Limeyard is 'so-so', Christo and Jeanne-Claude & CAB gets extended Pensions role

At the weekend having seen a positive review of Limeyard we decided to take a lunch break at the new restaurant in Ealing High Street.

We can expect more than just a 'chain' restaurant

It's well decorated in a sort of North American style but for me a little disappointing in a formulaic approach that reveals it as very much of a chain establishment, no genuine quirks or nods to the season or place in its menu.

The price for what was 2 sandwiches and 2 (non-alcoholic) drinks was nearly £25 (fixed service charge which I don't like) and I think that's at the upper end of expectations

Efficient enough but a very limited menu and quite a mark-up on fairly routine food, so it's a possible for future breakfast but nothing more (for me).

For it to be a restaurant that I want to visit it needs to have something extra be it the food the ambience or the locale as it is I can find something more engaging just a short walk away and I probably will.

A hint of  Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Many years ago reading the Sunday Times Magazine I was really very impressed with the enormous scale of the endeavours of  Christo Yavachev   (and so it now appears his wife Jeanne-Claude) in covering structures and landscapes, they say there was no  agenda for their work other than the aesthetic but I was reminded of it by the covering on a local building under some routine work .

Just by Haven Green

You can find out more about Christo here.

I don't know if  other artists are continuing this type of project but I'd certainly like there to be.

CAB to cover pensions

I do some volunteering with a local borough's CAB Bureau (in fact I'll be at a Money Advice Fair on Wednesday) so I  know that it's not easy to provide the sort of help the community needs with a mixture of paid staff and keen 'do-gooders'.
The funding is provided by a mixture of groups that includes funded local government contracts, charity donations and Central Government.

Much of what I did last year was tied to domestic consumer Energy issues and although the drop in energy prices may reduce the pressure in this area the idea that there's a resource that can be turned on like a tap to cover complex pension changes might show undue optimism from George Osborne - training and funding will certainly be needed.