Tag: woman

My First Jelly

I went to my first Jelly today.  Before you ask it’s an informal work environment where people get together in a communal area to work, coffee shop, restaurant or pub; you bring your laptop, free wifi and connect with like minded people.  In this case it was all women, but wasn’t intended to be inclusive, as it was all in aid of International Woman’s Day with proceeds going to Oxfam.

We were aiming to raise £230 which will provide a loan for a woman in Vietnam to start a business and change her life and the life of her family.

We fell slightly short of the target but feel free to top it up with a fiver.

As a busy mum, I showed up late as I had to do gymnastics first, for a 4 year old and then leave hubby with a head injury to drive home.  But when I walked in it was a welcoming feeling, many familiar faces.

One of the nicest things was that people had been following our recent plight and genuinely asked about hubby. Social media really is sociable.   I had to go through the usual, introducing myself as Mediocre Mum, people guffawing ‘your Mediocre Mum’ my face goes red on cue!  Someone actually said I can tell when you’ve had more than two.  Ooops!

It really was great but if I’m honest, I didn’t get a stitch of work done, unless networking count, I just nattered.  For the most part, as an IT trainer, I work on my own so when I get a chance to talk to people I get a bit carried away.  Mind you there were two people who were hammering away on the keyboards.  True multi-taskers and my hat goes off to them!  Thanks to @morethanshoes for arranging and please can we do it again soon!   St Albans if full of amazing people!

And you’d think with minimum of 2 professional photographers I would have got a decent shot!  Sorry blame the iphone!

It’s Official! I’m turning into a Grumpy Old Woman!

I won’t be 40 for a bit but I’ve found myself complaining more and more lately.  This is something I’ve never been good at.  Some joke that I have been in the UK too long and have lost the ability to complain but, honestly, it’s a skill I never really had.  If I do complain I tend to be incredibly polite and get nowhere.

In the last week I’ve complained at least 3 times.  On Mother’s Day we went to Loch Fyne at 5pm, the restaurant was completely empty but we were told that they did not have any room.  I do appreciate that it was probably fully booked from 7pm but we had a toddler with us so would have been in and out very quickly.  We didn’t complain and skulked out.

A couple of weeks later we decided to give it another chance.  The service was excellent but the food was inedible.  We were sitting by the pass and saw our food sitting for ages and when the waitress passed me my plate I burnt my hand on it.  She didn’t even apologize.  Again we didn’t complain, we just paid and quietly decided that we would never return.

On Tuesday night, my hubby wanted a Chinese Take-away, he quickly ordered without consulting me so I had no idea of what we were having.  I was really hoping for Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls.  So when the food arrived without the balls, I assumed it was my husbands fault.  We tucked into our meals and when we were about half way through we received a phone call from the delivery guy saying he had delivered the wrong meals.  We explained that we had already started.  I decided that that wasn’t acceptable and rang to complain. As I said earlier, I’m rubbish at complaining, my husband was lying on the sofa listening and cringing and in the end all I ended up with was a free portion of rice next time!

After that I was fuelled and decided to write to Loch Fyne about our shoddy meals.  I have received an email response promising they will speak to the Senior Manager and get back to me.  Not sure why I bothered though as I really don’t want to go back!

Photo Credit

And finally, yesterday, I came home to find that our neighbours had cut down all of the trees at the bottom of their garden.  The problem with this is that we back onto a Train line and Sainsbury’s.  Now can see and hear the train and the back of Sainsbury’s is covered in graffiti.  It now looks like I live in the hood!  I can’t complain to the neighbours as it’s their garden and they can do what they like. So, I rang Sainsbury’s instead and got straight through to Senior Management who has promised me that they will get a contractor in within a month to sort it out.  I’m not holding my breath but will ring back in a month’s time if nothing is done about it.

I’m slowly getting better at this and by the time I hit 40 look out!

I would love any hints and tips on how to successfully complain .

Update: I have received a response from Loch Fyne

I can also only apologise that the quality of the food that you and the members of your party received was not to the standard you expect from us at Loch Fyne. I have spoken at length to both my Head Chef and the company Executive Chef about this and we are currently looking into the issues you raised. The fact that you burnt your hand on the dish is also unacceptable and I have spoken to our front of house staff about this, to ensure it does not occur again.

I would like to invite you back to the restaurant as my guests, for a meal to the value of £100.00 so that we can try to rebuild your confidence in us. When you would like to take us up on this offer, if you call and make a reservation and print this out and bring it with you, we would be grateful.

Yours truly,

Gary Meharg

General Manager

Another Joy of Getting Older

Prior to having my daughter I used to take quite good care of myself.  Every couple of months I’d treat myself to mini manicure, pedicure, eyebrow threading, bikini wax and visits to the hairdresser weren’t yearly. My husband really doesn’t take a blind bit of notice so I really don’t bother anymore. Plus, it saves us a few pounds.  I do, however, still have my eyebrows and nails done occasionally.

And this is when it happened….

I was having my eyebrows done and when the lady was finished.  She said in her broken English…

‘Would you like me to do your lip?’

I was stunned into silence, panic set in; my head was racing….WTF? OMG! I have a femtash!

I really don’t remember what I said, but I think I politely said ‘no thank you’ and then high-tailed it out of there without leaving a tip!  I spent the rest of the day checking my upper lip in every reflective surface and in every different light.  Paranoia consumed me, but I couldn’t see anything.  I even tried tugging on the culprit but couldn’t.  When hubby returned home I had him check as well, according to him there was nothing, but could I trust him to answer honestly?

Luckily, a couple of weeks later at the pub, I was having a beer fuelled conversation with a few of the girls and low and behold I’m not the only one who has had the same experience at the same salon.  I guess its routine practice.  However, I still think it’s rude and have emailed the salon!

And for the record…..I don’t!