Occasionally, just occasionally, everything goes just right.
For all of us in the hospitality industry there is the potential catastrophic disaster awaiting us around the next corner and through experience, luck, karma or whatever, quite often we escape the worst possible conclusions.
But today has been exceptionally good.
The morning started well enough but took a wonderful leap forward when my daughter announced that a young French friend of hers wishes to stay with her for a few months and would like part time employment to help her improve her English. I am not sure this pub is the best environment for her to achieve that objective but it does appear heaven-sent because a temporary part time member of staff is exactly what I am looking for. This could be a very exciting opportunity.
The second event was also a surprise.
The restaurant escaped a narrow disaster this morning when the chef, who rolled into the car park forty minutes before the restaurant opened and then spent his time chattering to a friend of his, was promptly brought into the real world when the waitress announced it was 12.30, the restaurant was open and the first table had placed their order. Typically, soon after the first table arrived another four tables filed in, one after the other. And to compound it still further, the brewery MD arrived and needed to be fed and finished within an hour and a half. Not impossible but given the limited preparation in the kitchen it was a disaster looming. It was tempting to get involved but I didn't.
Even so, the catastrophe I expected never materialised. The kitchen porter and the waitress all stepped up a gear and the customers all left satisfied. Better still the MD made positive comments on his meal. Enough to suggest we are achieving a standard way beyond what I could have been hoping.
And yet I cannot help but wonder how, 30 minutes earlier, I had been facing disaster in the face.
This restaurant lark is very odd.