FFS Fridays

Last week saw Louise and I reach the milestone of 25 years of marriage. Thanks to all of you that left comments and congratulations.

On the day itself we were not able to do too much as we were both working, Louise on a late. We did venture out to The Trafford Centre on Friday evening mainly to pop back to the shop Louise got my present from to exchange it for the right size. Twenty five years on and my original wedding ring no longer comfortably fits on my infinitely fatter fingers so she had very thoughtfully got me a new one. I get the new correctly sized one towards the end of next week.

Having done that we thought we would get something to eat whilst we were there. Two things struck us. Firstly 90% of folks were not bothering with masks. I’m no mask Nazi but in a place as packed as it was it probably makes sense for now to err on the side of caution.

Secondly every eatery had a huge queue. As it was now knocking on for 8pm and I hadn’t eaten since around 12 things were getting serious and the lack of a wait became the main selection criteria. Not surprisingly this led to a very disappointing meal at TGI Fridays.

We haven’t been to one of these for many years, but when we have in the past the quality and portions have been pretty impressive. Both seem to have shrunk in the intervening years.

We knew we were in trouble when our £13 plate of nachos came out and it contained about a dozen Doritos and a blob of guacamole.

They tasted OK but when your portion expectations for nachos are built on your Applebee’s experience this was poor.

Our mains weren’t much better. I opted for a burger and it arrived lukewarm and soggy. There aren’t many things you want in that state. Louise had Fajitas filled with crushing disappointment.

There is my burger (there are fries in a separate basket out of shot) with Louise’s tiny portions of guacamole, watered down sour cream and salsa in the background. The sizzling platter was 95% onions and 5% chicken.

As we weren’t full we ordered dessert. They brought me the wrong one but I’d lost the will to complain and ate it anyway. It was the best thing I had which is ironic. Louise had cheesecake which was pretty much what you’d get from Asda.

We left £65 the poorer with no intention to return. Any place can give you a bad experience but if the food is bobbins like that we won’t be back. The service was OK though.

See. You deny me going to Florida and I end up giving you food reviews of some chain restaurant in a shopping centre. The whole experience just served to remind me, as if I needed reminding, of the dining experiences we are currently being denied over in Florida. This thought did not help with my digestion.

Rumour wise this week there was talk of Biden thinking about thinking about making a plan that may include allowing vaccinated folks in. My feeling now is that this probably won’t happen in time for October but I know nothing.

We now seem to be in a willy waving death match between Biden and DeSantis, the latter seeing the death of others as a stepping stone to a Presidential run. I always thought Florida’s stats on their own wouldn’t affect Biden’s overall decision on reopening the borders but again I was wrong. I would imagine Florida is the number one state for tourism and is also of course also the number one state for COVID, vaccine hesitancy and deranged Governor’s. Until things settle down in The Sunshine State I think any change to border policy is unlikely.

Maybe we are destined to perpetually move this trip back a month at a time for the rest of time?

Anyway, I can’t spend all day here. There are strangers on the internet with an incorrect opinion that I need to put right. It seems I am taking my frustrations out on vax sceptics on socials. It passes the time. My frustration at not knowing if we are going, still, grows almost as quickly as Florida’s COVID stats.

Till the next time…,.