A regular part of my Saturday night routine with Chris is a visit to the Toby Carvery.  Relatively cheap and convenient.  Neither of us have ever taken to wild nights out clubbing so this is as rowdy as it gets for this lads event!

Having just seen another goalless draw special, albeit with the added excitement of two penalty saves we wandered on down to our usual haunt for food.  While it’s an environment and food that we both like, the service received is usually nudging that of Fawlty Towers.

Pre-booked table.  Wait for ages to be attended.

Shown to table, give the drinks order to the chap who has shown us to the table.

Head off to the meat counter for roast to be carved, self serve veg.  Return to table.

Eat half of meal, suffer dehydration, drinks order turns up.

Somebody interrupts you mid-conversation and apologises for asking you if everything’s ok.  Regardless of anything, we always confirm that it is!

Finish meal.  Wait for twenty minutes for the plates to be cleared by somebody who doesn’t offer a dessert.

Wait ten minutes to be offered dessert.  Another fifteen minutes to arrive!

Eat dessert, wait twenty minutes for the bill.  Let them know I’ve got a discount voucher and an electronic loyalty car on my phone.  I’m a fan of buy ten roasts get one free!

They return five minutes later to scan the discount voucher.  It fails to knock £1.50 off my bill.  Waitress says she’ll get a manager to sort it.

Manager comes over to say she’s knocked £1.50 off the bill but it looks like the voucher must have been used before.  It hasn’t.

I pay the bill and offer the loyalty card on my phone app for scanning.  “You can’t do that once you’ve paid the bill”.  Sweet Lord!

They find a way to credit me another customer’s loyalty stamp.

Similar frustrations occur every week.  We keep going back, it’s almost a hobby going through it now.

In other news, I’m told by a member of UK Border Force staff that I can utilise the disabled lanes at airports.  This might save a lot of time should Friday’s Leeds Bradford passport control pass reoccur.  I’ll photocopy my blue badge for future travel.

Previously: Topping up the Airmiles