It's the theatre of the pub industry that gives Lucy Craig, Ha! Ha! Bar & Canteen, Brighton, and BII Licensee of the Year, 2005 such a buzz.
Great locations, beautiful people, bright lights and fantastic products to always keep us tempted.
From my theatre background I was trained to work as part of a team, to help people get through their first-night nerves, to be professional, innovative, to improvise when things go wrong and, above all, to keep the audience wanting more.
Well, doesn't that sound familiar to each of us in the licensed trade, at all levels? This is what I do every day because it gives me such a buzz.
The food and drink industry is something that everyone wants to be involved in, whether it is as a consumer or as a worker.
Television is overrun with cookery programmes giving the consumer a greater knowledge of ingredients and fresh produce, how they should be prepared and how to recognise good quality. Supermarkets are keeping up with them too, supplying the products and offering wine from all over the world that can go with any dish. We are all being educated, and what a wonderful subject to be educated in.
Many of the new people coming into the industry don't just want a Saturday job or to look at all the bottles as fridge fillers. They want to know what a glass of dry white wine does to your tongue and how a few degrees will totally change the taste of a bottle of Chablis.
We can get our hands on beer from all around the world and we can supply vodka which is distilled in the Champagne region.
Wine lists used to only include house wine by the glass. Not any more! We can take risks and try new products without being a wine connoisseur. The New World wines have definitely made a huge impact, making us broaden our horizons.
I love to give my customers more than they expect and the industry that I am in gives me the power to do this.And if you leave them wanting more they will always come back. ("Thank you" to my dance teacher in 1988 Miss Wyard, you were right.)