A working kitchen at peak hour is a busy kitchen, and as I was the only person cooking, I was spinning around, fetching stuff, turning frying meats, heating up and getting ready frozen stuff like lasagne, macaroni and cheese, steak pies, and many more, cooking veggies, grilling trout, frying chips, and fish, and another hundred and one things. As our menu was so big, it was really a struggle when say, a table of twelve come in. Then I really had to keep my wits intact, as of course, everybody would order a different meal, and of course, all the meals had to go out together, and warm!
So by the middle of the evening I would be sweaty, and my hair under my hat would be wet and oily from the steam coming from all the different cooking utensils! And if then, in the middle of ten or more orders, the chips would sometimes run out, and all my screaming for help would go unnoticed by the harassed waitresses, I had to drop all, and peel potatoes, only enough for the meal I was busy with. I usually have enough chips cut, but when Ewan with his bus full of young tourists had been in for lunch, usually just before I went off for my rest, I knew I was in trouble. But as I was already in the kitchen at seven every morning to do breakfast, I could not go through until the kitchen closed at night!
My day started off at six, by me running up to the loft of an annexe adjoining the kitchen to switch on the water, as Tony switch it off before going to bed. Doing this was one hazardous job, specially early in the morning, when your body still aches from exhaustion after the previous night, and your eyelids were still too heavy to open completely. The loft had no floor, and the rafters were about half a meter apart, and to get to the switches that was on the opposite wall, you had to kind of jump from rafter to rafter, and hope it didn't break, as they did look a wee bitty rotten! But my worst fear was that I would miss my footing, or loose my balance, and fall down the two flights and into the laundry. I tried not to look down, but I bally well knew that there was nothing to stem my downwards fall if I did miss my footing!
Then I would have a shower before dressing and and going down to do the prep for breakfast. By the time the first guests came down, I was usually wide awake, and ready for some chatting when taking their orders. I loved doing breakfast, as I met the most amazing people from all over the world!