Rude service or slow service?

Having a shower is a wonderful thing. Why, you may ask? Well apart from supplying a platform for us all to scrub up on our personal hygiene, making sure it’s in pristine condition, it provides us with an opportunity for some quality thinking time.

I’ve always wondered why showering sometimes seems to be the best time for contemplating things or coming up with crazy ideas. Maybe it’s the fact that having a shower in the morning symbolises a new start, a new beginning. Or it’s possibly because that washing yourself in the morning is such an easy process, it frees up your mind for other things. Even the simple idea that you’re usually on your own with no distractions is plausible, but no one really has a definite answer as to why showering improves thought.

Not even Einstein himself drafted a thesis entitled “Showering= Better Concentration + Thought²”, but what he did do was promote similar habits as ways of dreaming up inventions, tactics, plans or even this article topic. He claimed that some of his scientific ideas came about while shaving, and word has it he only shaved with a razor and water, so maybe it’s about time we all ditched the shaving cream. Maybe then we’d have more groundbreaking equations to accompany “E=MC²”, but also a smaller fanbase for “Movember” too. Whatever possesses these activities to lead us deep into thought is dumbfounding, but what I do know is that a shower a couple of days ago supplied me with the topic of this article.

While I was exfoliating, I began to think of places that I had been recently, a restaurant, the cinema and even the local supermarket. Even though in the majority of these places we get pleasant, or on the odd occasion, outstanding service, my recollection of these trips led me to ask myself that if the situation arose, would I prefer rude service, or slow service?

My quick assumption at the time was that it depends on where you are. I guess what I’m trying to say is that who would want slow service in a taxi? Even though rude service is dreadful at the best of times, I think I’d rather have a cab driver say how my striped shirt makes me look fatter than miss my appointment at the dentist, or worse still, free entry to Liquid. Okay, so maybe some stranger commenting on how your girlfriend’s skirt should be shorter isn’t the most ideal of situations, but I figure that the less time you spend in the car then the less remarks you’ll have to put up with. I’m not saying taxi services hire people such as these, but taxi companies hardly pride themselves on travelling slowly, yet brand themselves as “we’re the fastest in the business”.

The same cannot be said for restaurants, however. Think about it, you reach the age-old predicament of having a fly in your soup, so you call over the waiter, expecting him to resolve the issue. What really happens though is he turns to you with a face of thunder and says “So what?”, and prompts you to carry on sipping, as if it’s a standard bushtucker trial. I think I speak for most people when I say I’d rather wait longer for my meal than potentially experience what I just described.

Slower service at food outlets can have obvious benefits too, such as spending longer to get to know someone on a first date, or if you’re particularly indecisive, having more time to choose what you want to eat. Maybe you won’t ever get a fly in your soup, but snappiness is a common trait found in rude staff. Even staff who simply just left their manners at home and forgot their “P’s and Q’s” are not appreciated and not welcomed by diners. Unless you’re waiting into the next morning for your bruschetta topped with tomato and basil, slower service is normally not noticeable and so in comparison with rude service, it would not be frowned upon.

Paying at a till in a supermarket was where I came a bit unstuck. I found it a bit of a grey area as to what I’d prefer to the obvious good service if for some reason it went missing. I thought about it and drew the conclusion that if I was in the queue waiting to be served I’d rather rude service was given and not slow service. Then again I wouldn’t want to be a victim of the rude service itself while I was packing away my potato smiley faces and pink toilet roll. So maybe we could all sacrifice a little extra time to spare us from being abused for not having our loyalty card or bringing a few bags to reuse. All in all, I found choosing between rude or slow service in a supermarket pretty difficult. However I think slow service would come out on top, as rude service with someone who has friendly assistance drilled into them would be shocking, if not despicable.

There are many more occasions where we could all become casualties of rude or slow service, and while we all kid ourselves into thinking the next meal or next week’s shop will go as smoothly as we plan it, the reality is that it might well not. Tomorrow morning’s train conductor might spend an eternity figuring out whether you’re eligible for young person’s discount, or the lady in the cinema might laugh at you when you order two tickets for you and your mother to see the next instalment of Camp Rock. Okay, so if you’re an 18 year old male the last example may just about be deserved but I know I wouldn’t like to be told “tough luck” to my favourite channel not being available on the new Sky package, especially if their reputation is based on “believing in better”.

