The Sennen Cove Diary
August 7th - Thursday
I avoided making a dairy order last night, even though we probably could have done with one, because of the uncertainty surrounding the effectiveness of the dairy fridge. One thing I did note, however, was the v-shaped hole in the neat rows I had left when I topped it up previously. This was where our clever customers had sought to extract the very freshest milk and avoid yesterday’s. The v-shape almost exactly followed the pattern into which I had placed yesterday’s milk, leaving the latest to either side. It gave me a very small measure of amusement and satisfaction.
We are supplying The Valley with milk this year. They came and purchased half the remaining stock, so my amusement and satisfaction were a little short lived.
The day had started out a little overcast but temperate, if a little humid. There was a breeze blowing in from somewhere northerly, but it was pleasant against the muggy air. It had not looked particularly like rain, so I was unprepared when we started to get wet down on the Harbour beach first thing. The rain was not especially heavy and after a few minutes it stopped.
The rain came back again, now and then through the morning and we sold a number of rain ponchos. I was of the opinion that the gentle nature of it probably did not warrant such protection but if people want to buy rain ponchos, I am certainly not going to dissuade them.
I will grant that it did not look very alluring for most of the day and when the mist started closing in, it pretty much closed business for the day. That is not to say that we did not have people milling about, mainly buying going home presents, but there were not very many of them. I would say that St Ives probably had the benefit of supplying most of the going home presents today.
I took the opportunity to complete the cash and carry order, so after making my list and checking it twice, I proceeded to key it into the company’s order system. Mindful that with the volumes we had last time, we had been pretty close to running out of some lines. Anxious not to have that happen again, some of the volumes this time are big, big, big. The trouble with big, big, big is that we have to find somewhere to keep it and the store room shelves are generally small, small, small. I suspect that much of the overstock will sit on the store room floor until it is used. If this week is anything to go by, it will not be there over long.
I wanted to wait until the afternoon to let the Missus have a geek at the list in case I had missed something, or she had a better idea on some of the volumes – which she did, it transpired. She had gone off shopping for some essentials. We try not to have to go into town during August month as it is just too fraught but sometimes needs must and at the very least, we need to fuel the truck. In the meanwhile, I looked after ABH in the shop and since we were not very busy, she was hardly any trouble at all.
In recent weeks I had witnessed quite a volume of hooded sweatshirts coming across the counter. I was vaguely aware too of the volumes in the boxes in the store room looking a little thin. It takes some effort and particularly time to do the stock take so that I can determine what to order and thus far in the piece, the time just was not available. Handed a misty day and few customers, I leapt at the chance and started counting hooded sweatshirts.
It took a few hours. We may have had few customers but as soon as I started counting, the few that we had concerted their efforts to confound me. At some point – I think that it was one of the Saturdays when the stock room was full and I could not get to the store room sweatshirts – I had started selling the sweatshirts off the rail. We must have sold quite a few like that because there were gaps in the sizes out in the shop. As I finished each colour, I brought out what stock there was to replace the missing items on the shop rails. It made the job much longer but at least we have representation of each of the colours and sizes that we have out in the shop.
I was quite surprised at the end of the count that we were not missing all that many. What had happened was we had sold out or nearly sold out of specific sizes in certain colours, which had made it look worse that it was. I have tried to prevent this from happening by ordering more of the popular sizes in the popular colours but all that happens is next time there is a different popular size in a different popular colour.
The Missus had stepped in at the end so that I could complete the job. The remaining sweatshirts are at the back of the store room and it is not so easy to keep popping out to see if anyone is waiting at the counter from there. While she was covering she cleared the rocket that was in the fridge which was another step in emptying it altogether ahead of a mammoth pasty order (sorry, MS) tomorrow. I had not held back on the order for today, so will not have a completely empty fridge. I will have to do some clever organising tomorrow morning to fit everything in.
At four o’clock, just before the Missus headed off to Land’s End to set up for the station’s fundraising team, the skies started to clear, and we saw some sunshine break through. Almost instantaneously, the street filled with all the visitors who had been hiding around corners and behind walls for the entire day. I can think of no other reason how they arrived so quickly. Thankfully, I had finished with the sweatshirts and I could focus my efforts on serving the surge in numbers.
