Sue's Blog - Some assembly required.

A bit of nosh.........

Philip's stepfather.
Doesn't he look dapper.
I met him for the first time on my trip to England.
We got on really well. He is a smashing bloke.
Really friendly and lots of fun.
I am hoping he will be visiting us next year. The poor chap does have a heart condition which means he wasn't able to get health insurance to come over here.
He is currently waiting for surgery and if it all goes well, he is hoping the specialist will sign for him so that he can travel.
I do hope so.
Me and my mate.
We worked together for many years at an educational establishment.
This establishment has recently become an 'academy'.
Oh my goodness........the dear little creatures I dealt with every day back then, could never, with any stretch of the imagination, have been classed as 'academics' ......bless.
We (and another mate who accompanied me on a trip to Dover Castle) met up a few times while I was in England.
We would have got together even more often but Glenn had other ideas.

Anyway............a bit of a nosh.
On Saturday we went to my favourite restaurant for dinner.
We went because we had not got round to celebrating our anniversary, which was back in August, and we wanted to celebrate me being home again.
The food was lovely.
When the waitress was taking our order she told us that they had a Chardonnay wine on "special" that night and did we want some?
Well, I wasn't fussed. I would liked a vodka & tonic but as she was banging on about it .....I said I would give it a try.
Philip having been told that there was no "Spotted Cow" (beer) and having been offered Miller Light as an alternative (YUK) said he would have a glass of the wine too.
Well it was on special.
The wine came.
It was nothing special.
Half way through the meal she asked if we would like another glass.
Philip said no......he was driving. I hesitated and thought ....oh well it is a celebration .....so I had another.
When the bill came I saw Philip studying it and looking puzzled.
The manager noticed this too and asked if there was a problem. Philip told him it looked like we had been charged for more glasses of wine than we had had. The wine is generally around $6 a glass for a decent one.
The manager disagreed and pointed out that the Chardonnay (ON SPECIAL) was actually $12 a glass and we had had 3 = $36 !!!!
WHAT !!! $12 for a glass of mediocre white wine!!!!
Those 3 glasses of wine came to more than the two meals.
The manager assured us they would cost $15 anywhere else.
Maybe so, but we pointed out to him that it would have been fairer for the waitress to have indicated the cost of this wine rather than to imply that as it was "on special" you were getting value for money.
We would at least have liked the chance to make an informed decision before paying over the odds for wine.
The manager offered us a couple of free drinks which we refused.
The custom over here is to tip 20% of your bill.
This time we left no tip and Philip wrote on the bill why this was.
We shall not be rushing back there again.

posted by Sue Banks @ 2:09 PM