I think Richard and Katka was not a happy couple, as Katka turned out to be a very strange person indeed. Lorna was much enarmoured with her, just as she was with me in the beginning until I was the only one left to take out her frustrations on. It was Katka wee girl all day long and Katka was one happy cookie. But to give the devil it's due, she was a busy worker, if only she would stuck to doing what I asked of her, or more importantly, what was expected of her!
She would forever turn down the stove plates when I wanted something to boil fast, me not having time for dawdling, doing two people's work. I would almost explode when I turn around and found the gas turned down to the lowest mark, and when I asked her what the heck she was up to, she answered me with a kind of smirk, saying that the pot was boiling over. I told her to leave my pots, as she had nothing to do behind my workbench, But sure as heck, she just kept on doing it, until I one day, being heavily pressed for time, told her coldly that if she did that again, I will empty the pot over her head!
Another thing that irritated me immensely was when I was doing plating up, and specially when doing a salad on the plate. I always took two pieces of cucumber, make an incision to the middle of both, and give it a twist to make a nice decoration. This girl who were never where she was supposed to be, would hang around my table, and it would drive me nuts, as every time I put my knife down to finish off the salad with my cucumber thingy, I would find the knife gone when I wanted to cut the cucumber pieces for the next salad! I could not make her see that she did not have to stand waiting for my utensils, and I became extremely irritated, as she started doing it with all my tools, and some times when I was busy and found the things I brought out to work with in the dishwasher, I felt like screaming!
I told her over and over that I would put the stuff I wouldn't need anymore on the side for her to take, but instead of cleaning the stove or the micro waves, and such things, she just kept on hanging around me.
Then she started hanging out in the pub door! She would just stand there, looking boldly at the men sitting at the counter, and would give the ones who took notice of her, this secretive smile. I could see that Richard, who was the barman, was getting a bitty upset, but she did not pay any heed to him telling her not to stand loafing in the pub door.
Then she started wearing the most improper tops for working in a decent hotel, and if she had only stayed in the kitchen where she should have stayed, all would have been well. But she now took it upon herself to grab the glasses that Richard had put into the dishwasher the moment it was finished, and went into the pub, where she would start packing them on the racks right in front of the men at the counter. It was horrible, as her tops would ride up high when she lifted her arms to reach the high shelves, exposing a lot of boob and tummy, and poor Richard became very agitated. Of course she never did this kind of things when Lorna was close by, and I could see that the relationship between her and Richard was a bitty rocky.
But my days off were a joy as ever, and as it was now becoming warm, I went to my beloved glen Lyon , where I regained my equilibrium just loafing around and swimming in my wonderful pond that I of course called Christina's pond.