Enjoy The Film

There is only a number of days to go before the site is open to the public. Seven in fact. The first day is for family and friends. The second day is for VIPs. The third day is the soft launch and the fourth day is the media launch. But you’d never guess it from looking around the site. First off is that it’s not all open to us the workers. The builders are still building. Next off the site is quite simply full of stuff. Stock and equipment is everywhere sharing space with the builders tools and rubbish. A consequence of this is that no one knows where anything is or even if it has arrived. Carlsburg, Ben and Jerries, and Coffee Republic are on site to train us but it’s not that easy. The East European trainer for Ben and Jerries is missing equipment. The French coffee trainer is also missing equipment. The Cheshire know-it-alls from Carlsburg have a leaking bar. But they can’t even turn that into a decent joke.

So as we weave round the site dodging various hazardous piles and grinding in the the muck and dust in to the new carpets (not that all the screens have new carpets yet) we suspend our disbelief that this site will really be ready. But, hey, the kids don’t care because they get to line their stomachs with delicious Bohemian Rhapsody ice cream.; the Carlsburg training is a damp squib as they want to drink the beer not the wine (those that do drink – as well as religious reasons some just don’t – good on them); the coffee training (the man spent an hour teaching us what can be reduced to pressing a button, these kids are the internet generation for heavens’ sake) is hilarious as the kids will only drink the hot chocolate.

Popcorn training? Box Office training? Forget it – the popper is stuck in customs and the box office is, well, it just isn’t ok?