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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
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It's a busy day. And at lunch a couple of the servers cut early, leaving the Bosses Nephew and I to finish up.
It's busy, but we can handle it. The owner, he looks for the missing staff, can't find them. I tell them they're gone. And there's a couple of minutes, a couple of minutes only, where we fall behind, the Nephew, he's not so strong, doesn't speak English well enough to answer the phone, he isn't really a big help.
In the evening the boss goes on a tirade. There's the "You fucking lazy bastards" and all sorts of permutations, he's having his monthly rant. Mostly I just ignore it, but it casts a pall over the shift and the staff. He goes on for about half an hour, then "You are all fucking-a taking advantage of my kindness ....".
Customers come in and it's a bit of a relief, he compensates for his earlier tantrum by being extra nice to the customers.
I go for a cigarette. There's a customer pulled up in the back parking lot, he's having some trouble, I walk over to assist him. "Are you wheelchair accessible?" he asks, and as I begin to explain that we'll need to assist him over a short step "No shortage of help" I assure him, he begins to swear, we've misrepresented (in his opinion) our handicapped and wheelchair-accessible options....I walk away. Even I have my limits. He calls me back, apologetic he's assuring me that he still intends to come in for dinner (and I'm not so thrilled, the wheelchair appearing to be the least of his handicaps...).
The customer gets inside (without my help) and the Owner calls me over - "Was he just rude to you guys?" he asks, and I begin to explain and the owner interrupts - "because we don't need any fucking rude-a people around here, we can just-a kick him out..."
Without the slightest trace of irony.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
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On Saturday half the restaurant is booked for a wedding.
The owner, he's optimistic that they'll be done early, "7:30" he tells us. I don't know, but I'm skeptical, most weddings I've seen go a lot later than that.
They've planned to arrive early and so the staff shows up early to set up the party. Then we eat, and the party begins to arrive in drips and drabs.
G, the Nephew and I are serving the dining room open to the general public, we've let the girls handle the wedding.
At 7:30 they still haven't been served their main courses. And by 12:00 midnight they're still there, drinking at the bar with the drunken staff members. There's the bridesmaid (being set up by the Owner with G, she's newly single - 25, and the owner confides "She wanted me...., but I'm married", and one is a little too discreet to observe that she's had enough to drink that she'd take pretty much anyone), from the tone of her remarks one gathers that she's looking hard for some revenge sex. G isn't fussed, he'll take what he can get....
And there's the bride's mother, also single and drunk and fondling G's ass, telling him how single she is and asking when he'll drive her home. G tries to look disinterested, he's not really but there's the feelings of the bridesmaid (a better deal all round) to consider...
12:30 and I'm done, it's been an extra-long day and G and the manager can close, the wedding guests, bridesmaids and mothers are still there waiting for G, for anyone really to get off work and give them a ride home. And while I should stay and help lock up, given the general level of sobriety this isn't a party that will end happy or anytime soon and so I bid them all goodnight and leave.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
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Having had this argument with a right winged customer, who states that usage-based internet billing is a good thing - after all, why should he subsidize his neighbors downloading of porn/playing games, etc.?
Which makes sense. Except that it's not a subsidy. If, for example, your ISP sets a bandwidth cap of, say, 350 GigaBytes, above which you'll pay a penalty or fine or simply an additional charge - what of all those people who barely use the internet - say, visiting websites and downloading 350 MB per month - will they be then billed 4.5 Cents per month as opposed to the $45.00 everyone else pays?
Or say they block all images from their browser - text-only based internet - why, it wouldn't be unreasonable to then lower your bill to 2 or 3 cents a year - will the ISP's be doing that?
Shaw? Not bloody likely.
And consider the rise of technology over the past 10 years - 10 years ago 350 MegaBytes would have been "heavy Internet Usage". Now it's 350 GigaBytes. In 10 years what will it be? 350 Terabytes? And what will the bills look like, locked in with a 350 GigaByte limit....
The Cable Companies are kicking themselves over lost revenue.
Part of it is simply greed - get as much as you can and hope people stew in their ignorance and just pay. And some of it is to try and recoup the losses they're taking by such providers as Netflix, who offer a flat monthly fee to watch as many of their films as you want - a great business model, but one that puts the cable monopoly of $5.00 Pay Per View movies to shame. That is, if you consider $10 million dollar salaries "Losses", which, next to American Banks, only the cable companies would have the audacity to argue.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
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And it was a long, long Valentines this year. The spirit of Hallmark and commerce infused almost every inch of it - from Saturday night (the early birds) to Monday (the couples) and Tuesday (the "lovers") the entire wheel of human romantic misery and misfortune rolled through the restaurant.
We pack the restaurant these days, bring up tables out of storage, fill every square foot, even the halls beside the bathrooms, with tables. There is barely room enough to stand, let alone move around. We have a set menu, 4 courses at a fixed price, it's necessary to prevent the total collapse of the restaurant. And the tragedy begins.
Some of the people are regulars, the obligatory Valentines night out, we'll leave them alone as we know them already. Then there are the rest, the once-or-twice a year diners "We were here last Valentines Day" they tell us and oddly enough I recognize them, there are the new customers who thought they'd try us out and drink only water, trying to bring some economy to an otherwise expensive meal, there are the couples grown comfortable in their disappointed hopes and ambitions, there are the couples of women - not lesbians, merely thwarted in love.(**For some reason Valentintes is not a very Gay-Friendly commercial holiday, or they have other destinations than our restaurant). There are the triads and quadrilles, couples that share the day with other people or couples. There's a young businessman with his very attractive and seductively dressed consort, they're drinking hard and she's getting a little out of control, making eyes at the waiters, finally, stumbling out the door (him holding it open and waiting for her in disgust) she approaches another table, a couple of girls, and tells them that she wants to join them, go out with them later, she's really not too attached to this man she's with...
There are the proposals, a rude and simple skinhead with his BBW girlfriend, engagement ring upon the table, short with the staff but he's wooing her and she's falling for it, pink cocktails and wine and he's passing his plate (she's still eating) to any server that happens near...
There are the couples that arrive together and leave seperately, she in tears and the boyfriend still waiting for dessert and the bill, Valentines is good for that. There are the couples just getting together, couples in the midst of breaking up, there are the bridges crumbling or slowly being built, there are the women and men stifling yawns and enthusing over trivial gifts of chocolate and flowers, on Tuesday there are the secret trysts between lovers and couples whose love is a well kept secret, it's the day after Valentines and they had other obligations, committments (and a wise choice, as the menu is back to normal and the staff can handle this flow).
And so it passes. G says: "All in all I thought it went pretty well". And it did, so long as you weren't a customer or staff member.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
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And so Calgary has decided - finally - to remove the fluoride - the added, additional fluoride - from the water supply. Which is a good thing, although I'm not such an expert that I can pretend to know what all the adverse effects of it are. But there's plenty of fluoride in my toothpaste, which is enough..
The curious thing about fluoride, though, and the people who argue vehemently against it's use - is that it seems to be something of a "Gateway" conspiracy theory. The government is fluoridating our water supply to control our minds/make us dumb/keep us sick, and from here the conversation inevitably leads to contrails and chemtrails, the Illuminati, One World Government, and the Alien Hybridization program. Which shouldn't discredit the fact that anything added to ones water without clear and tangible proof of it's benefit shouldn't be done, but somehow it does...