...aaand I certainly left y'all with one of those, did I not? will Matt finally start to do things other than work? will he finally mend the shed roof? What oh what will become of the ongoing slight damp in the conservatory problem?
All gripping stuff, and believe you me, I'm deeply ashamed not to have filled in some blanks slightly earlier, or more early-ly, not sure. But, half a year later here I am, electronically begging for your indulgence once more.
So anyway, I did the run. I did okay, too. Not great,but okay, and as I surprised myself by having it in me to wander past a few of my fellow stragglers towards the arse end of it I started to feel a bit more like myself. And yes, I am doing a spot more writing, there's an anthology out in the new yearwith a couple of mine in, I have a new chapbook coming out, too, of which, more later; this in turn has meant I've started to feel even more like myself.
But of course, the crushing beast that is December is upon us, the Juggernaut of the catering indusrtry; so I'm knackered and my hands and arms are scored with cuts and burns. But you know, that's okay, that's me, too, it's just not all of me, and I think I'm starting to learn that
"He says it's inedible" said my front of house manager, as she laid the half-eaten fish and chips in front of me, and instantly I relaxed. Clearly, I observed, it was edible to some degree. I comped it, because I can't be arsed arguing the toss, and I want to make my front of house's lives as simple as possible. The haddock had been delivered that morning. The fryers had been cleaned that morning. The batter had been made that morning (and it's very good batter, ask me nicely and I'll give you the recipe some time). The fish and chips was identical to the other 27 portions I'd sent out on that lunch service, all of which had come back more or less hoovered up, we have have a (justified, if I do say so myself) very good reputation for our chips. But it was, apparently, "inedible". When it comes to complaints, less is more. If you use a hyperbolic word like that, I'll switch off, you've marked yourself as a rube, a chump, I'm not g...