Copyright: czany / 123RF Stock Photo |
A while ago I received an invite to a sampling evening at Costa Coffee, lots of people, maybe all card holders, were invited too and I initially ignored it as it would be a rush to make it after work, but then after a reminder invite I thought ‘what the hell, might as well, a few nice snacks, some tasty coffee, might cheer up a drab Wednesday night’ so I duly sent my RSVP
Fast forward to yesterday, the Wednesday in question. Due to some bad planning I ended up working at a different site to normal, and to make matters worse had a meeting at a third location! I decided to walk to the meeting to save parking costs and as the parking is hard to come by any way, so I walked half an hour down a steep hill to my meeting. After work I realised I now had to walk up a steep hill for 30 minutes in the dark, carrying a laptop and other bags and to top it all it was now pouring with rain.
I arrived back at the car looking like a drowned rat, fed up, aching (that much walking when you have motor and sensory neuropathy is just stupid! Idiot) and now half an hour later than planned, and an hour’s drive from home and the Costa event. I thought about not going, but maybe it would be I needed, after such a miserable walk, and I’d dry out on the drive.
I arrived at the Costa Coffee shop at about 7.10pm, I saw no sign of anything Christmassy, staff were mooching about, hardly any customers…I panicked, was it the wrong Wednesday? I checked my invite and the Costa twitter feed, nope it was tonight. As I walked to the counter I was overtaken by another woman..she was deep in conversation by the time I arrived and what it boiled down to was that the staff had no clue whatsoever about the promotion! They said the manager was away on a course and no one had told them anything, they made excuses but didn’t apologise. The lady asked if there were any samples at all “no, not really” they replied. She looked annoyed, unsurprisingly as she seemed to have brought a friend (we were promised extra club card points for bringing a friend) I stood listening, incredulous, and then, almost in tears, I left. Seriously pissed off.
But my fun evening didn’t end there, I realised my petrol light had come on in the car so went to the garage to fill up, a car on the forecourt had broken down and was being pushed into a parking place by the owners, the garage attendant was telling them they couldn’t leave the car there and they were arguing. As I was paying for my fuel they were still messing about, when the garage lady ran into the kiosk shouting ‘call security!! They are threatening to jump start the car, right over the main tanks, they won’t be told!!’ Wowser, maybe my night could get worse, maybe I’d be blown up!
As you will see, I wasn’t. I paid and scarpered, arriving home over an hour late, pissed off, wet, hungry, achy, tired and cold. Only cheap wine and twitter (and a cheeky young man threatening to send *ahem* personal DMs to me) cheered me up.
This morning my hips are so painful I can hardly walk.
So, moan over…how was your day?