Ridiculous Moaner

 A magazine editor who moved to the Cotswolds to pursue the good life has been ridiculed by locals after she publicly bemoaned the lack of taxis, the small size of schools and the presence of farm vehicles.

La Pierre d'Avignon, Le Lavandou
Lucien Pissarro (1863-1944)
Photo Credit: Manchester Art Gallery [CC BY-NC-ND]

Jade Beer, the former editor-in-chief of Conde Nast's Brides magazine moved her family out of London six years ago after growing tired of "the sheer mass of people, weary of battling the daily commute and the long hours. She wrote in the Evening Standard that they were "blissfully happy" after buying a cottage near the market town of Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire "on a sprawling estate and we had views of cows to the front and sheep to the back"...

She bemoaned the fact that her village had one taxi driver who needed to be booked "a week in advance" and only offered pick-up times he was willing to do. She also said the nearest hospital was 45 minutes away, and claimed her house was haunted...

Beer said she wished she lived in the countryside only Monday to Thursday and could "relocate to a Cheltenham townhouse at the weekend" to enjoy shopping, medical facilities, theatres and restaurants.

Her comments provoked a storm of local ridicule. "What a ridiculous, small-minded, entitled, pompous moaner," one person said...

Alun White, mayor of Stow-on-the-Wold town council, told The Times: "People should study an area before they move to it. We are deep in the heart of the country here and you can't expect inner city services."

(Will Humphries, The Times, 2021)

Poor old Jade! Perhaps moving back to London is the answer. Then she can enjoy a £15 cup of coffee.

The £15 cup of coffee

The First Madness of Ophelia
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)

Photo Credit: Gallery Oldham [CC BY-NC-ND]

 As I drank my coffee at approximately £1.50 a sip, observing foodies in their element, it struck me that London is not short of suggestible idiots. Me included.

“Can you taste the bergamot orange? The cocoa nibs?” asked the barista in evangelical tones.”…

“And then can you taste grape,” the barista said. “Some red berries and notes of honey?”

…Whether this nose-bleedingly expensive coffee is delicious, rich, pungent and captivating isn’t the question. This is a damn fine cup of coffee. Whether it’s worth £15 to spend 20 to 30 minutes at a small, elegant bar surrounded by coffee musos is the question.

By London standards, to my mind at least, less than £20 for an “experience” feels almost reasonable. Just up the road at King’s Cross Platform 9 and three quarters it costs £15 for a child to queue-jump and be photographed next to Harry Potter’s trolley.

(Grace Dent, The Guardian, 2019)

I think you’re right, Grace. England’s capital city seems to have more than its full share of dur-durs.