Re teh restaurant - we had *exactly* the same thing happen to us last night in Solihull! Walked in to TGI Fridays, got ignored for 5 minutes, then a harassed-looking waiter rushed over and the first thing he said was 'there's a ten minute wait for tables'. I looked round the almost-empty restaurant and said 'huh?' and he made some excuse about having to cover the whole place on his own - on a Friday night, on Halloween, on the last day of half term. O.o Either he really was on his own and the management want walloping, or he was lying. Either way, we said 'um, no, maybe not', wandered off and had a meal at a posh burger place instead.

How weird that we both had the same thing on the same night!