The year in numbers - again!

Phew! What a year; we've collapsed in a proverbial heap after a manic end to the year.

90 evening meals in just over 6 weeks of the Thursford season. Chicken in a honey and cider sauce and rhubarb crumble being the most popular choices - around 35 of each.

And just when we thought we were done for the year, bookings opened for next years show on Christmas Eve. We'd left a note in the guest rooms this year encouraging them to book early and we had pencilled in some dates ready for people to confirm when they had booked tickets. And so they did and poor Mike took 16 nights of bookings on Christmas Eve - and again had to turn people away.

We end the year with 24 Thursford nights already booked (compare that to 2012 when we did 26 nights) and a total of 72 B&B nights and over 6 weeks of holiday cottage bookings already lined up for 2015. 

Each year we get busier and more and more people come back - some guests are already booked in next year for their fifth and sixth visits. We've welcomed guests from near (quite a few from Norfolk) and far (this year Holland, Germany*, Spain, America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand); from a few months old to 92.

Thanks to the returning guests, Late Rooms and Trip Advisor, bookings continue to grow at a rapid rate (nearly 100 extra nights in 2014 than 2013 and almost three times as many nights as we did in 2012 - when for much of the time there were two of us). One thing that has dropped this year is the number of blogs - we'll try harder next year!

We also intend to book out time regularly over the coming year and to have a weekend off every 4 to 6 weeks so that we can also enjoy what every else comes to North Norfolk for. (Already three weekends are booked in February - that's our off season!).

Wishing all our readers a very Happy New Year


* Mike tried very hard not to impersonate Basil Fawlty but it was our German guests who mentioned the war (they were inquiring about the black silhouettes dotted around the village in early August which represented soldiers who had died in the first world war).

£3,000 in a brown envelope, no questions asked, and a visit from the riot squad. Just another day at the office....

Every couple of years I would be transferred to another branch of the Supermarket chain for which I worked. In general I was moved on because my work there was done and my skills were required elsewhere, but I'm sure that some of the moves may have been for other reasons to which I was not to be privy.

This frequently meant that I would be taking over the problems left to me by the previous incumbent. Often these were many, varied and complicated. In one store there were several long term sick staff who had not been managed correctly and as a result were still on the books with no likelihood of ever returning. Some had been absent for several years and I had the task of dismissing people that I had never met.

There have been all sorts of odd things that my 'fresh eyes' seem to see that others were either blind to or even complicit in. In one Store my branch Manager was also new to it and he came to me holding a thick brown envelope. He was slightly concerned because he had just been given it by the leader of the Car Wash crew that worked in our car park. When I opened it I saw that it was stuffed full with cash, £3,000 to be precise all in grubby used £20 notes. Apparently the gang leader helpfully explained that this was our 'cut' of their takings. Neither of us were used to such vague accounting and we decided that we would immediately record it on to our store accounts and that we would then try to establish a more business like approach for future payments. We could not find how the previous 'administration' had accounted for these funds and never did.

That whole car park cleaning team concerned us and we started to review the operation with a mind to cancel any agreement or contract that they may have had. Well as it happens fate took their removal into it's hands and one sunny summer afternoon I had a tip off that I should be aware that I was likely to have a police riot squad arrive in the next ten minutes They would be supporting immigration officers and were targeting the car washing team.

This sounded really rather interesting and so I asked a fellow Assistant Manager to watch the shop floor whilst I inspected the car park. Well by the time I had got to the car park the 'hit' was already in full progress. There were about 15 car wash workers and they were matched easily in numbers by the riot police plus some. It was no exaggeration to call them riot police for they were fitted out in the full riot kit with visors lowered on their helmets, new style batons and the full blue onesies.
They had sealed off every exit route and there were just a few stragglers being rounded up by the time that I got there. Some of the car wash guys had their hands on their heads but as far as I could tell this was just instinct and probably what they were told to do by the police in their home Country.

It was all very interesting and by the time the Police had carried out their checks in full and had taken all those that were likely illegal aliens away we were just left with two poor sods. I felt a little sorry for them, much as you do for the last kids to be picked for the footy team, well they weren't part of the 'in' team. That then was not just the demise of our car wash contract but the contractor too, for he was taken off with them never to be seen again.

I have worked alongside many interesting people who have come from all over the world. I asked a South African what he thought of Britain, "|Britain", he replied rather solemnly, "Is very..." he pondered looking for the most appropriate words finally settling for, "Very Grey". I could see his point, I would imagine that South Africa was like a HD TV starburst of colour compared to Britain being more like your Black & White TV. I thought to my self how ironic that analogy was.


Talking to one of our regular security guard contractors I discovered that he was from Somalia and that he was a political refuge. An unassuming and polite man he did not ooze with the normal 'toughness' that you'd expect was required from a security guard. Most of my colleagues did not give him the time of day which always frustrates me. It is often the same with the cleaners in store and I have always made it a point to talk with them and find out who they are. I consider them to be as important and as valuable as any other member of staff and as interesting too.
It was during one of these conversations with the Somalian guard that he told me of his harrowing time, I believe he was a government paid soldier fending off rebels. He casually told me that he had even been shot. A little later he lifted his shirt and showed me his wound. He clearly had 5 bullet wounds in a cluster just to one side of his stomach, I was gobsmacked that he was still alive then he explains that it was a machine gun that had struck him.

It is a sad fact that this violent world creates so many victims and that there are so many people out there that many of us see everyday and even work with but yet we never make a little time to find out about them the human, the person. However with so many of these people they manage to face off their adversity and I have to say that I take my hat off to them for getting on with life, earning a little money and working with such dignity.

Wouldn't it be lovely that if today (Christmas Day) everyone makes a resolution to chat with a colleague or neighbour and find out just one interesting fact about that person or whatever but most importantly take an interest in what & who they are as an individual and not simply another name and employee number.                               



Seasonal wishes to everybody, across the world, who find themselves embroiled in a conflict that is out of anybodies control, least of all their own control!

Merry Christmas everyone....