Things You Don't "Get"

[TheAuthority]

35 minutes ago, nick76 said:

All that expense when you can just buy £5 footwear like slippers or flip flops that means your feet don’t get cold and saves thousands.  It’s like that old joke story that Americans spent millions developing a pen that could work in space, the Russians took a pencil. Sometimes the simple thing does almost the same thing as the expensive thing.

Firstly I’m British and secondly it was in the house when we bought it and I’m not ripping the tile up to satisfy some “4 Yorkshiremen” type angling for the past when “we made do with slippers.”

Under tile heating is marvelous- you’ll be suggesting outhouses are fine and perfectly acceptable next!

[TheAuthority]

21 minutes ago, VILLAMARV said:

Slippers don't replace your radiators and fireplaces well though to be fair. Kinda restricted to feet.

Indoor plumbing is an over the top luxury that no one needs. Just look at Russia!

[nick76]

26 minutes ago, VILLAMARV said:

Slippers don't replace your radiators and fireplaces well though to be fair. Kinda restricted to feet.

If only there was other things that covered other parts of the body to keep them warm.

[nick76]

7 minutes ago, TheAuthority said:

secondly it was in the house when we bought it

Posh bar steward

9 minutes ago, TheAuthority said:

you’ll be suggesting outhouses are fine and perfectly acceptable next!

I’d be lucky, a bucket and old newspaper in the shed is all we have.

[nick76]

@TheAuthority @VILLAMARV obviously my comments are in jest, my car seats have seat warmers so I’m a princess when it comes to comfort.

[TheAuthority]

16 minutes ago, nick76 said:

@TheAuthority @VILLAMARV obviously my comments are in jest, my car seats have seat warmers so I’m a princess when it comes to comfort.

Your post actually narked me so much I went and measured our bathroom (and my wife was in bed and annoyed I had the tape measure out)

The space we are heating is 5ft by 2ft you bloody communist.

Still love you though car seat Princess 

[TheAuthority]

21 minutes ago, nick76 said:

I’d be lucky, a bucket and old newspaper in the shed is all we have.

Bucket? Luxury etc.

[luckyeddie]

4 hours ago, TheAuthority said:

Your post actually narked me so much I went and measured our bathroom (and my wife was in bed and annoyed I had the tape measure out)

The space we are heating is 5ft by 2ft you bloody communist.

Still love you though car seat Princess 

Never have a tape measure in bed with your wife

See luv 8 inches

That's 8 centimetres

B*llocks

 

[tonyh29]

17 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

Sounds **** disgusting 

Nah it’s perfectly hygienic , it’s not like the one Sidcow described 

the shower is an enclosed walk in with a drying off area so the carpet is as dry as a nuns crutch 

toilet wise , I mean yes if you don’t aim straight and piss  on the floor , then I guess it could get a bit smelly over time  , but thankfully I’m toilet trained , I wouldn’t recommend  it but you could eat your dinner off the floor in the en-suite , long as you don’t mind the occasional taste of toothpaste in your dinner  

[sidcow]

Why we are SO bad at hospitality?

We've just come back from a UK beach holiday.  With a modern apartment and balcony right on the seafront and the hot weather it felt kind of like a Mediterranean holiday. 

But we both commented on one massive difference when eating out. 

Both sat there with an often badly cleaned, sticky table.  You almost always have to ask for someone to come clean the table. Waitresses take forever to take the previous occupants mess away. 

On The Continent waiters pretty much jump on a finished table, whisk away the plates and put A NEW TABLECLOTH on the table. 

Why do we have to wait so long for tables to be cleared, for them to be left dirty and why do we just not have tablecloths? 

It makes for a much more miserable, soiled experience sitting at a British pub table. You really only get tablecloths at proper restaurants, even "posh" gastropubs have the sticky table. 

I just don't get it.  It's not a hard thing to fix. Even a cheap disposable paper tablecloth would be better than a bare sticky table. 

Edited September 10, 2023 by sidcow

[Brumstopdogs]

16 minutes ago, sidcow said:

It makes for a much more miserables, soiled experience sitting at a British pub table. 

[luckyeddie]

57 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Why we are SO bad at hospitality?

