The Dark Furie

I've worked in hospitality. For a time I was a minor legend in the industry - born with a natural aptitude for the work and dedicated to expanding that talent. It was to be my career and during the time I worked those jobs I trained a lot of bartenders and waiters, making them the best they could be. In fact, the only job I've ever applied for and not got was one at a new bar that was entirely manned by my trainees when it opened. It made me feel old as the only thing that seperated us was age, and therefore pay scale. Anyway, as an ex bartender I'm horrified at the state that the hospitality industry is in now.

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When Leslie Pope went for a meal and a few drinks with friends at the Lehigh Pub in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania a couple of weeks ago, they were happy to find that despite the Christmas season looming they weren't turned away from the inn. Unfortunately that's where their good luck ended. After waiting over an hour for their meal they even had to go to the bar and request cutlery and napkins themselves as their waitress went out for a smoke after being asked for them. This was the final straw for Pope and her seven friends, who had already had to visit the bar for refills when their waitress disappeared after they'd placed their food order. When the $73 bill arrived they paid for their food and drinks, ignored the suggested tip, made a complaint to the head bartender and sat down to finish their drinks before leaving. That's when the police arrived and arrested them.

Lehigh Pub, presumably having noticed that not many of their staff were getting tips due to a bad service ethic, had installed a policy that made the gratuity a mandatory part of the bill. No longer do their staff have to earn their tips by being good at their jobs, helpful or even pretending to be a part of the service industry. No longer can customers decide that service is good and leave an extra tip or decline to leave a tip if service is bad. No, the tip is now expected regardless of the service you receive there and if you refuse to pay it you'll be arrested for theft just like Leslie Pope and her boyfriend John Wagner were.

Latreasa Goodman (no relation to John, despite the content of this story) loves McDonalds. Now you may think that you love a certain food more than anything else, but you haven't reached the levels of love this woman has for McDonalds' food. Nope, don't argue, you just haven't. On the 28th February this year, Latreasa visited her local McDonalds and ordered a ten piece meal which included chicken nuggets. According to the majority of news sources and blogs at the time she flipped out when she was told they didn't have nuggets and called 911 not once, not twice, but three times to report the incident. What a psycho eh?

Now lets be fair and take a look at what actually happened there. She asked for something on the menu, she paid for that item, they had run out of it and they refused her a refund. Oh sure, she can have something else from the menu but she was refused her money back, which is against both her rights and McDonalds' policy. Did she over-react? Of course she did. You don't phone the emergency services for something like that, and you definitely don't insist that your chicken nuggets are an emergency when the cops show up and cite you for misuse of the 911 system. But I doubt she'd have done so if she hadn't been provoked like that by the assistant manager of the store.

A spokesman from McDonald's had this to say about the incident: "We want to correct our mistake. We will be sending the customer her refund, along with an invitation to return for her original order, on us. We never want to disappoint a McNuggets fan or any McDonald's customer. Customer satisfaction is our top priority." That's very big of them. Now that the woman has been treated so badly and had her rights infringed to the point that she called 911, she can have the refund she was originally due and a voucher for one meal. That'll really make things up to her. Also I think I speak for everyone who has ever had the soggy cardboard that passes for food at McDonald's served to them by a teenager with a higher weight in acne than IQ when I point out what a pile of crap that customer service statement was.

My body is revolting. Hey, stop that. That's not what I meant at all. It's not funny!
*sets a trap on the yes smiley so everyone who uses it swaps genders, especially if they have whiskers*

8% Hypochondriac

While your physical health isn't always perfect, you don't freak out about it. You know there's only so much you can do, and worrying doesn't change anything. Your mental health is in check... which is key to having tip top physical health. There's no way you're worrying yourself to death!

Take This Test Yourself

As I was trying to say, my system is revolting against me and has been these past few days. I've had constipation and diarrhoea on and off, sometimes at the same time which is just unfair. Waves of nausea keep hitting me, usually at mealtimes which is again unfair. I've also been experiencing a lot of lower back pain. The whole thing has pretty much left me wiped out (in more ways than one) these past couple of days.

That's the funny thing about pain. I'm in almost constant pain due to a back injury from years ago but because it's constant that has become my normal state and, if it stopped I'd probably feel worse before realising I was better. Unfortunately it takes a lot of concentration and effort to control this amount of pain, something that has become second nature and not really a conscious act. This means that I can lead a pretty normal life but, when I'm hit with other pains if they're large enough they divert my energies and every pain comes back as if new again, including my old back injury. Bit of a bastard really.

Anyway I'm mostly over what's been affecting me these past few days and the pain is starting to subside. I managed to enjoy a perfectly cooked roast chicken dinner earlier and that's what this post is really about. In between munching succulent chicken skin soaked in delicious gravy, I remembered the thing that made me realise that genetically engineering animals is a good thing for the future. It was the image of a chicken with six legs. For all my talk of growing replacement transplant parts on the recipient, all I really want is a chicken with extra legs. Embarrassing eh? You guys ever realise the reasons behind your standards and morals are a little more self-centred than you thought?

Today is the international Toasted Marshmallow Day (notice I never miss the food days eh?) and in honour of such an esteemed day I'd like to present you guys with a recipe I found a few years back.

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Hot Cocoa With Marshmallow Cakes

The ingrediants you'll need are:

• 3/4 cup of flour
• Pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup of cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup of water
• Handful of tiny marshmallows

How to make:

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Mix the flour, salt, cocoa and baking powder together.
• Mix the butter, sugar, vanilla and egg together, beating the paste is smooth.
• Alternate adding the water and the flour mixture, beating the mixture as you go along.
• Take several small marshmallows and place one inside each paper cake liner then pour the mixture on top of them.
• Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes depending on the size of the cakes then leave to cool for 10 minutes.

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Hope you guys have a wonderful day, and don't forget to toast a marshmallow for yourself.

Who wants to suck on this?

Have you ever seen one so big?