This little insight into poor service has just made me appreciate good service a little more, but distinguish that it depends on the situation as to whether you’d rather be treated with rudeness or slowness, if it came to it. It’s a question I feel I wanted to answer, because I think if you haven’t experienced bad service in any form then you will, because everyone does. Obviously there isn’t a little button where you can switch between different types of bad service, or even to good service, but as long as you’re not expecting impeccable assistance then at least you’re prepared for some slackness.

Anyway, I feel I’ve waited long enough for the water to warm up, it’s time to get ready for another shower of ideas...

Midnight Rendezvous at Cellar Bar

I must admit, I hadn’t attended a gig at Cellar Bar since my school days, so as I bought my ticket I began to wonder if I had forgotten what an intimate local gig was like. That’s probably one of the main reasons as to why I was looking forward to this concert, as I always feel that with arenas you don’t get the same connection with the band. However, seeing bands that quite possibly grew up a couple of streets from you blossom in front of your very eyes, and ears, adds another dimension to a local gig. Nevertheless, the night was not about me, but about three promising acts.

My friend and I entered during the middle of the first band, Countdown to Hollywood, and whilst everyone was still getting settled there was still a friendly atmosphere throughout the venue. Countdown to Hollywood started off the evening in a relaxed manner with a mellow set, with lead singer Mollie Carter’s vocals carrying an emotional feel, one that reflected the nature of her band’s songs. Plus, they covered Starry Eyed by Ellie Goulding, one of my favourite artists at the minute, so this must surely score some brownie points.

Next up were False Priority, and if Countdown To Hollywood had settled the crowd with their music, then False Priority grabbed the audience by the scruff of the neck and shook them back up. With crashing drums and a heavy bassline, False Priority seemed intent on waking up the crowd from their comfortable slumber. They label themselves as a heavy rock/ punk rock three piece, and it was clear throughout their set that they were intent on getting their brand of music across to the audience, only pausing for breath in the slower Dear Diary.


After these two acts the stage had been set for the headline band, Hey! I’m A Moviestar, who were using the evening as a release show for their first ever single, Midnight Rendezvous. You could tell this was a special evening for the group, and their single could be seen as a symbol of the progress they have made in the near on two years they have been together. As they launched into their first song, it was clear to see that the band had branched out from their Blink 182 roots, and while the influences are still there it feels more like their own sound.

This is obvious when they play debut single Midnight Rendezvous, where the pulsating rhythm throughout grasped the crowd’s attention, and not even Tom Delonge was in sight. The trio seemed to synonymously grow in confidence with the crowd, as the more the audience gave feedback the more this reflected in how comfortable the band seemed to be. In the B-Side to their single, Better Than You Know, Hey! I’m A Moviestar displayed a more punky edge, with the gripping guitar riff reverberating around the venue. They are held in such high regard that even the bassist got chants of “I love you Scott!” shouted at him during the set, so he, along with his other bandmates Matt and Russ, proceed to give them what they wanted, more songs from their repertoire. So, you may be wondering how many singles Hey! I’m A Moviestar actually sold over the course of the evening? Every last one of them is now proudly sitting amongst someone’s CD collection, and I think that speaks volumes for an up-and-coming band that clearly have a bright future ahead of them.

I feel if they progress the way they are going, keep developing their own sound and producing more music that reflects this then I’m sure there’ll be more nights like the one at Cellar Bar last weekend. This goes for the other bands, as that night I witnessed three promising bands who can make great music. So in other words, I hope that you all attend a midnight rendezvous with Hey! I’m A Moviestar, Countdown To Hollywood and False Priority soon enough, and trust me, they’ll be better than you know...

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2010: Escaped miners, earthquakes, extreme weather and exciting sport.

2011 is already a month old and with time rushing past us like there’s no tomorrow I thought it would be a good opportunity to take stock and reflect on 2010.

