Xmas / NY update
Jan. 8th, 2012 02:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fingertroubleBeen kind of quiet over Xmess with John, firstly we met on Xmas eve for a lovely meal at the local Italian before it all went into shutdown for several days...
On Xmas day I woke early with a lovely person making me coffee, and we went walking in Bushey Park/Hampton Court on Xmas Day and got very cold despite a brandy stop off - well I got cold - and then John made a meal late on that night...several courses so he didn't stop cooking til 9pm! Good thing I took lunch. Next year though I want to take my drinking flash with some brandy...for the cold, of course...
Boxing Day we actually had stuff working like transport and things open - well not much but better than the complete closedown that is Xmas Day...in fact only now are shops and cafes starting to get to normal...some haven't bothered til next week, so it means Xmas and NY crazy opening times and crap service goes on for nearly 2 weeks...I caught the local (ex-regular) cafe still in doze mode today, they closed down 40 mins early and meant I couldn't get the sandwich I want as the rest of the staff sit by and talk and eat and couldn't be bothered...sorry Xmas and NY is over now, please start getting back to normal...this triggered another thought on Twitter, it does seem that rather than worrying about keeping customers, businesses mostly don't give a fuck anymore...it's like the 70's jobsworth thing all over again, workers making other workers lives difficult...great for bosses that divide and rule!
Also sadly a lot of out favourite places have closed down or have different staff, distressing when you've been going there for 15 or in John's case 20-25 years and all those good tips and easily gotten tables etc. go down the drain - and more distressing is the food quality has gone there also...in this climate it might be really bad to say, but good tipping seems to be a risky strategy when you don't know they'll be there next week...and anyway it does seem that apart from one place (the French Tarte in Surbiton which deserves a really good shoutout for not throwing customers out early over Xmas and being laid back over ordering near closing and even remembering that I was editing Ian's and Naomi's wedding pics last time...double points!) most places seem to be giving off a 'don't give a fuck' attitude anyhoos - unless you are paying Corrigan Mayfair prices that is (where we spent John's 65th birthday meal on Friday - he's 65 yesterday).
Anyway I digress - cos things were actually working we met in Richmond and went for a walk in Richmond Park, then later on we had a meal out at the other local chain Italian, cos it was open...not as nice as the other, but good to get out of the flat and off Facebook and Twitter etc. (I took my mobile and unlike last year in Milan and Venice we could actually use it without massive bills, so setup an adhoc wifi hotspot - downloaded the Xmas Dr Who though that...did a lot of iPlayer too, so saw some of the telle). 27th and things were sporadically sort of open so went home, got changed and back for a meal at Johns which was made from the piles of leftover food from Xmas! Very nice.
Then back home and saw my Dad later in the week, and travelled down to deepest Surrey to see him and Christine, was pleasant...saw their wedding photos finally and showed them some of the Egypt trip off my Macbook which I'm still editing (!!!) and saw the honeymoon pics from Rome.
For new years, well it was a bit of a palaver...tried to drop into the Quebec to find they weren't open til 8pm...which was crazy since all the non-locals would have to go way before that for the train - I had to go by 9pm so I went to the KA - it was mostly dead and left after 15 mins. Headed off to John's and wanted to get some food - instant chaos since all restaurants in the area were either closed or closing early - earlier than their stated last ordering time - and we ended up in the Chinese restaurant...nice meal and unstressed but gave me massive indigestion which after going for drinks at a local bar and seeing the pips in, meant I saws the early part of the new year in typical fashion ill - this time wandering around at 3-4am trying to get fresh air and trying not to be sick (bad indigestion gets me like that, sort of gastric asthma I have to stay vertical - worst place is lying down!).
Saw Kirk a few days ago for Mission Impossible 4 - it was quite good, and the usual Die Hard sort of fare, but with Simon Pegg they were taking themselves less seriously which was good, previous ones have been a bit po-faced...can see why allegedly the studio is pushing for Tom Cruise to leave the lead role, really the whole Scientology thing and his age means he becomes less of a believable actor in even action roles...it was usual popcorn fare with a few nice cliffhangers...but nothing to worry the Oscars. Nice to see Kirk though, apparently he too had a quiet Xmas and had a similar experience with the KA too.