We've just come back from a UK beach holiday.  With a modern apartment and balcony right on the seafront and the hot weather it felt kind of like a Mediterranean holiday. 

But we both commented on one massive difference when eating out. 

Both sat there with an often badly cleaned, sticky table.  You almost always have to ask for someone to come clean the table. Waitresses take forever to take the previous occupants mess away. 

On The Continent waiters pretty much jump on a finished table, whisk away the plates and put A NEW TABLECLOTH on the table. 

Why do we have to wait so long for tables to be cleared, for them to be left dirty and why do we just not have tablecloths? 

It makes for a much more miserable, soiled experience sitting at a British pub table. You really only get tablecloths at proper restaurants, even "posh" gastropubs have the sticky table. 

I just don't get it.  It's not a hard thing to fix. Even a cheap disposable paper tablecloth would be better than a bare sticky table. 

Because were British and we enjoy being miserable.

Everything you say makes sense, but it just seems so cultured.

When I talk to people at banks etc on the phone, they all seem to finish the conversation with "and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day". They don't mean it.

There is only 2 replies to that: thank you or f*ck off.

[luckyeddie]

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you

You're so vain (you're so vain)
I bet you think this song is about you
Don't you don't you?

 

It is Carly. You are singing about him.

 

This has bugged me for decades.

[Mr_Dogg]

1 hour ago, sidcow said:

Why we are SO bad at hospitality?

We've just come back from a UK beach holiday.  With a modern apartment and balcony right on the seafront and the hot weather it felt kind of like a Mediterranean holiday. 

But we both commented on one massive difference when eating out. 

Both sat there with an often badly cleaned, sticky table.  You almost always have to ask for someone to come clean the table. Waitresses take forever to take the previous occupants mess away. 

On The Continent waiters pretty much jump on a finished table, whisk away the plates and put A NEW TABLECLOTH on the table. 

Why do we have to wait so long for tables to be cleared, for them to be left dirty and why do we just not have tablecloths? 

It makes for a much more miserable, soiled experience sitting at a British pub table. You really only get tablecloths at proper restaurants, even "posh" gastropubs have the sticky table. 

I just don't get it.  It's not a hard thing to fix. Even a cheap disposable paper tablecloth would be better than a bare sticky table. 

Because hospitality is seen as a temporary job or for minimum wage immigrants in these islands. Couple that with understaffing. 

In Europe, there is more full time employment in hospitality and waiting staff, where the experience adds up as well as more pride in the job 

[chrisp65]

1 hour ago, sidcow said:

Why we are SO bad at hospitality?

We've just come back from a UK beach holiday.  With a modern apartment and balcony right on the seafront and the hot weather it felt kind of like a Mediterranean holiday. 

But we both commented on one massive difference when eating out. 

Both sat there with an often badly cleaned, sticky table.  You almost always have to ask for someone to come clean the table. Waitresses take forever to take the previous occupants mess away. 

On The Continent waiters pretty much jump on a finished table, whisk away the plates and put A NEW TABLECLOTH on the table. 

Why do we have to wait so long for tables to be cleared, for them to be left dirty and why do we just not have tablecloths? 

It makes for a much more miserable, soiled experience sitting at a British pub table. You really only get tablecloths at proper restaurants, even "posh" gastropubs have the sticky table. 

I just don't get it.  It's not a hard thing to fix. Even a cheap disposable paper tablecloth would be better than a bare sticky table. 

 

13 minutes ago, Mr_Dogg said:

Because hospitality is seen as a temporary job or for minimum wage immigrants in these islands. Couple that with understaffing. 

In Europe, there is more full time employment in hospitality and waiting staff, where the experience adds up as well as more pride in the job 

 

By chance, we were discussing this ourselves.

No 1 Nipper is with us for a few days and we were discussing the differences between Barry Island and The Mumbles.

Barry Island is set up to cater for an influx of tourists. Local kids earn minimum wage and staff all the local shops. Just enough of them, no point employing 4 kids if you can make an income by employing 3.

The whole economy is set up to cater for the influx from outside. So there’s not much open before 10:00am and it’s all closing up at 4:30, except for Wetherspoons. Bins and the beach are cleaned up once a day in the morning, if its windy or the tide is in, meh, there’s always tomorrow. The food offering is basically burgers or chips.

