The BigLig Thinks

Sorry, bit of a rant today.
I'm not an ogre, I don't mind if a coffee shop makes a mistake or has a bad day. It's just when they are stupid.
Walking into work this morning I went past the new Costa which has opened on the route - taking over the whole first floor of the local cinema. Their first day, so you expect it might be a little crowded but I thought I'd give them a try.
They weren't crowded in front of the counter, which was good. Almost as many staff as customers, in fact. However, one difference: while most of the customers had probably been in a coffee shop before, none of the staff had.
They didn't have Cinnamon syrup, they took 10 minutes to make my coffee, and they did it with whole, not skim milk, and by then I was already late, so I got a refund.
Now I know what you're thinking, first day opening, give em a break. And I would, except that the above was not down to first day, it was down to them being *idiots*.
Take the syrup. Not only did they not have any, none of the staff KNEW they had any. Which tells us that either they didn't do a stock take before the first day of opening, or possibly worse, that they did so but didn't tell the team that they were out of Cinnamon.
It took them so long becuase they were very disorganized - it didn't occur to them, for example, that if you have a bad backlog then you need to put the barista in front of the machine and have everyone else keep the hell out of his way. No-one taking charge, although the "store manager" and the "barista" and someone who looked like they were from head office were there.
As the last straw, none of those three people were authorized to open the till for my refund, so I had to wait another 5 minutes for them to get the cinema manager down. I mean, if you've ever opened a new store before, you'd realise that things are going to go wrong and you probably need someone with the codes for the till there!
I mean, obviously, they've just using retrained cinema staff to save money, but for gods sake, don't Costa have the brains to send an experienced Store manager in for the first day to help out? How much would that cost, a couple of hundered quid?
And if they're so dumb they never had anyone write a page of A4 with "things to watch out for on the first day you open" then you gotta wonder how good their procedures for not confusing the rat poison with the icing sugar are.
So, that's Costsa out, Starbucks out (went there every day for a month, they screwed my order up, and it never even occured to anyone ot apologse once. If they hate their regulars that much why should I go back?) and coffee Republic out (I cannot concieve how you can accidentally serve a cup of luke-warm coffee in a coffee shop).
I'm not sure there's anywhere left...

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Back at work, and pretty swamped. Not even really had time to get some photos uploaded yet. (but don't get me started on the latest woes regarding my broken camera)
Still, one bit of good news: while I still can't get TubeTV fixed (I used it use all the time to get YouTube videos onto my iPod but for a month now it has refused to convert the downloaded FLV files) the new version of Handbrake will convert those FLVs to M4V effortlessly. It's a kludge, but it works.

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Had a lazy lie-in this morning, felt a little guilty wasting the daylight, but made up with it by taking a long walk round the back of town. There's an ugly road bridge that let's heavy traffic cross the Esk, that has fascinated me - it's very high. Got some nice pictures of the whole town.
By which point I was starving, so a hearty lunch of fish - you're meant to eat the local kippers with bread and jam (the sweet clears the palate of the smokiness). Yum.
A climb up to the abbey helped burn off the jam. I don't like heights, but perversely this makes them fascinating to me. Got a photo of my terror that should look good.
Then home and a coffee in front of the telly. Again, in a sense that's a waste of the day, but I'm learning how to take a holiday, and veging out is an important part.
After the telly got boring, took a walk down to listen to the sea in the dark. I think that's been my favorite - walking along the pier with the waves smashing against it below me. There are fishermen who go out onto a second pier that extends beyond the harbor, with dry suits and headlamps.
And of course I find a nice pub on the last night. Oh well. I need a break from the boozing after this holiday to loose some weight before I come back, so it's good that my final pint is a good one.
I have an hour now before the supermerkets close, so I'll grab something for supper, head back to the flat and pack my bags.

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Looong walk today, west along Whitby sands. Beautiful but tiring. Had a “Graham” moment – scrambled up a brambly hill to see what was on top of it, found a golf course so tried to head back the way I came, and fell down the hill. Twice.
Second time I stepped into an unseen rabbit hole and two thoughts were clear in my mind: “My hat just came off” and “I should probably try and fall in such a way that I don't break my leg”.
I'm battered but unharmed and back home now with a medicinal Gin and Tonic. I think I'll sit vert quiet and still for a while until my body forgives me for this unusually violent exercise, then gingerly stroll into town for Fish and Chips. I deserve it today!

