Bank Holiday that is........... we've just got ourselves rested and sorted after Easter and blow me another Bank Holiday is nearly upon us! Everyone says that this first May bank holiday won't be as busy as the Whitsun - but we already have quite a few bookings. Noteably a 'Hen' party this weekend coming - but I'm advised they're quite refined and perhaps not the hen parties of Portsmouth I've been privvy to!! It's been quite a quiet week or two following Easter - but we've not been sorry in a few ways as it's given us a chance to look at what worked(in terms of staffing and menu's) and also I can't really tell you what the sheer exhaustion of that busy week was like.
I was listening to Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 this lunchtime and they were discussing that old chest nut of having a supposedly 'cushy' life in Local Government...... when I worked for various Local Authorities, NHS and Housing Association I always felt that the majority of my colleagues and myself worked really quite hard - particularly when I was in the homeless department at Portsmouth City Council, but there is absolutely nothing on this earth that compares with being self employed in the Pub business! I can not begin to explain to any of you reading this just what hard graft it is to do the work we do........Of course the rewards are good - you are your own boss, you can come and go as you please, your outgoings aren't massive in terms of every day living and we have met some fabulous customers.
But then there is the flip side - on average SOH and I do most days a 14 - 17 hour day - and that is almost every single day. We have just agreed to take one whole day off each week and we are quite lucky in that we have a couple of days away over the next month. Then there is the fact you are always on call - unless, as I've started to do you ask not to be disturbed for an hour or two in the afternoon unless it's life or death!! There is always and I do mean always something to do - whether it's never ending paper work, recruitment / HR issues or simply changing a barrel of beer (I'm getting better at that!). On the note of having the odd day off we are both off to Truro tomorrow for a St Austell trade show so that will make a pleasant change. We have so much of Devon and Cornwalll to explore and we have to do it now - or come the summer season we'll be going no-where.
Going back to having met some lovely people we have had some great customers in the last couple of weeks - it's really odd how the very different times of the season bring a totally different range of customer.... lots of couples at the moment old and young and most have been just charming. Last night I met the chap who is a partner in Quba - a clothing shop that makes gorgeous jackets out of sail material - and he and his friend were quite smashing .....apart from wanting to call me Auntie Liz (in the agony aunt role!!). Tonight I met a man who went to the same Junior school as me in Portsmouth and at the same time as well..... it's a small old world!
Our chickens are doing very well and producing two eggs a day now! They have grown so big as well....... and their characters are developing beautifully. In fact we've just had eggs on toast for tea - and there's no doubt you can taste the freshness of them! We can stand and watch them for ages - I'm actually starting to quite like them! Here are some photo's taken by Lisa Beaney our very good photographer friend.
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