On Xmas day I woke early with a lovely person making me coffee, and we went walking in Bushey Park/Hampton Court on Xmas Day and got very cold despite a brandy stop off - well I got cold - and then John made a meal late on that night...several courses so he didn't stop cooking til 9pm! Good thing I took lunch. Next year though I want to take my drinking flash with some brandy...for the cold, of course...
Boxing Day we actually had stuff working like transport and things open - well not much but better than the complete closedown that is Xmas Day...in fact only now are shops and cafes starting to get to normal...some haven't bothered til next week, so it means Xmas and NY crazy opening times and crap service goes on for nearly 2 weeks...I caught the local (ex-regular) cafe still in doze mode today, they closed down 40 mins early and meant I couldn't get the sandwich I want as the rest of the staff sit by and talk and eat and couldn't be bothered...sorry Xmas and NY is over now, please start getting back to normal...this triggered another thought on Twitter, it does seem that rather than worrying about keeping customers, businesses mostly don't give a fuck anymore...it's like the 70's jobsworth thing all over again, workers making other workers lives difficult...great for bosses that divide and rule!
Also sadly a lot of out favourite places have closed down or have different staff, distressing when you've been going there for 15 or in John's case 20-25 years and all those good tips and easily gotten tables etc. go down the drain - and more distressing is the food quality has gone there also...in this climate it might be really bad to say, but good tipping seems to be a risky strategy when you don't know they'll be there next week...and anyway it does seem that apart from one place (the French Tarte in Surbiton which deserves a really good shoutout for not throwing customers out early over Xmas and being laid back over ordering near closing and even remembering that I was editing Ian's and Naomi's wedding pics last time...double points!) most places seem to be giving off a 'don't give a fuck' attitude anyhoos - unless you are paying Corrigan Mayfair prices that is (where we spent John's 65th birthday meal on Friday - he's 65 yesterday).
Anyway I digress - cos things were actually working we met in Richmond and went for a walk in Richmond Park, then later on we had a meal out at the other local chain Italian, cos it was open...not as nice as the other, but good to get out of the flat and off Facebook and Twitter etc. (I took my mobile and unlike last year in Milan and Venice we could actually use it without massive bills, so setup an adhoc wifi hotspot - downloaded the Xmas Dr Who though that...did a lot of iPlayer too, so saw some of the telle). 27th and things were sporadically sort of open so went home, got changed and back for a meal at Johns which was made from the piles of leftover food from Xmas! Very nice.
Then back home and saw my Dad later in the week, and travelled down to deepest Surrey to see him and Christine, was pleasant...saw their wedding photos finally and showed them some of the Egypt trip off my Macbook which I'm still editing (!!!) and saw the honeymoon pics from Rome.
For new years, well it was a bit of a palaver...tried to drop into the Quebec to find they weren't open til 8pm...which was crazy since all the non-locals would have to go way before that for the train - I had to go by 9pm so I went to the KA - it was mostly dead and left after 15 mins. Headed off to John's and wanted to get some food - instant chaos since all restaurants in the area were either closed or closing early - earlier than their stated last ordering time - and we ended up in the Chinese restaurant...nice meal and unstressed but gave me massive indigestion which after going for drinks at a local bar and seeing the pips in, meant I saws the early part of the new year in typical fashion ill - this time wandering around at 3-4am trying to get fresh air and trying not to be sick (bad indigestion gets me like that, sort of gastric asthma I have to stay vertical - worst place is lying down!).
Saw Kirk a few days ago for Mission Impossible 4 - it was quite good, and the usual Die Hard sort of fare, but with Simon Pegg they were taking themselves less seriously which was good, previous ones have been a bit po-faced...can see why allegedly the studio is pushing for Tom Cruise to leave the lead role, really the whole Scientology thing and his age means he becomes less of a believable actor in even action roles...it was usual popcorn fare with a few nice cliffhangers...but nothing to worry the Oscars. Nice to see Kirk though, apparently he too had a quiet Xmas and had a similar experience with the KA too.