So thankfully there are still enough ill-informed people in the world that I occasionally hear how lucky I am to live in a pub. I know, how weird is that, I am not the only idiot that thinks that this is cool although I am the one of the few idiots that does it for real.
Some people. me included, actually think that it is cool to live in a pub. For me there is a pleasure in being here after hours that is greater than many pleasures in life. Actually owning a pub and being free to walk every inch of it is a thrill that still makes me grin like a schoolboy.
So a story today made me write this. A man who took a run down pub and has ‘done his nuts’ in a short space of time. Now this man was heading into the summer season but had to go because he didn’t have the reserves. A heartbreaking story on the face of it because summer is our time to shine. But then details emerge and they include a £5K spend renovating the domestic accommodation, really? what is the GP on that?
If you want to make this work it has to be all about downstairs, this is the theatre, the shop window, this is where the magic happens, upstairs is where we sleep.
So let me share with you what a publicans home life is like, at least in my case. I eat in the office, every meal that I manage to cobble together is eaten in the same way as you eat your snack lunch in the office. I don’t possess any other table, literally my desk is where I live, it’s where I am now and where I will always be if I am not front of house.
I have not spent a single penny upstairs in the 3.5 years I have been here. My carpets and ceilings do not meet the walls in some rooms because we had to change the walls (for downstairs) and there is no budget. I live with the same flaky paint, the same dodgy woodchip wallpaper that was there when I moved in, hell after that time I still haven’t unpacked !
In the winter my flat is so cold my pet penguin left me (I miss my Pingu) and I haven’t had a cuddle since! Right now, this very moment, my bedroom is at 29 degrees. When people ask if I live above I always say that I have a bit of a bedsit. But I have not stopped spending here since I started, nothing frustrates me more than ‘hidden spend’, sure if it needs doing we will do it but I much prefer that we can all see where our money is going.
On that note I am off to bed at gas mark 7, until next time….