A brighter prospect

Now that the hanging sign has been reinstated it’s time to unveil the new colour scheme to an eager audience…

The logo on the hanging sign was supposed to have been designed by the signwriter. However he told us that doing an original logo based on the eagle on the front of the building would take far too long – six hours he said.
Lorna dug out the logo we use on our notepaper and traced round it freehand on GIMP. It took about an hour. The picture also features Shirley our camera shy cleaner:)

The new colour scheme has been much admired. The hanging sign looks a bit stark, but its main use is to allow folk to spot us from a distance. And in that respect it seems to work.

I’m still slightly disabled. The wire and splint should be removed next Friday. We’re still hoping to resume evening meals on the 1st of May.

Check up and check in

A brief visit to hospital yesterday to have the dressings on my broken finger changed. Contrary to what I wrote earlier the wire is temporary and should be removed in a couple of weeks. By that time they should also be ready to take the splint off and send me for physiotherapy. That’s the same day we re-start evening meals.

Bookings continue to arrive from Laterooms and directly. While we’re grateful to Laterooms for the bookings they’ve just hiked their commission rates so direct bookings would be even more welcome:)

Guinness

A keg of Guinness (or anything else for that matter) holds 88 pints. We normally don’t sell a great deal of it – maybe twenty pints a week and because of this we don’t order a spare keg until the one we have is half gone.

Last night we had a group of six lads from Limerick in the bar. The all drank Guinness. Lots of it. By the end of the night we’d sold 41 pints and the keg was empty. This presents a problem because our usual supplier doesn’t deliver until Thursday. There are two possible solutions…

One is to use a local supplier in Kelso. This has two drawbacks. One – we have to go and collect it, Two – it will be full price.

The other solution is to scrounge a keg off another establishment and swap back on delivery day. That way we pay our regular price. We still have to pick the damn thing up though and as you’ll know if you’ve been paying attention I’m not exactly able bodied at present.

But the Irishmen said they’d be in tonight again, so we’d better do something.

Cobbled together

Back from the hospital with the permanent addition of a K-wire (wee metal wire) to my right pinky. Hopefully this will hold everything together while the bone heals> Meanwhile Lorna has been doing breakfast for up to 12, cleaning and looking after Frances. A true star.
The operation may have gone well or it may not. I wasn’t there. I could have elected to have it performed under a local but did not particularly like the thought of my finger being cut open while I was there to see it. I spent the afternoon with a blinding headache, though having had a local ring block in my finger on Friday this was probably the lesser of two evils. I have two weeks of antibiotics and several wheelbarrows full of paracetamol.
No dinners til the end of the month then.

Complications

My consultant, having had a closer look at the x-ray has concluded thaty it would be better to attach a metal wire to my broken finger to allow the bone to set properly. I’ll be in hospital tomorrow for that. Meanwhile Lorna is holding the business together with great skill.
I had a day in Glasgow yesterday – probably my last until the end of the season. The official reason was a trip to the dentist but I also managed a trip to my old employers shiny new HQ on the banks of the Clyde and even had time to meet some friends for a pint or two and a genuine Glasgow curry.

Between a rock and a hard place

Off to the BGH (Borders General Hospital) to have my mangled finger examined. The fracture has moved slightly but the consultant seems to think that it will not need pieces of metal inserted into it.
So no dinners until next Monday at the very earliest.

Here’s the offending block of concrete with my wounded paw next to it for scale and sympathy:P
The pity is…

up until then I was getting on quite well.

The best laid plans of mice and men…

I was hoping to report that i had successfully demolished the old boiler shed using nothing more than my bare hands (and an electric jackhammer) but sadly it was me who ended up getting demolished.

All went well until I reached the concrete lintel above the door. I was hoping it would fall inwards onto the pile of rubble but it had other ideas. It fell outwards reducing my right pinky to mincemeat on the way. The afternoon was spent at the local hospital having the broken finger  reset and having aroung 15 stitches in it.

So, no dinners for the  next week or so. We have 13 guests tonight, and Lorna will be doing breakfast tomorrow. I’m fielding black looks from Lorna who has a large signabove her head saying “i told you so”.

And she did. And did I listen?