When you’re a child at school
and you find out that someone has a birthday on Christmas Day you envy them, a
feeling that runs out once you twig that they won’t actually have two sets of
presents and that the day isn’t their day at all. Along the same lines, I have
to buy two cards for Mandi; Valentine’s and birthday, and enough presents to
ensure that it looks like I have bought for two separate occasions. Mandi had
wanted a shopping/eating trip to Derby for a change of scene, and I had another
idea. Mandi had to have her way simply because of a ridiculous fuck up of my
own doing, leaving it until this morning to phone the booking unaware of the
fact that Valentine’s Day would be fully booked. I think I didn’t see it as a
Valentine booking, but a regular birthday present that could have been booked
for any time of the year. Although I was a bit upset at blowing my big
surprise, Mandi put it down to my lack of organisation, and I booked the treat
for tomorrow instead.
We opened our presents and
cards in bed before going downstairs for breakfast, (as romantic as it sounds,
breakfast in bed is an awkward concept and virtually impossible to carry off
without making a mess unless you have one of those trays they use in hospital.
Mandi made Valentine’s style fried egg muffins, good eh?
Due to my terrible planning we
ended up going to Derby for a day of shopping and lunch (not an actual day of
lunch obviously). I didn’t know this place existed outside of London, but we
found Ed’s Diner. The Soho branch is well known so I imagined that they would
be concerned enough about maintaining their good name to make sure that any
additional branches ran properly. Having never been to the London restaurant, I
can’t judge it against this one, but if it is anything like Derby then I really
can’t see what all the fuss is about. The service was inefficient and the
waiting staff was slow and disinterested. If this is a genuinely American
company then I’m surprised the head office don’t instill some American style
customer service; I’d rather hear an insincere “have a nice day” than a grunt.
I had a chili-dog and Mandi had a brie burger, and although she enjoyed her
choice mine was rather bland and certainly not worth the price.
I just hope that what I’ve got
in store for her for tomorrow makes up for it.
===
My daily blog can be delivered straight to your Kindle
for 99p a month (link)
Any money donated to the PayPal account above will be
put to good creative use, find out more here.
