It was Saturday morning, breakfast was done, and all the guests seen on their way by the time a very tired Sam emerged from wherever he was during the night. His mother and grandparents had one heck of a time keeping tread with his escapades, as he was friends with a group of louts from Calender, who came over with the bus to do a lot of mischief in the village.
Their latest escapade, and the one that got the over protective grandparents into at
last realising that the boy is not the innocent little baby he was fifteen years ago, was really naughty! He and this group went into the backyard of the village store collected, and smashed all the empty beer and wine bottles that the store was recycling right at the store's entrance! It was the last straw for the villagers, and the police was called in. The louts were all caught, Sam included, and they had to do some community work.
That was the end of this lot coming to Strathyre, and Sam hooked up again with his old school friends. They were also but a scruffy lot, with rings dangling from every available spot on their faces, even their tongues, but at least they were not the vandilistic type! So that is, when the government decided to pay kids a wage if they got a job as an appy somewhere, Tony was approached, and Sam was given an appreticeship!
But I realised soon that sam was in no mood for working this morning, and every now and then I caught a glimpse of one of his mates lurking behind the cars and bushes, sending out frantic messages, using their hands for the job! I was extremely busy, as Ewan, with the small bus he drives taking youngsters on adventure tours, had phoned, and they would stop at the hotel for lunch. That means a frantic spurt of activity, as a lot more salad would be needed, and also a lot more chips, and fish to take out to defrost. The burgers, steak pies, and other lunchtime stuff that I had prepared would also not be enough, depending on what the guests were going to order.
And my help was to say the least, unconcerned with my problems, and stood staring out of the window instead of peeling potatoes for chips! I had to keep on prompting him to get on with it, but to no avail.
He then told me that his head was fit to burst, and he thought he had sunstroke! Oh, no, I said, if you have sunstroke, you would be nauseous, and won't be able to lift your head! Wrong statement! Now Sam's head started to hang more and more, and when he disappeared a few minutes later, I found him sitting outside, with his head almost on his lap, holding it and giving amazing gasps of pain, and doing a good job of faking extreme nausea!
I had enough! Marched to Tony and told him to get rid of that lazy brat, and phone my all time favourite, little Gary. Tony came to see what was up, and not knowing what preceded this, and immediately sent the 'poor' boy home! I was CROSS!!! Told him the whole, but he was in a spot, as Sam's family bring in a lot of custom, and Tony played up to them in all earnest! Little Gary, who was one of a twin, the other one, Laura, about twice the size of him. But this little man could do his thing, and I sometimes got a lump in my throat when I see him scrubbing away on pots twice his size.
But I had it with Sam, and waited untill it was calmer, Ewan's people fed and gone, to tackle the problem with Tony. I knew I would loose the friendship with Janet, Sam's mother, and maybe also that of the grandparents, but the idea of working any longer with Sam was unthinkable!
But the weekend did pass, and at last it was Monday, and my day off. Liz and self went to see if the wild strawberries were ripe, and we found some really juicy ones! Bliss!

Back at work! I was just not happy anymore, but had to stay, as the job offered to me at the other hotel was now taken. The young Sam was just not suited for the kitchen, as he was not at all interested to learn anything. On the other hand, I think I was also not in the right, for I would not yet allow him to cook, and he of course, with the optimism of youth, thought that by having watched me for two weeks, he was a masterchef ! So one lunchtime I was busy with a big table, when an order for fish and chips came in, and thinking that not much can go wrong with fish and chips, I told Sam that he was free to do it.As we had a lot of fish orders for lunch, Sam must have seen me do it a hundred times over the last two weeks, and I had explained the complete process of every meal.
As busy as I was, I did not really watched what he was doing, as I had a lot of different meals to prepare, and it was hard enough to get all the meals ready to go out at the same time. But when I turned to put some chips in the fryer, the scene that met my eyes was quite astonishing, and just a bitty hilarious! Sam had obviously not watched me well, for instead of putting in one piece of fish, wait for the batter to cook a little, then put in the next one, he had put all the fish in together, and that had resulted of course in one big lump, as the fish was stuck together good and solid, and poor Sam was almost in tears trying to separate them. That was not a good idea, as the fillets broke into pieces!
I told him to get some other fillets out, and get everything ready, then fish out the pieces of maltreated fish so I can do it when my meals were done.
Instead of feeling a bit subdued, Sam's youthful self believe did not deter him from telling Tony that the reason for the wasted fish was cold oil, and not his inexperience. As Tony was pressed by Sam's grandparents, who he was friendly with to advance the boy a bit, he laughed about it, and shook it off as just a wee mistake, and asked me to give more attention to help the boy learn some cooking! As if I did not have enough on my bally plate! I did not let him come near to any cooking or frying, but let him assemble the burgers, and other small things, but that left me with doing the running and stacking the dishwasher myself, as Sam was strutting around the kitchen like a dunghill cockerel, having conversations with his pals who were skulking behind the cars and bushes outside,telling them that he was doing a lot of the cooking!
He was quite happy, as learning to cook was not a priority, but to brag about his cooking was important. I just found his being under my feet unnerving, as usually nobody was allowed on my side of the table, it being dangerous, with pots of stuff boiling and me sometimes moving fast with some hot stuff in my hands. I could sense that the time for me to stage another strike was imminent!
The foto is of my view from the kitchen window where Sam's friends hung out, waiting for him to finish.