keep hold of it until tomorrow; ten minutes later she started panicking that she didn’t have his address and gave me a brief lecture when I reminded her that I did have it about needing to get the card in the post today. Then I realised we didn’t have any stamps, so we’ll have to go out tomorrow morning and get one, which I really don’t want to do after going out today.

Dinner was a quick and easy pasta dish, where I was pleased to learn that you can cook fresh pasta in jarred pasta sauce plus a bit of water.

Now I’ve got a bit of caramel apple cake which I brought home from the café, and a mug of coffee, and a couple of hours to see how many times mum and I have the same conversation about buying stamps before I lose patience entirely. It’s getting close, believe me.

1. It’s an electric vehicle. ↩︎