Another delightful couple of days working in London again last week. Three of us had arranged to meet at the hotel just after lunch the day before the workshop; so we could finalise the plan, and make sure our slide pack was as brief and succinct as possible. Travelling late in the morning is a somewhat curious time – culinarily speaking – mainly because it’s just too early for lunch! The end result was that we were rather famished by the time we’d finished the prep work.
There’s a fabulous tea shop a stone’s throw from the hotel (The Tea House Theatre, if you’re ever in Vauxhall), and we decided it was time for one of their lovely pots of tea to celebrate! They also sell some delicious homemade food there…but we were ‘past lunch’, and the dinner menu doesn’t kick in until 6pm. The Black Boy pub is practically opposite though, so I volunteered to saunter across and book a table for 5.30pm.
After a cheery greeting (from me) I enquired whether we could book a table. The odds looked good as the pub was practically empty, and no tables had reservation signs on them. Things were looking promising. And then I tried to book a table. Here’s roughly how the conversation went…
“Hi, could I book a table for half five/quarter to six for three people, please?”
“Have you booked?”
“Er…no…hence the question…do you have a table free?”
“Did you check online?”
“No, I’ve just walked over from the Tea House Theatre to see…?”
“It’s easier if you book online”
“Easier than being here…? Ok, I’ll do that next time….but as I’m here…?”
“You’ll still need to book online, cos we take a £20 deposit in case of ‘no-shows’”
“Happy to do that. Can you do that on there?” pointing to the ‘iPad she was holding?
“I don’t know, I’ll have to ask the manager…(to the manager)…can I take a booking on here?”
(Manager, looking mightily displeased that his conversation had been interrupted to deal with these bloody customers…tsk) “I think so, but people normally do it online”.
“Look, shall I just do it online?”
“Oh, yeah if you could…if you just search for ‘black dog’…” I did exactly that, and the photos that came up were impressive.
“Which image shall I click?”
“Oh….I’m not sure….hold on I’ll get the address”.
After handing me the business card with the website on it for bookings, I typed in the address, but the signal was poor and nothing was happening. This was quite an uncomfortable stand-off, and so I said I’d pop back over the road before my tea got too cold, and that I’d book the table from the comfort of the Tea House. Sat with my cuppa, and with a decent signal now, I typed in the address, and set the date and time we wanted….
…apparently you have to book at least 24 hours in advance if you’re using the online booking platform. We stayed where we were, and had dinner in the Tea House Hotel at 6pm. Walking back to the hotel, the tables in The Black Dog looked quite empty. I can’t think why…
Autumn Announces its Arrival
For all the threat of rain, there seemed to be a great deal of sunshine permeating the meeting room. Maybe I could get back to wearing shorts again that night (wearing long-trousers is quite depressing after all these weeks of wonderful weather)? The answer came whilst in the taxi – at the last set of traffic lights before our hotel to be precise. Almost out of nowhere (I know that isn’t possible in meteorological terms) the heavens opened. Such was the ferocity of the downpour, the windscreen wipers couldn’t keep up even when stationary. In fact we couldn’t even see the other bank of the Thames. Pleas for the driver to drive as slowly as possible where met with a laugh (I was being deadly serious), and the rain persisted right until we were once inside. The driver kindly parked as close to the hotel entrance as is possible – for which I’m grateful. I wasn’t so appreciative of him forgetting to unlock the boot…
