Palpitations

This morning was...interesting.
Jane, who works at Witley Court, came in for coffee and a chat during her rounds at 10.15.
She mentioned in passing that a large group was coming to see the Court, and added that they were coming to us at the tearooms before their tour...
"Are they?" I asked.
These were the only two words I could get out of my mouth, which had gone very dry.
She said the group had emailed yesterday to say I knew all about it, that there were 30 of them coming for tea and cake. And joy of joys that they were from a tourist organisation.
Oh and they were due at 1020. In five minutes time...
By now I had picked up the phone and dialled Sara who wasn't due in until midday.
And my brain was whirring with questions about whether I might pull this off...or more likely fail abysmally.
And a little bell of recognition was sounding in my head about a booking for 30 people in the tourist industry.
But there was nothing in the diary.

Jane radioed the Court to find out more.
And discovered that they are in fact coming on OCTOBER 26th, not September.

It took me a few minutes and a large latte to recover.
At lunchtime a five month old girl called Isla, with huge brown eyes, almost made me forget the trauma of the start of the day.