The Man Behind The Curtain
Posted: Wed 11 October, 2017 Filed under: Day Trips, Domestic, Driving, Food, M1, Reviews(ish), Travel Leave a comment »I mentioned in the last post that I’d done a day-trip to Leeds, and that I would write more about it. So, here we are.
One of the Michelin-starred restaurants I’ve been wanting to try for a while is Michael O’Hare‘s “The Man Behind The Curtain” in Leeds. It’s always been booked solid, but when I looked on a whim a couple of months ago, I discovered that there was a table for four free for a late lunch on Saturday. I called the other friend who was interested in the same place , and I booked it.
That’s where the first shock came in. The entire price of the meal was paid at the time of booking, including the wine – and the service charge! Now to me, that’s taking the piss. The only other Michelin-starred place I’ve seen with that attitude is The Fat Duck, and even there it’s “only” the food that is paid for ahead of time, not the wine and tip. Every other place I’ve been has taken a credit card number, and said “if you don’t show up, you’ll pay the full price”, which is fine with me. Paying up front for it all seems very dodgy.
Anyway, I did that, and last Saturday was the day.
I’d hired a car for doing it as a day-trip, as I was also driving the others there and back, and it makes life fun.
“The Man Behind The Curtain” is… highly individual. First things first, it’s on the top floor of a department store – definitely not somewhere you’d just wander into! As it turns out, it now *was* on the top floor – our meal was the last lunch served in the top floor, and they were moving to the basement after the dinner service.
It’s a strange space, seemingly more of a gallery than a restaurant. The walls were graffitied and arty, with chicken-wire clouds above some tables. I’ve never been anywhere else like it – but that also shows in the food. Again it’s very arty – some of the food is quite spectacular, as is the crockery it arrives in. In particular, “Emancipation”, which is cod in squid-ink, basically black food on a black “droplet” plate…
That was just one of the ten ‘courses’. And they were all brilliant.
Honestly, I kind of wanted to not like it, to be unimpressed by the entire place. I feel really strongly about the whole ‘pay upfront’ thing, and think it gives a really bad impression of the restaurant. But the food, the atmosphere, and the service of the place all combined to leave me still impressed.
It was a really good day, and decent drives there and back (two hours door-to-door each way) helped as well.
Recharging and Vindication
Posted: Mon 9 October, 2017 Filed under: Car Repairs, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, Milton Keynes, Single Life, Technology Leave a comment »A couple of weeks back now, I took my car to the local Kia dealership (as it’s a Kia) for its MoT. It had been serviced there a couple of weeks prior, and at that point the dealership hadn’t impressed me for a couple of reasons I won’t go into for now.
It passed the MoT just fine – needed two bulbs replacing, and that was it. But that evening, once I was home, the car wouldn’t start – the battery was completely flat. The only thing different to its usual treatment was the MoT, and the recovery guy who came out to sort things agreed it was likely they’d done something to flatten the bloody thing.
I spoke to the dealership the next day, and they denied all possibility that the problem was down to them. Couldn’t happen, sir. You left here fine (forgetting that it was running when I got in, I hadn’t had to start it) so it can’t be us. Just one of those things. If you really want to check, we’ve got a super-expensive tool for testing batteries properly, you can come in and we’ll do the check.
Which I did. Went in, and this super-tool said “Battery 100% OK”. Fair enough, it might be one of those things, I suppose. They were quite patronising about it all, and again insisted it couldn’t be anything to do with them. The only other way to find anything (“sir”) would be to drop it in for a couple of days, let it wait around and we’ll see if it drains, or what might be wrong.
However, the problems went on. It’s never completely flattened on me again, but I’ve been more aware of the delays on starting, and I’ve given it some bigger runs just to ensure the battery is as topped as possible.
So last week, knowing I’d got a hire car for a day-trip to Leeds (of which more in another post) I also booked it in to the dealership again for today, so they could have it a couple of days and find out what the problem is. It led to a bundle of fucking about, but it all came together in the end.
Lo and behold, this evening I got a call. Apparently, the battery *is* fucked, despite what their super-tool said a week ago. So they’re replacing it, and will then see tomorrow how everything goes, and hopefully I’ll collect it on Wednesday.
It’s fair to say, we’re going to have words when I do collect it. This has been a shitload of hassle, and it’s taken me a bundle of time away from work in order to keep on getting things sorted. My sense of humour has, as they say, somewhat failed about the whole thing. It’ll be interesting to see what happens – but I do feel somewhat vindicated about the whole thing.
What the dealership doesn’t seem to realise is that the servicing department is as much of a sales tool as the showroom is. I’ve got a Kia, and so far I’ve been quite pleased with it. I would have considered getting another one – and it would likely have been from that dealership. But if they can’t sort me out with a cheaper car and be competent, why the *fuck* would I stick with the same company once the current issues are sorted, let alone buy a new (to me) Kia?
Fluffy
Posted: Fri 29 September, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Driving, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Gigs, London, M1, Travel Leave a comment »This evening, I’m off to London to see a comedian called Gabriel Iglesias (AKA “Fluffy”) at Hammersmith Apollo.
It’ll be the second time I’ve seen him, and I’m looking forward to it. When the tickets were announced, I got them straight away – at the same time griping about it being a Friday night gig, wishing it could be a Saturday, but there we go, it was the one that was announced.
