Bianco's: the letter of complaint

I wrote and posted a letter of complaint to Bianco's addressed to the owner a week ago today. Even giving it two days to get there, there has been no response from anyone there, official or otherwise.

I suspect that it did not actually reach the owner at all but was opened by the staff, perhaps under the impression that they were opening a job application. If so, they probably shat themselves when they saw what it actually was. I imagine this paragraph was especially not well received:

"Given the unprofessional behaviour of the pregnant waitress, it is clear that she is untrained and not qualified for the position. Regardless of her relationship to the person who gave her the job, she should either be properly trained or encouraged to pursue another career opportunity. The kind of behaviour that she demonstrated to us can lose your business customers. No one is that valuable or important that they must be kept even if it means the business ultimately closing down from lack of customers. Therefore, she should be trained so that she doesn't treat customers with rudeness, belligerence and attitude or she shouldn't be there if that is not possible. Alternatively, perhaps it is possible for her to do something where she does not have contact with the paying public, if she really must be part of Bianco's."

I also attached a penny to the letter to compensate them for the menu, even though I didn't have to give them anything at all. People shouldn't say stupid things like "These cost us money!" in relation to menus in front of me.

If the staff did read it, then it will certainly have been binned and the owner will be none the wiser. No matter. The negative review is still up and will stay there. I stand by every word of it and by every word of the letter, which ended like this:

"Having said all of this, I am aware that it is possible that the pregnant waitress may have a close relationship to you and that that is how she is working there at all. It is therefore likely that she will not be trained properly, not moved to another area of responsibility or not moved on. After all, this is Hartlepool. Nothing changes here. I know this. But I have to make my feelings made clear. It should be clear by now that I do not patronise establishments that employ staff that cannot get orders right and employ rude and belligerent staff. Therefore, I do not patronise Bianco's."

Now let us conclude the matter of the dire customer service at Bianco's Deli, Navigation Point, Hartlepool. Let there be no more said on it. The end.

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Bianco's Deli

My mum and I went to Bianco's Deli at Navigation Point on Hartlepool Marina for lunch today. We decided to have the steak fajitas. They didn't have any steak so it would have to be chicken. No problem. Ordered them, sat down and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited whilst people who came in long after us were served in 5 minutes. Seriously.

Finally, our order was ready. It must have been easily over half an hour later. What I collected wasn't chicken fajitas. One was a chicken pesto panini and the other was supposed to be a chicken fajita panini. Our order had taken so long that I was just glad to have anything at all. I had the chicken pesto panini. My mum brought the chicken fajita panini to the attention of a passing pregnant waitress. As a representative of Bianco's, what she did or didn't do next was extremely important.

She blew it. My mum expressed dissatisfaction at not receiving what she was expecting and was told that that was how Bianco's did the chicken fajita. She further said that if we wanted it in a wrap that we should have said when ordering. And that was it. She didn't offer to have it redone as a wrap. She effectively told us to read the small print on the menu. and did bugger all about the chicken fajita panini. So we were left with what we did not order.

My mum left most of her panini, understandably. It wasn't what she wanted. When the pregnant waitress came to clear the table, she had the unmitigated gall to ask my mum if she wanted it wrapping to take home to have for her tea! She was told clearly that it was not wanted for lunch so why would it be wanted for tea? At that we got more of the "read the menu" crap from the pregnant waitress. All we got from her was rudeness, beligerence and attitude. She has obviously never been trained in customer service. But it didn't stop there.

The pregnant waitress also had the gall to bring us a menu to take away "for the next time" that we visit. She must be terminally stupid if she thinks that we will ever visit again after this. But the real point of giving us the menu was the unspoken message of "read the small print, you thick bastards!". The menu was promptly torn up and left for her to dispose of.

She was clearing it up as I was leaving. "There was no need for that! I was only trying to be polite! These cost us money!" she said in a voice loud enough for everybody in the restaurant to hear.

