A Pub Landlady's life

Wine in the sun in our beautiful garden

Ok - I thought I'd go back to basics on my blog............ the working title is ' A Pub Landlady's Life'. So let's have a look at a weekend day in this particular landladies life:

Saturday:
8.00a.m Get up
8.30 - first phone call of the day regarding a room reservation for September. Yes 8.30 and yes September!! Blimey - do people think we work 24 hours a day!!
8.40 - 2nd phone call of the day regarding a booking for that evening. Who in God's name wakes up and thinks 'Oh, I must phone the pub and book a table for tonight'........ at 8.40 in the morning!!  Yep - people think we do work 24 hours a day!!
8.45 Shower, clean teeth and put a bit of slap on!
9.15 (A bit of 'slap' is a little bit of an understatement given my advancing age!!) Go to office and start cashing up. Bum! Can't make it tally.... call SOH and he spots my deliberate mistake!! Do associated paperwork etc etc.  
10.30 Phonecall received from member of staff now not now coming in (growl!!!) so as 2 members of staff are on holiday we are really stuffed. It means SOH AND I will have to work today, particularly as we have summer staff in and being trained up still, so they can't be let loose on their own completely yet
11.30 Pub ready to open - check? Open doors - here we go.
11.35 Bugger - realise I've not had breakfast! Run upstairs for yet another coffee, Banana and a cheeky couple of biscuits. Not the best nutritional start - but hey, it's something
11.45 Call restaurant we were planning to go to tonight and cancel! Another potential night off buggered........
 2.30 At last - time to sit and have a bite to eat with SOH. Discuss the possibility for a poorly staffed pub on the following day - must call in 3rd reserve and she says yes! Hallelujah!


4.00 I have to have a rest if I'm working all day and so its a case of telling the staff that unless there is a death, fire or flood we are NOT to be disturbed!! But just in case - I disconnect all the (3) phones in our flat. If it's that urgent I'll be woken up by sirens.
6.30 Off to the bar I jolly well go. Best face forward and a smile to welcome warmly the 150 plus customers who are about to come through our doors in the next couple of hours and eat and drink with us. Being behind a bar is absolutely like being on a stage - customers don't care if you're worn out/clapped out/knackered - and why should they. So for me, it's often like putting on a mask and being sure not to let it slip. Not always easy I can tell you.........
9.00 Not time to stop and eat properly so grab a sandwich on the go
11.30 Last customers leave the pub swaying gently and wishing us a cheery good night
11.45 SOH and I start to clean the pub as weekend cleaner on holiday

12.45a.m SUNDAY morning Coffee in hand we slump on the settee with our little dogs and contemplate our lot knowing that we shall do the same again tomorrow and the next day etc etc.........

A Pub Landlady's life.......In between those times there is all the stuff that's too trivial to even mention - but suffice to say there are not many unoccupied minutes.

A 17 hour day? Sometimes a 12 if we're lucky and not always as frantic as I've outlined above, but not far off it! Still think you might fancy being behind the bar and not in front????? 

In my next blog post I'll share with you our fabulous new summer menu's and the new menu format! Very exciting..........