So here I am then. All signed up and with a blogspace just waiting to be filled with amusing anecdotes and witty observations, funny happenings and intelligent prose that somehow puts into order the madness that is the life of a publican, or at least, this publican!
I could ramble on for hours about Pubcos, the beer tie, high rates, low margins, 80 hour weeks, 1 day off a month. I could easily fill up several pages talking about awkward, downright rude or ungrateful customers. I could even talk about the difficulties all of this places on my family life.
But you know what? Call me old fashioned but I'd rather not do my dirty laundry in public. Maybe I'll set up an alternative, anonymous blog where I talk about all of these things and more besides. Hell, one day I may even get around to writing that book I've always promised myself, then I really would have to change the names to protect the identities!!!
The only trouble is of course, that by taking those things off the list of possible blog fillers, I'm limiting myself as to what I can talk about. These things occupy huge parts of my thinking and time (especially the 80 hour weeks!) and the juggling of these difficulties that I have to do in order to be able to present a postive, cheerful, friendly end product can be exhausting.
And that's how I feel this evening. Exhausted. It's 11pm on Monday, I'm on the bar, typing away because there's only three customers left and they're amusing themselves. It's been a very successful weekend that has seen some excellent trade including 69 happy diners on Mothers Day. In order for that to happen I had to work on the bar or in the restaurant for 23 hours across Saturday & Sunday & I barely saw my mrs or my boys.
But that's what I do. And for every customer that it's easy to dislike there's another 69 happy, smiling faces saying thank you for a lovely Mothers Day. There's a precious hour with Oliver & Finlay before I take them to school in the mornings and another precious hour when I pick them up.
I think I must be reaching my "time of the month". Time to step out and take a day off. Hmmm. St. Pats Day at the Cheltenham Festival of Horse Racing? Mines a Guinness.....
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