I just wanted to remind you that tomorrow afternoon we are hosting our, newly named, "Friendship Club". Come along between 2pm and 4pm. Feel free to chat, play cards, help us finish the jigsaw we have started, or just sit quietly. Be sure that we will make you feel welcome and, if you give us the code LC2Welcome, we will give you a free mug of tea. We look forward to seeing you. Several customers have also expressed and interest in coming along to chat and make friends with anyone who joins us for the Club. I have made some, “Love to Chat” table signs for anyone who wishes to help in this way, so that club joiners can choose enjoy tea and chat with you, if they would like to. If you would like to help, please quote code LC2Chatter and we will also offer you a free mug of tea. Looking forward to making new friends tomorrow!

Travels in India... Jolly Olly and the Family have returned from their travels in India with Claire Bower who kindly allowed them a small space in her rucksack! Judging by the photos it looks as though they had a fantastic time! Thank you Claire!

PANCAKES! Today is Shrove Tuesday and the Team at Jolly Olly's are on the case! Today we are offering 2 American style pancakes with bacon and maple syrup ( the real stuff!) for just £4.00 or 2 American style pancakes with butter and maple syrup for just £3.50. The weather is dreadful today but the welcome is warm at Jolly's. Julie and Janet would love to see you.

More on FRIENDSHIP CLUB... Many thanks to regular customer, Jean, who has drawn to my attention an initiative called, "The Chatty Café Scheme". The scheme is the brainchild of Alexandra Hoskyn. Alexandra has had a similar idea to us, but she suggests that the table signs customers can use to indicate they would like to chat should be in permanent use. Now why didn't we think of that? I still plan to have a regular Friendship Club date in the diary for each month but, in addition the , "Love to Chat" signs will be available for anyone to use at any time. Find out about the Chatty Café Scheme at www.thechattycafescheme.co.uk.

February is just around the corner and brings Valentines and pancakes, what a fantastic combination! We, of course enjoy participating in both... During the week commencing 12th Feb we are offering a romantically themed afternoon tea at the great price of £13.50 per person. Our teas are highly rated by those who have sampled them, with many customers remarking that ours is the best afternoon tea they have ever tasted! For those of you on a smaller budget we have packaged heart shaped sweets priced at £1.20 for you to give a s a little token of your love! Tuesday 13th February is Shrove Tuesday. Don’t forget that you can enjoy American style pancakes with bacon and maple syrup anytime at Jolly Olly’s but we will make sure that we have extra supplies in for this special day! Jolly and the family will certainly be indulging this month. Alongside a delicious cup of nice strong coffee, we don’t think the flavour combination can be beaten!

Thanks to all the Teams who participated in last night's Jigsaw Puzzle Race Night. The race was won by "The Birthday Girl" Team who completed the 500 piece puzzle in just 45 minutes closely followed by, " The Missing Pieces" who took a mere 55 minutes. I think we need to set up a leader board in the shop! Thanks also to, " The Ever Hopefuls" who kindly donated the puzzles for the evening. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and are looking forward to the next one on March 16th.

Some of you may remember that, during November and December we planned to run a, “Lonely Club”. At this time, we sadly had no takers. However, having recently had a call from a gentleman who was making enquiries as to whether we were planning any more, I have decided to try again in February. If you are lonely, and would like some company, please come along to Lonely Club on Wednesday 21st February between 2pm and 4pm. Feel free to chat, play cards or just sit quietly. Be sure that we will make you feel welcome and, if you give us the code LC2Welcome, we will give you a free mug of tea. We look forward to seeing you. Several customers have also expressed and interest in coming along to chat and make friends with anyone who comes along to Lonely Club. I plan to make some, “Love to Chat” table signs for anyone who wishes to help in this way so that visitors to the Club can choose to join you for tea and chat if they would like to. If you would like to help, please quote code LC2Chatter and we will also offer you a free mug of tea

Basket of Bits Many of our regular customers will know Dave who visits Jolly Olly’s almost daily, enjoying a mug of tea and a slice of cake or sometimes a spot of lunch. Dave favours table one, by the kitchen and we enjoy chatting to him about the latest “Strictly” tv program or his travels around the world. As well as a good old chin wag, Dave enjoys a jigsaw and also the Sudoku game that we recently purchased for the shop. Inspired by Dave’s interest, I have purchased a few more items that you might like to use when you visit. Entitled, “The Basket of Bits”, this includes; adult colouring sheets, puzzles, word searches, magazines and crosswords. If you fancy a break from the housework or the gardening why not pop along to Jolly Olly’s, enjoy a mug of tea and have a rummage in “The Basket of Bits” to see if anything takes your fancy?

Happy New Year to you all! We have re-opened this morning after a lovely Christmas break, refreshed and looking forward to catching up with our existing customers and making friends with some new ones. The schools do not return until 4th Jan and so, tomorrow, we will be opening at 9.30am but. From Thursday onwards we will be all back to normal opening 8am - 4pm.

What a great way to see out our last day in 2017 for the Jolly Olly's team and some of our customers and friends in the Jolly Olly's Coffee Shop Quiz. A great time had by all with many coming in their festive finest. Congratulations to team Baby Boomers for winning and kindly donating their prize money to charities supported by Jolly Ollys.

Tomorrow is our last day of trading before we close for Christmas. We will be opening at the later time of 9.30 ( as we always do during the school holidays). On Tuesday 2nd January we will re-open at 9.30 and will look forward to catching up with all of you then. In the meantime we would like to wish all our customers, past , present and future a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Many thanks for all your support during 2017.

We were thrilled today to receive a lovely gift from Bob, one of our regular customers. Bob had noticed that our tips box was looking a little tired and he decided to renew it for us. Just look at the results of all his patience and hard work.....Thank you Bob! I asked Bob if he'd take commissions and he said he'd give anything a go, so do get in touch if you like what you see.