To celebrate Nera's citizenship, many of her family and friends decided to go out for dinner. I might have thought a meal at the pub might have been more typically Australian, but they decided to try out a new Japanese restaurant which has just arrived in town.
We sat on two sides of a large rectangular table, twelve of us, and were given 2 iPads, which had illustrations of the meals on it. We used the iPad to select what we wanted, and the meals arrived on a conveyor belt above our heads. We took the meals, and clicked a RETURN button on the iPad to send the trolley back to the kitchen. If we fancied something else, we ordered it and it would appear in due course. Everything was accompanied by bells and whistles to alert us when something was happening.
The food was good but working out the bill was a nightmare. Each iPad produced one bill and it had to be shared out in some way. Marilyn and I had very little but a couple of fellows opposite were determined to try everything on the menu. I suppose it's the old story: I if you're frugal, you'll end up subsidising someone who spends money as if there's no tomorrow.
It might have been better if each couple had their own iPad for ordering, and maybe that's a refinement the restaurant owners will have to consider.
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