There was even a break in the traffic long enough for me to start up the air compressor so that I could pump up some balls. I should have done this the previous evening but for some reason did not. The compressor makes some racket, so I avoid using it in the mornings lest I annoy the neighbours the other side of the wall. It is loud enough that ear defenders should be used but it is tucked around the corner in the store room and I go into the shop while it is charging the tank. By switching it off I can use what is in the tank without it recharging as I go. When the tank is empty, I start it again and so on until the job is done.
Naturally enough, we had a five minutes to closing rush but I managed to close on time and then spend ten minutes doing the ordering. We had emptied a few shelves, particularly of going home biscuits, less drinks this time and of course there was a big dairy order. I am sincerely hoping that the dairy and the pasties do not arrive together tomorrow.
Because the little girl had been stuck upstairs when the Missus headed off, I took her around the block as soon as I got upstairs. It was warm enough out that a jacket was not required. It might explain the numbers that were still on the Harbour beach and in the car park as we headed around. There must have been an element of last day beaching to it for some of the families leave during the morning tomorrow.
It was still relatively busy when we stepped out again last thing. The Missus was still not home and as I headed to bed, the fireworks up at Land’s End were just starting off. She would be a while yet and I doubted I would notice her return. ABH would wait up, though.
August 6th - Wednesday
It was pretty clear from the off that they day would be quite similar to the day before – at least the weather would be. I had slipped on a woolly hat to venture out with expecting an early chill from overnight, but it was exceedingly temperate and the hat superfluous. The skies were clear again and, if memory serves, some light mist around the cliffs, but I may well be making that up. By the time I came to scribble some Diary, the morning was in another country.
Before the Missus left yesterday, she had made a list of all the small things around the shop that needed topping up, such as the small toys and gifts down the gift aisle. These are things that I usually miss, concentrating on the buckets, spades, bodyboards and windbreaks. I also not no venture down the gift aisle without a safety net; small children go down there and are never seen again.
I think I must have a psychological block about such minutiae – like jigsaw puzzles and unknotting string. The Missus parked outside this morning, priced it all and set it all down among the shelves. It took her well over an hour. I think my psychological block is more fear of work.
While the Missus laboured at stocking the shop, I laboured at emptying it. I was doing rather well, too. It all went off in much the same manner as yesterday with an endless flow of customers coming from all directions. Alright, they were all coming through the first electric sliding door in The Cove, and the ‘all directions; was only for dramatic effect. They kept me busy, much as they did yesterday and again with no chance of a break between them. This, as you might imagine, eventually becomes problematic and I have to choose my moment when I want to, erm, go and make a cup of tea.
Into this melee, sometime during the afternoon came the delivery of small sweet bags that I had entreated the Missus to place an order for. At least these sweets sit not far from the till, so filling up the stand is a little more practical than it would be had they been at the end of the shop. I suspect that if the sweets were at the end of the shop, for example, not only would they take more effort to top up, they would probably need topping up twice as often.
By and by through the busy rest of the afternoon, I chipped away at the stock that had arrived and by the end of the day had all the sweets deployed. I should remark that the order was not as big as it usually was and that some of the hangers were empty at the end. This was very handy because I was able to turn out the overstock and empty those boxes onto the remaining hangers. I would have struggled for space in the store room had I not. No doubt the Missus short ordered for this very purpose and even if she did not, if I told her what I had done should would have said she did.
It did not seem busier than yesterday but the till at the end of the day said otherwise. I think that we started earlier and for whatever reason, I did not feel quite as weary as I did yesterday through the day.
Each year at the very busiest times of the year, the small gods of grumpy shopkeepers like to throw us a googly. Sometimes it is making the car processing machine break down just ahead of a busy weekend but usually it is one of the fridges. This year, they chose the mission critical dairy fridge. Anything that goes wrong with that is very serious indeed at the peak of the season, we have nowhere else to place the stock.
