Vintage
outing
We had our kitchen refitted last week,
which meant we had to eat out every night as we had no facilities at home.
Most days it was fine. We didn’t want fancy food or service – just something
tasty and relatively quick. So, hats off
to the various pizza-type chains who all met the criteria and managed to come
up with gluten and dairy-free food that I was able to enjoy.
Our only disappointment was a trip to
our local Vintage Inn. This was a last
minute decision and we were left to regret all the other options we had
discarded when plumping for this one.
In fact, it wasn’t that the food was
not perfectly good – it was. Being a
Sunday it was a shame that they had run out of any roast options – or rather
that the chef wouldn’t serve any because they had fallen below the standards he
had set. I should applaud that, I
suppose.
No, the problems were to do with the
experience as a whole. Let’s see, there
was the man who had fallen asleep at his table, perhaps because of the very
slow service, perhaps because he had had a very hard day – who knows? Sleeping is discourteous, but snoring loudly
is quite another thing! I don’t blame
his companions, who tried valiantly to rouse him on a number of occasions, and
though he eventually awoke and ate his main course (cold by now) he then fell
asleep again before his dessert arrived.
Then there was the fractious child, up
far too late, of course, and then denied any food by the slow service. This was compounded by the constant stream of
people heading for the door to go for a smoke, and leaving that door open every
time, leaving the rest of us in a draught.
We took it in turns to get up and shut the door, but rather than this
sending a message to the smokers that they ought to shut it themselves, one of
them decided to put the door on the latch, so that it stayed open
permanently. Fortunately, an ostentatious
show of taking it off the latch and shutting it very firmly did not produce an
angry response from the miscreant.
Still, at least we weren’t the
customers who were sat at their table at 20.50 with a menu, but then left by
the waitress until at 21.15 she came over to them to say that the kitchen was
now closed. Her offer to ask the chef if
he might possibly reopen to serve them something seemed doomed to failure, and
the customers knew this and just left.
Note to self – give this place a wide
berth for a while to give them time to get their act together.
Del
Boy to lead us to the promised land?
I was deeply irritated by the extensive
coverage on the BBC of the upcoming local elections for a week or so before they
actually happened last week. No doubt
they are obliged to cover such things, but it really did seem like a promotion
for the election rather than reporting of events.
Then we had a screen full of Nigel
Farage – so much free publicity for his eclectic bunch of potential
councillors. They are not a protest
party, apparently. No, people vote for
them because they support their policies and want to see change in this country. Yeh, right.
Maybe it’s Nigel’s magnetic
personality and persuasive tongue that attracts people to his party? Incidentally, I call it his party, because I
challenge anybody to name any other leading light in the party – and yes, I
know about Neil Hamilton, and rest my case.
Farage obviously works hard on his
image, with so many poses of him with cigarette or pint in hand. But what’s with the Del Boy coat and the
trilby hat? Are these really the things
that will attract people to take him seriously?
It seems so, in combination with his village idiot looks and statements.
In truth, he and his party are not much more sensible than the
Monster Raving Loony Party – and at least they don’t take themselves too
seriously. Who could fail to support a
policy of instructing the RSPCA to ensure that all meerkats come in twos, in order
to enable the public to effectively compare the meerkat? (Yes, that is a Loony policy proposal rather than a
UKIP one – but I’m sure Nigel would adopt it if he thought people would go for
it.)
Del Boy not on his
own
For all that Nigel Farage appears
to be a joke leader, he’s not alone amongst the political ‘elite’ of this
country, is he?
I mean, what’s going on when our
leaders are as uninspiring a bunch as mad Boris, boring Nick, unctuous Dave, unhinged
Alex and invisible Ed?
Add to that their supporting cast
of the likes of Ed Balls, Nigel Evans, Patricia Hodge and so on, and it’s no
wonder we are in a mess, is it?
Pavement artists
The local council recently decided to
replace all the pavements in our street. Out with the old-fashioned paving
slabs and in with the new, smooth asphalt.
No problems with that. But the sub-contractors
tasked with carrying out the work seemed to lack what you might describe as attention
to detail – or perhaps the expression should be common sense?
They had obviously been told to put in
edging strips alongside what remains of the grass verges on the street. So far, so good. But design was not their
strong point, as the haphazard line of edging stones demonstrates. And what are we to make of the decision to
edge half of a strip of grass, but not the other? OK, it’s not earth-shattering, but it’s
visually unattractive and they have been paid some of my Council Tax to carry
out this work, so I’m not happy!
