public convenience

I've just finished my first week of work in a new job, luckily it was not too taxing. I did get to travel up north to Leicester, requiring a visit to the new St. Pancras International terminal in London. I love the St Pancras building, I think it looks like a farytale castle. I picked my way through the japanese tourists, businessmen and Disneyland bound families, and eventually found the domestic ticket office, tucked shamefully away at the far end of the station. The 'automatic' door didn't work, so I had to squeeze and wrench myself through a small gap to get in and buy my (expensive) ticket. A minor teething problem I thought, especially since parts of the concourse was clearly still under construction, with empty shop units promising all kinds of exotic retail oppourtunities 'very soon'. (although why anyone would want to buy Belgian chocolates at the Eurostar terminal in london is beyond me.. after all, as they keep reminding us, Brussels is only 1 hour and 51 minutes away)

I'll get to the point. The new station was grandly opened only last week by our very own Queen and amid much fanfare and press coverage. Why then, when I went to use the (free) public toilets, was I to find that one of the cubicles was out of order, another had no loo roll, and the next one I tried had a broken lock that didn't actually lock the door, meanwhile of the 2 attendants, one was chatting to a cleaner at the entrance and the other was squeezing her spots in the mirror (YUK!?). frankly I was astonished at the incompetence of the whole service, it just typifies the 'rubbishness' and lack of service that I have sadly come to expect from this country.