4.

While in the USA recently I went to the cinema twice in New York, both times to AMC Loews, and on both occasions my experience was spoilt by people entering the screen 20 minutes from the end and chatting loudly amongst themselves – seemingly oblivious to the fact that some of us were trying to watch the film. In Paranormal Activity there were people regularly coming in to the screen for a few minutes before leaving again, which was distracting and ruined the tension in the film.

I can only assume that these were people who were waiting to see another film, or had just come out of seeing something else. I noticed that these cinemas only had an usher checking tickets just inside the entrance to the building – so once inside people can potentially stay in the cinema as long as they like. This makes no sense whatsoever, and inevitably leads to problems like those I encountered.

It never occured to me that the recession would affect my movie-going experience, but then again, when I saw Where The Wild Things Are there were about 6 members of staff standing with nothing to do at the refreshments kiosk, while the men's toilets were a scene of complete devastation having obviously not been cleaned since the start of the day. Surely when there is no screening about to start some of those staff could do other things, like clean, or check for valid tickets at the doors to the screens?

Where is the common sense at AMC Loews?

2.

A few days ago I found myself standing at East Didsbury train station in Greater Manchester – which is a small two-platform station operated by Northern Rail, situated 5 miles South of Manchester.

I needed to catch the next train into Manchester Piccadilly, but bizarrely neither platform has any kind of information directing the public which side of the tracks they need to wait on for their destination – the most basic piece of information a train station needs to provide to its users. Both platforms have identical timetables, but no information about which platform is for which direction.

In the end I had to find a local bus stop, which luckily had a decent map of the area in the bus shelter, and I established from there which direction the trains would be going for Manchester Piccadilly. I wasn't alone in my confusion either. As I waited for the train, literally everyone who arrived on the platform was asking me if that was the correct side for Piccadilly. I'd love to know how Northern Rail expect anyone who isn't familiar with the Manchester area to know where to stand.

Once I finally caught the train, the Conductor on the train was working so inefficiently that a number of passengers including myself made it all the way to Piccadilly without buying a ticket – the Conductor had not reached us by that point. This was a small consolation for a miserable experience walking backwards and forwards between the platforms in the freezing rain at East Didsbury.

Photos by Gene Hunt.