So far in Saltash. . . .

As some of you may know, I moved to Saltash in June. I thought I would share my experiences so far. . . .

Firstly, The area I live in is fantastic. The neighbour across the road, Mike, Introduced me to various other neighbours. I can now say hello to people in the morning as I shuffle around.
I am literally a 5 min walk from the shore. Don't expect a beach though, the path at the bottom of the road leads to an estuary cove. Mostly rocks, but fishable come high tide.

In the holiday season, it is a nightmare to get around. In winter, the drive to Looe is about 20 minutes. In the summer, its nearly an hour. Between July and August, the local main road has at least one accident a day due to the careless grockle's not knowing how to drive in Cornwall. Now autumn is here, I am looking forward to the roads being quiet again.

Looking for work has been troublesome. I applied to a local bus company who advertise every week. But as yet, I have heard nothing. I managed to re-apply last week though, so I am hopefuls that something will come of it.

I also had an interview in early August for a nice little job that would have seen me retire out on it. However, since the interview everyone has been on holiday and last I heard was it would be the 18th of September before I hear anything, if I hear anything.

In the meantime, I have been doing some weekend work at a biomass plant, operating the telehandler with a bucket to feed the station. Its 12 hours a day Saturday and Sunday, but it's not bad money for 2 days work. It isn't permanent, but once I find full time work, I will keep it going for pocket money.

I don't miss Chippenham. It was a shit hole. I miss some of the people I used to work with. Sheppy, Giddy, Mr T and Jim. But the stress of that place was getting me down so I had to move on. I tried explaining my issues with my superiors who dismissed them. I gave up.

I also miss Ben and Mel on Heart Wilts. Still haven't listed to the local one. But used to love tweeting the show in Wilts.

One downside is that the course fishing around here is quite restrictive. There is a fishery up the road called bake Lakes, but fisherys tend to be guaranteed catching. I miss the thrill of walking a canal to find the fish.

Loads of sea fishing though. However, I have only ever caught one fish in all my years sea fishing. I will be hitting the shores more often around here to get some fishing in. I need to do more research on it.

Anyway, bottom line? I love living in Cornwall.

Chippenham Pizza Hut

So after an exhausting day involving Christmas shopping, and visiting my ill father in hospital, my partner and I decided that we were not going to cook this evening.

After a purely scientific decision (coin toss) we decided to visit Pizza Hut in Bath road, Chippenham.
We got there and found a half full establishment. After a reasonable wait, we were chaperoned to a table in a very busy corner, where my partner had to move the table to get behind it, and I had to put my chair off to one side so I did not interfere with the customers eating on the table behind me.

After deciding on what we wanted to eat, the waitress came and sat on the table beside us, to take our order. After telling her I wanted a stuffed crust, I was told we are out of stuffed crust. I switched to another crust, and carried on with our order. We also decided on a unlimited drinks, and we were offered the free salad bar.

Upon getting to the bar, we found that there were 10 containers missing, and the remaining containers were either empty or as near as dammit empty. (Apart from sweetcorn, but no one eats that shit anyway).

In disgust, I replaced my bowl and retreated to the drinks machine where I eventually found a clean glass, and put it under the tap. All the flavours were out of stock except the vanilla (Again, who drinks that shit?) So I opted for a straight Pepsi Max. And all I got was fizzy brown water. There was no flavour syrup in it at all.

In disgust, Mrs Clunk went to complain and asked for the manager. The waitress that seated us went to find the manager, then came back asking us what the problem was. She explained briefly, then went off to get the manager who eventually appeared. When we voiced our disgust at the available service, we were met with a blank stare, and a careless attitude, with a pathetic half arsed attempt at an apology that lacked any form of sincerity (I must question if she is human). In disgust, we cancelled our order and went elsewhere.

After previously eating here and being happy with the service, it was somewhat of a shock to find it in such a poorly managed state. the salad bar wasn't 'just' empty, it had been empty for some time. The cordial machine had been empty a while, judging by the amount of half full glasses surrounding it. I don't think myself or Mrs Clunk will be returning anytime soon.

But a big thank you to Lee's Chippy in Redlands who provided us with the service we required.