Dancing in the streets, dodging on the phone

01 January 2000 by
Dancing in the streets, dodging on the phone

There was dancing in the streets last Tuesday, and not only for William Baxter and Robert Platts after the successful sale of their business. I was dancing too. What success, what a business and what a price! But for me it's another one gone from the list of competitors - thanks, Granada, keep it up.

Another celebration this month was our Unit of the Year award and presentation. This was announced at our unit managers' meeting and the successful unit manager was presented with a trophy, a certificate and a voucher for a weekend away.

Later on in the evening, the same man won another prize in a supplier competition. The only fly in his ointment was that he hadn't had the chance to purchase his Wednesday lottery ticket, which really could have rounded off his day.

Last week, I had a number of our female office staff clamouring to accompany me to a sales appointment with a prospective client. The reason? I had a date - sorry, a meeting - with Paul Newman.

Today a journalist was taken unawares when calling to speak to the managing director of Charlton House Catering. "I'm from the Independent on Sunday," he said, "and I'm calling to ask your views on one of the provisions contained within the Social Chapter for male employees to be given three months' unpaid paternity leave."

Absence of leave

As I started to give him my thoughts, I could tell that I was not the "Robin" that he had been expecting. When I confronted him with this, he confessed that he had expected a man but would value my thoughts from a woman's point of view. When I said that I didn't take three months off when I had a baby, I think he started to get the idea.

In summary, the consensus was for male employees to gain two weeks off work with one of the weeks being paid. By then, they'll be itching to get back to work for a little peace!

Talking of having a rest, this month a visit was made to Le Petit Blanc. We had been trying to visit it since it opened, but due to our busy work schedules and lack of planned "free" time, we hadn't been able to make it.

When ordering, my heart sank when I saw the waiter produce his Remanco hand-held ordering system. Computerised ordering and me don't get on.

Do you remember that scene in the diner in When Harry Met Sally… (no, not that scene, the other one) when Meg Ryan is being very specific about how she wants her meal - "hold the mayo, the sauce to go by the side of the dish and not over it, no butter and no cream", etc? Well, I have been known to act just like that.

How on earth would the computer cope with my order?

But full marks to Remanco and Le Petit Blanc, I received exactly what I ordered, plus a change of mind (and order) halfway through.

The meal was excellent and thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Next diary from Robyn Jones will be on 26 June

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking