stop the world, I'm getting off!

no, not a reference to something sexual more an allusion (i'm mis-using the word, i think) to the week, or rather thursday, just passed. it started with the trip back from wet and windy west wales where we had been holed up inside a caravan for five days.   i did don my (new) wet-suit once more as a show of defiance and it was with this mood that we started afresh on thursday. we don't do long days anymore, not since we consigned day times to the past, and so early starts to make all the cakes, fail to make the pannacottas correctly, make about three litres of green curry paste- this alone meant chopping about seventy blades of lemon grass- and generally learning the new menu meant that we were tired.

oh boo hoo i hear you say and you may be right but just as i was starting the coeliac ravioli the phone went.

'hello, canteen, wayne speaking. how can i help?'

'it's environmental health. your annual check is due, can you open the door?'

after scraping myself and any of the other detritus that lay strewn there after our marathon session, we opened the doos and let her in. we have nothing to hide but we also don't do everything that we should. we do take temperatues of fridges and freezers but don't always write them down. we should and we will do so now, especially as we have been told to do so, but the forty or so minutes meant that we were well behind for service.

what else could go wrong? our six burner is a little temperamental to say the least and two minutes into cooking decided to take the night off. she came back to cheers at 10-30 but by that time it was too late. we had completed a service on two rings and a hot-plate. needless to say, tony and i needed a rest.

now what really bothers me is that i've since been informed (this is hearsay i'm afraid) that inspections of this sort only happen when a complaint has been made. i wrote about our enemy a few blogs ago and i know i'm putting two and two together but i would like to think that whatever we had done, somebody wouldn't stoop that low. i guess we'll never know but i'm sure glad i'm taking my full holiday at christmas now.

cheers (and i maybe having a beer)

wayne