| lesley153
|
I'm sure the fitter was endlessly grateful that he didn't come back, but not half as grateful as I am to have a handy sprog. I shall have to make the most of it. He'll be off in a couple of months.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Meanwhile, he has no visible means of support, and he's a bit old to be living with me and relying on pocket money, so he went to the Jobcentre, and registered with three employment agencies. The Jobcentre will give him £50 a week dole, now known as Jobseeker's Allowance, till his job starts, and for that he has to prove that he has made at least six approaches a week to potential employers.
Today, he was called in for an interview with one of the agencies, to assess his suitability for a phone-based job. They emailed him a copy of the script he'd be using, so he could practise it, and he read half of it to me. It was a collection of all the things that annoy us most about cold callers, starting with the one about taking two minutes of your time. Half-way through, I couldn't take any more, and I asked him to stop. I have since read the whole thing. There's a "thank you for your support/time" line at the bottom. but I can't imagine many people getting far enough to use it.
He visited their office in the town centre, so he could use the script to make a dummy phone call to an interviewer. (I don't know why he couldn't have made the call from home.) A few hours later, they called him and said start next week. Cold calling must be soul-destroying. I hope his sanity holds out. I'm sure the money will help a bit.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Meanwhile, I was out having lunch with an old friend, in a restaurant I'd never been in before. The staff were youngsters who seemed to have no sense of awareness of customers. The place was two-thirds full, and we were asked to sit down and wait for a table. So we sat... and waited... and nobody stuck a head round to ask us if we'd like a coffee, beer, menu. Then a dozen or so men got up and filed out, and still we sat there. Shall we just walk out? Are all those empty tables waiting to be cleared and cleaned? Friend got up and asked if we could have a table yet. Look at all those empty tables. No, he said, they're reserved. (Reserved - at half-past one?) He muttered something about having a big party. What, had, or waiting for one? but he didn't answer. Just muttered a bit more, and took us to a table.
A waitress appeared to take our orders. Friend liked the look of the sea bass on spicy noodles. They haven't got any sea bass. We're offering salmon instead. She said OK to salmon, and please don't put any chili in the noodles. I wanted a fish dish too.
There was a note on the menu about nuts in the food, and remembering to check if you have an allergy. So I told the waitress I'm allergic to cashew nuts.
"No nuts."
Nuts are generally OK, it's just cashew nuts I can't have.
"No nuts?"
Are you saying "no nuts" because it's easier just to have a nut-free dish than to find out which nuts it may have in it? Do you know if this dish would even have nuts in it?
"No nuts!"
I give up. OK, no nuts.
My fish was slightly overcooked, with charred skin, and the accompaniment was cold. Friend's fish was also charred and overcooked, and her "hold the chilli" noodles were full of chilli, so she ended up coughing her head off. She followed it up with cheesecake and that took ten minutes to arrive.
We left at half-past three, and the "reserved" tables were still empty. I wonder if they pretend the tables are reserved so it doesn't look like they haven't got any customers? |
Reply #3041. Jul 14 11, 2:15 PM
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bloodandsand 
|
If that's representative of a normal day and normal service, it's no wonder they don't have any customers.
Reply #3042. Jul 14 11, 3:02 PM
|
Professer
|
Remind me Lesley never to go there if i ever visit your town.
Reply #3043. Jul 14 11, 3:43 PM
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| lesley153
|
There are a few things run by students at Bedford College, like a hairdresser in the High Street. I suspect that this may be one of them. Letting catering students run a restaurant is a good idea. Letting them run it without a skilled caterer supervising is commercial suicide.
Last night, Jonathan and I ate out. It's a new place, only opened the day before, and we spent as much time admiring the decor, the attention to detail, the service, as we did enjoying the food. They gave us a little card requesting feedback. Funny nobody asked us for feedback today.
There's a very good chance I won't be going there again! |
Reply #3044. Jul 14 11, 4:12 PM
|
channe
|
Sounds more like they pretend the tables are reserved so they DON'T GET any more customers.
We are used to appalling service here in Sydney, but that sounds more than we would tolerate.
Staff at food venues here are often paid in cash (no bnefits and very low wages) so I understand why they wouldn't work too hard, but they rely on tips to make a living and therefore are at least pleasant and helpful.
Mostly.
Reply #3045. Jul 14 11, 4:15 PM
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| lesley153
|
Channe, I think you're right. They couldn't cope with the few they had. While we were waiting, I noticed that the men filing out weren't speaking or smiling. I'm thinking perhaps that should have been an alarm signal.
