Westbrook goes upmarket

The gentrification of Margate and surrounding areas has for my liking gone too damn far. In common with many local residents I cannot earn a living locally in the great metropolis of Thanet. Therefore it is necessary for me, along with my co workers to pile into a van.

Part of the going to work ritual usually involves stopping at a garage to fuel both vehicle and worker. For various reason its been a while since I stopped at BP's filling station in Westbrook.

Imagine the shock of stumbling out of the van in the early hours, to find that the familiar Somerfield store has now been upgraded to an M & S, I must say I find it unnatural, strolling through the superior merchandise of M&S wearing boots & orange Hi Vis clothing on the way to work.

Perhaps unrelated to the change in purveyor of grocery's at this location, is the difficulty in obtaining diesel fuel, now if I were a cynic I would think that the sight of vans full of workmen, might just unsettle your more refined traditional M&S customer and deterring work vehicles might be a welcome outcome, although when I asked this morning I was told there were problems with the pumps.

Still overall most of the traditional confectionery(Mars bars etc) is available as in any other filling station, an although I'm not entirely convinced that Mark's food is anything special certainly my scotch eggs were no better than Tescos at half the price, although the Melton Mobray was excellent. I suppose Marks is on the whole pricey but when I go to the average petrol station and have to pay nearly 2 pound for a Ginsters sausage role, M&S looks reasonable.

I have mentioned the M&S voice over women before, you know the one who seems to be in a state er... excitement, over her food I just wonder if she would calm down bit were she to witness the likes of me chopping on the merchandise.