Sparkling Or Still?

Have you ever paid a bill in a restaurant and felt as if you just got robbed? Not with a gun and threats, but with a smile and mint? This is what happened to me when I went to Apsara’s for lunch yesterday…

A Guyanese friend was in town and we hooked up for lunch – him raving that he had to go Apsara for the Indian food as recommended by one of his friends back home. (I had to assume after that the friend was filthy rich with a couple of gold mines…)

Unlike most restaurants I go to that just provide a glass of water, the waitress came and asked us if we would like some. When answered in the positive, the ‘sparkling or still’ question should have forewarned us, but being country bumpkins and assuming ‘still’ meant tap water as opposed to some fancy carbonated water, we said still… Along came two bottles of Fiji water in a 1 litre bottle and still no reaction from us.

After a great meal (I like Apsara’s food too) and reminiscing about the days when I travelled to Guyana as part of my job and then we called for the bill. You could have heard the infamous vulgar for the female genitalia with the distinctive Guyanese ‘s’ in front bubbling from within when my friend saw that we were charged TT$45 for the bottle of water plus 15% VAT and 10% service charge – that’s a little more than $G1700 – and we had two…

I agree with those who say our economy is in great shape because we can actually pay for this stupidity when WASA water is just fine. A good example is Blue Waters who pay TT$4 for a cubic metre of water pumped out of the ground (or less) and sells a 400ml bottle for $4. There are 2,500 400ml bottles in one cubic metre so you check profit margin after taking out cost of filtration, bottling and distribution.

Drink carefully.

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