My Sunday..
Hi all,
Well firstly we attempted to have lunch at Tescos cafe. This is Tescos at the Meadows in Camberley, Surrey. What an utterly pointless trip (foodwise anyway). A queue a mile long and hardly any staff at the counters. I don't mind waiting normally, but they have a system where you queue, get your food, queue, get your coffee, queue.. pay. And then you go and sit down to tuck into your cold meal. When it's busy and shortstaffed you can sometimes wait for up to 10 minutes between getting your food and eating it. In an air conditioned restaurant, you have absolutely no chance of still having a hot meal by the time you sit down to eat it.
However, although we turned around and headed straight back down into the shop proper, Mrs Liam wanted to look at some Norman Wisdom DVDs.. I found the books and went on a mini shopping trip all of my own and bought..
Dark Winter: Andy McNab
Toll for the Brave: Jack Higgins
The Teeth of the Tiger: Tom Clancy
.. all for change out of 12 quid. Not a bad bit of shopping on my part. If I can move away from this computer for a little while I may even get the chance to read them.
Well, as there is a branch of M$S attached to Tescos, Ros thought it would be a good idea to have a look in there while we were there. Oh goody thought I. I can never get enough of looking at old women dressed in leopard skin print, and pushing trolleys around as though they were the only people in the shop. It's scary to think that they will drop off their trolleys outside (I just had some horrible imagery spring to mind then, but I won't elaborate) and get into a car, driving it in exactly the same way.
It was pointed out to me how lovely their bags of pot-pourri refills looked. The suggestion that Camberley Council would quite likely collect garden waste if approached, and would save M&S clogging up their already full shelves was met with much hilarity.. on my part anyway. :) That was the red stuff. On another shelf they had some yellow stuff. Have you seen the feed trays in a chimp's enclosure at the zoo? That's the one, with all the half eaten fruit. I reckon Monkey World tops up it's funds by selling the leftovers to M&S as yellow pot-pourri. :)
Well that's two shops and still no food. It's a good job I carry reserves of energy. So off we go to Aldershot, home of the British Army. It's also home to one of the few Pizza Hut's that is staffed by friendly, helpful and efficient staff. I love Pizza Hut's food, but would rather make a return trip of over 30 miles to Aldershot than go to Bracknell's pathetic excuse for a restaurant. It seems to be staffed by people who failed the job interview for McDonalds. It is also stuffed full with as many tables and chairs as they can physically get in the building. And then they close half of it off to customers. I'm sorry, but if I wanted to eat within rubbing distance of a dozen or so other people, I'd eat my pizza on the tube at rush hour.. far less intimate. This is of course assuming that they even make the slightest effort to seat you. The staff all wander around completely oblivious to the fact that you and three families of screaming kids are queuing out of the door waited to be attended to. Then when they do stumble their way over, it's..
"Good afternoon Sir, I'm afraid there will be a 45 minute wait for food. Would you like to take a seat and wait anyway, Sir?"
You have to be polite, because that's not their fault. That's down to a prat of a duty manager, who couldn't find his arse with both hands, a compass and a good OS map. So you gently decline his offer, while inwardly thinking lots of naughty words to yourself.
..err, oh yes. We had a very nice meal and left. Ros wanted a scale model of a Christmas tree for her dolls house, so we went to a garden centre. No point in mentioning which one as at this time of year they are indistinguishable from each other covering, as they do, at least half the shop with Christmas decor, trees etc. I have to take a bucket into shops with me at this time of year. I absolutely detest christmas.. absolutely and utterly, utterly and absolutely and completely hate it. That's my trouble, ambiguity. There was a life sized Santa thing, dancing away and singing jolly Christmas songs. I'm not a violent person.. but.. I'm thinking big fat red punchbag here. Ros heard me thinking (outloud) about this.. still, the anti-imflamatories have just kicked in, so that's taken the edge off the pain for now. :)
Still, there is still over six weeks to Christmas, plenty of time to vent my spleen about it as we creep ever nearer.
