This week has been a very strange and somewhat stressful one for me and for Mrs Bob, mainly because she has had to deal with me and my reaction to things, which, let’s face it, is not always the most appropriate or mature.

We begin on Saturday, as we travelled down to the deepest darkest depths of Cornwall for a very good friend of Mrs Bob’s Big Birthday party. This involved my good lady driving, and meant that I could have a few beers – something of a rarity these days! We got some lunch at the hotel we were booked into, and relaxed in our room with a spot of TV and reading.

The party itself was not as scary as I had imagined it might be, and after some Jack Daniels and Captain Morgan, I actually had a go at having a conversation with some of the other guests. There were a few times when I screwed up and said the wrong thing, but hey, I’m really not good at peopling. Everyone was totally lovely, though.  The food was wonderful and the music was amazing, and it was topped off with a beautiful poem written and read by the birthday girl’s daughter.  It apparently rained all night too, not that I noticed at all. The following morning, I had something I hadn’t had for a while; in fact I can’t remember the last time I had one…. a hangover! I had to work that evening as well, and we were due to be busy that night. We headed home and stopped off at not one, but three locations for food on the way back home, but the waits were too long.  Eventually, we got food and headed home so we could unpack and relax.

Work that evening wasn’t as bad as it normally is on a Sunday, as a local sports team had cancelled their match and this meant we had 30 less people in. Still,  we had 40 booked in for live music and some cracking pizzas. I had my best front-of-house team on duty, so we managed to stay on top of things all night. By closing time, I really just had the closure checklist to perform, before locking up and heading home to enjoy my “weekend”.

My weekend, which is Monday and Tuesday, was a mixed bag of emotions. I had a nice relaxing day on Monday, working on a new project and an interview for a book, while taking the occasional break to play some online games and read some graphic novels. Tuesday, however, was very different. We had received a letter last week saying that the only road in and out of where we live was going to be closed completely between 7 am and 7 pm, for two days. This would cause problems for us, so we decided to stay at Mrs Bob’s mother’s place, as she wasn’t going to be there.  This meant that we could only use one car, as there was space for only one, and we had to spend two nights away from home.  I am not keen on this, as I don’t like being away from my house or routine. Fortunately, due to the weather,  we only spent one night away from home as the work was cancelled first thing on Wednesday morning.  We hastily packed up and headed home, to be greeted by our adopted house guest, Dog, who was most perturbed that we had dared to leave him alone. This all changed with a nice bowl of food and a snuggle.

it was good to be at home again, as I could properly prepare for the start of my working week, which was brilliant as we ended up being very busy that night.  Last night was just as busy; I had only one table free all night, and one of the chefs had booked the evening off, but we managed to keep everyone happy and have a bit of a laugh.  I even managed to have some great conversations with the guests as well, which is no mean feat. In fact, I’m getting better at the whole small talk business. I must confess that a number of customers were talking about aeroplane engines – a subject I know quite a bit about, as I was in the industry for most of my previous working life. I enjoy also talking about the history of the pub and village, which Mrs Bob has found out about since I started here.

I did doubt that I would be able to do what I do as a job, for a number of reasons; I haven’t managed people in a long time now and the thought of 50 covers in less than three hours was scary, too. But if anything, I have learned this week that if you have a solid, cohesive team in your marriage or at work, then you can achieve anything together.

Stay Safe X