Today marks four weeks since we opened our doors to the public. Four very quick weeks gone in a flash. And there has been no more fitting ways to celebrate this first milestone with a busy busy pub! Phew! busy and now some very sore feet, but I'm not complaining.
To compound the busyness of the day, I was egged on to do another trip to the bloody wholesaler. Autopilot, Mandy, engaged, even she said 'what! Booker again!' Again I'm not complaining, the service was good, the prices were right and even the in house butcher knows exactly what I want. But the trip today did expose Mandy's weakness, her so far perfect directions managed to get me lost - not to Booker obviously because I drive that route while still sleeping, but to another place today which according to their website was only a stones throw from Stoke. Well, if you think 15 km other side of Stoke is a stones throw then winning the discus or shot put next year will be a doddle. And Mandy, you need to pick your game up. Your enticing voice may yet lead me into temptation but only as long as your directions are right. You have been warned.
All this, while our international movers arrived with the way to big to get into our car park lorry so almost left and would have had I not seen them outside and ran to intercept them. Much to their happiness I insisted on them carrying all 135 cartons and packages in the front door of the pub and up 2 flights of stairs. When we packed up this stuff, way back in SA, 12 happy Pickford people turned up to pack and that took the best part of all day. Today, to carry all this stuff upstairs and unpack it all onto a flat surface as per the contract they sent...wait for it...waaaaaait......2 people! There. Yes 2 people, one about 65 years old, the other in his late twenties. And carry they did and sweat they did and sort of half unpacked they did too. Pleasant enough guys but overwhelmed with what they had to do in the time they had to do it in.
So, this means that we are left to unpack boxes and boxes of stuff that we have paid for them to unpack. Is it even worth the fight? Hopefully some big wig from Pickford's will one day read this and do something about it...somehow I doubt it. But let it be a lesson for those wanting to move home or country. Tomorrow we shall attempt again to have a go at the mountains of boxes still piled on top of each other. Tomorrow we shall also have a go at trying to find a home for the billions of pieces of crockery that we have. I had no idea that we had so much stuff. There is piles of it but there has also been a laugh or two today...one notable moment was me opening a padded and wrapped in export flutes cardboard item that turned out to be a kids plastic hula hoop. Nothing else in the packaging. Just a hula hoop. Once again I have contributed to my size massive carbon footprint. I shall shortly be receiving a club card from the illegal deforesters of the Amazon at the rate that I am going. Whole swathes of deforested rain forest are being named after me. They shall drink cheap tequila in my honour. And I try to be normal. Really I do. Is it really that difficult to be normal? I suppose you wouldn't know because if you can persevere with reading this drivel everyday you cannot possibly be normal.
Anyway, that's my lot for the day. Have a fab Friday - for us its gonna be a busy one as its the final bank holiday of the year. Bring it on!
Until tomorrow.
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