In fairness, the fridge has been trouble from the start. It is exceedingly poorly designed and built. The doors have never closed properly and I have had to place a piece of wood in one end of the runner to stop them being pushed off their runners. Within a month of getting it, the lights blew because they are not waterproof – in a fridge, for heaven’s sake. There is also an additional ‘feature’ that turns the fridge off when the door is open. It would be a very useful feature but for the fact it is fitted to just one door of a two door fridge. It was this feature that went awry.
I noticed that at close of play on Monday the display was showing that the feature was in use, however the door was closed. I judicial thump by the switch had the fridge back on again and I made a note to call in a non-urgent report to the maintenance company the following morning, which I duly did. Since it was not urgent, I did not expect and engineer that day, yesterday. This became a little more worrying when I noticed that in the morning it had stopped again but a universal reset – turning it off and back on again – had it working again. I had rather assumed the engineer would turn up today and as we got busier, I rather forgot about it, although I did check on the fridge now and then when I could get down there.
As is usual with these things, they will only go wrong when you cannot do anything about it. So, at the end of the day, when I could not call the company, I noted that the fridge was off again and the temperature increasing. A universal reset only gave a limit reprieve before it turned itself off again, so I called the out-of-hours number.
As luck would have it, the engineer turned up at quarter to bedtime. I told him that there was no point in fixing the pretty useless switch and disabling it was the best solution, which he duly did. I do recall we had problems with the switch when we first had the fridge and had it disabled then while we waited on a part. We should have left it that way to save me this trouble several years later.
On the bright side, I was able to bottle up the beer fridge while I waited. That is one job less I will have to do tomorrow morning.
August 5th - Tuesday
It was much lighter this morning when we went out, thanks to largely clear skies. They might have been clear blue skies, but I think I was still seeing in black and white at that stage in the morning. It had been hard enough getting out of bed at all let alone switching on colour vision.
After yesterday, I had thought that today might well have been a rebound day. This is where the assembled masses, fed up with a day of museums and St Ives Fore Street, come back to the beach in droves. It took quite a while to get going but by the middle of the day, it was, indeed, showing all the hallmarks of a rebound day.
The chores this morning were light. Yesterday had hardly made a mark on the shelves of the drinks fridges and I was all done fifteen minutes ahead of opening. Since we will have a very big cash and carry delivery this coming weekend, I decided that it would be a good plan to get cracking on the list. I fired off a message to the main man at the cash and carry to alert him to the slight increase in heavy items like water, beer and big bottles of pop. This may have a bearing on the vehicle they send, so I thought it might be helpful to give some advance notice.
I got as far as the end of the non-food items before the fight started, and I had to give up list making for the day. It did not even start with a gentle increase in the number of customers; it went all out busy, all at once. From that moment until well into the afternoon, it was all out customer serving and pasty heating (sorry, MS) with little time for much else. It was relentless, too, and not in a bad way, although I was a man barely alive at the end of it.
Our farm shop cash and carry turned up at some point in the afternoon. I helped unload it between customers. It was a big order and it blocked up the store room. Thankfully, I did not need to get down to the back of the store room because I was too busy at the counter. I made a start on trying to clear it by doing bits at the till but it was hard going; the flow of customers had me more at the till than pricing items. Even when I did manage to get a box priced, I found that I could not get it down the aisle to where it belonged because the aisle was choked with customers.
I persisted with it for more than an hour. I did manage to clear a gap through the store room, which was something, but trying to get any of it out into the shop just was not going to happen. I gave up. Then the gin arrived.
Thankfully, we had no spillages or other minor disasters to divert my attention and all went reasonably well. I am reasonably certain that we did not run out of anything, and I am now of the opinion that we will not have to do an emergency run to Hayle cash and carry, although we will inevitably run out of a few lines. The most inconvenient of these is likely to be toilet paper but having now said so, I do hope that I have not prompted a panic buying surge. I will hold back a few rolls and sell it by the foot.
