Another day out, blue badge parking and the high cost of not enough staff

24 August

We had a pleasant day out at Strafford on Avon Yesterday after being invite down to spend the day with friends who have a caravan down there. Another neighbour cadged a lift with us as well. Anyway, we left at around 9.50 and got back here at around 8pm, tired but happy after a nice day out. We have been to Stratford before of course, but we learned something new yesterday.

We followed Diane into town and she took us to a car park we didn’t know about. This one is in the town centre and there was loads of spaces there, even on a Saturday. And it being Saturday folks, was an important point for us. Because disabled folks showing their blue badge can park there all day without charge, on Saturday if they use one of the unmarked bays; BUT … if we had parked in one of the marked disabled spaces, we would only get three hours parking before having to leave the car park.

So, we had a good day all round. However, there was one sour note; the new club house. The site owners have spent £3.5 million on building a new club house. It’s a really good looking building, built with natural wood logs cut to size and shape as needed. I certain liked the architecture of it. The staff in there were bloody hopeless though!

While I was waiting for our drinks order to be served, the lady behind me asked to order some food. The problems started when she said they were in a room off to one side. The server said that might cause a problem in finding them, even if they did have a table number. ‘There are 15 of us,’ the lady said. The duty manager was asked the answer was no; the reason was that that didn’t have the staff to deal with such a high number at one table.

I just can’t understand it. Here it is, Bank Holiday weekend and they have a shortage of staff; what were the management thinking about, if they were thinking that is? How can a new establishment turn away such a large transaction like that? The prices in there are very high; our four coffees were just shy of £9 as it was before the 10% discount because Diane was a ‘van holder there. What the price of a meal for 15 would have cost is not known, but from what we heard later, they lost out on £50+ by refusing that order.

Hang on – the point was the club but there are three sub-points, (i) staff; (ii) prices and (iii) was the disabled lift. It worked fine when we got in to go up, but getting own was a different matter. The lift just wouldn’t work. We rang the bell for someone to come and help; once the staff problem came into play. Janet, the lass who travelled down with us went off to get the bosses. And she couldn’t get it to work either. She eventually directed us to another lift at the other end of the building. We got out to it but that didn’t help because that one didn’t work either. But we had gone through a fire door to get to it, and it locked itself shut as it closed after us. Three of us are scooter users and having been locked out the only thing we could do was to go down the two flights of stairs. It was not a nice experience, so much so that Diane is sending an email about it to the site owner. Hopefully that will wake him to the problems there.

So they lost the £50+ from the food order; but they have also lost a pile of dosh from us too. Have look here … These are called Hobbit Huts, and Jan was all for hiring one for a few days. After the silly games at the club house, she has changed her mind. That’s a further loss of a minimum of £75 for the hut hire, plus £20 for camping kit hire, and of course, any cash we might have spent at the club. Again, it’s all money that won’t be spent there again!

Anyway, over all we had good day. Of course, being a day out, I got lots of photos. Here one another from yesterday … 

River Avon downstream.

And today’s funny is from the Sage …

 On the farm lived a Chicken and a Donkey, both of whom loved to play together.   One day, the two were playing when the Donkey fell into a bog and began to sink. Scared for his life, the donkey 'hee-hawed' for the chicken to go get the Farmer for help!
Off the Chicken ran, back to the farm. Arriving at the farm, he searched and searched for the Farmer, but to no avail, for he had gone to town with the only tractor. Running around, the chicken spied the Farmer's new Z-3 silver BMW.
Finding the keys in the ignition, the chicken started the beautiful motor car and sped off with a length of rope, hoping he still had time to save his friend's life. Back at the bog, the Donkey was surprised, but happy, to see the Chicken arrive in the shiny BMW, and he managed to get a hold of the loop of rope the Chicken tossed to him.   After tying the other end to the rear bumper of the Farmer's car, the Chicken then drove slowly forward and, with the aid of the powerful car, rescued the Donkey!
Happy and proud, the Chicken drove the BMW back to the farmhouse, and the Farmer was none the wiser when he returned. The friendship between the two animals was cemented: best buddies, best pals.
A few weeks later, would you believe, the Chicken fell into a mud pit, and soon, he too, began to sink and cried out to the Donkey to save his life! The Donkey thought for a moment, walked over, and straddled the large puddle. Looking underneath, he told the Chicken to grab his Willie and he would then lift him out of the pit. The Chicken got a good grip, and the Donkey pulled him up and out, saving his life.
And the moral of the story?
When you're hung like a donkey, you don't need a BMW to pick up a chick.