2010 has been a year of mixed fortunes, with businesses slowly climbing out of the financial recession whilst Chilean miners were rescued from a mine after being trapped for an overwhelming two months. However, extreme weather has hit many countries hard, with Pakistan and Central Europe experiencing severe flooding, whereas natural hazards such as earthquakes have devastated Indonesia and Haiti.

The weather throughout last year could be described with a various selection of words. Ones I would choose would be bizarre, unpredictable, comprehensive and possibly the most significant word, lethal.
The year started off with the tremendous earthquake in Haiti back in January, killing over 250,000 people and another 4 million have been affected in some form or another. $11.5 billion is what the Haitian government believe it will cost to repair the country over the next three years, and a year after the earthquake the country, and more so it’s capital Port-au-Prince, is struggling massively to recover.

Earthquakes continued to threaten throughout 2010, with one occurring off the coast of Chile back in February recorded as one of the largest in history. Furthermore, in October a similar earthquake happened near Indonesia, which resulted in a tsunami killing around 400 people and leaving many more reportedly missing. In total, earthquakes all the way through 2010 caused over a quarter of a million of fatalities, with the Haitian disaster being recorded as one of the deadliest in history.

Moving on to more bizarre incidents, who would of thought that a volcanic eruption could halt the majority of Europe’s air traffic? You would think the Icelandic volcano, named Eyjafjallajökull, would be more at home in a pronunciation competition, and not doing British Airways’ job for them by ruining people’s holidays. European airspace was closed for a few days across April and May, due to the volcanic ash that the volcano threw up, causing it to spread across much of mainland Europe. It was estimated that the airline industry lost as much as £130 million each day airspace was closed, and around 5 million passengers were left stranded in airports across the continent.

Sport also achieved great recognition last year, due to many individual and team achievements. Spain for example consolidated their Euro 2008 triumph by winning the football World Cup in South Africa last summer, defeating The Netherlands 1-0 in the final. Rafael Nadal was another name on everyone’s lips as he came back from injury to win three Grand Slams over three different surfaces. Europe reclaimed the Ryder Cup back from the grasp of the USA, whilst Delhi hosted the Commonwealth Games, with Australia topping the medals table, and England coming a respectable third. 2010 also saw the start of England’s successful campaign to win the Ashes down under for the first time in 24 years, and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver were considered a triumph, and had the largest viewing audience since Lillehammer in 1994.

2010 has seen one of the most remarkable stories of recent times. The Copiapó mining accident in Chile was a story that not only gripped Chilean hearts, but had the attention of the world over. 33 men were trapped over 2,000 feet below the surface of the Earth, and survived for over 2 months while operations above ground attempted to retrieve them. The whole ordeal lasted from the 5th August to the 13th October, when the last miner was safely brought up the shaft, to rapturous applause from the audience surrounding the hole. Overall, the rescue operation cost around $20 million, and an estimated 1 billion people watched it on television. In the aftermath of the incident all of the miners have experienced celebrity status and were invited to watch a Manchester United match at Old Trafford.

So 2010 has provided some major disasters but also incidents that have shaped themselves into fairytales. Who knows what 2011 will bring, but we all know that it will bring many gripping stories in some form or another.

Resolutions: remissions or rejuvenations?

So, we’ve begun another year and while many were severely intoxicated when they went into 2011, another practice that many people perform at the start of the year is to make resolutions.

While we hardly ever reach the targets we set ourselves, with research proving we only achieve 12% of our goals, a lot of us always strive to make objectives year in year out. With the history of resolutions stretching back two thousand years, not long after the Romans created the modern day calendar, that is a lot of ambitions not being fulfilled. Sometimes I do wonder why we keep saying we’re going to exercise more or save more money, when if it clearly hasn’t happened for the past 4 years, why would this year be any different? That’s why I think resolutions can be seen in two ways. Either acceptance that something needs changing but one that ultimately won’t, or a statement of intent where you’re genuinely determined to succeed.

I think the reason why we almost always fail with our resolutions is that most of the time they are about things that we’d like to change about ourselves, but we aren’t that bothered if it doesn’t happen. Things like losing weight and quitting smoking are traditionally the most common resolutions, but at the same time also the ones where people fall short with the most. Maybe we cast these sorts of aims because we feel we have to as it’s the New Year, however at the end of the day we don’t really have the spirit to follow through with them.

