I had no time to rest, as there was such a lot of prep to do, but I managed to sit down for half an hour while having my lunch. By six however I was pooped, and wondered how I was going to manage untill the kitchen closed, and if the work was not enough, Sam was quite cross when he came back at six, as he desperately wanted to share in the fun.
Tony had gotten two young girls in hula skirts to help me, but they were so bent on showing off that I saw very little of them, and had to send Sam continiously to find them. Of course this was just the dandy with Sam, as he got lost on the 'beach' every time, and then I had to leave all and go looking for both Sam and the girls. The only light in this madhouse of a kitchen was young Gary, who was called by his mother after I promised him double pay to work for two hours. Actually it was not allowed, as he had already done a shift during the morning, and the kids were allowed to work only four hours per day.
This kid was a marvel, and quite the opposite of his twin sister, to my thinking the laziest girl on two legs. Laura, the twin was about twice as tall as Gary, big boned like her mother, and quite coarse, while Gary was smallboned, and very well spoken, and could work like a horse! I always marvelled when I watched him wash the huge pots that were so large that he was quite dwarfed by them, but he was always happy and eager to please. The only drawback of course was that he was so small, and couldn't always reach things that I needed him to fetch, and when it was very busy I had to run and fetch it myself, which took up valuable time!
The beach party was a huge success, and became quite raucus as time went by, and it wasn't long before everything in the kitchen was also covered in sand. The plates and other stuff coming back from the party was covered in sand, and the poor dishwasher was making strange screeching noises, presumably from sand in its workings! It wasn't long before two plates of food from the restaurant, which was also open for bussiness, were sent back with complaints that there was sand in the food. How it happened I did not know, but, as the same waitresses doing the party was also serving the restaurant, I had a suspicion that they were shedding sand all over the plates when taking it in. I sent Sam to call Tony when a second lot came back, and asked him to let one of the girls get herself sand-free, and then only serve the restaurant, and after a bit of niggling, he gave in, and from then on trhere was no more sandy food coming back.
I finished just after twelve, and as the party was still swinging, I joined in the fun for a short while, but could just as well have stayed up all night, as the pub lounge was just underneath my room, and the music and laughter was so loud that my bed was hopping around on the floor! Well, almost! The noises lasted well into the early hours of the morning, and when the clock struck six, I had not slept at all, but had to get up to do breakfast! And to make it worse, I had to look happy and gay!!