What would you do?

[HEPZIBAH]

You go out with 5 friends. You have bought Groupon vouchers for two courses at a local Indian restaurant that used to have an excellent reputation for its food and service. When you first arrive you ask if there are any conditions or restrictions to menu choices and are told that none apply to the menu which you have in front of you, however when you came to order the waiter tells you that some of your chosen dishes are above the price included in the voucher and you would have to make up the difference but it was only likely to be £1 or £2. Of course, as well as the two courses there are sundries such as naan bread, drinks, desserts and coffees for which you know you will have to pay the full menu price for.

The meal is acceptable but little more than average and the service very poor.

When the bill comes it is wrong. You have already individually added up what your extras will come to and what the total bill should be, allowing for the discount of the prepaid vouchers. You have not been over charged, but highly undercharged! Some items didn't have the accurate surcharge on and other items were not listed at all.

What would you do in this situation?

[newcastle]

Not unusual...especially in Egypt!

When a bill is wrong, either way, I send it back for correction.

And if the service is very poor, I doubt I'd leave a tip.

[Bombay]

You go out with 5 friends. You have bought Groupon vouchers for two courses at a local Indian restaurant that used to have an excellent reputation for its food and service. When you first arrive you ask if there are any conditions or restrictions to menu choices and are told that none apply to the menu which you have in front of you, however when you came to order the waiter tells you that some of your chosen dishes are above the price included in the voucher and you would have to make up the difference but it was only likely to be £1 or £2. Of course, as well as the two courses there are sundries such as naan bread, drinks, desserts and coffees for which you know you will have to pay the full menu price for.

The meal is acceptable but little more than average and the service very poor.

When the bill comes it is wrong. You have already individually added up what your extras will come to and what the total bill should be, allowing for the discount of the prepaid vouchers. You have not been over charged, but highly undercharged! Some items didn't have the accurate surcharge on and other items were not listed at all.

What would you do in this situation?

ditto

[Bombay]

Not unusual...especially in Egypt!

When a bill is wrong, either way, I send it back for correction.

And if the service is very poor, I doubt I'd leave a tip.

ditto

[Dusak]

As above. I had pre-paid vouchers for school dindins once, never got a full plate.

[John Landon]

As above. I had pre-paid vouchers for school dindins once, never got a full plate.

Consider yourself lucky, I would not have fed my skool dinners to a rabid dog....

I used to sneak out of school, and go the local chippy and eat my fish, chips and gravy under a big old oak tree in the field opposite.....
Then spark up one of Benson and Hedges finest, before returning to Stalag 6 School.....

[Dusak]

Have to say that my school dinners were quite good. The pre paid started when a lot of kids [including myself] were getting the crap kicked out of them on their way to school on Mondays and having their dinner money stolen by older boys, mid teens. Those were the days when thugs roamed freely.

[Horus]

School dinners when I was a kid were excellent, except for on a Wednesday when it was usually Corned Beef salad. The rest of the week was fine, steak & kidney pudding, liver & onions, beef stew etc. all served with lots of vegetables and gravy and the puddings were just as good. Frog Spawn (better known as Tapioca) and Semolina were often on the menu as was rice pudding, chocolate cake, treacle pudding with custard and some sort of cake that we called ‘flirty cake’ because it always shot off the plate as you tried to break it with a spoon. The thing was that in those days the food would be cooked in a central kitchen that served several schools in then area and sent out in large insulated aluminium containers that would arrive about 1 hour before lunch time. I can see them now, large rectangular ones that would have a door at the front and deep trays that would slide inside one on top of the other, these contained everything from cooked pies to vegetables, meats in gravy, mashed potatoes etc. Then there were large and small cylindrical ones with latched lids constructed like a big aluminium vacuum flask that contained liquids like gravy or custard. It was always hot and plentiful and I have very fond memories of our school dinners and the quality was high. What I see today fills me with despair, poor quality cheap meals made to a tight budget, it does not surprise me when doctors say that my generation was probably the most healthiest of the last century due to our diet, even though it was at times limited, but if nothing else it was wholesome food.

[Dusak]

I remember the puddings well, especially my favorite, thick rice pudding with a big dollop of strawberry jam in the middle. And there was never an ''Oliver Twist'' moment of ''please sir can I have some more,'' smack! You could eat as much as you wanted for as long as there was food left. And the dinner ladies, usually middle aged and roly poly in stature must of been quite energetic food tasters before serving out, but very mothering in attitude.

[Horus]

Your description rings many a bell Dusak and as you say there was always plenty of 'seconds' for anyone who wanted some.

[Mad Dilys]

When I was at boarding school we normally had one good meal a day. High tea, cooked in house on an awful gas stove with no regulo by a genius of a cook, This wonderful woman, managed single handed in 3 short hours to prepare and cook a main meal and dessert for 26 people. Then she washed up by hand and put everything away, washing the kitchen floor for an encore.

There was still rationing for a lot of commodities, no machinery in the kitchen except for the gas stove and an electric toaster.

She introduced us to mouth watering curries, pies and pastries which were followed by something like Queen of puddings, Spotted **** ..... Oh it was all wonderful and tasted sublime.

