I often lunch at The Britannia, my local Harvester. I don't like peas, so I always say to the waitress, "No peas, thank you".

When the meal arrives, meat or fish is on one-third of the plate, chips on another third and the last third is... bare.

They don't shuffle the meat and chips around to cover the plate or put a lettuce leaf in the gap.

They bring the plate along with a big space where the peas should be, as if to say, "you naughty girl, refusing your healthy vegetables like that".

Roll on the day when peas are banned altogether and I can have a fully covered plate.

-Wendy Taylor, Lancing