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A Rare Outing

 Last Christmas (I gave you my heart...no, no George Michael...you didn’t. Go away...) Andy and I received one of those restaurant gift cards as a present. Very thoughtful, the gift of a meal out somewhere. We thought we’d use it for a Valentine’s Day treat, but then remembered that I had an evening date with the marvellous Anne Widdecombe at the local Festival Centre, so the Valentine Meal didn’t happen. And then Covid-19 happened and all the restaurants shut down for a few months. 

Fast forward to August, and eateries were starting to open again. The granddaughters were visiting. We thought, let’s use the gift card, let’s go to Nando’s. After some considerable faff whereby, upon arriving at the chosen Nando’s, we had to use one of those Q codes to book a table then wander off for half an hour until we were summoned by text as the next table became available, I said to the 12 year old waiter that we would like to use our gift card as part payment for the meal. He gave me the sort of look which made me feel like I was a complete waste of his time, gave the card a similar cursory glance (it WAS valid in Nando’s), muttered something about remote payments only and that he’d check with his manager if we could use the card. As he walked off, Andy had to restrain me from giving him a remote kick up the arse. We waited a while, then gave up. Andy had to order the meal (on his phone), and pay for it there and then (on his phone), before it arrived, was FLUNG at our table and our gift card remained unused. 

I wasn’t amused, as you can imagine. The chips were vile and a complete waste of calories and I noticed on the disposable menu that ‘halal meat is sometimes used in this restaurant.’ Well! That’s a big no no for me, that kind of unnecessary animal cruelty in the name of stupid religion. Needless to say we shall NOT be frequenting Nando’s EVER AGAIN. 

Back to today. After various phone calls to check that we could use the gift card at Pizza Express, we headed off to Shrewsbury and the experience could not have been more different! Lovely waitress who showed us to our table, took our order in the old fashioned way, and delivered our pizzas courteously. The pizzas were lovely! I had a padana - goat’s cheese, spinach and red onion chutney...


Delicious! 

Afterwards, we had a wander around Shrewsbury. It was odd. The roads in the town centre were closed to traffic so pedestrians could spread out. Andy went into Waterstones to spend another gift card he received last Christmas, and I popped into M & S because I was after a top to go with a new skirt I’ve just bought on-line. Stock levels in M & S seemed to be about half what they would normally be, again I suppose so that customers could spread out. And it appeared that unless you wanted to buy jeans, jumpers or winter coats that looked like sleeping bags, you were going to be sorely disappointed. There was also a certain amount of passive aggressive shopping being conducted by women over 65. Stop to peruse an item for a moment too long and you’d feel the gimlet eyes of a senior lady boring into the back of your neck, willing you to move on so they could move in. No browsing here, thank you very much! Not that I wanted to browse anyway, not with my mask wearing tolerance being set at around 15 minutes maximum. 

We came home. It was okay, our rare outing in these strange times. And the gift card was spent before it expired. 

It’s only 90 days until Christmas. 

Comments

Anonymous said…
Too bad about your experience - you want to go out and spend the gift card and they have the audacity to make it difficult. They are off my list of acceptable restaurants now. I had the same happening in a book store regarding being 'harassed" - not as obvious but same sort of feeling as in get a move on. Just how rare is it that someone wants to browse the same knitting books as me? - rare I tell ya'. I am making winter prep lists today as a procrastination exercise, how sad is that!? Work is not not inspiring or I am just too tired and have an attention span like a gnat. Either way - making a winter prep list is holding my attention much better.
KJ
25 September 2020 at 19:43
Denise said…
Oh my goodness, KJ! I was making Winter prep lists this morning, too! Went through all the storage cupboards and listed by category. So, if you are sad, then I am too! I think it’s a hibernation thing. There’s something very comforting about getting ready to hunker down as the cold weather approaches, don’t you think?
25 September 2020 at 20:14
Anonymous said…
‘Tis the season for winter prep for sure! Husband had shoulder surgery resent and completely useless (😉)for the normal stuff we do so it’s on me this year and I just want to spread out the burden a bit and a list seemed like a sensible thing to do. Plus there is nothing better than crossing stuff of the list. I should do it more often.
KJ

26 September 2020 at 02:23
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