The Missus was home late and almost immediately went off to her big important meeting at the Lifeboat station. I am hoping for an update on the drive-in movie in October. We need to be advertising this week as many of the people here now will be here then, too, I think.
She was still at the meeting long after I closed the shop and still there when I took ABH out for her last walk. It was not quite as busy as last night when we did our circuit and there was no one on the beach. The big beach had been as busy as I had seen it yet and the camps at the top of the beach were thick with tents and windbreaks. The tide has not been helpful this week, being high in the middle of the day and now middle of the afternoon. It made the beach look more crowded, but the groups are safe where they are at the top of the beach in the small tides.
The sea state was choppy again and the robust northwesterly that we had all day, diminished as the day went on. Despite the offshore breeze, it looked like some good surfing was to be had for the experienced few while everyone else was beaten about in the shallows.
I do not know about them, but I was beaten about behind the till and very grateful to be heading for an early bed.
August 4th - Monday
If I had been on fire the last two days, I was a blazing inferno today. Today it was two drinks fridges, milk, greengrocery, newspapers, sweet bags, collating cardboard (unfinished), sweeping the end area and the worst aisle – the others can wait - and refilling fudge and biscuit displays. I even managed to get rid of the three large crates that the preserves and jams came in.
The only thing about being a man on fire that early in the morning is that I am a man on his knees by ten o’clock. Thankfully, it was gymnasium day and a blistering session revived me in no time at all. I followed it up with a run down to the Harbour beach with ABH. When we went earlier, I noted that with the small neap tides there had been a build-up of shingle, particularly on the western side of the beach where it had been driven into mounds. For this reason, we stayed on the eastern side when we went down a second time.
There was a large, older spaniel down there already who seemed interested in having a play. ABH, who seeks to play with the most unlikely and inappropriate characters she gets to meet, usually without success, spurned her potential playmate quite rudely. I have to hand him his persistence, but ABH was having none of it. I felt quite dreadful for the spaniel later when I learnt that his long time partner, a German shepherd, had shuffled off quite recently leaving him desolate.
Talking of which, late last night, I had a message from the preserve and chutney people. They had run out of the two marmalades – well, I kind of guessed that already – and could I not give the crates to any one of our suppliers? It is easy to misconstrue meaning and tone in a written message, so I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.
There is a thing down here called ‘crate wars’ where one company will filch another’s crate if they can. There is obviously value to them. I put a marker in our bread supplier’s crates, so the ownership is clear. The point being, I was not about to dispose of the crates that the preserves and chutney company had sent without their express permission. The timing of the message to me meant that I could pass them on to the first company that turned up that wanted them this morning, which I duly did.
I had time to cogitate on the issues I had with our supplier overnight. It had not kept me awake, nor did I wake at three o’clock white and sweating over it. However, I did want to bring to their attention the issues that I was uncomfortable about. I explained that it would have saved us both a good deal of time if they had explained at the outset the shortage and what to do with the crates. An acknowledgment of the order and an estimated lead time would also have been useful. All now rests on their response – if I get one.
It had looked a bit grim through the window this morning. Things were not improved by going outside and it was the first day I had to take a headtorch with me. The Cove was full of mist but at least it was dry. There was, however, a robust breeze blowing in from somewhere which I later discovered was the southwest. The breeze was with us for most of the rest of the day.
The first customers I saw today were dressed in full metal jacket waterproofs, hoods up, hatches firmly battened down. I hoped that we would not get the weather they were expecting but unfortunately, later, did. The rain took its time in getting here and made some exploratory forays in the late morning before getting a proper hold for a few hours in the middle of the day. The rain was not heavy, thick mizzle really, but I am sure that I do not have to describe in too much detail what that did to our trade for the day – well, most of it.
We had to wait until nearly four o’clock for the weather to break. The wind stayed present but shifted around to the northwest. The sun came out as the clouds rolled away to the southeast and so did our customers. We were not exactly bereft through the wind and the rain; there was a reasonably unsteady flow of customers throughout. It was, however, pretty slow going and I had to make adjustments to our pasty order (sorry, MS) for the following day.
