I made a mistake on Substack

It was about trying to recognise loyalty but I made a mess of it and now, I'm trying to rectify it. Also, a story about loyalty being rewarded in a brilliant way.

Over the Easter holidays I returned to Frome, in Somerset, where I was living until I moved to London three months ago.

We still have our house there, as my husband is finishing it off before we sell it, and so it was like we were back in our old life.

It was lovely.

One afternoon, towards the end of our two-week stay, we decided to have lunch at our favourite pub, out in the countryside.

The setting is beautiful, the grounds are so well tended to and the interior is perfect countryside chic.

But, more importantly: the food is delicious and the staff are amazing.

We walked in and a waitress greeted us like friends.

She remembered us and seemed pleased that we’d come for lunch.

I had a delicious, creamy courgette soup with tiny cubes of Applewood cheddar and the freshest, softest bread, smothered in butter to dip in it.

Everyone else had burgers.

We finished our meal, asked for the bill and when the waitress brought it over, she said they’d given us a discount.

I couldn’t work out why - nothing had gone wrong.

And then I looked on the bill and it said ‘locals discount’. They’d given us 10% off for being locals.

I felt slightly guilty, as I’m no longer actually a local but reassured myself that really, this was about us being regulars.

And they want to reward customers’ loyalty, so that we’ll come back.

It’s expensive going out to eat these days, so they were expressing their gratitude for us continuing to support their business through that discount.

It worked. We felt all warm and special and everything they probably wanted us to feel.

We’ll go back again, soon.

My Substack mistake