Or maybe there isn’t anything actually that wrong with the dull targets we give to ourselves. I mean, what is really wrong with not going walking in the countryside enough? Or drinking a little too much alcohol on the weekends? Or maybe even wasting a bit too much time on Facebook? Okay, so maybe we’d like to change these aspects about ourselves, but at the same time people who commit such acts are perfectly happy doing them all the same. Maybe you’ll never shift that muffin top off your hips, and ultimately break your resolution, but at least you’ll be happy doing other things that put a smile on your face, equally as much as having the perfect body would.

However, if we didn’t use the most obvious resolutions to try and improve ourselves, what ones would we use? I suggest some of us should try and break the mould and think of some inventive and slightly strange New Years resolutions. Personally, I’ve always fancied eating a whole packet of Bourbon Creams each day of the year, or taking up the old fashioned sport of dinosaur hunting. Who knows, there might be people who’ve chosen this year to start collecting cigarette butts or learn how to gut a fish. Although a lot of these proposals seem extremely farfetched, they certainly steer well clear of the mundane and boring ambitions we usually churn out.

Turning vegetarian would be an interesting one, or an aim to claim your 15 minutes of fame that everyone is thought to get. However, whatever your resolution is, maybe add an extra resolution to stick to the resolutions you’ve already made. However, if you break that then I’m not too sure what to suggest. If you haven’t even made a resolution yet but are considering one, then perhaps make it a bit strange, the fact it’s unusual may spur you on to keep to it! What we all need is a bit of drive behind our resolutions, not to make them when they’re clouded in an air of resignation. This isn’t the case for everyone, but it would probably mean more resolutions would join the 12% that are kept to throughout the year.

Me? Well I gave up making resolutions a long time ago, after not getting through January with most of them. Today, my only resolution is to not make resolutions anymore, and if I’m honest I’m pretty confident I’ll stick to it.

Christmas gifts, Christmas trees, Christmas is the time to please.

So Christmas has ended as soon as it had arrived, and while most of us worry about measuring our new waistlines, we are all left to contemplate the festive celebrations for another year.

Did I get the right size turkey? Was there enough tinsel on the tree? Did I watch enough repeats on TV? Ok, you may not be asking yourself these sorts of questions right now, but you might have been asking them before the 25th came around. The point I’m trying to make is that most things, if not everything, seems to fall into place ready for the big day, so much so that there are no questions that need answering. You may not share my opinion, but there is no doubt that more often than not Christmas brings a certain collectiveness amongst families and neighbourhoods alike.

When I was younger, I sometimes used to view Christmas as some sort of judgement day, where Santa Claus decided whether you had been good enough throughout the year to deserve a shedload of presents. It wasn’t a frightening sort of judgement day of course, more one that used to tease you, making you think that you had to be on your best behaviour. Either way, unless you had robbed Woolworths of all their pick and mix, you ended up getting what you wanted after all.

A lot of people have also said that Christmas has become too commercial, whereas all it has done is move synonymously with the society of today. The modern day has become commercialised as a whole, and so with Christmas being the biggest celebration of the year, it was bound to get pounced on by companies to exploit over the years. Even though commercialism can sometimes be seen as our worst enemy, pressuring us to buy everything Cheryl Cole has her face on, I think it thrives at Christmas time. Maybe we realise afterwards that some of the stuff we’ve bought is useless junk, but businesses mainly do a good job in surrounding us with bargains, enchanting us into their stores. Anyway, it’s not really Christmas anymore until you’ve seen the Coca Cola advert, is it?

I feel Christmas is the only acceptable time where you can wear silly paper hats at the dinner table, tell ridiculously rubbish jokes and throw calorie count charts outside the window without a second thought. All of these I feel contribute to what they call the “magic of Christmas” and even though it may all feel superficial at the time, what other part of the year can you realistically get away with doing these things? I mean, I dressed up as a reindeer at work, and even though I looked silly beyond belief, if it hadn’t had been Christmas, I wouldn’t have done it. So for these and many other reasons Christmas must be seen as different and unique to every other time of the year.