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I was a bit weary last night after all that walking, so instead of going to the pub I popped my frozen dinner in the microwave, opened a half bottle of wine, rummaged thru the collection of CDs provided with the flat (the sort that come free with newspapers) and had a bath.
That all sounds a bit girly, doesn't it? But I put extra pepper sauce on the frozen dinner! Manly! And I was reading Alan Clark's diary, not some glossy magazine! Extra manly!
Curious discovery – the free CDs that come with newspapers fill out the space after the advertised tracks with strange stuff I've never heard of. Do new bands pay them to put stuff on the Cd in the hope of inspiring record sales? But it's all got nothing to do with the headlining band – different styles completely. Wish my EEE had a CD-ROM drive so I could rip them to my iPod.
Unsure what to do today. I have on my list of things to possibly do a long walk over the cliffs to the next bay, but it looks very long on the crude maps I have, and I don't have a proper map. I also planned a trip to Scarborough but I like Whitby so much I'd sooner sit here and look at the sea from the cliff tops. Maybe that's the best thing to do.
Looked at my photos from yesterday. A few good ones. A few surprises. Quite a few that I'd love to try HDR on. I wonder how you do that? Lock the camera down with a tripod and snap at a range of exposures, I guess, then feed them into the Mac. I wonder how locked down it has to be? I do actually have a little tripod with me – that might be enough. But you have to press quite a few buttons to change the Exposure compensation on the Fuji... If I can find somewhere with free wifi tomorrow I'll take the Eee out for a pint/coffee and google it.
Remind me again how I was alive before you could “just google it”?
[Next Day]
Went for a walk to the chemists this morning (allergy medicine – I'm sneezing for about an hour after I get up!) and noticed a lovely looking path heading North up the coast (not South, which is where the walk I mentioned yesterday went) so back home to get my walking shoes, a water bottle, and an emergency mars bar and then I'm off. Not used my day sack once, because it turns out I'm too unfit to get far enough to need it. I'm enjoying my holiday but it's bringing home how hopelessly out of shape I am.
Lastly, that question. Why do so many shops here sell ukuleles?

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Just popped to the loo in this tiny old fashioned pub (with a childrens license) and next to the condom machine is a machine that sells pheremone wipes to rub over yourself!
And next to that is a machine that sells something so rude I can't describe it here for fear of some kind of explicit tag. Let's just say it's battery powered.
And the family that came in are comparing gold lame knickers they've bought as presents.
Is this some sort of Yorkshire swingers pub?

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It's out of order since I have an earlier post half-written on the laptop - and also it's sent from my blackberry. Don't worry, I turned off the mail alerts, I'm not back on the grid just yet. I thought I might like to make a post while enjoying a quick pint in town, so had to reactivate the smartphone. Only 300 unread emails, they're slipping at work.
I'd include a photo of my pint but the camera's gone funny again. You'll have to wait until I get home for a picassa gallery of all my boozing!
A beautiful sunny day today, spent wandering around Whitby. The sea is stunning - the views incredible. Very glad I came. Got some good photos I think, even with the substitute camera. See now why it's a good thing to have Exposure Compensation on an easy to reach dial.
Found the place I was originally considering staying - it turns out to be a basement with not so much a view of the river but a view of the carpark by the river. Seems to be much better staying on the west side and crossing to visit the abbey and the grape (alleys full of tiny shops, so called because before street lighting they were a popular place to go for a grope.)
I was particularly amazed at how many Goth shops there are. I guess they must come here in huge numbers for the windswept Gothic romance of standing where Dracula took Lucy. I've only seen one Goth the whole time though, which is surprising since you'd think Autumn would be the time they'd come. Summer's not very Gothic, after all.
Pubs are all open but deserted - although maybe I'm visiting them at the wrong time like the Goths do. It seems that the more locals there are in a pub the rougher it looks. I'm treading the fine line between "rough" and "tourist trap".
So I think I'll pop home via the co-op, cook some dinner, and head out again to try for a pint in a pub with customers.

