I can't believe I'm saying this, but........

The pub with no name - or beer!!!!!

I am bored!!!! Bored!!!! Bored!!!! A whole week we've been shut, and whilst the first few days were nice lie ins and lazing around - NOW - I'm thoroughly and utterly bored!!!

Yes, a whole week we've been shut! On our last Saturday we had very little food but with creativity from my kitchen team we managed to serve 108 meals.......... SOH had worked the beers exceedingly well and we wasted only a little bit of one beer! So that went very well..........

The team turned up on the following day to strip out the pub and the designer and team with 2 small lorries took away every stick of furniture, bric a brack and countless photos, pictures and mirrors. Then, there we were with an empty pub........... very bizarre it was too! In 6 short hours the Vic went from a busy happy pub with bags of character to a cold and pretty unfriendly shell. We meanwhile, went to another pub in town and looked a bit sorrowful!

The builders turned up the following day on time and by day 4 the Vic was completely and utterly under their spell. Wires (dozen of the buggers) appeared from seemingly nowhere causing a not too small headache for Gary the foreman, walls were knocked down and first coats of paint were applied!
Walls were exposed at the back top of the old restaurant showing brickwork that had not seen light for many hundreds of years - some of which SOH has kept for a rockery in the pub garden.

The cellar has had some additional drainage put in so that SOH can clean it easier (bit of a pain its been - but as it's not my part of ship I can't confess to being awfully interested!) but he was like a child who'd experienced Christmas for the first time.

I popped my head in last week and have to say that I was totally and completely overwhelmed - not just by the fact its a massive building site, but that I can already see the amazing potential of how its going to look when it's finished. But apart from a site visit this week I'm going to stay away and you're not getting any more photos because actually I want to feel the joy of seeing it made over and I want you to experience it too. Also, because doing this blog from my home means I am using my new lap top and have not yet mastered art of putting more than one photo on!!!! So, if you really want to look at what's happening have a look at the Victoria Inn facebook. Sorry darlings!

So what else have I done this week?? Well, I've cleaned and tidied our kitchen cupboards at home, we've been out and bought paint etc for the Hobbit House which also has a makeover whilst we're shut - but we are doing that ourselves. We've also visited another St Austell pub; The Cornish Arms, where we had an amazing meal!

We also took the team out for the day on Wednesday.  We went to Plymouth Gin first which was brilliant - drinking Gin at about 11 in the morning was a bit harsh though....... then to Rockfish for brilliant Fish & Chips. An afternoons bowling with me screaming at the top of my lungs egging on the teams (as well as playing) and finally a so so meal at a chain restaurant in the Bowling complex.

We go on a bit of a buying trip for the pub this coming week as well as taking the chance to pop into Portsmouth and see my family. Menu stuff to do, paper to be sorted for printing menus on, staff uniforms to finalise etc, etc and etc...................