All roads lead to the Spread

Until last weekend that wasn’t true. The A7 didn’t lead anywhere having been closed by a landslide some three weeks earlier.Whether this affected trade I don’t know; there were certainly fewer people around, but that could have been due to the “credit crunch” (now available in plain or milk chocolate) or other factors. Tonight we had two booked but another six turned up and six had dinner.

We’ve been without a cleaner for the past two weeks. Shirley has been on holiday so the cleaning has been added to my list of must-dos. This made last weekend interesting because I usually do the bar from 12 til 5 but hadn’t factored in Shirley’s absence. Here’s what happened…

Saturday 4.30 a.m. Frances wakes up howling. Teething has been going on far too long and she knows it. Not a tooth to show for all this hardship. For reasons best known to myself I get up and spend a couple of hours rewriting part of the accounting software. Everyone needs a hobby.

Saturday 8.30 a.m. We have ten in for breakfast and they all turn up at once. I’ve been dealing with the problem of how to do breakfast without a waitress in this situation by using the tried and tested management technique of ignoring it and hoping it won’t happen. NASA has used this technique for years. Breakfast is eventually served to all guests.

Saturday 10 a.m. We have six bedrooms to clean. Charlie is here to help, but even so we’re not finished by noon.

Saturday 12 noon. - 5pm Bar

Saturday 5pm. Prep for dinner

Saturday 6pm. Dinner. I can’t remember how many came in, but it was enough to keep us busy.

Saturday 11.30 Bed

Sunday 6am Frances wakes up howling.

So we’re looking forward to Shirley’s return. She’s back on Sunday.

Toothless

Frances, now just a week away from eight months old, is teething. This involves lots of drooling, wailing and general unhappiness on all fronts. Other than that she seems a happy lass and isn’t happy unless she’s either standing up or walking (with back-breaking assistance from Mum or Dad).

After the pandemonium of the weekend it’s returned to sleepy hollow this week. We had nobody in at all on Monday night, a party of seven from Singapore last night and nobody tonight. We did however have four in for dinner which helps keep things jogging along and stops Claire from getting too bored. And nobody in means that I don’t have to get up to do breakfast or cleaning.

Festivities

Jed Festival ended as usual with a bang. Four bangs to be precise, courtesy of the “cannon” which are fired off at 6am on Saturday morning to mark the start of Borders Games Day. Not to be outdone, the street sweeping machine trundled its noisy way down the high street at 5.20am. Go on, ask me how I know that. Anyone know a supplier of rocket propelled grenades?

Anyhow, it’s been a busy weekend in the hotel, restaurant and even the bar. Mark’s been down helping in the bar and kitchen, Charlie my niece has been waitressing and Lorna and Frances have been… away for the weekend. We served 11 for lunch and 7 for dinner on Friday. That meant an unscheduled trip to Hawick to buy more chicken. A typical Saturday might see two, four or, exceptionally six or eight folk coming in for dinner. Last night we served… 22. Only four were resident - the rest simply turned up. We were setting up breakfast at midnight and I was still clearing up in the kitchen at quarter to one. The street sweeper came past at 6am. About that rocket propelled grenade…

Poor circulation

The pump on the central heating was making ominous grinding and clanking noises yesterday and this morning it had stopped working altogether. A trip to the plumbers suppliers in Galashiels was called for.

I phoned a supplier at Tweedbank. “Oh, we don’t keep such big units in stock - can get you one next week”
The story was the same at plumbers merchants in Hawick and Edinburgh.

So that’s why I spent this morning driving to Newcastle to be parted with close to £200 (not counting the fuel). I’ve fitted the new pump - it works and we have hot water again. Central heating definitely isn’t needed today, the hottest day of the year so far. While I was in Newcastle I dropped in on the Hadrian and Border brewery who supply our real ale to meet Andy the brewer and owner. Up until recently they only produced cask ale, but they’ve just started doing it in bottles and I was given a couple of free samples - thanks Andy!