I've now found the restaurant's facebook page and official website. It seems to be an existing restaurateur who's taken the "unit" over, not the college. Funniest line was that the restaurant was located in Bedford's new cultural quarter. Not often you see "Bedford" and "cultural" in the same sentence! |
Reply #3046. Jul 14 11, 6:10 PM
|
satguru
|
I developed a rule about eating out long ago. If they don't have the food on a shelf on the counter don't bother. At a pinch if they make it in front of you it's almost as quick, but that depends on how busy it is. And no smarmy waiters to spout rubbish when I just want to tick a menu list like people do in hospital and hand it to them instead. Nothing like my own microwave and frying pan, they rarely let me or my friends who eat here down.
Reply #3047. Jul 14 11, 8:15 PM
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| lesley153
|
I avoid smarmy waiters like the plague. Ditto snotty ones. Look down your nose at someone else, nonentity!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Progress report Friday.
The electrician came at 8.30 (argh) to wire in the boiler, the programmer and the immersion heater. That's European Elf'n'Safety diktats keeping electricians in work. Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do.
- Boiler: connected.
- Programmer: connected... but it doesn't work. Ah - that's because it's broken. "Isn't it lucky that I had another one on the van!" (Lucky for you because it takes you more than an hour to get here, so you've saved yourself nearly three hours' driving.) Replacement programmer: connected, and, incidentally, a better model than the original one.
- Immersion heater: not connected. Against European regs, he told Jonathan. An immersion heater has to have its very own, dedicated circuit. There's been an immersion heater here since before recorded history, it was on the same circuit as the heating, and it was fine. Haven't these European diktat-producers got anything better to do with their time?
"That's what the electrician said."
The electrician worked non-stop, apart from fag breaks, till 3.30. Peace, and the house is our own, till the power-flusher person comes on Wednesday.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Went to a lovely concert this evening. A string quartet played Beethoven, Britten and Brahms. Wonderful.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
There's masses of rubbish lying in the front garden - twenty-odd black bags, odds and ends, and some carpet. (The last cat was rehomed a couple of years ago, but her legacy remains.)
We can make a few trips to the tip: or we can keep the rubbish and feed it into the bin for normal weekly collections, and it should be gone by October: or we can get it taken away. Jonathan has been banging on about getting a skip, and he and his gf even went as far as looking up skip prices.
I looked for skips for hire. The cheapest one, for the smallest skip, was £97 + 20% VAT. The council will take away fridges and freezers, and furniture. I rang and asked if they will take an overflow of non-recyclable household waste. I said there was roughly the contents of a two-yard skip. Council prices start at £43 + VAT, depending on the volume and weight(!) of the rubbish.
Someone is coming from the council next week, to appraise and quote. Meanwhile, we can guess how many bags we can get in the car at once, and calculate the cost of petrol to the tip two miles away. I bet we can do a lot of trips for less than £50.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Today is the first anniversary of my heart surgery. Time for another photo, perhaps. Me, grinning slightly less inanely this time. |
Reply #3048. Jul 15 11, 5:26 PM
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| trojan11
|
Lesley, you should move to CA. Just buy a bit of land, slap some bricks together, stick some electric cable around the place and, presto, job done. No need to worry about pesky beaurocrats or planning permission. The odds and sods will be carted away by the poor who will find a good use for every little bit. :)
Reply #3049. Jul 16 11, 1:04 PM
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| lesley153
|
Trojan, I like your style! Wanna share a log cabin with an electrified moat?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Please ignore anything I suggested about the legislation being to preserve jobs. The electrician was taking work from decorators and carpenters, and making a dog's breakfast of it. I watched him squirting decorator's caulk round the boiler switch and blanking plate, "to make it look pretty," he said, and not reaching quite to the edges. Jonathan watched him drilling holes and making the drill judder, and drilling holes in wood where none had previously existed, without making a pilot hole, and splitting the wood.
If job-preserving legislation existed, he would have been sacked and tarred and feathered long ago.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Fun day today. Loads of scrubbing of walls and worktops, and dishwasher loads, to get rid of brick dust. A few laundry loads...
...and a fun trip to the tip with a 6' fluorescent tube, a couple of dozen glass bottles and jars, a bag of batteries, a gallon of used engine oil, and six black bags of rubbish. Another two or three trips will probably be enough to get rid of all of it. Four trips, two miles each way, is sixteen miles, which will use less than a gallon of petrol. A gallon of petrol costs less than £50. Good result. |
Reply #3050. Jul 16 11, 5:51 PM
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bloodandsand
|
Lesley, I don't suppose you fancy a trip "up north"? I've got loads of things to go to the tip and three rooms that are in the process of being decorated. You seem to be getting on with yours one hell of a lot faster than I am with mine!