Cheers
Liam
Well firstly we attempted to have lunch at Tescos cafe. This is Tescos at the Meadows in Camberley, Surrey. What an utterly pointless trip (foodwise anyway). A queue a mile long and hardly any staff at the counters. I don't mind waiting normally, but they have a system where you queue, get your food, queue, get your coffee, queue.. pay. And then you go and sit down to tuck into your cold meal. When it's busy and shortstaffed you can sometimes wait for up to 10 minutes between getting your food and eating it. In an air conditioned restaurant, you have absolutely no chance of still having a hot meal by the time you sit down to eat it.
However, although we turned around and headed straight back down into the shop proper, Mrs Liam wanted to look at some Norman Wisdom DVDs.. I found the books and went on a mini shopping trip all of my own and bought..
Dark Winter: Andy McNab
Toll for the Brave: Jack Higgins
The Teeth of the Tiger: Tom Clancy
.. all for change out of 12 quid. Not a bad bit of shopping on my part. If I can move away from this computer for a little while I may even get the chance to read them.
Well, as there is a branch of M$S attached to Tescos, Ros thought it would be a good idea to have a look in there while we were there. Oh goody thought I. I can never get enough of looking at old women dressed in leopard skin print, and pushing trolleys around as though they were the only people in the shop. It's scary to think that they will drop off their trolleys outside (I just had some horrible imagery spring to mind then, but I won't elaborate) and get into a car, driving it in exactly the same way.
It was pointed out to me how lovely their bags of pot-pourri refills looked. The suggestion that Camberley Council would quite likely collect garden waste if approached, and would save M&S clogging up their already full shelves was met with much hilarity.. on my part anyway. :) That was the red stuff. On another shelf they had some yellow stuff. Have you seen the feed trays in a chimp's enclosure at the zoo? That's the one, with all the half eaten fruit. I reckon Monkey World tops up it's funds by selling the leftovers to M&S as yellow pot-pourri. :)
Well that's two shops and still no food. It's a good job I carry reserves of energy. So off we go to Aldershot, home of the British Army. It's also home to one of the few Pizza Hut's that is staffed by friendly, helpful and efficient staff. I love Pizza Hut's food, but would rather make a return trip of over 30 miles to Aldershot than go to Bracknell's pathetic excuse for a restaurant. It seems to be staffed by people who failed the job interview for McDonalds. It is also stuffed full with as many tables and chairs as they can physically get in the building. And then they close half of it off to customers. I'm sorry, but if I wanted to eat within rubbing distance of a dozen or so other people, I'd eat my pizza on the tube at rush hour.. far less intimate. This is of course assuming that they even make the slightest effort to seat you. The staff all wander around completely oblivious to the fact that you and three families of screaming kids are queuing out of the door waited to be attended to. Then when they do stumble their way over, it's..
"Good afternoon Sir, I'm afraid there will be a 45 minute wait for food. Would you like to take a seat and wait anyway, Sir?"
You have to be polite, because that's not their fault. That's down to a prat of a duty manager, who couldn't find his arse with both hands, a compass and a good OS map. So you gently decline his offer, while inwardly thinking lots of naughty words to yourself.
..err, oh yes. We had a very nice meal and left. Ros wanted a scale model of a Christmas tree for her dolls house, so we went to a garden centre. No point in mentioning which one as at this time of year they are indistinguishable from each other covering, as they do, at least half the shop with Christmas decor, trees etc. I have to take a bucket into shops with me at this time of year. I absolutely detest christmas.. absolutely and utterly, utterly and absolutely and completely hate it. That's my trouble, ambiguity. There was a life sized Santa thing, dancing away and singing jolly Christmas songs. I'm not a violent person.. but.. I'm thinking big fat red punchbag here. Ros heard me thinking (outloud) about this.. still, the anti-imflamatories have just kicked in, so that's taken the edge off the pain for now. :)
Still, there is still over six weeks to Christmas, plenty of time to vent my spleen about it as we creep ever nearer.
Cheers
Liam
posted by Liam | 4:05 AM
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