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Safe in my holiday flat with plentiful supplies of toast and whisky. The motorway part of the journey was boring: crossing the moors was the opposite. The fog came down and I couldn't see a thing. That was bad enough, but then I noticed that on the left hand side the fog was below the car... doubtless it was some spectacular cliff.
Luckily the fog lifted as I reached the Esk valley; just in time for the terrifying 20% incline on the road down to cross the river.
By the time I'd caught my breath I'd climbed the other side of the valley and got my first distant glimpse of the Abbey – pretty amazing even from that distance.
After a bit of palaver (I've never been good at parling under pressure) I got the keys and found the flat.
It's lovely, and I'm very glad I went for this one in the end. Small, but with a decent kitchen and living room, a nice big telly, and all sorts of lovely touches, like a bottle of wine and a pint of milk in the fridge, an umbrella in the corner, some ice already made for my whisky,
Clocks everywhere though – nine is the latest count and I may find more as the evening progresses.
Now I'm refreshed (well, there are a lot of stairs up to the flat and I had a heavy suitcase) I'll go for an explore, I think. I have a 2 mile walk around Whitby printed out but I think I'll wait until tomorrow morning to try that as it's already very dark. A good pint of Yorkshire beer and something simple to eat is what I'm after.

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Safe in my holiday flat with plentiful supplies of toast and whisky. The motorway part of the journey was boring: crossing the moors was the opposite. The fog came down and I couldn't see a thing. That was bad enough, but then I noticed that on the left hand side the fog was below the car... doubtless it was some spectacular cliff.
Luckily the fog lifted as I reached the Esk valley; just in time for the terrifying 20% incline on the road down to cross the river.
By the time I'd caught my breath I'd climbed the other side of the valley and got my first distant glimpse of the Abbey – pretty amazing even from that distance.
After a bit of palaver (I've never been good at parling under pressure) I got the keys and found the flat.
It's lovely, and I'm very glad I went for this one in the end. Small, but with a decent kitchen and living room, a nice big telly, and all sorts of lovely touches, like a bottle of wine and a pint of milk in the fridge, an umbrella in the corner, some ice already made for my whisky,
Clocks everywhere though – nine is the latest count and I may find more as the evening progresses.
Now I'm refreshed (well, there are a lot of stairs up to the flat and I had a heavy suitcase) I'll go for an explore, I think. I have a 2 mile walk around Whitby printed out but I think I'll wait until tomorrow morning to try that as it's already very dark. A good pint of Yorkshire beer and something simple to eat is what I'm after.

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First stop on the holiday is at Newport Pagnell services for a loo break and an over-priced fry-up. When I was growing up in Northern Ireland places in England like Newport Pagnell were exotic and unimaginably far away. Perhaps less interesting when you're actually here, although of course I'm sure the actual town is nicer than the services.

The nice lady who served my breakfast (gave me extra toast to make up for my usual refusal of the included beans and grilled tomatoes) asked if I was a traveller. Since I'm in a cafe you can only reach by driving 26 miles down a motorway, that threw me for a moment. I think maybe she meant traveller in the hippy meaning. Must be this darn hat and coat, although I'm in preppy jeans and polo shirt underneath it!

I'm running about half an hour late but since I'm done with lunch now (wolfed it down – should have had dinner yesterday I guess) I should make it up in shorter meal breaks.

Also need to remember to unload the camera from my bag. I doubt I'll get any decent shots from a moving car but I would have liked to snap amazon's huge warehouse that I passed 20 miles ago. Apart from that, and a convoy of army land rovers heading North like me, so far this trip has just been boring motorway slogging. Which is of course the plan: going I want to get there ASAP, but coming back I have time to take the more scenic routes.

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My second loaner (Fujitsu Finepix J70) won't charge either - slot the battery in the charger and nothing happens. No light, no charging, nothing. Inconceivable!

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Yay: Camera will be fixed free of charge.

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Accommodation booked: GPS firmware updated: Camera tested: Blackberry dismantled.

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My god, I finally did it. I'm on holiday. 2 weeks of not thinking about work. Damn, did that count?

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