Breakfast was prepared by our house mistress who was the complete opposite. Example: We were offered porridge or cornflakes every day. Few chose the porridge which was grey and lumpy. The "main" course followed. Sometimes we had half a slice of fried bread spread with Marmite, or a boiled egg, or a small sausage, or a single slice of bacon and half a slice of fried bread followed by a single slice of cold toast and margarine. (Adults had butter) students should not have hot toast, it must be cooled before serving and half a pound of margarine was divided very carefully between about 20 students. We were always hungry but not allowed to take food to the dormitory except for end of term midnight feast. When a blind eye was turned.

School dinners were prepared at the school kitchen and they liked to have everything cooked and ready to serve by the time we had our mid morning break of disgusting warm milk and a 1d currant bun. The first shift of lunch was at mid day the second 12.30.

We sat 9 to a table, there was a bench on each side of the table seating 4 on each side and a senior girl sat at the head of the table to keep order and make sure the serving dished were passed round fairly.

The only good thing I remember being on the menu was Gypsy Tart. We once had second helpings offered and I was the only one on our table who wanted it. I managed to eat nine extra portions without hesitation, it was wonderful and I had no conscience about it at all.

Disclaimer - I was an extremely thin and small child - didn't grow much until my teens and fatten up until after I had children of my own and couldn't exercise to the same degree.

[Dusak]

... did they really have electric toasters that long ago?

[carrie]

Only the posh places Dusak, perhaps that's why you don't remember them

[Mad Dilys]

Oh, yes! Very posh, our dormitory floor was polished wood with coconut matting next to our beds - nothing soft about our surroundings - but I was simply a girl from the sticks who couldn't travel so far for a Grammar School on a daily basis. There were two of my classmates from the village who were also weekly boarders.

I was thinking about my time there earlier today and appreciating once again what a huge financial cost it was to my parents.

In addition to the £3..10s..0d a week for my keep, (Five shillings more than my first weeks wages when I started work a few years later!) my parents had to supply bedding and different sizes of towels including bath sheets and obviously two of everything.
My uniform included outdoor and indoor shoes, hockey boots and gym shoes, Aertex sports shirts, short sports skirts,outdoor and indoor casual clothes. Uniform started from the skin out - we had to wear two pairs of knickers believe it or not. White one next to the skin covered by navy ones

Summer uniform included real panama hat, blazer, cardigan and 5 summer dresses - Winter uniform was black velour hat, gym slips blouses and jumpers plus really heavy Melton coat and wellingtons.

All the uniform had to be purchased from the official suppliers, no chance of anything being passed down. I grew 6ins in the two years I was there, so the clothes were always being replaced yet I was never made to feel that I was a burden to my Father, a policeman and Mother who was a care attendant.

P****d my sister off, but she already hated me anyway.

[carrie]

My school uniform, straw hat, green and white dress striped, (I was already tall and very thin made me look like a bean pole) white ankle socks wasn't allowed to wear long knee length socks till we were 16, cardigan and blazer, navy blue knickers all with name tags inside and as you say Dylis purchased from the approved retailer.
Winter was thick skirt, blouse, tie, cardigan, blazer and coat not forgetting the beloved beret with the school badge at the front which had to be worn in the correct manner with the badge showing. How ever far you lived from school you had to wear your beret from leaving the home till school if you were caught without it, hell was to play. I was nearly twenty when the lines around my ankles faded and you couldn't tell I had been wearing short socks all my life. It didn't matter what the weather was like on a certain day you changed either into winter or summer uniform. I remember going back to school in September and it was hot hot hot but there we all were in our winter uniform we were allowed to take off our blazers in class though. Despite it all I loved school. The only thing I really disliked was the gym, I quite liked sports but in the gym we had to wear these enormous blue gym knickers and a white airtex top, outside for hockey or lacrosse a short pleated gym skirt was allowed. Black brogues summer and winter, which my dad always said did your feet good. Good strong shoes my girl, I can hear him now.

[Horus]

Good grief! I can remember those navy blue and bottle green knickers they made you girls wear, it was really off putting, maybe that’s why they did it.

[Yildez]

Yep, mine were grey with a white pair underneath like MD! Double insulation and tight elastic round the legs . My uniform was grey and scarlet, gymslip until you were in the fourth form. Like Carrie, I was very tall for my age and looked ridiculous! We wore red berets - well, were supposed to wear them between home and school. I spent an awful lot of time in detention for not wearing mine! On the day I left school I made a bonfire of it in the school yard, safe in the knowledge that detention was done

[Dusak]

I hated the school cap, not because it looked stupid with red and white stripes, but because the older boys enjoyed throwing it over very high wally at a fast spin, nearly impossible to retrieve, so ended up getting a regular smacked arse when I got home without it, and double detention at school without it. A proper double whammy. Apart from that, the rest of the uniform was grey. I remember when the Winkle Picker shoes came into fashion, insisted on having a pair, so mother ordered me some out of her Grattans catalogue. [which is still going today] The teacher made me take them off and spend the rest of the school day walking around barefoot, even at play time. Barsteward! So I left them at home and asked her to get me a pair of Chisel Toes, again just in fashion. Same outcome at school. Both lasted all of ten minutes at home playing football in them. Then came, a couple of years later, the Carnaby Street catalogue. High prices, but the dogs whatsits in fashion, just like the Beatles wore.

When I and my three best mates decided to stay on at school for an extra year, mainly because we didn't fancy working for a living, we were treated like adults, no regulation length of hair, no dress code to adhere to. As we walked around the school, long hair and the beginnings of stubble, Kipper ties, Bell bottomed trousers, platform shoes and psychedelic shirts we were ''The Beatles.''