No, dear, you were not trying to be polite. In fact, you wouldn't know polite if it came up to you and gave you a big kiss. As above, you were giving us an unspoken message which was far from polite. As for the cost of the menu, I have a penny in my pocket which is worth more than that one menu. Besides, the menu was freely given for us to do with as we wished. We wished to tear it up.

In my opinion, Bianco's Deli is not worth a second visit. It's not even worth a first visit if you've never been. Points: -10.


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Was it really a good idea?

I bought a hair trimmer today. I'm not questioning the soundness of that. It'll save me money. My haircuts are done more with clippers than scissors, so buying a hair trimmer and doing it myself makes sense. No, what I'm wondering is whether it was a good idea trying it out the night before I go away for the weekend. Fortunately I don't think I've made a mess of it so I don't look like a prat. But doing it the night before going away for the weekend probably wasn't a good idea in retrospect.

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Not very bloggy this month

This doesn't seem to have been a very bloggy month for me so far. Not sure why. I have found another venue for my political ramblings, so they won't be inflicted on readers of this blog. I must try and get back into the swing of blogging. I've actually had trouble keeping up with other things, so it's not just this blog. But I am trying to get back on track.

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I've not blogged much lately

Not that I haven't had things to say but they've mostly been related to the current political situation and I was unsure about making my blog too political. There again, it's my blog. I'm answerable to no one for its content but me. I don't have an editor dictating what I can or can't say so perhaps I should just get back on track and say what's on my mind.

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Less than 60 seats to declare

A hung parliament is looking likely:

Conservatives: 285

Labour: 232

Liberal Democrats: 50

Other: 27


And I probably shouldn't have stayed up as long as I did...

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M&Ms and the general election

M&M's really are the best chocolate for an election night:

Red M&Ms: Labour
Orange M&Ms: Liberal Democrats
Blue M&Ms: Conservatives
Yellow M&Ms: SNP
Green M&Ms: Greens or Plaid Cymru
Brown M&Ms are the new grey: Other parties

:-)

This is so obvious that someone has probably come up with this already.

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Seems I'm not the only one

There was quite a queue at our local polling station at 07:00 (GMT+1). And that was with drizzling rain. I was all done less than ten minutes later. Now it's just a matter of waiting. Whatever happens I think it's going to interesting, more so than usual.

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Koala exits stage left, enter the Lynx

Ubuntu 10.04, aka Lucid Lynx, was released yesterday. I checked the update manager about 19:00 and yes, it was available. Upgrade now or not? Hmmm... I decided to click the upgrade button. I was informed that it would take about an hour and a half. Well, that's not long. Might as well, right? Five and a half hours later... At least I know for next time. And now I have a Lucid Lynx.

One quirky thing I didn't like was the Minimise/Maximise/Close buttons being on the left instead of the right but that can be fixed by changing the theme. Otherwise it looks pretty good so far.

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Of court cases and manifestos

The SNP have lost their case against the Beeb. I didn't think that it was likely to succeed. They never had a valid point. They just don't belong in the leaders' debates and if they're really honest with themselves, they know it. It was all just an attempt to grab headlines. Quite pathetic. I shall be watching to see how many MPs they actually get. I suspect not that many. The same goes for Plaid(1).


I downloaded the manifestos of the three main parties this evening to see what they have to say for themselves. I've read the Liberal Democrat manifesto and whilst it does sound good "fine words butter no parsnips". And let's be honest, the odds of them forming the next government are pretty slim. But there again, they could have a key role in a hung parliament so maybe some of what they want to do could happen. In the fullness of time. When resources allow.


I shall have a look at the other two manifestos tomorrow to see what they have come up with. Not that any of the manifestos will change my mind about how to vote but I'd still like to see what their fine words are.


(1)Plaid Cymru, the Welsh national party.