The Friday sold out pretty quickly, so there’s now a Saturday night gig too – which is kind-of annoying, but still, I’m happy to be going for the original date, the one that should have sold to the people who really wanted to see it, rather than the also-ran “yeah, kinda interested”s, who’ll end up at in the Saturday one.
It makes for a long old day, but I’m sure it’ll be worth it.
Re-covered
Posted: Fri 29 September, 2017 Filed under: Advertising, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Insurance, Loyalty Schemes, Thoughts 4 Comments »Somehow, it’s already nearly a year since I got the latest car. Which, of course, means it’s also time for my insurance renewal to come through.
As usual, the current company have massively taken the piss, nearly doubling my premium this time round. For some reason, rather than having a number of different under-writers, they’ve recently decided to stick with just the one – and that one happens to be nothing short of extortionate.
Still, that’s fine, they can fuck off.
As a result, I’ve already sorted out a new policy with a different company. It’s got all the cover and options I wanted, and is cheaper than what I’ve paid this year, let alone the ridiculous renewal price.
I truly don’t understand the business model of the insurance industry, this attitude of “keep on charging more ’til people leave”. Surely if someone’s been with a company for [x] years, and established a record of being safe, not claiming etc., then it should be easier/cheaper/better to keep them, rather than letting them sod off somewhere else?
I suppose it might be the law of diminshing returns, an expectation the customers will claim eventually. Using that it kind-of makes sense, if all the customers are paying up, and if we can get rid of them before they cost us, then we’ve made money out of it, and it’s cost “some other company”.
But it all seems pretty flawed to me, and pretty bloody dumb. Hey ho. Their loss, not mine.
Stratford
Posted: Mon 18 September, 2017 Filed under: 2016/17, Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Driving, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Theatre, Travel Leave a comment »Over the weekend, I went to Stratford-on-Avon. It’s somewhere I’ve only been once before, and had thought it was a long drive to get there. Then when I got in the car on Saturday morning, I discovered it’s actually only 70 miles, and so only just over an hour. Why had I thought it was much further? Because I’m an idiot – last time I went, I travelled via Cheltenham, for lunch at Champignon Sauvage (it was part of my Michelin Project last year)
So I got there a lot earlier than I’d originally planned/expected to, which gave me plenty of time to wander and explore the place a bit, and do some other stuff as well. Last time I went, I got mislaid a couple of times (not majorly – it’s too small a place to get properly lost in) so I wanted to do things differently this time.
I really enjoyed wandering around – or at least until midday or so, once the coach trip people had all woken up and descended on the place, along with usual weekend shoppers and the like. But it’s a nice place that’s easy to walk around, and my mental map of it is now a lot more comprehensive.
Then I met up with a friend, M, with whom I was having lunch, and then seeing a play later – see, there was a reason for going, it wasn’t just random!
We had lunch at Salt, a passion-project restaurant for the chef, Paul Foster, who used Kickstarter to fund getting it running. That was thoroughly enjoyable, and is definitely somewhere I’ll be returning to next year when there’s other RSC stuff on that I want to see.
Afterwards, we had some time to kill, so sorted out booking into our respective hotel rooms, then took a ride on the Stratford Ferris Wheel, and then pre-performance cocktails at the RSC.
Finally, we saw Coriolanus at the RSC (about which more another time) , and back to hotels. I’d booked the room before realising how easy the drive home would’ve been, so that was a bit of expense I won’t need to make next time, but it still made for a decent weekend away from home.
Changed Volume
Posted: Mon 21 August, 2017 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Weirdness Leave a comment »Ten days (or so) ago, I got some work done on the car. It had been getting noisy – which I knew was the wheel-bearing starting to play up – but it turned out to also need new bushes, as the existing ones had split. (I’ve no idea – well, I kinda know, but whatever)
I got the work done, and since then the car has been a *lot* quieter. Surprisingly so, in fact. Like many things, it’s obviously been ongoing (and getting louder) for a while, but because it’s just been gradual, I hadn’t really noticed. (The wheel-bearing happened quite quickly and had more of an effect/impact)
But as a result, it’s also meant I’m driving faster, while my brain recalibrates a bit.
You see, a lot of the time I drive by the noise of the engine, rather than necessarily looking at the speedo all the time. I know what each speed “sounds like”, along with whether it’s level road, or up or down hill. I should point out that this isn’t something I’ve learned specifically, or been like ‘ah, so that’s what [x] up/down-hill sounds like’, but it is something I’ve noticed I do. (I also drive faster if I turn up the volume on the radio. It’s not a conscious thing, but it does happen)
So yes, this last week has been spent recalibrating my speed and volume settings. Which is kinda fun, and kinda geeky.
12 Years A Driver
Posted: Fri 11 August, 2017 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »Blimey, I’ve been driving now for 12 years today. That really surprises me, how the time has flown.
I dread to imagine how many miles I’ve covered in that time – all I know is it’s well over quarter of a million miles. 120,000 in the Mondeo, another 120,000 in the Saab, and coming up to 20,000 in the Kia already. Of course, that doesn’t include the ones I covered before buying the Mondeo, or any of the hire vehicles I’ve had in that time.
However you look at it, that’s pretty scary.
It’s hard to imagine life now without driving – if I were to lose my licence, it would change things radically, including having to change where I lived, where/how I worked, and many other things. I value that freedom and licence more than I ever actually thought I would.
I’ve no idea what the future will bring, but I’m pretty sure that whatever comes along, I’ll be driving there.