Country Living: Our Man in Arundel

There have been a couple of times that I’ve almost given up blogging on Country Living. Not because of the subject, just because of the technology. Incidentally, I’m no technophobe – quite the opposite, because it’s a big part of my job – which is probably why I don’t have much patience when the Country Living blog service decides I’m not able to comment on anyone else’s entries. Or when it takes so long to load, I’m able to make myself a cup of tea, drink it and make another one before the right page appears.

It reminds me of the bakery we had in Arundel until recently. The bread was made and baked locally, so I – and, as far as I could tell, most of the town – didn’t mind paying a bit over the odds for it. Then one day, inexplicably, the bakers stopped selling individual cakes. No more Belgian buns. No more bath buns, no more rock cakes, no more Eccles cakes. My dentist probably threw a party, but that’s another story. They still sold bread – but no cakes. Now, I have no idea why it happened… but I can imagine someone thinking it wasn’t worth the effort because the bulk of their profit came from sandwiches and bread. Perhaps it did. But a few weeks later the shop closed. Was it because people thought it wasn’t a proper bakers any more?

I don’t know. But I do know that the “littlest things” (to quote Lily Allen) can make a big difference. Incidentally, there’s still ‘local’ bread available in town – a baker in one of the surrounding villages supplies a few loaves to the grocer’s shop. So that’s alright.