Crumbs to Crunch

We are constantly told on the news that we are living in an unstable world and all of these terrible events can sometimes make us feel disillusioned. However, if you are ever in need of a reminder that people are kind and are capable of wonderful things, head straight to  The Dock Café - an honesty box café in Belfast. You may think that it's crazy to say a cup of tea can restore your faith in humanity but hear me out. The main principle of the café is that there are no prices. Visitors just make a donation for the tea and cake that they have consumed.  An initiative based on honesty is such a unique and rewarding enterprise. The Dock Café  is now in its third year of business so honesty clearly works. In fact, Rev. Chris Bennett, the chaplain who helped set up the café, believes that they are making more money through donations than they would charging £1.95 for a coffee. This unusual project is run by volunteers and a church group to bring together communit...

"Stop watching so much TV and get back into reading" is my mantra for the summer. It recently dawned on me that while I have watched three different adaptations of Jane Austen's beloved classic, Emma , I had never actually read the novel. So it was time to curl up on the sofa with a cup of tea and delve into the world of Austen. As I was reading about the famous, or perhaps infamous, 'badly done' picnic at Box Hill, I thought why not stage my own  (hopefully more successful) picnic at Box Hill. With this in mind, I and my Crumbs to Crunch counterpart donned our best bonnet and top hat and headed for the Surrey hills. For some reason, I could not convince my friends to also sport regency attire in public... While we were munching some cookies kindly baked by my friend, I realised that even though it was unlikely that Emma ate cookies at her picnic, very little has actually changed since the 1800s. The view from Box Hill was pretty much the same as Emma wou...