Do You Tip In Coffee Shops?
This article on the BBC web site talks about tipping in coffee shops and especially digital tipping in Starbucks in the US. Here’s the first paragraph.
Starbucks has modified its mobile phone app so that US customers can add tips for baristas to their bill. Is it normal to tip in coffee shops in the US – and could it catch on in the UK, asks Tom Geoghegan?
I usually tip if staff are pleasant and quick, often if it’s just a coffee, by throwing a twenty pence coin in the pot deliberately. I’ve only done this since I had the stroke and moved to London, so I wonder if it is my brain, saying here’s a little hand-eye co-ordination test that’s good for you! Although, I only do the action with my right hand and not my gammy left one!
In cafes, where I sit down and have a meal, I always pay by cash and leave the appropriate tip in change. I’ve found that in places I use regularly, this means that at busy times, the staff jump me up the queue and I get better tables.
Swastikas Everywhere
There is this article about the traditional use of swastikas on the BBC web site. Here’s the first paragraph.
Swastika. The word is a potent one. For more than one billion Hindus it means “wellbeing” and good fortune. For others, the cross with arms bent at right angles will forever symbolise Nazism. Yet England is seemingly awash with swastikas. Why?
I first came across their use in perhaps 1963. Several of us at Minchenden Grammar School were looking at old school magazines from the 1920s and 1930s. We were surprised to see swastikas used to separate paragraphs in some of the articles, in just the same way that you might use asterisks today.
I remember asking my father, who was a letterpress printer about this and he said it was common to use swastikas for this purpose before the symbol’s adoption by the Nazis. But he also said, nobody used it now, so he’d sent all his swastikas to be melted down, as they weren’t needed any more.
Ruin Lust At The Tate Britain
I saw this exhibition at Tate Britain, when I went to see the Richard Deacon exhibition a few days ago.
Today, Ruin Lust is reviewed in the Standard by their respected art critic, Brian Sewell. He says this.
But what is? Any ordinary bloke unwise enough to chance £10 on this exhibition will depart baffled and bewildered.
And he continues in the sane vein.
The Guardian describes it as a brilliant, but bonkers exhibition.
The Times calls it a fetishist take on property porn and gives it two stars.
I actually thought that both exhibitions, had a touch of the emporer’s new clothes about them.
Not Everything Goes Up!
I’ve just got my new Council Tax bill. There is no change for Hackney and the London charge has actually fallen by -1.3%, which means my total bill comes down by 0.3%.
Not much, but all contributions are respected.
A Worrying Report On CFCs And HCFCs
It is being reported that mysterious CFC and HCFC gases have been found in the atmosphere. Here’s the first part of the report.
Scientists have identified four new man-made gases that are contributing to the depletion of the ozone layer.
Two of the gases are accumulating at a rate that is causing concern among researchers.
Worries over the growing ozone hole have seen the production of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases restricted since the mid 1980s.
I have no theory about how these gases got there, as I’m no chemist or environmental scientist.
But I do feel that there are an awful lot of unnecessary drug inhalers powered by HCFCs used in the world.
I don’t mean unnecessary from the medical point of view, although in the 1990s, there were some amazing anomalies in the prescribing of these devices.
Some years ago, I backed a company that went on to produce an inhaler, that used no compressed gases, no batteries or any other noxious or environmentally-unfriendly substance.
It was so impressive that we were brought up at the Montreal Protocol talks, where some delegates tried to get the banning of HCFCs as well. They failed as some countries and Big Pharma didn’t want a ban.
So what happened to our device?
We sold it to Bohringer Ingelheim for a lot of money and it is described on this website.
The Unwelcoming Thing About Teesside
It can’t be said that Teesside is not a breezy place and the wind on my visit was strong, cold and straight off the North Sea. Joking with the locals about this, they at least felt that this winter, they hadn’t had much rain.
I think the architect of the Riverside Stadium took this into account, as it was pleasant inside for the match. Even if the result was disappointing.
Teesside is certainly a place, where you should wrap up well. But saying that, one of the things I remember about living in Felixstowe is the wind off the North Sea.
Walking To The Riverside Stadium
My purpose in going to Middlesbrough was to see Ipswich play Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium. On a pleasant day, it is one of the better walks from a station to the stadium, as there are things to look at.
I even popped into the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, where I went over their current exhibition called Art and Optimism in 1950s Britain. It was interesting, but it was an exhibition, that would have been excellent to visit with someone of my own age, as a lot of the things shown, would bring back memories for those like me, who can remember the 1950s. I can’t actually remember the Festival of Britain, but I have seen photographs of myself, there in my Cumfifolda pushchair, with my grandmother.
I was a bit disappointed to see that some of Middlesbrough’s liths had been vandalised, as had the statue outside the court. There’s a report here on the latter, but the other damage looked like thieves were after the metal.
Redcar And The Beacon
I deliberately went up early for the football at Middlesbrough, so that I could go and have a look at Redcar and its new attraction, the Redcar Beacon.
I first came across the Redcar Beacon, when it was nominated for the 2013 Carbuncle Cup.
I quite liked the idea of the Redcar Beacon, but some of the details had been rather poorly executed. The food seemed to be pretty good, with a good choice of cakes, including some gluten free ones, but many of the seats were set too low to see out.
Redcar scores highly for information with maps and liths everywhere.
To me though, the real problem it has for visitors like me is Redcar Central station and the Tees Valley line, that gets you to and from Darlington and Middlesbrough. Hopefully, it’ll get better trains in the future and someone will try to do something clever with some of the stations on the line.
Kiera Knightley’s Waist
There has been a lot of talk in the paper’s lately about Keira Knightley and her waist. There’s an article here in the Telegraph.
In the Times today, they say it is twenty-three inches and that between 1951 and today, womens’ waists have risen on average from 27½ to 34 inches.
My waist at 30 inches, is only an inch or so bigger than when I left University and C’s waist was never much more than twenty-four. Although, I suspect that when we got married it was naturally about twenty-two.
If the claims that Kiera’s waist was natural in the photos is true, I can believe it, as some of us are naturally very slim. I do wonder if some of those tiny Victorian corseted waists, were on women, who perhaps naturally were in their low twenties and were just enhancing, what their genes had given them!
My only problem with being this slim, is that I do sometimes find it difficult to buy clothes. On the other hand, I don’t think that there are any health problems about being built like the Aldgate Sphinx.
BBC3 To Go On-Line Only
According to this report, BBC3 is to go in-line only! So what?
I haven’t watched BBC3 much, but I do like BBC4. In fact much of my watching of television these days seems to be on the iPlayer. Especially, as my new television has the iPlayer built in.
Incidentally, I’ve just read this weeks schedules for BBC3 and there’s nothing there I suspect I’ll watch!
The Anonymous Widower 