A couple of years ago, the town council annexed our estate from the sleepy village of Langley Burrell and merged it with the rest of Chippenham Without*. This was not completed without some protest from us residents as it resulted in a major hike in our council tax payments. But our pleas fell on the deaf ears of central government and thus our fiscal fate was sealed.A positive outcome from this sad affair has been the formation of a local residents association hell bent on ensuring that we actually get something of value from the hundreds of extra pounds we have to pay every year. The main goal is to have a community centre built: the estate was going to have a school which would have doubled as such, but the local parents baulked at the prospect of sending their little darlings to a place situated under an electricity pylon, so houses were built there instead.
Despite the lack of a focal building, there are some social and community events already under way. There is a coffee morning in a local pub each Wednesday, various quiz evenings, a summer barbecue, plus a spring litter pick. Last night saw 30 souls gather for a meal at The Plough and NAH** went along: a night without sleep had made me extremely grouchy, so I wasn’t being very sociable with him, never mind 29 complete strangers.
As you’ve probably guessed from the picture heading this post, he arrived home late last night bearing gifts of a biscuit nature in the form of a festive selection tin courtesy of the evening’s obligatory fundraising raffle. So dear reader, which biscuit do you think he picked first from the tin this morning? And which one was delivered with my mug of coffee this afternoon?Michelle Chapmanof that Mint.
(You will notice from the above appellation that Michelle has become the first person to contribute twenty posts to this blog and has therefore been further ennobled. She will be expecting due deference and first go at any selection tin in future)
* = outer Chippenham. Central Chippenham is called… Chippenham Within
** = Non-allotmenteering Husband – just in case you don’t know already
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Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | Fiscal Prudence, Grouchy, Sleepy Hamlet
And which biscuit would you like?
Yum – mint’s my favourite Club biscuit