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It gets more ridiculous

The SNP have proceeded with legal action today and now UKIP want their leader to be included in the leaders' debates. Sure, why not? In fact, let's invite every registered party with at least one candidate standing in the election. There's only about 50 of them. But it would be fair and fairness is what the SNP wants. Or, in order to have a debate that might actually be worth watching, we could limit it to only certain leaders. How about only leaders of parties represented in the last Parliament whose parties are fielding enough candidates to achieve an absolute majority? Let's see, who would that be? Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives... no, that's it. Just those three. Sounds good to me.


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What's his point?

Alex Salmond, the leader of the SNP(1), is still kicking up a big fuss about the SNP not being represented in the leaders' debates. There's a good reason it's only Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. They're the only ones with any realistic chance of governing after 06 May. Not only can the SNP not achieve an absolute majority(2) but Salmond isn't even standing, so he's never going to be Prime Minister. I wonder if he realises how stupid he looks right now? Even more so now that he's pursuing legal action over the matter. Perhaps he just wants to make sure he goes down in political history. He will now, but as a complete and utter prat.


(1)Scottish National Party

(2)There are only 59 constituencies in Scotland. An absolute majority requires 326.

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Brush up thy Shakespeare

For 'tis the anniversary of the Bard's birth. And his death. And it's also St George's Day, so today is a very English day. Cream tea anyone? Cream tea whilst reading a sonnet? :-) Unfortunately, over here we don't do much for either day. Shame. I shall just have to do my own thing. I'm sure I've got a copy of Shakespeare somewhere...

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Not much of an effort

Just over two weeks before all is revealed in the general election and then we shall know for certain. I can't say that I have seen much canvassing in this town, however. Do the candidates here not care? Or do they all believe that the last MP will be the next MP so there is no point in canvassing? Oh, we did get a leaflet from UKIP through the door. But that's the extent of it so far. With just over a fortnight to go, though, you'd think they'd be making a bit more of an effort. But then what do I know? I'm just one of the electorate. I just haul my bones out of bed whatever the weather and go vote.

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You think these things only happen to other people

When I was at the office this afternoon, I had to print some colour sales tickets. The office has two printers, one for colour print jobs, the other for black and white. I made the mistake of not checking which printer was receiving the print job and they went to the wrong one. Tickets that were meant to be colour were printed in black and white. Fifteen pages of them. Redid the print job and sent them to the correct printer.

I read stories like this on the Internet a lot and laugh at them. Now I has a fail.

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Is it really that long?

Have I really not blogged for four days? I've been a bit busy lately with a spreadsheet for displaying which parties are running in which constituencies. It's more of a database than a spreadsheet, I suppose. Getting it done has taken up a lot of my time. Well, 650 constituencies and over 40 political parties standing plus independents. Not that every constituency has 40 candidates standing. I think the most I've recorded is 10, but I still have to keep track of each party even if they only have one candidate standing. Only 54 left to do.

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Keep up with the news much?

" With a UK general election looming (most commentators are predicting a 6 May vote), leading cultural institutions have joined together to try to stave off predicted government cuts to the arts. " (emphasis mine)

This was published online today, 14 April. I can only assume that this article, which is from the April 2010 issue of The Art Newspaper, was written before 06 April. That was the day that Gordon Brown confirmed the worst kept secret in Britain, namely that the general election will take place on 06 May. Since then nobody needs to predict the date of the election. Perhaps cutting out the parenthetical note would have been a good idea. Leaving it in makes the article writer look like he or she doesn't keep up with the news at all.

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Funny how time just runs away

Funny how time just runs away from you. You're engaged doing something and suddenly realise the time and there are things that you still haven't done. I was watching videos on YouTube when I realised it was 10pm and I still hadn't posted the calendar for Iyyar on a forum that I help run. Just done that.

Funny thing is, I don't often watch videos on YouTube. And I certainly didn't intend to watch them for as long as I did tonight. But then I saw a series of ten videos and watched each one in the series. They were only about three minutes each but that adds up. And they weren't the only videos that I watched. Oh, well. It's not like I do it often. But now I'm playing catch up. Just about caught up, though.

