I personally have had the loud gossiping in the galley described by Genius1 from a mature crew from Cape Town. They even continued their conversation when in their crew seats sat right behind me, the main culprit was the purser who was sharing with her subordinates a no-hold-barred conversation about the dreadful T&Cs.
I have no problem with people learning at all, be it in a hospital (where after politely asking, I agreed to let a newbie remove the metal staples from my shoulder whilst under supervision) or on board a BA flight where they may not be able to remember the exact config of that flight (hell, even I don't know what is being served sometimes so surely the new crew can be too!).
Better that they learn correctly rather than how it used to be which was "get on with it and don't bother me". I am sure one of the very experienced cabin staff who post on here can pass comment on their first day at BA and being made to feel microscopic by the Purser/CSD/etc because they weren't A-1 perfect on their first flight.
I still would not fly on a mixed fleet flight. Not worth it by various threads on here and I have personally overhead conversations about crew using service routine booklets as they go along in the cabin on an HND flight including the managers. Totally unacceptable for a full service airline.
I actually know somebody who works in Mixed Fleet, they worked for years at a carrier you would easily associate in your top 5 before moving to BA (before mixed fleet came along) and was in a cabin management role. They then left the company to do something else for a few years but moved back to BA under mixed fleet because the "something else" did not work out. A
very experienced person as good as
any cabin crew out there on the network.
I am about to take my first LGW long haul flight on Friday, if I am lucky Baconroll will be on board (but I suspect not) and SRG would be at check-in (she will not be). I shouldn't see any difference between flying from Gatwick, City or Heathrow, but I know from flying domestic and european that on the whole, I have a more positive experience from the LGW crew. Does this mean LGW crew are the best? Of course not, I have had equally fabulous crew from all stations, but for me I find LGW are consistently better and LCY are consistently worse.
The food on the other hand, is the polar opposite with LCY being by far better and LGW being at times downright diabolical.