Who Dunnit?

I was most disappointed this afternoon. There I was in Carrouf doing the week's shop, buying packets of rocket, smoked salmon, chorizo, cheese, nibbles and bread - the sort of thing you make sarnies out of - and when I offered 2 of my Tickets Restaurant, they were refused.

The law on using TR has always been draconian, it just wasn't enforced. Now it is which means I don't think I'll be using them much. You can only use them on weekdays on the sort of food I never or hardly ever buy. You can buy ready-prepared and ready-to-eat meals such as salad and sarnies, and that's about it. You can't use them to buy food to make your own sarnies or salads which I think is most spiteful.

If the Powers That Be think I'll be dashing into a restaurant every day from now on, they can think again. I won't, because I go home for lunch and watch Agatha Christie mysteries on ITV3 followed by Wycliffe. You don't get that in a restaurant. You get, often, average food, served slowly, and I don't eat that much in the middle of the day anyway. One has to consider one's figure...

I won't be buying ready-prepared salads either. They have a funny taste. I occasionally buy sarnies, especially on the road to Nice or back, with my TWDB, but that's not exactly a frequent occurrence. So I'm gutted really, that I can't use Tickets Restaurant in Carrouf any more. It was dead handy. I'll have to try Intermarche instead.

It's funny how I'm going through a phase of watching Poirot and other Agatha Christie mysteries at the moment. When I was sick last week, I watched everything like that I could get my hands on, and if it wasn't AC, it was Wycliffe, and Heartbeat. What's really strange is that when I mentioned this to my mother, she said she's also glued to AC mysteries, and that my brother is going through a reading phase of AC books.

Weird.

Talking of books, apparently I should be on Amazon soon. I'm quite gobsmacked at the prospect. It's not my long-suffering novel that's finally hit the shelves, but the kiddy books I was commissioned to write. Watch dis space!

With GOB

Oh for a GOB. I used to have one. Pal B was my GOB between his divorce and his departure for the US. Having a spare buddy is very useful. A Going Out Buddy, one who you can just go out and have a bit of a laugh with when one's TWDB is not around. Just a laugh. No funny stuff.

I got a Facebook invitation to a fun-sounding 'After Work' at the Compagnie des Comptoirs in Montpellier. Drinkies and tapas in convivial surroundings. Lovely, cool, thought I. Where was my TWDB? Driving to Nice. So that was that.

If I'd had a GOB, I could have emailed her/him or even called, and gone out to spend a jolly evening. Actually, I did spend a jolly evening. I went down the road and had chilli and Eastenders with me mates. Thank god for friends!!

However, I'd also like to go out and taste the evening life of the city. I'm shockingly ill-informed really, but then I'm not going to go by myself. If my TWDB is going to be away, I really need a GOB.

Offers on a postcard.

* * *

Talking of going out, the government are cracking down on laxist Tickets Restaurants (luncheon vouchers) policies. They are supposed to be used by employees who don't have a work cantine to eat in a local restaurant. However, they can also be used to buy foodstuffs in supermarkets, which is where it starts getting complicated.

The regulations stipulate that supermarkets cannot accept more than 2 tickets at a time, but some will take as many as you like. Restauranteurs don't like this saying it's unfair competition despite the fact that they got a huge fiscal pressie with a reduction in VAT to 5.5% last year. Some people are never happy.

If TR were accepted only in restaurants there'd be no problem. The trouble starts when people can go to the supermarket and buy a week's worth of food to make lunches. If you follow the regulations, you would have to go to the shops every week day which, if you're in the car and have limited time, is environmentally unsound and just plain stupid.

Starting in April, shops will be obliged to follow the regulations. The restauranteurs think this will bring more people into their premises, but according to the readers of le Figaro, this is the last thing they intend to do. Reasons given are that they don't have time (1hr including travel to get to a busy restaurant is not a lot), restaurants are too expensive, they only have a MacDo or some unhealthy eatery nearby, restauranteurs have already had a pressie of 5.5% VAT and are now taking the piss with further moaning, and they object to being told where they can eat.

If the fuss is an indication of action, this is the beginning of the end for the TR bonanza.