The winds howled and the rain fell last night. Relentlessly.

The morning dawned grey and wet and even slightly chilly for the middle of summer. It was a morning unfit for anything photographically appealing.

It was the sort of morning that was mood-affecting. It was almost 07:00 before I was shaved and showered and ready to go, which is 1 to 2 hours later than normal for me. I hit the gym, which I normally do for a bit over an hour, but was still there an hour and a half later. A rain depression had moved in overhead after I arrived and was in no hurry to leave. It was either keep working out, or learn to swim back to the car.

I had packed the camera, but at the time I left I wasn't sure what to do with it. Doubly so since I would have preferred to do something brighter and more cheerful given that my last few shots have been in a darker tone. But neither weather nor light would cooperate. I therefore had to pull a card from my virtual "emergency shots" deck. So after the gym I decided that I needed to bite the hash brown and head to a local Maccas (as they are called in Australia) to illustrate a pattern that I have noticed.

For context, I don't make it a habit to come here but occasionally it can be useful if I need to sit down, fire up the computer and plan out the day before any real cafes are open. Bear that in mind as you read the story below, and consider the random chance of me seeing an incident like the one I will describe.

Does anyone recall the McDonalds of the 1970s to early 2000s? Their goal was to create a "McHappy" place, a family restaurant filled with bright primary colours, lots of light, and horrendously unhealthy but sometimes (not always) tasty if excessively salty and/or sweet food.

The period that I mentioned was one in which most people, most of the time, still had at least a modicum of understanding of the concept of social boundaries. Now, however, people will act out in ways that would have been unacceptable then. Take the last time I was here, several weeks ago. One customer was assuring the person behind the counter that he wasn't being rude, no, he wasn't! It's just that he had been waiting 15 minutes for his food. But no, he wasn't being rude at all!

When he got his food he exited the store with a cheery "Next time I'll f***n' kill ya, ya c**t!" I was very impressed when the McDonalds worker yelled back a light and airy "You have a really great day, now!".

Who could not empathise with and understand this poor, tortured soul who had to wait a whole 15 minutes for his fast food? (If he did. But to be fair, that's not unknown at this store since orders sometimes vanish which isn't helped by the kiosks being in a perpetual state of "printer error".) Why, he probably has PTSD from this experience! Won't SOMEBODY THINK OF HIS MENTAL HEALTH!

Returning to reality, clearly that guy was all mouth and no trousers. However there have been plenty of other incidents of violence at fast food stores across the world, usually by people who have no fear of the consequences. With good reason, in many cases.

Two of the three standalone McDonalds in the region (east Wollongong and this one) have been remodelled in the last couple of years. The third, Fairy Meadow, is in process at the moment.

THIS, what you see here, is the new decor. Light, bright and airy? Gone. Counters? They exist but there are few people behind them, with everyone directed to electronic kiosks to order. Wherever possible human contact is kept to an absolute minimum, making the entire process much more robotic and industrial. The store is filled with darkness with the occasional spots of light which illuminate and bounce off stark, grey concrete walls. Brutalist architects would love these places. In my view the layout is as welcoming as an East Berlin prison, circa 1984.

The two that have been done to date look like this and I'm betting that Fairy Meadow will when it's done too.

So, has someone at the golden arches screwed up? Boh, maybe. But I have a sneaking suspicion that it's intentional. Instead of having light and bright decor to lure people in I suspect that these days they would prefer that people in general and the anti-social elements in particular stay the hell out of the store and buy through either the drive through window or via Uber Eats. To that end the objective is to make it a place as austere and unwelcoming as possible. If that is indeed the objective... then in my opinion they've done a bang-up job of it.

(As an aside, the hash browns weren't bad (it's hard to screw those up), but the alleged "orange juice" that I had with them was essentially ice water with a few drops of colouring to make it pale orange. The menu on the kiosk warned that it "contained allergens". Not at that concentration it doesn't, unless you're allergic to water. The store has a 2.9 / 5 rating on Google. Just saying.)