As the snow slowly melts away, and the focus is taken away from Christmas and onto the January sales, I sometimes wonder if the snowman still standing proudly outside my house is outstaying his welcome at all. Maybe the longer he stays up, the longer it will feel like Christmas, and with he already being a week old he’s got to be closing in on a Guinness World Record for longest standing snowman in Britain. Having said that, I don’t think I’ll be calling up the police anytime soon if he gets stolen by the time morning comes.

Snowman or no snowman, it’s been the second consecutive Christmas where there has been snow around, and for me a little sprinkling of the white fluffy stuff makes Christmas seem a little more real. As everyone revels in the presents they received, the best present for me was seeing all my family happy and well, with the added bonus that they loved my presents. However, no matter how much I promise myself, I don’t think my shambolic wrapping skills will ever improve.

So, as my collective thoughts and memories of Christmas 2010 draw to a close, I really do hope all of you have had the Christmas you all so richly deserved. Even though all our sights are now set on New Year’s parties next weekend I hope that Christmassy feeling hasn’t left you just yet! Enjoy the rest of Boxing Day and whatever holiday you may have left, and I’m going to end on something I’ve learnt over the years by leaving you with a quote from Calvin Coolidge; “Christmas is not a time nor a season, it is a state of mind”.

A snow covered Britain: Winter wonderland or snow joke?

So this is what it feels like to live inside a snow globe? All covered in white and for many of us, trapped in our own homes until the snowfall subsides.

While children and adults pretending to be children are making the most out of the white stuff, a large amount of others have had to reschedule major plans because of it. What’s more, according to experts and meteorologists we need to start getting used to harsh winters like this as they are probably going to stick around for the long term, perhaps for even up to a century.

After the ridiculous snowfall from earlier on this year now fresh in the memory, should the country now focus on being better equipped to cope with this kind of weather next time it strikes? For example, Northern Ireland has recorded it’s lowest ever temperature at -18°C, while also describing it’s road network as the worst it’s ever been. With trends like this happening all over the UK, and with grit supplies struggling to cope with the sheer demand, what changes need to be made to make our daily lives fit in with the snow?

Only to a certain extent can we anticipate heavy snowfall, although in the future when there will be more advanced technology to hand then weather further down the line can be predicted with greater ease. Studded tyres have also been seen as a solution, but right now we get nowhere near enough days of snow to warrant this. Plus, with the weather becoming more erratic due to the forces of global warming and climate change, there is no guarantee we will be able to spot extreme conditions heading our way.

Not only does the snow affect transport network, but also it has hit consumer trade across the country. On a personal level I have noticed this dramatically in the local supermarket that I work in, where one day it will be heaving with panic buyers who purchase as if it’s the next ice age, and then the next day the shopfloor will be as quiet as a library. The severe conditions seem to do strange things to us, we worry about how long it’s going to last and the implications it will have, but once it all melts away we wonder what all the fuss was about.

Herefordshire and Worcestershire have also been hit badly, losing £15 to £20 million in lost business, where shoppers have decided against venturing out to shopping centres and main streets. With the snow continuing to fall, even heavier in places such as Wales, this bad spell will only continue for some economies. Not only that, but airports have also had to close, spoiling many people’s Christmases, and also losing trade in the form of tourists coming to stay in places like London for the seasonal period.

Maybe we get frustrated because snow appears to be such a simple obstacle that we struggle to get past, yet every time it falls in vast quantities it grinds the country to a sudden halt. Countries like Canada and Sweden must be laughing at the UK right now, as they have to deal with much heavier snow for around six months in a row. Maybe we need to borrow some ideas from them, or even just a snow plough or three, especially if we are to have a climate similar to that of Canada’s, which is what has been predicted by 2050.

It also seems that even when we over compensate ourselves for protection against the snow, nature still prevails. Nottinghamshire County Council has just ordered 5,000 extra tonnes of grit, having already gone through three quarters of its original stockpile for the whole of winter. What’s more is that the original amount of 14,600 tonnes was actually four times the quantity that was considered sufficient to cover the snowfall expected this winter. So even if we try and play safe by arranging extra stock just for security, it just shows that we can’t, and may never, be able to properly estimate how thick and fast the snow will fall.

