Categories: uncategorized
Date: 31 May 2007 20:58:10
How often does one need to do a decadent thing before one becomes a decadent person?
I have just been to England again. All this foreign travel - I have lost count of the times I have crossed the Solent this year, after a year of hardly ever crossing it at all.
Today's trip was courtesy of Smudgelet and Honorary Auntie M. Some time ago the church hosted a children's workshop for which they had only one person apply. No prizes for guessing who. Yes, Smudgelet was commended for his enthusiam and, as the workshop was cancelled, he was offered the chance of a trip out as reward/compensation. Delighted, he opted to take Honorary Auntie M up the Spinnaker Tower. (I wimped out. There is a part of me that really enjoys going up high places and part of me that absolutely hates it, and in this case the latter half won!)
As he also had a £10 gift voucher to spend in Woolworths, we decided that I would go over at the same time, we'd meet for lunch, and then we'd go to Woolies together. Hmmm, I wonder what a person at liberty in Portsmouth might do with her time........ oooooh, did somebody mention shops?
A wonderful time was had by all, them going up the tower and me not going up the tower. (Tiddles stayed home and worked at the stables all day, which he also enjoyed immensely). We did have a little altercation with the place we chose for food. Service was polite and friendly, the food was excellent and the prices fairly reasonable, and it was rather nice to sit in the sun and enjoy a leisurely meal. The fact that they forgot to bring Smudgelet's pudding, even after we had asked for it TWICE was rather irritating, however. The fact that they overcharged us by four pounds, that we had to wait ages while they sorted it, and that they failed to apologise at all, was incredibly irritating (and what they'll do when the place is full in the summer I do not know, as they were absolutely run off their feet serving the slow trickle of customers that wandered in), but the biggest irritation was caused really by insult to injury. I appeal to you, dear wibloggers, to confirm my suspicion that they were breaking trade descriptions here. We questioned the bill because the notice outside the restaurant said this: "Kids eat free. All day every day. When eating with two adults who spend over £5 each on food, one child under 12 eats free from the kids' menu". We queried the bill as they had charged us for Smudgelet's meal. They reluctantly refunded us the cost of his cheeseburger and chips. We then pointed out that he had also had (eventually) vanilla icecream, also from the children's menu. "Oh no, the desserts aren't included". Now, I don't like to quibble over 95p, but to be told that it was unreasonable to expect there to say somewhere, even in small print, "apart from the only dessert on the menu" it, I feel, a little bit naughty... especially after they'd charged us for his whole meal anyway and we'd had to wait ages for them to bring it, to the extent that we nearly missed our ferry! I feel a niggly letter of complaint coming on ;)
And talking of letters.....
nothing.