No room at the (Village) inn

On Sunday Keith and Sue popped over to the NEC for an exhibition. The train service is excellent and much more relaxing than driving, as well as being greener of course.
On the way back we decided to get some lunch and went to the Village Inn at Cotteridge. No such luck, there was not a space to be had in the car park. So off to the Two for One at the corner of Lickey Rd and Groveley Lane. This also was packed out. We decided to try the Barnt Green inn which we had not visited for some years. Even here, at about 3.30pm, we had to wait for a table. On the way back we took a look at the Old Hare & Hounds and their car park was very full.
Now the Village Inn is not some exclusive venue for the well off, it does a really good carvery for about £9 and is aimed more for families on a budget but it makes you think about whether all the doom-mongers amongst us are right in everything they tell us about the state of the country. Last week Keith was in Nando's just off Broad St with some friend's (yes, even Conservatives have friends) which was very busy and across the way there was a long queue of young people waiting to get into a night-club, this on a Wednesday night. It seems that despite the rise in fuels, food and energy and pay freezes lots of people still have some disposable income which they choose to use to get out and enjoy themselves.