We had a night out
I went to the cinema last night with johnrw. We left home at 5pm and got back around 10pm. Most of the evening was spent in the cinema, some of the time was spent in Pizza Hut. The weird thing is that we didn't actually watch a film!!
We decided to go and see the new Avengers film, last minute, not planned but a fun idea. One slight detour down a wrong street found us arriving in the nick of time for the planned viewing at 5.40pm. The box office was closed but the ticket machines operational. We tried to buy two tickets but the machine was sweet and wouldn't let us have either of the last two available seats because they weren't beside each other.
Pizza Hut, somewhere I haven't been for at least twenty years is across the car park from the Odeon so we decided to eat. Hell on earth, it would appear, is Pizza Hut at child-o'clock on a Saturday evening. We were found a table, it was sticky. The menus were sticky, the plates were sticky. Pizza Hut was sticky.
We eventually found items we felt we could eat and ordered. There was no gas, apparently, so drinks were limited to diluting juice, apple juice, alcohol or coffee.
Conversation was limited over the child babble and twice the lights went out. Lights out means a verse of Happy Birthday To You so the second time it went dark, we were at least prepared.
We survived until 7.30pm when I eventually persuaded someone to take my payment and, bless him, he suggested I go online to get my voucher for next time. NEXT TIME????!!!!!! NOooooooooooo.
The toilets were sticky in Pizza Hut too but I'm still too traumatised to talk about that. I've often felt that God knew I couldn't cope with children because they too are sticky and OCD and sticky are just NOT happy bedfellows.
We were in time to use the ticket machine again but three times it spat out johnrw 's card for payment and then spat mine once. The second machine eventually gave us tickets.
Avengers goes on a bit so we decided to purchase liquid. I say liquid because what I had bore a strong resemblance to detergent. The cheapest option was the Large Popcorn Combo which included liquid for two and obscene quantities of popcorn for the same as two liquids would have cost by themselves, that sum requiring a small mortgage for the purchase thereof. We also received a free Avengers keyring.
The purchase of liquid and corn took a while and we should have been forewarned by the typed signs at each till point apologising for the cancellation of the Titanic - I'm sure many people many years ago would have been grateful for that....
The next queue was to hand over the tickets and collect 3D glasses - the earlier viewing which we couldn't get into had been normal, this next one was "special".
With some difficulty, I managed to access our seats with large popcorn, two drinks, glasses. The floor at my seat was sticky.
We sat, it reached 8pm and the lights went down. We had some adverts which might have been entertaining but we had no picture. The lights went back up. Time passed. The lights went out again. Nothing happened. The lights came up again. We ate popcorn, drank liquid and chatted and then got sarcastic and then the cinema lady appeared to tell us there were technical difficulties.
Lights up, lights down.
Another cinema lady to tell us it was beyond mending, there was no film. A few people with "Guest passes" (later discovered to be the alternative to refund) were herded, slowly, into the 8.30pm screening, non 3D, at around 8.45pm (bet they were popular). The rest of us had to wait. We waited. We ate popcorn, drank liquid and chatted.
We waited for the queue of people queuing to get a refund or a "Guest pass" to subside before the long stand for a refund. We waited. We ate popcorn, we finished drinking liquid. We joined queue but queue was evil and went through doors and round corners and we stood. We stood a lot.
We escaped eventually, me still clutching the large popcorn. It was about 9.30pm.
This morning we had popcorn for first breakfast!
We decided to go and see the new Avengers film, last minute, not planned but a fun idea. One slight detour down a wrong street found us arriving in the nick of time for the planned viewing at 5.40pm. The box office was closed but the ticket machines operational. We tried to buy two tickets but the machine was sweet and wouldn't let us have either of the last two available seats because they weren't beside each other.
Pizza Hut, somewhere I haven't been for at least twenty years is across the car park from the Odeon so we decided to eat. Hell on earth, it would appear, is Pizza Hut at child-o'clock on a Saturday evening. We were found a table, it was sticky. The menus were sticky, the plates were sticky. Pizza Hut was sticky.
We eventually found items we felt we could eat and ordered. There was no gas, apparently, so drinks were limited to diluting juice, apple juice, alcohol or coffee.
Conversation was limited over the child babble and twice the lights went out. Lights out means a verse of Happy Birthday To You so the second time it went dark, we were at least prepared.
We survived until 7.30pm when I eventually persuaded someone to take my payment and, bless him, he suggested I go online to get my voucher for next time. NEXT TIME????!!!!!! NOooooooooooo.
The toilets were sticky in Pizza Hut too but I'm still too traumatised to talk about that. I've often felt that God knew I couldn't cope with children because they too are sticky and OCD and sticky are just NOT happy bedfellows.
We were in time to use the ticket machine again but three times it spat out johnrw 's card for payment and then spat mine once. The second machine eventually gave us tickets.
Avengers goes on a bit so we decided to purchase liquid. I say liquid because what I had bore a strong resemblance to detergent. The cheapest option was the Large Popcorn Combo which included liquid for two and obscene quantities of popcorn for the same as two liquids would have cost by themselves, that sum requiring a small mortgage for the purchase thereof. We also received a free Avengers keyring.
The purchase of liquid and corn took a while and we should have been forewarned by the typed signs at each till point apologising for the cancellation of the Titanic - I'm sure many people many years ago would have been grateful for that....
The next queue was to hand over the tickets and collect 3D glasses - the earlier viewing which we couldn't get into had been normal, this next one was "special".
With some difficulty, I managed to access our seats with large popcorn, two drinks, glasses. The floor at my seat was sticky.
We sat, it reached 8pm and the lights went down. We had some adverts which might have been entertaining but we had no picture. The lights went back up. Time passed. The lights went out again. Nothing happened. The lights came up again. We ate popcorn, drank liquid and chatted and then got sarcastic and then the cinema lady appeared to tell us there were technical difficulties.
Lights up, lights down.
Another cinema lady to tell us it was beyond mending, there was no film. A few people with "Guest passes" (later discovered to be the alternative to refund) were herded, slowly, into the 8.30pm screening, non 3D, at around 8.45pm (bet they were popular). The rest of us had to wait. We waited. We ate popcorn, drank liquid and chatted.
We waited for the queue of people queuing to get a refund or a "Guest pass" to subside before the long stand for a refund. We waited. We ate popcorn, we finished drinking liquid. We joined queue but queue was evil and went through doors and round corners and we stood. We stood a lot.
We escaped eventually, me still clutching the large popcorn. It was about 9.30pm.
This morning we had popcorn for first breakfast!