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The dissolution of Parliament

Today was the day of the dissolution of Parliament. From today we officially have no Parliament until it reconvenes on 18 May. All MPs are now out of a job and no longer MPs. Not sure why we do it this way. Seems a little strange to suspend the government for over 3 weeks before the next one is elected. And then the next one won't convene until the second week after the election this year. Oh, well. I am sure that we will survive until Parliament reconvenes.

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This Drew went to mow

If there's one thing I don't like about spring and summer, it's having to get the mower out regularly to keep the grass down. It had its first outing of the year today. Fortunately it doesn't take long. I think it's more the idea that it *has* to be done and I'm the one that has to do it. And I'm a natural procrastinator. I shall try to be good this year, though, and do it in a timely fashion. It does only take less than half an hour. Should be a snap to do it regularly.

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Stupid is as stupid tweets

Twitter should come with a warning: "Your page is public by default. You have to take action to make it private. If public, *anyone* can read it." Perhaps then people like Stuart MacLennan might not get caught out tweeting inappropriate things and being kicked out of the Labour Party. Bang go his chances of being a prospective parliamentary candidate for the Labour Party.

Seriously, why do people tweet stupid things that get them into trouble? Like the man who threatened to bomb Robin Hood Airport. He appears before Doncaster magistrates next month because of it.

Perhaps part of the trouble is the instantness of Twitter. As soon as people have had a thought, they type it and send it. Then the solids hit the air conditioning because what they typed reached a completely new level of stupid. Yes, I think that warning would be a really good idea.

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Maybe there's a good reason

A forum that I frequent has a folder for international news stories yet the calling of the election hasn't qualified for a post(1). Maybe the election has to take place first to qualify for any attention. I guess this election is really only interesting from an internal perspective but even so, it has been called and I would have thought that that would have registered on their radar. The calling of Canada's general election in 2008 certainly qualified for a post, so why not ours? Is it because Canada is nearer to the US? It just seems curious that the date was confirmed on Tuesday and here we are at Friday and not so much as a sniff of a mention. What's up with that?


(1)It's run by an American, therefore international means non-U.S.

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If it's not one thing, it's another

OK, the telephone and upstairs Internet are working as they should be, but the television is now not working. We could not get video or audio this afternoon. Disconnected the DVR and still nothing. Even with only the aerial going into the back of the television, nothing. So my mum rang the helpline and he had us retune the television, which didn't work. It didn't pick up any channels at all. Check the aerial is in the television, he asked us. My mum did, I did. I found that the end that goes into the back of the television was not as tight as it should be. Decidedly wonky. So it looks like we need a new coaxial cable. We'll have to get that tomorrow. In the meantime, it's DVDs for entertainment.

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Back on the desktop!

I actually have Internet access on the desktop again! And it only took the laptop dying for it to happen... And it really is dead. When I boot the laptop I get the message "No OS found". It's supposed to have two - Windows Vista and Ubuntu 9.10. It isn't finding either one. Fortunately we were able to get an electrician to come out this morning and fix the extension, so this post comes to you courtesy of the desktop. :-) What a joy to have my mouse, keyboard and monitor back! Bliss!

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The laptop is dead

It won't even boot Windows now. I'm stuck using the Ubisurfer until the upstairs extension is fixed, if that ever happens. This is going to limit my Internet time since it's very slow. I'll only be using it for what I need to do rather than spending the evening on it. Fixing that extension *has* to become a priority now.

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The Internet and the general election

One of the political pundits interviewed on television this morning didn't think that the Internet will play a big part in the election. I'm not sure what planet he lives on, but I would be very surprised if he is right. People will be discussing the election on blogs, forums, social media such as Twitter and Facebook, in fact anyone on the Internet with an opinion about the election will probably put it out there. Just try and stop them. People are going to put their political opinions on the Internet regardless of some political pundit who obviously hasn't joined the rest of us in the 21st century yet. They do it over other elections, so why should this one be any different? Especially when it looks like it's going to be more interesting than usual.