So will we ever be able to tackle the snow properly, so much so it doesn’t impede on our lives? The clear answer at this moment in time is a definite no, and for the foreseeable future I can’t see us being able to anticipate the snow well enough not to disturb our daily lives. Maybe one day it will happen, but for now we will possibly have to contend with sledging to work, building our next best friend out of snow, or even going camping in an igloo.

And this one time, at band camp...

Call the 1990s what you will, the decade before the new millennium, 10 years of cheesy music or even the bit before the end of the world. However, for many people, including myself, the 90s is fondly remembered for being our childhood, and what a great time the 1990s was to be a kid.

First off, we saw the rise of games consoles with the success of the NES in the 1980s fuelling more consoles to be produced by Nintendo, including the SNES and the N64. This also prompted Sony to bring out a rival, called the Playstation, and so throughout the 1990s home gaming took off. From a personal view, I never had a Nintendo console, but I spent a staggering amount of hours sitting in my Reebok Classics and Joe Bloggs t-shirt playing Spyro The Dragon, trying to defeat Ripto and his merry monsters while painstakingly collecting as many diamonds as my eyes could handle.

1998 was also another breakthrough year in gaming technology, as the release of the Gameboy Colour took the world by storm. It was the latest must-have toy for that Christmas, and with that everyone could realise their dream of being Ash Ketchum. For the rest of the 1990s and into the early 2000s, Pokemon became one of the biggest crazes amongst the gaming world. However, while I think everyone once dreamed Pikachu was actually real, I don’t think anyone would have wished a Magikarp on their worst enemy.

When I first sat down to write this article, naturally memories began to flood into my mind back from when I was growing up. Like when I fell off a cupboard trying to turn on the light consequently breaking my arm, meeting Mickey Mouse at Disneyworld, my sister pushing me into a paddling pool fully clothed or even seeing the glow in the dark Sooty show.

However, when childhood memories are discussed with friends, work colleagues or even people you met the other night, it is always the material things that seem to crop up into conversation. This is probably because more people can relate to an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch than to you falling in some stinging nettles while playing tag at school. With channels such as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network at our disposal, what was a kid to do except watch an unhealthy amount of Dexter’s Laboratory and Kenan & Kel, not forgetting the Rugrats. Personally, I found Mojo Jojo from the Powerpuff Girls the scariest thing since Jaws. After watching the show again recently for a bit of fun, I struggled to comprehend how a monkey with his brain in what can only be described as a jam jar was rational, let alone frightening.

Anybody remember those small discs that you had to hurl at stacks of other discs? Does the word “pogs” ring any bells? Yeah that’s right, that’s the game that used to be so addictive, but now seems so pointless. In fact, when you think about it, there seems a growing trend of pointlessness amongst toys in the 1990s. Tamagotchis are another fine example, and past the furry exterior Furbys were another waste of valuable hours as a child. However silly this seems now, that was one of the best things about growing up, playing with pointless objects and games, and getting such unexpected enjoyment out of it.

I could go on endlessly about the different toys, TV shows and computer games we used to play or watch when we were younger. While our Saturday mornings always seemed pre-conditioned for SMTV:Live, everyone will have a slightly different take on their childhood. By saying that I don’t mean growing up drastically altered if you chose Charmander instead of Squirtle when you started off playing Pokemon.

The 1990s provided children an abundance of different things to keep them occupied. While this may be true of every other decade, in the 90s home entertainment broke through in the form of games consoles, and coupled with other factors I feel the 1990s were one of the most exciting decades to grow up in.

Whatever your take is on your childhood, I can guarantee that you will look back on that terrible show you used to love, or possibly disgusted with yourself for thinking that Mr Blobby would make the best role model. On the flip side, you can always think of yourself as a cool kid for wanting to hang out with the Chuckle Brothers, or even for waving round a toy lightsabre pretending you were Luke Skywalker. Anyway, enough of dwelling on the past, I’ve just remembered that my Furby is moaning at me for not watching the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air with him...