Fingers in many pies
I get up at about 7am. I don't have an alarm. If I'm at home, I rely on the crows to wake me and if I'm in London I'm usually in a hotel sandwiched between a tube, a flight path and a 24-hour garage, so there's no problem waking up there, either.
Because the office is at home, I'm at work when I get up. So, unless I'm going to a meeting, I don't tend to travel to work in the conventional sense. I get up and get on with it.
I have no real routine whatsoever, as I can be doing any combination of things. I'm an opportunist and get things done whenever I can. I've been known to fax or e-mail people in the early hours of the morning.
I start off with the e-mails and the post and then I write a list of things to do. I always put at the top "No 1 - write a list". That means I've got something to tick off right away to make me feel like I've at least achieved something.
The rest of the list gets handled on a needs-must basis. The priorities set themselves. It would be nice to think that everything was planned and ordered, but in fact it's the issue that shouts the loudest that gets the attention. So if it's a tax return, I will quietly forget about it, but if it's something more creative, I will get straight into it.
As far as Teesdale Traditional Taverns is concerned, all the pubs are leased out, so from day to day it's a question of whether one is changing hands or needs help in any direction. That's obviously a priority, but my wife Jill tends to deal with that kind of thing.
Norman Richardson House is central to my day - that place is like my surrogate child. It's a private and public sector-funded residential training and conference centre for the hospitality sector. We're in the process of really getting it going and cementing our relationship with Bishop Auckland College, the public sector part of the partnership.
On a day-to-day basis, I talk to David Musto, the on-site project manager, who's done a fantastic job. He's brought the King's Head Bistro - the revenue-generating part of the operation - to a really high standard.
We employ only local people or students from the college, and it's now achieving consistent results. During the morning I also speak regularly with other interested parties, such as the Hospitality Training Foundation, the HCIMA and the British Institute of Innkeeping, to keep them up to date and keep the project moving forward.
I usually have lunch at about 1pm, but it depends where I am. If I'm at Norman Richardson House I'll get something substantial, but if I'm at home I tend to grab whatever I can out of the fridge - unless somebody will take pity on me and make me something.
A tube of Smarties is the most essential thing. I'll open the tube when I start a car journey and try to pace myself, but they're usually gone after the first couple of miles.
Another big part of my day is taken up with my other great interest: rural economies and microbusinesses. They are classically misunderstood by government and the corporate sector. For instance, the Government took away rate relief for rural pubs but kept it for rural shops and post offices, so we're looking to diversify.
We've got one pub, the Stag's Head in Butterknowle, which is just reopening, and it's got a post office, a shop and a visitors' centre. It'll be a complete community resource, and that's the way I think a lot of rural pubs are going to have to go. But it takes a lot of planning to get all the public-sector partners involved. I'm preparing for my interview to become a sub-postmaster, so I'll have my black-and-white cat and little red van very soon.
I tend to eat again at about 7pm. I try not to attend too many functions if I can help it, but I will go to things I feel strongly about. For instance, I recently went to Downing Street as part of the rural community reception and was able to speak to the prime minister.
But all this is just part of what I do; I have my fingers in a lot more pies. For instance, I'm statutory regional chairman for the Environment Agency, chairman of a river habitat restoration project for the uplands of Northumberland, a Training and Enterprise Council board member, and so it goes on and on.
But I like it this way. Everything I do, in broad terms, fits together like bits of a jigsaw. Because I do so many different things, I get some idea of what the larger picture is, as opposed to people who concentrate on their own fragment and see only a small view.
If I tried to run my life in a structured way, I think it would completely collapse. My wife is hugely tolerant, that's all I can say.
