An eye opener

Today I spent 4 hours on a Speed Awareness Course offered in some areas as an alternative to points on a licence and a fine. (Cost of course = £80)

Among many other things covered we were asked what excuses we might give an officer of the law for our excessive speed. All, of course, were pretty laughable.
The instructor told us the tale of a hospital consultant who didn't even stop. He just wound down his window and dangled his stethoscope out of it.
The police pulled up alongside him and dangled handcuffs out of theirs.

36 in a 30, in case you're interested.
And not proud.

Saturday

The chill in the air yesterday meant a hot chocolate frenzy. An order for 3 was followed by an order for 5 then a respite of just one and then SEVEN hot chocolates. Which left us scrabbling around for mugs.
In the lunch department this was mirrored by the demand for ham and cheddar panini.
And Witches' Brew Soup (pumpkin, onion, garlic, pinch of cumin, pinch of cinnamon).
Spooky how everyone wanted the same thing.

A far, far better thing

Monday was our annual day trip to France (involves three days away - don't ask) and this year was one of the very best of the past nine. We've created this tradition with mates and it means we have enough wine to last til - ooh, next weekend.
The tea rooms were busy on Monday but fairly calm on Tuesday so I had no idea what to expect from yesterday. I'd advertised locally that we were hosting a jewellery and accessories sale, and I'd sent a few emails. Fi from Elements brought her autumn collection of jewellery and bags and my mate Clare brought her knitting. She sat in the corner like Mme Defarge and turned out short frilly scarves which sold like hot cakes. Fortunately so did the cooler cakes, and the soup, and the panini. And the jewellery as always.
Today it's pouring down from a gloomy sky.
I was told when I started out in business all that time ago (20 months) that one should always have a contingency plan for when the worst weather happened.
So I went to the pub for lunch with Mme Defarge and our families.

Tricky

Saturday was international visitors day.
We had folks from France, South Africa, Holland, Colombia and the USA. Most everyone spoke brilliant English but one thing made me realise just what a difficult language we have. One of the Dutch ladies asked us for a plowmans (pronounced as in BLOW) and then a very pleasant young French man, doing a work placement in Burton on Trent, ordered "three quiche and a pluff-mans".
His pronunciation of "quiche" was ok I suppose.
Though through enough thought and practice he might learn hough to say plough.

Wicked

I've started to make cobweb cakes, I've ordered some pumpkin-shaped biscuits from Angela, I've got to look out my recipe for Witches' Brew soup.
Friday is set aside to decorate the tearooms.
I've asked my neighbour to carve a couple of pumpkins for me - she's got skill and patience in abundance. Last year she carved a wolf's face, a haunted house and a witch on a broomstick. Put my two triangle eyes, odd-shaped nose and huge, tooth-filled mouth (on the pumpkin) to shame.
I never used to like Halloween (or is it Hallowe'en?) but the scope for fun is just too great to resist.

It's oh so quiet.

I expected the same of Sunday as I'd had on Saturday. After all, the weather was pretty similar. Ah foolish me.
It was not busy by any reckoning. I now have the awful problem of lots of leftover cake.
Of course the lack of busy-ness meant the remaining older dishwasher was able to cope all too well.
Trying to get the new one fixed before half term.

Crossed Wires

It began a lovely bright, chilly autumn day and warmed up significantly in the afternoon.
The coach party went well. We'd had a call from the driver, Mike, en route from Cheshire to tell us what everyone wanted to eat: soup and sandwiches. He also said that a few of them had brought their own lunches but may want tea and cake...
"That's fine of course," I said, "so long as they know that we don't allow people to eat their own food in the tea rooms."
Silence.
There are picnic areas in the Court, or they can eat on the coach," I continued, "and I did mention this yesterday to the coach company."
"I didn't know any of that," Mike said, "and I don't know what to tell them. How are they going to eat their soup?"
Once the confusion had been recognised we laughed about it.

I had lots of pleasant conversations with visitors - about the china, the weather, the Church, the plants, the Winter closing.
And then someone said: "Well if we don't see you before, have a nice Christmas."

