March 2008

Monthly Archive

March 27, 2008

Can I have a grande skinny latte to go?

Posted by Robyn Hawkins under food & drink
[2] Comments 

Clearly the answer is no.

I never really understood why some people dislike Starbucks so much. Yeah, the drinks are overly priced, but I figured that it’s pretty much worth it if you like your drink, plus you get a nice atmosphere in which to read, or have lengthy conversations with friends. Some may argue that the drinks contain ridiculously high amounts of calories, but with the option to have skimmed milk and no cream, I thought that it wasn’t a problem. Yes, I have always been pretty pro-Starbucks, but that was because I had not had any unpleasant experiences. That’s not to say I won’t go there again. I’m just not its biggest fan right now. This is what happened:

I decided that I wanted to get a coffee to drink on my way home from the shops, so I went into Starbucks. I didn’t have my glasses on, so I couldn’t read the prices. I have memorised the price of a tall latte, because that is what I usually have, but I really fancied a grande today. I politely asked the woman in front of me if she could read the price out for me. She informed me that it was £2.40. Shortly after, it was my turn to order my drink, so I clearly asked for a grande skinny latte to go. Grande. Skinny latte. To go. Not difficult is it? The woman seemed to understand what I asked for, so I paid my £2.40 and went to the end of the counter to wait.

A ridiculously long amount of time passed. An annoying number of people who had ordered their drinks after me received their drinks before me. Eventually, one of the employees acknowledged my existence and asked what I’d ordered. I told her that I had ordered a skinny latte to go. I waited for a further five or so minutes, bringing my total waiting time up to about twenty or so minutes, and then my tall skinny latte to go arrived. Sorry, what? Tall? Now, I’m not one to complain, so I took my drink and sort of tried to ignore the fact that I had paid 35p more than I should have for what I had been given, put some sweetener in it, and left the shop. Unfortunately, to top it all off, the drink really did not taste very nice. Joy. So basically, what I am getting at, is that the service in the Starbucks in Sutton Coldfield is terrible. There you go. Now avoid it. Or not.

 

March 12, 2008

Expressions

Posted by Robyn Hawkins under music
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In the words of Patrick Wolf, it’s wonderful what a smile can hide.

 

March 12, 2008

Second chances

Posted by Robyn Hawkins under health
1 Comment 

I know some people may read this and think that I just want attention or sympathy, but I can assure you that that is most definitely not the case. I figured that if I can share this, then maybe some people will start to rethink things a little bit. I’m not trying to preach, I just want to explain some stuff.

It’s been a few years now since I last got help for my problems. I don’t know whether I was actually depressed or anything, but I felt miserable a lot of the time, and reached a really low point when I was about thirteen I think where I basically just wanted to die. I confided in a couple of friends and told them how I was feeling, and they encouraged me to go to the school nurse. The result of this was that I got referred to someone at the hospital, who in turn referred me to a psychologist. I think the only positive thing I can say about going to see the psychologist is that I got to miss Geography once a fortnight. He asked me pointless questions and did not really seem to want to search for the cause of my unhappiness. Instead, he chose to blame my parents for the way I felt, because they have different methods of discipline. It was ridiculous, he even went so far as to tell my parents that he wanted to stop seeing me and start seeing just them. Needless to say, we stopped bothering soon after that. Since then, I had been a lot less unhappy. Sure, I had my ups and downs, like everyone does, but nothing major.

However, recently I started feeling really down again, I guess it’s probably just school and family and everything piling up. I told my mum that I wanted to start seeing someone about my problems, and she said that she could try and sort something out. In the morning of the Friday just gone, I felt particularly terrible, and made the decision to take a load of painkillers. It was something I’d been considering for a long time but had never actually gone through with. I went to school as normal, and told a few of my friends, who were pretty supportive.

When I got home from school in the afternoon, I told my mum and she said I should go to the hospital, to make sure that I had not done any damage to myself or anything. I agreed, and just assumed I would only be there for a few hours. I had to have a blood test, and it came back fine, which was pretty lucky. However, the people at the hospital said that I would have to stay in until Monday to speak to someone who wasn’t there at the weekend.

Monday came, and I spoke to a man in the afternoon, I think he was some sort of psychologist or psychiatrist or something, and he asked me if I wanted to talk to anyone about stuff, so I said yes, and I am being referred to someone that I can talk to about my problems, which is absolutely brilliant.

Anyway, the point I have been trying to get to, very long-windedly is that in hindsight, I really should not have been so stupid. What I can say though, is that it has really helped me to realise exactly how much people care, and that just because things get tough, it’s no reason to give up completely. Hopefully things are on the up. :)