The downturn gave me the opportunity to clear the cardboard which I had not finished in the morning and, piecemeal, do a bit of topping up here and there. It is abundantly clear that I did not add enough to the last cash and carry order as we are close to running out on some things. Some of these things would be very noticeable by their absence and I might need to despatch the Missus to the Hayle store for reinforcements. In fact, that is very likely indeed.
There was one family that I did not give the chance to make a further dent in our stock. They arrived shortly after the sun came out, laden with something in a big bag. The children were carrying multiples of disposable coffee cups which I thought nothing of. That is until the adult with the bag called to me to say that his daughter had accidentally spilled her cappuccino. This was something of an understatement: she had dropped the whole cup. He said again that it was an accident, which I did not doubt, however, I think that the risk of such an accident might have been greatly reduced by not allowing young children to carry coffee cups balanced three high as they cruised our aisles.
I initially arrived at the scene with a handful of paper roll and quickly established that it would provide me with a very limited chance of success at mopping up the spillage. Very soon after that it became clear that I would have to close the shop while I fetched a bucket filled with soapy water and a mop. To that end I even more swiftly ejected the offending party from the shop. They offered no argument.
It was quite fortuitous that I had swept that very aisle earlier or the mopping up might have been a tad messy with sand. I only had to close the shop for ten minutes to clear the mess and we were up and running again in no time.
We then resumed normal business as the day resumed being summer again. Within an hour it was difficult to remember that it had rained at all. The beach was alive with water revellers and beach users of all kinds. The wind, that had edged northwesterly, was making a mess of any surf and consequently there were few out of the shallows giving it a go. There was a swell, but the sea was choppy and not very inviting at all.
There was little in the way of ordering to do and as we approached closing time, I completed what little there was. I was immediately given a virtual wrap across the knuckles for being so over-confident. A customer came shortly after I sent the order in and purchased an abundance of dairy items, and I was forced to call in an amendment to the order I had just placed.
ABH asked for a stroll a little earlier than last thing and we set out around the block with the sun in our eyes, not far off the horizon. A fair number of people were still cruising the street – which meant waiting for them to catch up – and the Harbour car park was about a third full. Again, once we get into Coastguard Row, we are usually on our own, which I find an odd thing being so close to the busy car park. That did not stop us meeting two small girls that ABH stared at until they fussed her and an old friend when we got to the end.
That northwesterly that had set in during the afternoon had introduced a chill to The Cove. It had extended into the flat and for the first time in a while and I would have reached for another top had it not been bedtime. Winter coming.
August 3rd - Sunday
Gosh, I was a man on fire this morning, tearing through the various restockings across the shop. Come to think, I must have been at least smouldering yesterday morning because there was almost as much to do then as well. Mysteriously, I was two lines short for the soft drinks fridge. I could have sworn that I ordered them but when I looked at the invoice, they were not on it. There will be no great disaster because of it; it was just a tad annoying.
I even had time to finish off the preserves and chutneys. I had done two thirds of it yesterday and it was largely just the strawberry jam that was left. This too left me with a gap where the orange and ginger and the three fruits marmalades should have been. Initially, I thought that that had been plenty there when I placed the order, so did not bother. That did not seem right, so I checked my order and discovered that I had ordered them, the company just had not delivered nor had thought to say why. Unfortunately, it is another nail in their coffin.
I had an idea from the outset that we would not have quite the sunshine and loveliness we had yesterday. For a start, the morning looked dull, and the tops of the cliffs were obscured by low cloud. There was a bit of moisture in the air first thing, though it could have been easily missed if I was not paying attention. The wet returned at intervals throughout the day but it was very light, and I did not see anyone walking around with waterproofs on or umbrellas up. By three o’clock, the mist filled the bay, although it may have gathered earlier.
After a late start, we had been busy enough but not on the scale of yesterday. The weather would have played its part in that; it was hardly anyone’s idea of a beach day. Having said that, of course, when I could still see the beach, there were a few camps set up along the high water line.