Crossing the Floor

A good week drinking other people's lattes and eating other people's cake.
There are some really lovely places around here. Yesterday I went to a rural pub which has been converted into a café - lovely coffee (x2), homemade apple cake (x 1) and a big dark leather sofa to chat on.
I could get used to the other side of the counter.

In a Jam

I thought I'd got away with a season without many breakages, apart from the occasional dropped tray and chipped cup.
I had just commented how lucky I'd been compared to last season.
I should never ever say such things out loud.
On Saturday the soup blender went CLICK, tripped the electrics and refused to work again. However it's done sterling work and has paid its dues.
On Sunday the dishwasher I bought last year started making a dreadful noise and burning smell. I had expected its sterling work to continue for a lot longer...
Not brilliant things to happen just before a coach party on Saturday.

The Great Witley WI ladies laughed at my stories and clapped at the end. What more could I ask? I ended with the tale of the woman who went to the toilet in the garden (9th August). It made one woman's jaw drop. Literally.

Lost

We had the "flat white" thing again.
Two Australian ladies and a Brit came. Brit wanted tea (God bless 'er). One Aussie asked for a "large flat white".
"I know what that is," I said, checking, "it's a two-shot latte with foam."
"No," she said, "I just want a black coffee that I'll put some cold milk into. That's a flat white."
I'm confused.
Still, they left very nice comments in the visitors' book.


A pleasant day when folks came in waves.
The last wave was a group of about a dozen walkers carrying backpacks who all had tea and cake. I took one man his order and told him their timing was very good, they'd made it to us half an hour before we closed.
He looked up:
"I've no idea where I am" he said.

To Diet For

Today has been lovely. The weather wasn't brilliant, but the people it brought to us were fabulous. We haven't been too busy, but neither were we too quiet, so it's been an easy-going sort of a day. Among the lovely people were a couple from the Isle of Wight. They first came in June apparently and had our Afternoon Tea special. Today they approached the counter with confidence. They didn't ask if they could have coffee instead of tea with the AT deal, they KNEW they could. What's more, en route from North Wales to Somerset, they had made a radical detour to come again. I forced them to write in the Visitors' Book.
Two other nice comments today:
"The ploughmans was spot-on"
and
"Scones to die for".
Let's hope Saturday hasn't swallowed up all the lovely people and that some have been left for Sunday.

Something else I learned today. A dog that looks like a red setter and isn't is probably a flat coated retriever (I won't make that mistake again).
It's the breed that won Crufts you know.

WI speech still needs lots of work.

The Beginning of the End (of the season)

The colour's back in his cheeks and my hair.
The appendix remains in situ.
Tomorrow it's back to work preparing for the weekend.
I'll do a big shop then cook a ham and roast some veggies for the panini and try to sort anything else that we'd ordinarily have on an ongoing basis in the fridge. Like grated cheese.
I might even bake a lemon drizzle cake if I can remember how.
I'd forgotten how tricky this end-of-season, weekend-opening, lark can be.

And it's my WI talk on Monday....

A real pain

It was my first proper day off yesterday, so I sent my son to school with stomach ache, took the dog for a loooong walk and sat around reading the parish magazine and looking forward to my long-awaited hair appointment this morning.
This morning I cancelled the hair appointment when the doctor told me there's a 50/50 chance he has appendicitis.

Running Out (of steam?)

The hot & sunny weather lasted all weekend which meant it felt a little like a Bank Holiday.
On Saturday we ran out of ham for the first time ever.
Orders came for so many ham salads, ham and cheddar panini and ham sandwiches that the great big gammon we'd cooked dwindled to nothing.
On Sunday we ran out of granary bread.
I opened today. Usually when October comes we're only open at weekends but the forecast was so good I couldn't bear the thought of all those Court and Church visitors wandering around in need of tea and cake on a beautiful sunny afternoon.
Am shattered now and refusing to check the weather forecast.
Any visitors tomorrow will have to bring a flask.