08:00 Lois and I find we're starting to salivate as soon as we wake up and roll out of bed today. We know we are due to have lunch out, at the 15th century Gupshill Manor, Tewkesbury, today, because it's her church's Christmas meal. Eating out is not something we've not had the chance to do for a long time - my goodness, no!!!
flashback to January - we visit the 15th century Gupshill Manor to take a few pictures
We're intending to really live it up today, make no mistake haha!!!!
We did have a lot of fun there and a few laughs, but generally the experience wasn't the best it could have been, to be frank. If it was a typical Gupshill experience, we just don't know how the restaurant can get away with such poor performance - my god !!!!
We were asked to arrive between 12:15 and 12:30 pm to be seated at 12:30, but we weren't seated till about 1:15 pm and no food was served until about 1:45. What madness !!!!!
After two courses, plus coffee/tea and mince pie, Lois and I finally escaped, with mild backache, at around 3:45 pm, so we were sitting there altogether for 2 and a half hours. And the service was REALLY slow - after the main course was served there was still about a 20 minute wait before the vegetables appeared - it was totally crazy! I couldn't believe it !!!!!
after we finally got seated, there was a LONG interval
before any food appeared, and people had to amuse themselves
as best they could, mostly taking selfies - what madness !!!!
Much of the food was pretty mediocre to put it mildly, particularly my main course choice of sausage, potatoes and vegetables. Only the pudding - chocolate pot - was at all nice.
the mediocre and incredibly bland sausages and potatoes didn't thrill me
- and the additional (also mediocre) vegetables took about 20 further minutes to arrive
- what madness! [That's enough madness! - Ed]
luckily the disappointment of my main course
was made up for a little by my delicious dessert of chocolate pot,
which was the only really nice part of the meal, I have to say
we finish up with a mince pie or two
And although this following extra drawback wasn't the restaurant's fault, it combined with the poor service to make the whole occasion quite a wearing afternoon for Lois and me: the church's ranks have recently been swelled by a couple of dozen Iranian Christian refugees, who were really having a great time all around us, drinking lots of wine and beer and talking loudly in Farsi - a language Lois and I can't speak, needless to say!
the Persian women opposite us treat us to a display
of Persian singing and finger-snapping
It made us wonder what it's like for these young Persian men and women - suddenly escaping from a rigid, authoritarian, oppressive and puritanical Moslem society into a world where they can drink as much as they like, dress the way they like, have fun with the opposite sex, and pretty much do whatever they please. What must it feel like? It must be incredibly liberating - Lois and I can hardly imagine!
But why is the restaurant so badly managed? Shortage of staff is probably a big factor, but that's not really a valid excuse by itself is it. The meal wasn't exactly cheap either.
I'm sure the place was better managed in the 1950's and early 1960's, when Peter was the manager, Peter was the father of our "new" cousin, David, whom we found out about after a random DNA test a year or two back,
a small part of my family tree, into which Peter and his
son David (born 1959) have made a recent appearance
the shadowy figure in the centre of this photo is Peter,
the manager of Gupshill Manor in the 1950's and early 1960's
Peter would never have allowed such poor service, Lois and I are sure. But what a crazy world we live in, where restaurants can get away with this kind of thing and still charge high prices !!!!!!
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