Reply #3051. Jul 16 11, 6:04 PM
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| lesley153
|
| Ooh I haven't been to Mcr for years! Put kettle on! |
Reply #3052. Jul 16 11, 6:16 PM
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bloodandsand
|
Blooming heck lass, I'll even blacklead the grate and donkeystone the step!
Reply #3053. Jul 16 11, 6:23 PM
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| C30
|
Lesley..........to quote you.......A gallon of petrol costs less than £50.
Bet it soon won't! Have you got the same sort of "friendly" Council Tip staff as we have?
"Oi......you can't put that in there".........."NO plastic bags".........."Oi there is a one way system"...........none of them actually HELP people struggling with rubbish (unless the person struggling is young & female), just shout "jobsworth" instructions.
As I PAY Council Tax for the Council to (amongst other things) remove rubbish, having to take frequent trips to the tip because they won't take this, or won't take that on their (now) Fortnightly collection, I presume I can look forward to a refund? No, I didn't think so either!
Reply #3055. Jul 17 11, 1:54 AM
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| lesley153
|
"Bet it soon won't!"
I had the same cynical thought - it costs less than £50 NOW - but was scared to tempt providence.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
On Friday, we called on the friends who had concert tickets they couldn't use, and stayed for a bit of a chat. One topic was a man they'd worked with many years ago. We went to the concert, and thoroughly enjoyed it, found it easily, and didn't get lost coming home. On Saturday, we went to the tip, and then did a big shop. I had £3 cash so I paid with my bank card, but forgot to get cashback, and Jonathan forgot something he wanted to buy. I loaded the car while he dashed back in with my card to make his purchase and get some cash out.
At home, I looked up their old friend, didn't find him, but did find his son, who is an OBE married to a politician.
Today, Jonathan and his girlfriend are meeting in London. They haven't seen each other for a week. He misjudged the time and was late leaving. He hadn't checked the train times. When he got to the station, he found that he could get a train to Luton, but had to get on a bus for the rest of the journey.
As I left the station, it started raining. I went to call on the local friends. I had printed an article about their ex-colleague's son, and I'd saved them a programme from the concert. I was greeted with "We're cross" because they'd just gone into the garden when it started raining.
Shopping now. Laundry detergent, might be a good idea to get some petrol. Joined a long queue, half a dozen items in my trolley, some useful, some potentially delicious, and looked for my loyalty card and bank card while I waited. Stupid spare wallet, can never find anything. Rang Jonathan. "Did you give me my card back?" No, he still had it. I gave the trolley to the first member of staff I spotted standing still, and went home.
Has somebody shifted Friday the 13th to Sunday the 17th? |
Reply #3056. Jul 17 11, 8:17 AM
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| lesley153
|
PS The people at the tip seem to be OK. They do spot checks on bags presented as unrecyclable, to make sure that there is nothing dangerous (or recyclable) in them, and they will help if you need it, but you have to ask nicely.
One item I wanted to dump a few months ago was a Bakelite clock which hadn't seen daylight for years. The tip man picked it out and said that's probably worth a tenner. He didn't have to say anything! I told him to keep it, because it was mother-in-law's, and I was quite happy to see the back of it. May I be forgiven. |
Reply #3057. Jul 17 11, 8:23 AM
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daymare
|
Forgiven....
Reply #3058. Jul 17 11, 9:19 AM
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| C30
|
Hmmmmmm............scours house looking for Bakelite Clock.....nope, but have got Bakelite Radio......circa late 50's/early 60's.........I'm not asking £20, I'm not even asking £15............for you a Tenner and it's yours!
Reply #3059. Jul 17 11, 9:29 AM
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| lesley153
|
Thanks, daymare. :)
If he said it was worth a tenner, it was probably worth twenty, thirty if you took it to Flog the Antique Tat in the Attic Greed Show, but you have to jump through a load of hoops to get anything for anything. I'm just happy to see walls and floors I haven't seen for a very long time, and I'm finding it easier to let go, which helps.
Not everything. I've disposed of a lot of tired-looking pots and pans and china and clothes. Just because a knife has a handle like a gleaming conker, and was made in Sheffield (England!), doesn't mean I need to keep it, does it? It's only a bit blunt! There will be more clothes and perhaps other things I haven't thought of yet.
I shan't be getting rid of books, jigsaws and board games. I'm not ready to be stuck in one room with a bed and a rocking chair and a telly, and knitting needles. Wot, no knitting needles? No, they're not allowed, because they're sharp. Just stick the rug over my knees... |
Reply #3060. Jul 17 11, 11:43 AM
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