Every year it astonishes me, the morning after the excesses of the Pudding Club, just how much we all manage to put away at breakfast the next morning. We met up in the dining room at 09:00 and breakfasted extremely well on a full English, plus cereal, toast, fruit, yoghurt, and in the case of two of our party, freshly-cooked haddock. I suspect that I probably didn’t need the second piece of toast, but the jams and preserves were so tasty that it didn’t feel as gluttonous as it undoubtedly was!
We then waved one of our group off in a taxi to the nearest railway station so that she could get back home to Hampshire, whilst the rest of us girded our loins for yet more Retail Therapy, this time in the picturesque but very touristy Cotswold village of Broadway. There are lots of interesting independent little shops in Broadway, but due to Sunday trading laws most of them don’t open until 11:00. However, the gang have been doing this for so long now that once again they have the timing sorted. Our convoy of three cars converged in the main car-park in Broadway at 10:59am, in time to pay for the parking and hit the shops just as they opened.
We took a pause for breath around noon for a rejuvenating coffee, and in my case a toasted tea cake, though none of us could face even a light lunch. We really are loyal customers, or perhaps just creatures of habit – we visited the same coffee shop this year as we have every year I’ve been attending, and even sat at the same table!
Having been into every significant shop on both sides of the main street, plus examined thoroughly all of the smaller shops in the arcade on the way back to the car park, we finally conceded that we’d shopped enough and that it was time to go home. That was the event over for another year – and already we’re anticipating repeating it next year! It’s a huge amount of fun, even if I didn’t feel hungry for several days afterwards!