The Mumbles, you are served largely by the owners of the businesses, they’ll know the name of the lady that made the Bara Brith. There’s pretty much a constant patrol of attendance on bins and litter. Trade goes in to the evening. You want an icecream at 7:00pm take your choice of the shops. You fancy seafood tapas, take your pick, the popcorn cockles are great.

It’s just two completely different mind sets, two different cultures. One is a working town and it caters for bus trips from Droitwich. The other is largely a self sustaining relatively wealthy local community. It’s also self perpetuating. If I wanted to set up a fancy cold brew coffee shop with my homemade vegan croissants there would be no point in setting that up on Barry Island, I’d be bust in a week because there is nothing else like it anywhere near so ‘those people’ that would want it aren’t around in the numbers required to sustain the business. Down the Mumbles, I’d need a bit more usp back story ‘cos everyone does cold brew and vegan pastry.

[sidcow]

1 hour ago, luckyeddie said:

Because were British and we enjoy being miserable.

Everything you say makes sense, but it just seems so cultured.

When I talk to people at banks etc on the phone, they all seem to finish the conversation with "and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day". They don't mean it.

There is only 2 replies to that: thank you or f*ck off.

Ben Elton used to do a sketch about this. 

What's wrong with the good old British way of doing things which has served us so well for hundreds of years? 

"What do you want?" 

"Here it is" 

"Now **** off" 

Edited September 10, 2023 by sidcow

[villa4europe]

At least you probably got your food served at the same time and in the right order....

Britain 1 the Continent 0

[sidcow]

39 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

 

 

By chance, we were discussing this ourselves.

No 1 Nipper is with us for a few days and we were discussing the differences between Barry Island and The Mumbles.

Barry Island is set up to cater for an influx of tourists. Local kids earn minimum wage and staff all the local shops. Just enough of them, no point employing 4 kids if you can make an income by employing 3.

The whole economy is set up to cater for the influx from outside. So there’s not much open before 10:00am and it’s all closing up at 4:30, except for Wetherspoons. Bins and the beach are cleaned up once a day in the morning, if its windy or the tide is in, meh, there’s always tomorrow. The food offering is basically burgers or chips.

The Mumbles, you are served largely by the owners of the businesses, they’ll know the name of the lady that made the Bara Brith. There’s pretty much a constant patrol of attendance on bins and litter. Trade goes in to the evening. You want an icecream at 7:00pm take your choice of the shops. You fancy seafood tapas, take your pick, the popcorn cockles are great.

It’s just two completely different mind sets, two different cultures. One is a working town and it caters for bus trips from Droitwich. The other is largely a self sustaining relatively wealthy local community. It’s also self perpetuating. If I wanted to set up a fancy cold brew coffee shop with my homemade vegan croissants there would be no point in setting that up on Barry Island, I’d be bust in a week because there is nothing else like it anywhere near so ‘those people’ that would want it aren’t around in the numbers required to sustain the business. Down the Mumbles, I’d need a bit more usp back story ‘cos everyone does cold brew and vegan pastry.

I totally agree your point, but I guess I'm mainly looking at pubs here. Even round fairly wealthy Solihull. Yes some are better but you're still essentially sitting at a sticky table.

Yes, the Red Lion or The Black Bull Inn in Earlswood will likely get the dishes taken away and table properly cleaned fairly quickly but you're still in sitting at a half cleaned table possibly with old dishes for a period of time at The Sharmans Cross or The Saracens Head in Shirley. 

It's so so easy to fix that but the establishments just don't seem that interested. 

Then of course we have Wetherspoons........... 

Edited September 10, 2023 by sidcow

[luckyeddie]

On 09/09/2023 at 04:46, nick76 said:

Posh bar steward

I’d be lucky, a bucket and old newspaper in the shed is all we have.

Newspaper? its 2023. Just whip out the iphone and use it as a scraper..

[Seat68]

If you get good service in Europe or the US, it's not worthy of a mention or if it is, it's a footnote. You receive good service in the UK it forms a 3 paragraph review.