Labour Day

It seems to be raining, although it started sunny and bright. This picture of Alex wasn't taken on Labour Day, but rather about three weeks ago, but it's a picture I love, so I thought I'd share it.

Ree alerted me to the story about the first woman Beefeater - I must say, I thought they'd had one some time ago, but it appears not. So I looked it up on the Guardian's website and Moira Cameron looks very much to me like the Duchess of York. And see, that would seem like a good bit of employment recycling. Fergie, no longer on the Royal A-List, could nonetheless turn her hand to a spot of royal-related Beefeating.

There is a story in our local rags about an arsonist who has set fire to children's playground equipment. That's a pretty mean and pointless thing to do, not to mention that it pollutes horribly. But what makes no sense at all to me is the headline in both papers that declares that an arsonist has spoilt the return to school.
Pulease. It's the return to school that spoils the return to school. Going back to school isn't fun, it's a trial, a bummer, it means the summer's over and both scholar and teacher have to engage once more in that battle of wills.
It is its own nemesis.

An interesting blog in the Guardian brings up the age-old problem of tipping in restaurants. And I agree with much of what the writer says. Why do we tip waiting staff when we don't tip other service workers?
I do also prefer the automatic adding on of a service charge as they often do in France and in some restaurants in Britain or when there is a bigger group.

Here, the norm is to tip 15%, as opposed to 10% in Europe. Although eating out is still much cheaper here than in the UK, and far more part of people's normal activity, when you see the prices on the menu, you need to realise that the real cost is almost 30% more. Prices here don't include taxes and if you add on the tip, it's nowhere near where you started.
The writer also mentions that in Japan, it is considered insulting to tip.
One commentator asks why what people tip should be dictated by the prices in the restaurant, and that is also a good question. Do the servers in expensive restaurants work harder than those in more moderately priced establishments? I think probably the opposite is true.

Another problem in British restaurants, which seems to be so easily solved here, is the apparent impossibility of producing separate bills. I have only ever twice had that situation here, once when we didn't mention that we wanted separate bills until the end, and then we'd all had the same thing anyway, so it was hardly a problem. Another time, the establishment bizarrely said that they wouldn't do separate bills for parties of more than six, but it was printed on their menu so that everyone knew.

Labour Day is nearly over.
And as ever when someone is coming here, the oddness of knowing that when I go to bed, Sleepy will be leaving Portsmouth to come here, when I wake up, her plane will have been in the air for two hours.
Time slippage.