Given the choice, I think that I may have joined them. It was a very humid day and inside the confines of the shop and its busy fridges and freezers, it was even warmer and more humid. I had escaped the worst of it up until now but today seemed particularly uncomfortable for some reason. My clever and efficient fan gave some relief, but I was not always in its area of influence.
The heat was not helping balloon foot either. After taking some advice, I have been taking steps to fix it. If the steps do not work, I shall try something else.
Oh, please yourselves. In the later afternoon, business tailed off a bit. We still had a flow of frequent customer visits, but we were not mobbed again like we were earlier in the morning. At one point you could not get past the counter as the customers blocked off all three aisles as they perused shelves on either side. As is usual, they all came to the till at the same time. Given a fair wind, I can usually rattle through a queue quite quickly, my fingers fair flying across the keyboard on the till and stabbing at the keypad on the car payment machine – which helpfully has its numeric keypad the reverse of the one on the till. I have been known to blunder occasionally but the thing that really disrupts the flow is using a mobile telephone to pay.
It appears that in the hands of a twelve year old, the process is seamless. Anyone over that age is blighted by any number of reasons why the thing does not work. The favourite seems to be insufficient funds in the account. This requires the user to go outside to find a signal so that they can transfer funds from one account to another. Why this cannot be done before they get to the till will remain a mystery because it happens more than once to the same customer. Another is the telephone gymnastics where they have to twist and turn the telephone one way then another, press this button twice, tap that icon once, turn around, hop on one leg and swipe the screen with their nose. And saving the best until last, ‘oh my phone has run out of battery’. Oddly, none of things have happened to me when I pay with money – although I have yet to be refused on the grounds that the establishment does not take it.
The mist lifted a little towards the end of the afternoon to reveal that we had a bay, which was good of it. It was particularly timely because otherwise I would have missed the dolphins. I would have missed them anyway were it not for a customer who mentioned them. After he had paid, I took out the binoculars to have a closer geek. About four of them, possibly a family unit, were just to the east of Cowloe and apparently feeding. There were around a dozen gulls swooping down after leftovers, I presume. They had drawn the attention of the customer in the first place.
Talking of gulls, I had a communication from the Southern Hemisphere International Correspondent today. He tells me that they are managing well through the depths of the Tasmanian winter. I do not seem able to shake the vision I have of it being a hot and tropical place with winter being only slightly less hot. Our man tells me that there have been frosty mornings and crisp days. The thing that really surprised me was the fact that there is sufficient snow in the highlands to have an active skiing industry from June through to October.
Oddly, the Internet tells me that the Tasmanian east coast benefits from the warm East Australian Current and even in winter the sea temperatures on the east coast are reasonably temperate. The same source tells me that today the sea temperature is 13 degrees, only a few degrees lower that our own in high summer. Must be like stepping into a warm bath.
Our Tasmanian International Correspondent also tells me that Christmas in July is becoming a popular event in Tasmania and the mainland. I can understand the attraction in Tasmania with the temperature and the snow is more in line with the archetypal Christmas in books and film. However, it is still bleddy hot further north on the mainland. I suppose in a world where summer temperatures are increasing, even a few degrees make it more comfortable for celebrations.
It took a while after we closed to complete all the orders for the next morning. I will once again have to be superman to clear it all before we open. I also received an reply from the preserves and chutney company with regard to the crates and missing items. I feel a stiff letter coming on.
Happy Birthday, Aged Parent.
August 2nd - Saturday
Even early doors the day looked quite splendid. It looked even better later doors and everyone I spoke with during the morning seemed to agree.
I did have as much to do as I thought I would have in the morning, so it was as well that I went down to the shop early. The newspapers were very late for one reason or another – I do not bother asking anymore – and I was still doing those when we opened. I had thought that the small gods of grumpy shopkeepers would send the milk delivery at the same time, just for fun, but that was even later than the newspapers, thankfully – although it would have been more helpful had it been much earlier.
We had a bit of a slow start for the first half an hour of the day, and then it went bananas. We were busy again right into the afternoon.
