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This blog is no longer maintained. It has been moved into the new version of our family blog. Please visit http://wightweirdos.co.uk/ww/category/mutterings/ for the latest mutterings. Thanks for reading.

Pizza Shut

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear.

The family are all (except DS who is allergic to milk) like pizza. Pizza of all kinds is popular, and sometimes only a Pizza Hut will do. I'm not saying that this is the finest pizza available, just that it has a certain something that others do not (DW makes finer pizzas). It is not a cheap business though, so for a treat a couple of weekends ago, while DS was away, we turned up at Pizza Hut in Newport, and ordered two take away pizzas. As is usual given the dull waiting area, the wait appeared to go on for ages. Eventually we started wondering how long it had been, and had the brainwave of checking our receipt (doh). Over 45 minutes! Just then a couple who had arrived sometime after us asked where their takeeaway had got to. It was mysteriously found, so we asked about ours, which was too. Staff were bewildered at why we were cross they had not bothered telling us our food was ready at least 20 minutes before, but eventually DW managed to collar the manager who apologised and offered to remake the pizzas (haha) or give us two free pizzas on a return visit.

Having swum our way to fitness on Tuesday, we decided to gorge ourselves on our free pizzas. We arrived back at Pizza Hut at around 7.35, DW waited at the takeway counter for 5 minutes before eventually a staff member volunteered that she couldn't order pizza, as they were closing at 8. Now, I know it doesn't take them more than 20 minutes to make a pizza if they get their act together, so this was ludicrous. And closing at 8? I can only guess they can't find staff to work for them (and would you work for an employer this inept at serving its customers). Maybe one day we'll get our replacement pizzas, and maybe they'll be hot. But we'll probably have to get there at breakfast time to be sure....

Isn't it obvious I'm not sweet enough?

If I want a diet drink, I'll buy a diet drink. If I don't, it appears I'm stuffed. Bought a can of RWhites (I think) lemonade (actually a colleague kindly bought it for me as I had run out of money so resorted to scrounging) only to discover it was stuffed with artificial sweeteners. Yuck! I understand some people prefer diet drinks, like their teeth more than I do, want to keep their colorie intake down etc. etc. Fine. But why can't we have an alternative, with tried and tested sugar for those who want it? You can now have a 0 cal cancer causing drink (allegedly) or a 40 or so cal cancer causing drink (allegedly). They both taste foul. This isn't the first time this has happened, cheap brands have been at it for a while to avoid nasty expensive sugar, but the big brands.... shame on you.

Farmer Giles (or Oi bee an allarrrtment 'older)

I have become an allotment holder! Well not quite, I have just started sharing an allotment with a friend. So, I have a year of hard work but hopefully lots of nice tasty veg. My garden is the size of a postage stamp, and I manage to grow a surprising amount on it, but it's just too small for serious growing. Looking forward to this, though my back isn't!

On Sat DS (age nearly 5) and I started work on the allotment with Andrew. About an hour in DS suddenly says "why are you talking like Farmer Giles?" Hmm.... talking like a son of the soil after just an hour, I must be a natural!

What really amazed me was how cheap it is to rent an allotment. £21 for a standard plot. About what I expected per month. But no, that's the annual plot fee! I think that's great, and rather democratic. Us paupers can still farm our little bit of England's green and pleasant at a very modest cost. Long may it continue!