One day I told them that I preferred how it tasted at their old place in Three Bridges and they said they would have a word with the owner.  He didn’t change it, but they said they would get the chef to do it differently for me, so now when we order we ask for chicken satay and say “its for Andrew” and get it done just the way I like.

This has been going on for a while now, and Jayne has mentioned it to some of her friends.  The other day one of them was in the takeaway and decided to ask for “Andrew’s chicken satay”.  He said he really liked it.  I wonder if it will catch on?  I can see a few possibilities:

1. The boss will decide to change the recipe
2. The boss will decide to add “Satay Andrew style” as an option on the menu
3. The boss will get annoyed and tell the chef to stop indulging me

I’m hoping for No 2.  I would like to be imortalised on the menu of a Chinese restaurant.

A little later we heard that he had not died (although some people there said he ‘died’ for a minute or two).  In fact he was revived by paramedics, but in the meantime the security guard at Somerfield had done some CPR and other first aid which almost certainly saved the boy’s life.

He is still in hospital, apparently in an induced coma, but due to be revived soon and still alive thanks to some quick thinking at Somerfield.  Is it too early to recommend one of those Mayor’s awards for the security guard there?

Good news: the people who run it are moving across to Broadfield.

From September the yummiest satay sauce in the world is going to be just down the road…  this will not help my attempt to lose a few kilos…

Sometimes you just want to stick two fingers up to the world and everybody in it, and what better way to do it than this?

Don’t you just feel that here is a 4×4 driven by somebody whose only regret in life is that his car isn’t big enough to block three disabled spaces at one?

Just to clarify the rules for Mr. VF07 UKX, the last time anybody checked, chronic selfishness wasn’t listed as a disability that entitles you to a blue badge.

We are used to seeing abuse and blatant abuse of the disabled spaces in this car park, but this one had even the jaded residents of Broadfield doing double-takes as they passed.

On the plus side: until I saw this I didn’t even know that Audi did a 4×4.  You learn something every day don’t you?

One piece of evidence for bins causing rubbish seemed quite compelling: bins were removed from half the memorial gardens and the half without bins has less litter than the half with bins. This was in addition to the news that bins removed for Liz’s visit were not replaced and littering got better as a result.

I had this in mind when I was in town today and I noticed that there are actually a lot of bins around, and the Memorial Gardens are still well supplied with bins.

Not only that, but we were told that the amenities department were on a mission to reduce or remove bins in the neighbourhoods, but I also noticed that the Broadfield Barton has a row of nice new bins where there was only a single full one previously.

I am not sure what the policy really is now. Looking around I think I can see more bins and not fewer. It may be that I have not really been looking properly before, but it looks like more bins to me.

Not so good that they were just sitting in their car, letching at a passing girl, and they were parked in a disabled bay at the time.

I know that the parade, unlike the others in Crawley, is not owned and run by the council but by a management company on behalf of the shops, but even so it is a fine metaphor for the town under its new Tory administration.

The budget only runs as far as new paint, so there is no structural improvements and the canopies will still leak during bad weather. The tops of the canopies will still attract balls, drink cans, rubbish and the odd person. They will also still block the main parts of the parade from the view of the CCTV cameras BUT the tatty old red paint has been covered with new blue so everything looks all right.

This is how I see the Tory approach to the whole town: cut costs and cut corners but make some superficial changes with a blue colour scheme and hope that is all anyone notices.

The thing is, I suspect Iceland might be breathing a small sigh of relief at having this closure forced on them if it happens. Already it loses a lot of business to the Broadfield branch because the parking provision is terrible at the High Street one. One reason we get a lot of visitors to the Barton is that it has the combination of Iceland and lots of parking.

The High Street Iceland did have a useful purpose though. When I lived in Southgate it was an extremely convenient place to go shopping – a local shop without corner-shop prices – but I lived there before Asda opened. Having that Iceland shop so close enabled me to sell my car and go without, unlike now where just to buy a newspaper on Saturday I have a 30-minute stroll down the hill and back up again and so end up driving a lot more again, so I’ll be sad to see it go for sentimental reasons.

What amazed me was how many of the people we stopped in the Broadfield Barton shops were not from Broadfield. I know I am rightly proud to live in Broadfield, but I did not realise the extent to which it drew in the crowds, and was surprised that people would come to our run-down parade instead of making a similar length journey to the much larger Town Centre.

Even more surprising was how many shoppers were from out of town, having travelled from Haywards Heath or East Grinstead. I asked one chap where he was from and he said “Namibia”. I thought that was a bit extreme, but it turned out he is currently living in Haywards Heath.

Personally I was happy for these visitors to sign the petition as well. Any one from Bewbush would be happy to see the Broadfield Post Office open as it would greatly reduce the queues in the Bewbush one, and the Namibian chap had intended to renew his car tax while he was shopping and was a bit put-out to find no place to do it.

Anyway, the copies of the petition are in the Imperial, the petrol station, the community centre and several of the shops if anyone has yet to sign it, and even before Jayne has collected and collated all the sheets it is having an effect. She has heard through the grapevine that the Post Office are aware of the petition already. I like to think that they are bracing themselves.