Day 41 – Overkill

There is no doubt that when it comes to health and safety – especially at the moment – more health and safeties is better.

My usual supermarket was closed today because one or more of the staff had tested positive for Covid-19 and they were disinfecting everything. I was forced to go elsewhere, and what I found wasn’t great. Limited opportunity for social distancing, because the checkout queues ran right down the shopping aisles, a security guard at the door so distracted that he let anyone and everyone straight in, and worst of all, plenty of staff with face masks around their necks instead of over their faces. It just all felt really unsanitary and unpleasant.

And let’s not even mention the old lady that touched my arm.

(Everyone survived.) (So far.)

Anyway. What I wanted to announce is that our favourite sushi delivery service is back in business under Level 4 and emailed us yesterday to tell us so. They’re taking H&S very seriously, but maybe they have gone a little overboard…

I mean, just because you can do something, doesn’t necessarily mean that you should do it, right? Check out the last paragraph here:

You’ll be sharing what now?

What on earth am I meant to do with that?
Congratulate him on being alive? Offer him a jumper?

Seriously, what use is this? Because presumably, if his temperature is hovering somewhere around the 40 degree mark, he’ll either not be at work, or if he is, you will have decided not to send him out to my house on an infection delivery run.

I would hope.

The rest of those precautions sound fairly robust though, and we might treat ourselves later this month, depending on how the money is going. And just so we can see how hot our driver is before he even arrives at the front gate.

Tipping point

Incoming from Uber Eats, who we occasionally use to order ribs, pizzas, burgers and several other unhealthy – but nearly always enjoyable – items. Great news – you can now tip your driver. Officially.

There will be some of you who have already worked out that you slip your Butlers or Oishi delivery guy a few extra Rands for his trouble, so why not your Uber Eats guy too?

The thing is, the joy of Uber Eats is that it’s a cashless system, so it’s not always possible to find a R20 note without a bit of forethought. And although Butlers and Oishi also offer a cashless option in the form of Snapscan, there’s the option to add your tip there and then.

OK – we’ll continue with this in just a second, but already, I can see that there will be some people who will take issue with that photo. Stereotypes in the race of the driver, the race of the customer, and the fact that she seems to be working for Starfleet.
The fact is that every Uber Eats driver we have ever had has been black (and male* – hence my ubiquitous use of ‘he/his’ in this post), every time we have used Uber Eats, I have been white, and conveniently, it turns out that the beagle is a huge fan of Star Trek, so there you go.

And now back to the post…

Interestingly, when we do offer our Uber Eats driver a cash tip they are always surprised and delighted. This suggests to me that this is a rather unusual practice. It shouldn’t be that way though, surely?

Well, now it doesn’t have to be:

That seems pretty straightforward, now doesn’t it?

I’m not sure exactly how the Uber Eats pricing model works and how much of your order price goes to the driver, but I’d wager that 1) it’s not very much and 2) if you’re using the system as a customer, then you’re probably able to share a bit of the wealth with the guy who just saved you going out to the local takeaway joint in the no rain.

Do it.

 

* did I just assume his gend… Yes. Yes I did. Get over it. 

D-Day

Not the infamous Normandy landings. My very own D-Day – it is [drum roll] Drone Delivery Day. Yes, finally, almost 2 years after the start of the whole Lily debacle, it all ends today. Hopefully, anyway.
The call came through on Wednesday afternoon that the shipment from the US of A had arrived in the R of SA and that my name was on the list to be one of the lucky recipients of the units therein. Delivery was promised yesterday or today (but probably today), and since nothing much happened yesterday, I’m imagining that today is D-Day – hence the title of this post.

Drone Delivery Day. So should that be DD-Day? Double D Day?
Or is that a bit too big (careful now).

[here are a long gap in writing]

Sorry – I got dragged away there. Strategy meeting – hours of it. Joy and indeed rapture. But there is light at the end that tunnel – and that light might come from the headlights of MY NEW DRONE WHICH HAS BEEN DELIVERED TO MY HOUSE WHILE I WAS IN THE MEETING!

Much like actually arriving in Bergen for the a-ha concert in May last year, I hardly dare believe that it’s happened, and yet the money has long since exited my bank account and the delivery has happened. They’d better not have messed it up. I’m sure they won’t have done, but somehow, a nagging doubt remains.

To be honest that’s probably the last you’ll hear of the whole drone thing. It seems likely that I won’t ever mention anything about it again.

As you were then.