yes 2 f o's in one day!! so the second f o goes to the US version of 'the girl with the dragon tattoo'. so disappointing. i was dubious from the start (when hearing there was going to be an american version made of a perfectly good original - swedish - film - why do the americans feel the need to make their own version of everything!?!) but still was quite excited about seeing a great book/story played out on the big screen sans subtitles - which yes makes me sound like a neanderthal (harking back to my slating in previous post) but it can be hard to get into a thriller movie in terms of visuals when you're reading subtitles all the way through. but MY GOD the slaughter of this great story with extraordinarily gratuitous product placement/endorsement through the film on top of dreadful performances and cramming too much detail and storyline of an admittedly complex novel into a too long film. ugh ugh ugh. tragic.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
f o du jour
worst mcdonalds (yes i know, i know, it's shit food anyway) ever at the st andrews store in edinburgh & i have been to outlets in europe, asia, south america & australia so do have an immense basis for comparison. basically, having little other food options post-movies, we asked for 3 cheeseburgers with no meat & clarified this no less than 3 times as i sensed the server didn't understand me the first time. one of these burgers was as part of a happy meal. we were informed we’d have to wait a few minutes for a special order. we said no problem. after waiting more than several minutes, we were given our meal & left. halfway home the happy meal box split open (as it was not constructed securely) & all the contents fell on the ground - contents being fries & no burger. given we were halfway home in the rain, we decided to suck it up & just share the 2 remaining burgers between us. on arriving home, we went to eat our burgers only to discover they had meat in them. clearly, having nothing satisfactory to eat and in a right rage given the happy meal box spillage with lacking content as well as incorrect remaining meal order, i then returned to the store & explained the situation, asking for a remake (presenting all of the meal except what fell on the ground) - the guy (who originally served me) immediately denied anything was wrong with the order. this immediately made me even more angry. i do NOT need to lie about a mcdonalds meal to get 'free food' - it was something which was quick to grab on the way home from the movies - exactly the type of situation mcdonalds is supposed to be all about. the server was so aggressive the customer right next to me joined right in on mocking my 'burger with no meat' choice. after basically telling said dickhead i wasn't interested in his neantherdal opinion, i informed the server that amazingly i have successfully ordered & been given this choice the world over - including the other edinburgh restaurant the opposite end of princes street. after several minutes of embarrassment, another employee who overheard the situation intervened & said the meal would be redone. it didn't even end there - he gave me 3 remade burgers but none of the rest of the meal, which i said thanks very much i would like a fresk remake given everything else from original order was cold or on the streets of edinburgh. get home again and the cheeseburgers are not just without meat (as requested) but without everything else except the cheese - ie no onion, ketchup, gherkin. deliberately wrongly made!! needless to say this was the worst experience I have EVER had at a mcdonalds. staff at this store need some serious customer service training. i've worked in customer service and like i said to the man at this store "it isn't fucking rocket science!!!".
Friday, December 23, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
national portrait gallery scotland
i have been along to the portrait gallery a couple of times now. on a touchscreen computer there you can select your physical and personality traits from a big list and then the 'my face my place generator' software selects the portrait that represents you the best!!!
this is scottish me:
(Lady) Naomi Mitchison, 1897 - 1999.
Naomi Mitchison was a novelist, poet and passionate campaigner for social justice and women's rights. Born in Edinburgh, Mitchison's first novel was published in 1923, when she was twenty-six. Mitchison wrote over seventy books during her lifetime and edited and contributed to many more. She also produced hundreds of articles for newspapers and journals. Mitchison travelled extensively over five continents, was involved in the campaign for access to birth control from the 1920s and spent nearly twenty years as a local councillor in the Scottish Highlands. She was awarded a CBE in 1981.
a similar approach by inputting characteristics describing your ideal location in scotland yields another result:
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
heavy rain causes problems
Monday, December 12, 2011
Saturday, December 10, 2011
and so this is christmas...
my life as a pie chart
underworld awakening
omggggg i cannot wait to see this!!! hooray for the return of kate beckinsale because the third in the film series was, quite frankly, rubbish due to her absence.
miss you the boo
let's revisit some photos of you "helping out" with packing up the house in late july...
