Swinging into the 20th century, at last

Well, our Seventies Party could certainly be described as "swinging". We had a fantastic night, with all the guests making a huge effort with the fancy dress. Most of our regulars were unrecognisable.

The band, MoCity from London, were absolutely superb and certainly made the whole event. Apparently, the sore heads the following day were being blamed on the 1970s-style booze. Personally, I would put it down to quantity, not quality.

Andrew and I, however, remained sober for the entire evening as we were attending the Yorkshire Life Awards at Hazlewood Castle the following day. I never thought that I would be so relieved to see fish and chips being served as an appetiser. These in one hand, a glass of Champagne in the other and I'm a happy bunny.

Andrew was thrilled to win the Yorkshire Chef Award, although I think that if the judges had witnessed the Chicken in a Basket being dished up the previous evening they might have had a rethink.

After an extremely busy summer, we decided it was about time we had a staff day out. So, as ever, we combined business with pleasure, gathered the team and headed for the Big City. Destination, the Restaurant Show - after a very good lunch at City Rhodes.

I thought that the Restaurant Show was really good this year and got my inspiration fix from the interview with the fabulous Roux brothers. My other bit of inspiration this month came from the Winteringham Fields article in Caterer. To see such incredibly successful people constantly moving their business forward and striving to achieve more because they just love what they do is very inspiring.

At long last, and just in time, we've entered the 20th century and disposed of our antique phone system and replaced it with an up-to-date yet "as straightforward as possible, please" system. So far, so good - I don't think we've mislaid too many callers and the additional extension in the kitchen is a lot more convenient for Andrew. Now we don't have to let him out at all.

We're all looking forward to next week when we're closing for four days to give everyone a short break before Christmas.

With us being a small operation, we find that it works much better to give everyone their time off together rather than struggling to cover holidays. The customers think it is a good idea as well so, with luck, everyone's happy.

Jacquie Pern and husband Andrew own the Star Inn at Harome, North Yorkshire.

Next diary from Jacquie Pern: 9 December