Restaurant service

Photo: kennethgmorgan.com

At some point in your life, I am sure that you have paid a visit to a restaurant. In fact, I am sure you have visited a restaurant many times. I can also quite confidently assume that 99% of these visits are pleasant ones.

I fit right into this category. Tonight, unfortunately, I experienced service that falls into the other 1% of visits - extremely poor.

We had a table booked for 9PM and turned up promptly. We stood by the typical "please wait to be seated" sign and waited. Waited. Waited, and waited some more - the place wasn't even that busy. 10 minutes of the waiter walking past us multiple times and he finally opened his mouth. "Are you here for the 9PM Valentine's dinner slot?.. we'll just prepare your table, please take a seat". It took the best part of 20 minutes to prepare this table and all it consisted of was a cheap cloth and paper napkins.

Fast forward to ordering, which took a further 15 minutes to produce the waiter. We ordered our food and proceeded to wait again. We requested a jug of water and never received it (we were actually handed a fresh jug from another dining couple because they could see we had clearly been forgotten).

The food was sub-par. I ordered the chicken stuffed with brie and wrapped in parma ham, whilst Sam opted for the carvery. Our meat was tough, vegetables were soggy and I couldn't even taste the brie!

When it came to dessert, we decided to choose our own from the counter which was in the other section of the restaurant. Upon entering this section we saw around 7 other waiting staff hoovering and setting the tables for breakfast, leaving our waiter on his own in the Valentine's room with about 6 other full tables.

We ended up returning to our room at 11PM - a whole 2 hours after our original booking. We don't take that long to eat. If we had been served promptly then we'd have been up and out by 9:45. This meant the rest of our night was unnecessarily cut short. 

Sam is now tucked up nicely in bed and I'm rambling. Just another day at the office.

Another day at the office

This mornings routine:

• Wake up, groan at the time and fall back to sleep
• Alarm goes off, groan once more at the time and fall back to sleep
• Alarm goes off again. Pull self out of bed and shuffle to the bathroom
• Wash face, brush teeth and sort hair (or attempt to)
• Shuffle back into the bedroom and get dressed
• *Walk* down the stairs to the kitchen, a vast improvement on the shuffle
• Eat breakfast
• Pack bag for the day with lunch, snacks and drinks. Also important to pack tea supplies
• Put on coat
• Get in the car, start the engine, switch on Real XS and drive to work

The above is my daily routine, not just this mornings as the title may have suggested. You didn't need to read it, I merely added it for effect. To break the ice! (remember my first post?)

Happy Days

Work was a very happy place to be today. Full of joys and jubilation.  The contact centre has turned 1 and everyone was in high spirits. There was free cake and snacks, as well as a raffle for some goodies! It's strange to think that it only feels like yesterday that the ribbon was cut on the new site and we all poured in for the first time. It just goes to show how quickly time flies!

Head Shave

One of my colleagues took part in a sponsored head shave today. I won't post the pictures for his privacy as I haven't asked permission but it was an event enjoyed by all spectators. He did have quite long hair so it was a stark contrast to the norm. Surprisingly, the new do suits him quite well - he also raised just under £200 so a big well done!

Scary Moment

This evening my cat escaped the house and went on a little adventure. I wouldn't mind, but for the fact she is completely deaf. We keep her in because of this and so she isn't seasoned to the outdoors. As you can imagine, I was petrified that she was going to get run over or lost. 

She gave us the run around for at least an hours before eventually just waltzing in, as if nothing had happened and we were just being silly! The cheek of her!

Anyway, I'm glad she's safe and sound, tucked up in bed with me as I type. She has her flaws but I wouldn't be without her. She's like a best friend to me and I don't care how silly that sounds. Owners get a real strong bond with their animals and in some way I feel connected to her. Here's a picture of her in all of her beauty.

Her name is Belle, in case you were wondering.

Alas, we're at the end once again

Once more, that's another day over and the key moments condensed into a manageable post for reading. Tomorrow is going to be good, it's the last day of the week, I'm on an early shift and I have the whole weekend to look forward to. Although I am doing some overtime on Sunday for a little extra moolah.

Ciao for now.