Barrington Court (National Trust)

Sunny day, coldish wind. We were at Barrington Court today.

The brick path is striking

The leaf colours interest Clare

Your author in one of the walled gardens of flowers

The cafe/restaurant at Barrington House has a soviet-style system. You're meant to choose your (numbered) table first, then browse the cake room and finally queue at the till to order drinks and pay. A waitress then delivers tea or coffee to the table number you indicated.

The flaw in this system is not hard to find. Barrington Court is popular and there are few tables. When we rolled up there were none free and we blagged it at the till ("We'll be hanging around outside by the door.").

The cashier was unsurprised and we were found without difficulty. That hardly excuses the poor protocol but it's surprisingly hard to come up with a simple and robust reservation scheme.