I was better prepared on the pasty front (sorry, MS) today. I put plenty in the warmer before there was even a hint of busyness and when they started to move, kept a continual flow through the oven even when the warmer was full. It worked, but it soon became clear that at the present rate of consumption, we would not have any for the next day. To try and relieve the situation, I commenced the baking off of our frozen stock. So that I was still able to heat the fridge pasties as well, I was only able to cook limited numbers of the frozen, ten at a time. I had started early enough so the fact that it took a good proportion of the afternoon mattered not a jot.
While the process went on, the fridge pasties continued to sell in abundance. Not only did it appear we would run out tomorrow, it looked increasingly like we would run out today as well including the additional pasties I was cooking from frozen. It has long been a contingency in my mind that if the worst happened, I might fall back on the Beach Kiosk for help. They have a bigger store than we and are most accommodating. I made arrangements to have the Missus pick up a couple of cases on the way home. I would not have time to do them before the end of the day but could cook them off in the morning.
As it happened, our demand dropped off like someone turning off a tap after about four o’clock. It had left us with sufficient for tomorrow, adding up the remains of the fridge stock and the ones I had freshly baked. We had also made a big dent in the cheese pasties, so I baked our frozen stock of those, too, and we are looking good for tomorrow. Disaster averted, I believe.
Just when I thought that it was safe to go back to serving customers again, the preserves and chutneys arrived. This in itself was a good thing. We had run out of strawberry preserve and the other products were looking a little thin as well. It was most timely that they had arrived at the outset of our busiest period and, once deployed to the shelves, we need not worry about them until at least September.
What I did worry about was the three large crates that the order arrived in. Additionally, there was a couple of cobbled together cardboard boxes which I am surprised made the journey in once piece. The company had sent a message telling me that they had elected to use a different courier and because of that the order would be arriving in crates. It had not occurred to me that the crates would be left with us. We are busy, the crates are large and in the way and we have no means of getting rid of them. To say that I was somewhat irritated might be slightly understating it.
The company used to deliver its own product but more recently, a courier that brought them in their native six packs. I am sure that was inefficient but in multiples, they are very heavy. I agree they have a conundrum, but it appears in more than a couple of years, they have put no thought into it at all. It is all most disappointing and leaves the problem with us, the customer. I shall be having words as well as looking at alternative suppliers.
We had a bit of a lull in the middle of the afternoon. It might have been feasible to shut the shop and go and help launch the Lifeboat to coincide with the Cape Swim. The swim had been postponed from a couple of weeks ago due to the poor sea state and rearranged for today. The boat was due to launch just after two o’clock and I had already said that I would only attend if they were really short. Happily, for me, we had spares available to do the job.
The is some politics involved in that the Institute cannot be seen as a service for hire. The Cape Swim does have its own stewards but if the worst happened, the Lifeboat would be called and although the event is close by, we might be too late in an emergency. To get around the issue, we launch on a training exercise at the same time as the swim. Just to prove that there was no connection (or communication!) the boat launched about an hour ahead of the swim commencing – I think that there was a delay in starting the swim, so the boat was out for around three hours.
While we had stepped down from our busiest time during the day, we were still very busy when the boat launched and there was still a frequent flow of customers when it came back again. There were just enough on shore to make a decent team, and the boat was brought back on the long slip in what I was told was a textbook recovery. We are, after all, a very supportive, very excellent Shore Crew.
The sun had been shining all day, but I had the impression that there was some high-level cloud filtering it at times. It was also warm they told me, and it was certainly getting that way in the shop even with my fans running. The day, however, came into its own during the latter stages of the afternoon and early evening when the beach looked resplendent in the dipping sun.
Once again, I will have to put some effort in restocking the drinks fridges in the morning. I will also have to keep an eye on the stock as we appear to be on target to run out of beer, heaven forefend. I shall have to spend some time considering which is worse, running out of beer or running out of pasties. I feel a thesis coming on.
August 1st - Friday
‘Cor blimey, mate and stone the crows. Let us see if we can twist a grumpy shopkeeper’s tail by buying pasties (sorry, MS) and not letting him enough time to refill the pasty oven.’ The blighters near had me, too.