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The speculation is over

After months of speculation, Gordon Brown has confirmed that the general election will be on 06 May. It's the date that's been bandied about in the media for months and now it's official. And so begins a month of electioneering. I think it's going to be interesting, especially given the talk of the possibility of a hung parliament. It's going to be one interesting election night for sure.

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Finally a new watch strap

Finally I've got a new watch strap for my right hand wristwatch. It's been needing one for ages. I bought a blue one for the left one a while back, this one is brown leather. Rather handily the colours give me a mnemonic for which watch goes on which wrist:

BLue Left
BRown Right

Like the wiring in a plug. :-)

Not the reason the I chose those colours for each watch, but it works out nicely.

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Found the medication

I found the medication this morning where I thought it might be. I'll have to be more careful in future and make sure that I deal with it as soon as I get it home. I should know where my medication is at all times and this time I didn't. Mustn't do that again. At least all is well.

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Oh, great. Missing meds.

Been frantically searching for the medication that I picked up from the pharmacist on Thursday but without much success. Logically, I am looking for the 2 boxes. They are not where they should be. I must now look where they should not be. That would be everywhere else in the house. I think the first thing to do is to re-examine the rubbish. I stopped when I found the bag that they were in but perhaps I should have looked further.

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Summertime lag over, I think

The summertime lag seems to be over. I've been getting up on British Summer Time for the last couple of days now. At least it didn't last as long as it did last year. Perhaps next year it'll hardly resurface at all. Hopefully it won't. Very odd that it should happen at all, though.

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Interesting results

I just completed a Party Matcher quiz on Yahoo out of curiosity. What with the election coming up, I thought it might be interesting. I answered questions on Europe, Health, Law & Order and Welfare & Social Security(1).

My views apparently best match the Labour Party, followed by the Liberal Democrats, then the Conservatives. Interesting to see how it compares to how I've already decided to vote(2). But it is still just an online quiz. An interest diversion, regardless of how interesting the results are.


(1)Not the only categories that I could have answered questions on, but those were the ones that most interested me.

(2)And that's between me and the ballot box.

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Why is this Friday different from all other Fridays?

Why would someone who eats fish every Friday make a special point of making sure they have fish for their Good Friday meal? As crazy as it sounds, I know someone like that. I can only think that their anxiety is fuelled by some sense of tradition or something. It doesn't make sense to be anxious about what is, after all, a regular meal. Good job they're not Jewish. If they're this anxious over fish on Good Friday, they'd probably be a lot worse preparing for Passover.

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Three sleeps left

Only three sleeps to the new series of Doctor Who, with a new Doctor and a new Companion. I can't wait to see what this Doctor's going to be like. This is one of the great things about Doctor Who. Each actor that takes on the role creates the character anew. Seeing what Matt Smith does with the character is going to be interesting. As is the context of that gunshot(1).


(1)The Doctor is anti-gun but there was a trailer with the Eleventh Doctor firing a gun. Interesting.

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Oblivious to Easter

I wonder how easy it is to be oblivious to the date of Easter? If you don't go to church, what clues are there when Easter is? Even if you don't buy a diary, surely most people buy a calendar and that has Easter marked on it. Most of the time Easter is in April(1) so scanning the Sundays of April on a calendar should provide the answer.

Suppose you don't own a calendar? I can't speak for other countries, but here in the UK card shops usually advertise the date of Easter. Commercial reasons, obviously. They want to sell the Easter cards they have in stock. But it's another clue, at least here in the UK.

In Europe a good number of countries have public holidays around Easter, so checking a list of public holidays would give a clue as well.

It seems to me like it should be pretty difficult to be oblivious to the date of Easter. I have to wonder how some people are.


(1)It's possible for it fall at the back end of March, e.g. 2008 when it was 23 March.

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