We did it again. Decided to go out for dinner. This time round we were taking my in-laws to thank them for the marvellous job they did on tiling our bathroom. They were great, someone told me that pensioners work hard and don't eat very much when I felt guilty about all the hard work they were doing! So we went out on a Saturday lunchtime, I figured we didn't need to book like in the evening, hey it's only lunchtime! So when we got there, it was busy, they didn't seem to have many staff so we had to wait a while to be seen to. While we were waiting another party came in behind us, including a v. posh old "dear" in a fake fur and lots of bling. She raised her eyebrows at the thought of having to stand in a queue and barked at me "Have you booked?". I said "oh no, we're just waiting to see if they've got a table". "WE have booked," she snapped, and I immediately got a sense of "uh oh, this broad is going to be trouble". Thankfully a waiter arrived in the nick of time, and said of course they had a table for us, it would be ready in a couple of minutes. This upset the old bag who literally clicked her fingers at him and snapped "WE HAVE BOOKED". Very politely he explained that yes he knew that but their table was also being prepared if they wouldn't mind waiting too. Didn't go down too well. But we escaped into the bar to wait for our table and I thought that was the last of it. We were seated a little while later in a nice table on the ground floor and had ordered our meals when the old bag party walked past us - they hadn't been seated yet! Ooh the satisfaction! She glared at us as she walked past and then very openly compared the table they had been given - seeing as they had booked and all - and ours. No difference at all if you ask me, we were nearer the toilets I suppose.
Anyway we managed to have a lovely lunch with no other rude old ladies wagging their fingers at us, and were just thinking about the bill when she reappeared, haranguing the poor waiter about something. I think she complained about the fact they had to wait, the table they were given, the service, the food, the fact that people who hadn't BOOKED (queue glare in our direction) had got "preferential treatment" and the staff were all rude too. Allegedly. I just hope they spat in her food as the waiter let them off paying - presumably just to get rid of them. She had 2 grandsons with her, in their early 30s I suppose and clearly only after her money - and they were ALL so smarmy!! And it was only a Beefeater, not the bloody Ritz!! And they were clearly busier than normal so everyone else gave them some leeway - not her though.
Grrr it makes me mad. I almost felt like complaining too to see if we got our bill waived. She was SO rude, and I only hope next time she phones up to book they tell her they are full for the next 5 years. She might be dead by then the old trout. We did have the satisfaction of laughing openly at them when they stalked out of the place and they looked slightly confused that people weren't nodding in agreement at what they had had to suffer. Some people!