The day did not start off looking very special but having said that, it was a good deal more special looking than the day before. There was plenty of blue sky above us, as yet without any sun in it, but there was some cloud, high up, out to the west, too. By the time I started talking with customers, trying to determine what weather was to follow was anyone’s guess.
We never did have the showers that Radio Pasty guessed at, but we had big portions of blue sky for the sun to shine out of, some cloud where it did not matter and all tempered by a fairly robust northwesterly breeze that ruined what might else have been, perfectly good surf. The choppy sea was not enough to put off the fishing boats and there were still a small army of water revellers in the bathing area down on the beach. The upper reaches were again crowded and probably more so than previous days. Once again, it had been decided that this would be a beach day.
Before all that happened and just at the outset of the glimmer of hope that turned into a decent bit of weather, I headed off to the gymnasium. A night of foot elevation had not done much for the foot shaped balloon at the end of my leg, but I managed to squeeze it into my plimsol. A session on the rowing machine was much needed; the last few days have dispelled any doubt that a bionic knee is required on my dickie leg.
Much envigored by a blistering session, I took ABH out for a post gymnasium walk and with not much beach to speak of, we left there and walked around the block. The car park was at least two thirds full, which I somehow did not associate with a potential increase in busyness but when we returned to the shop, the Missus told me that she had not stopped since soon after I left.
When I came back to take over, I discovered just how busy the day had become. It was about eleven o’clock and the run went through to half past one o’clock with scarcely a break between customers. This held all the potential for creating the a pasty continuity problem. I had already put a tentative half dozen in the oven before it all kicked off, just in case, but it was not much help when I could not get to them. Eventually, when the stock in the warmer got dangerously low, I had to hold the queue to go get the ones from the oven, wishing I had put in twice the amount.
As the pasty run continued it was a constant job to look for gaps in the queue at the counter to run out the back and feed the oven and transfer the heated from the oven to the warmer. I got to the stage of having an empty warmer a couple of times and no pasties in the oven yet ready. We did not have to turn anyone away, but it was a close run thing a couple of times.
The mad manic rush at the till subsided eventually giving way to a more orderly flow of customers. Earlier in the morning, I had the foresight to stock up the Cornish biscuits and the fudge boxes. Alongside the pasty orders and beachware we also had customers with armfuls of Cornish biscuits and fudge boxes as going home gifts bringing them to a smug-looking grumpy shopkeeper. There was also plenty of preserve and marmalade buying.
I could do nothing about that because our delivery has not come yet. In a rare communication from the company, I am told it will come tomorrow. I am considering kicking the company into touch because of their lack of communications. When I place the order, I get no acknowledgement at all and am left to guess if they have received my order or not. I understand that the lead time will be variable, but it would be helpful to have an estimated delivery date even if it is approximate. Instead, I have to wait and hope. There is not any point in chasing them; if I get a response at all it is days later.
I made a valiant effort to finish the last of the stationery order during the day. I got through most of it which was hardly a triumph as there was not much left to be triumphant about. The delivery was timely, at least, as I noticed several items from it making it to the till today.
We escaped having the beer fridge emptied, although one man in a hurry managed to clear out one side of the lager cans in a five minutes to closing dash. The soft drinks, however, took a proper beating and I will have to go at it early tomorrow to resolve the situation. In readiness for the next time I ordered in some replacement stock that will arrive tomorrow during the morning.
There is normally a lull between leavers and joiners but today the two happened in one seamless flow. The only reason I knew that it had happened at all was recognising some new faces as the afternoon pressed on.
As business tailed off a little towards the end of the shop day, I allowed myself to have a bit of a warm glow about the business of the day and still being able to stand up after a particularly punishing day. The small gods of grumpy shopkeepers clearly frown upon such elevation of spirit and are keen to make adjustments. Today, they sent a family to the shop with two girls around ten or eleven. Mother asked how long it was I had been in the shop. She was delighted to tell me that it was me that she remembered when she was fifteen years old, buying sweets. I thanked her and told her that she had made a happy man, very old.