Tea rooms + public transport = nannas and me

Thursday 8 July 2004

Yesterday I was sitting in a tea room in Salisbury, enjoying a nice lunch and chat with a nanna I’d just met and who’d invited me to share her table with her, when I realised that I was the youngest person in the room by about forty years. And then I had a think about my previous declarations that I am a nanna-magnet. It really shouldn’t have surprised me so much: I’ve spent a great deal of time this trip in tea rooms or on public transport. And the over 70s are overrepresented in these two spaces. I’ve had nice lunches in tea rooms in Brecon, Bristol, Salisbury, Swindon, Marlborough and Cardiff, and will no doubt add a few more to my list before I’m done.

Thing is, tea rooms are one of the few places you can rely on decent sandwiches, bottomless tea pots and a clean bathroom.

You can also rely on the fact that most of the other people in the room with you at 2pm on a weekday will be over 70.