Damp and dismal

Not the weather, here...


This is the bottle store. The more perceptive of you will note that it doesn't have very many bottles in it. That's because the work on the flood repairs starts tomorrow and since this room is underneath the function room it got kind of wet. The ceiling has to come down in the function room, but also in this room and the cellar next door. With the best will in the world it'll be a bit messy.

Apart from the flood work there's some carpeting remaining to do, furniture to choose for the new dining room and function room, fitting out of the upstairs kitchen and some other minor work.

I'll be in Paisley tomorrow collecting the rest of our furniture and driving it back to Jed. I'll also be at a meeting with the folk who attended the Arran/Ayrshire trip last year to discuss a proposed Borders food network based on the Ayrshire one,

Birds of a feather

Look what we've been given...

The larger pair are pheasants and the wee ones are partridges. They were shot today and will hang here quite happily for a week or more.
The room we've hung them in is the old meat store and the big iron ring covered in pointy hooks which is attached to the ceiling has been there since Victorian times.

Renovations
Well, the painters have finished for the moment and the plumber's connected up all the new stuff in the 1st floor bathroom. With the insurance work starting soon, there should be enough folk on site to attend to any unfinished business.

Some good news

The insurance for the flood damage has been sorted out, so work on that can go ahead, and the VAT repayment has arrived so the work on the front of the building can proceed.

I've been away all week on a course (and will be for the next 11 weeks) so L's been minding the shop by herself. We'd both assumed that it would be quiet at this time of year, but she had 7 folk in on Wednesday night and 6 in last night. Most of them wanted early breakfasts too.
Meanwhile lots of small things have happened on the renovations front:

• The flooring is down in the gents'
• The 1st floor bathroom has had some work done
• The 1st floor toilet has been stripped out, floor sheeted, walls painted
• The top landing on the main stair is carpeted now
• The little devices to hold the fire doors open have been attached
• The light fittings are up in the new dining room
• The front doors have been refitted to open outwards only
  

... and the Horseshoe bar has reinstated Scotch pies!

The Great New Year Pie Scandal

The Horseshoe bar is one of Glasgow's most famous bars and the owners' decision to stop selling scotch pies is not going down well with the regulars. Seasoned Brit watchers will not be surprised to hear that someone's set up a petition to have them reinstated.

Here at the Spread it's fairly quiet after the pandemonium of new year. We've spent the past four days in the bar, but have staff this afternoon. L is working on our new website (complete with Polish translation courtesy of Magda). It should be ready before the end of January.

Renovations
No action this week. We are waiting for the green light from the insurance company before proceeding with the water damage work. We're also holding off the external work until we get the VAT refund for the last quarter. For those unfamiliar with VAT it's a sales tax on any value you add to a product. If you buy something for a pound and sell it for two, you pay 17.5% of the difference to customs and excise. At the moment with the renovation work going on we are spending a good deal more than we are earning and as a result customs and excise owes us around £11,000. That's more than enough for the external works.

Nerdy
I have finally got NIS to work. This is a system where you have several computers connected together, but no matter which one you log onto you always see your own files. It's used in big offices and is probably a bit over the top for ours.

New Year stampede

I read here that someone's going to try to set a new record for squeezing as many people as possible into a telephone box. The current record is 14 apparently.

If you can't make it to that event, you might want to try the Spread bar at 10pm on New Year's day...


Lots of folk in Jedburgh only go to the pub once a year and today was the day. The evening saw a mix our younger regulars and some less familiar faces. Collecting glasses was a challenge! It was a good night.

Which is just as well because if 2007 follows the usual pattern the place will be dead for the next six weeks. From next Monday we'll be opening the bar at 4pm instead of noon. That'll be for 12 weeks while I'm on my course in Edinburgh.

The more perceptive of you will have noticed that it's ten to five in the morning. Maybe mooching around the office in the middle of the night isn't the best preparation for a good day's work. Time for bed (again).

Happy New Year from The Spread Eagle!

Ha! What did I tell you?

So it was all a bit of a washout in Edinburgh (and Glasgow for that matter) but here in Jed we had a nice group of folk to see the new year in with and have just finished setting up for breakfast tomorrow. 14 folk staying though some are at the ceilidh at the town hall and may not make it down by 10am.

Happy New Year anyway. Whoever you are, have a good one. We intend to have a better one that last year!