Trouble At T' Mill

It's been a bit of a rocky road at work for the past couple of weeks, which is why there was no follow up post from the last weekend....and we'll give Robert the benefit of the same excuse too! I can't really say much about what the problems have been, just that they concerned our office space and its future usage, so that's kind of been all consuming for a little while, nothing to worry about though as it's all sorted now and it's on with the show for the coming new financial year.

I've still not had final confirmation that our budgets have been approved, but we're all working on the assumption that in general everything that has been planned for the year will come to pass, well at least as far as you, the viewing public are concerned...I fear that we could end the year looking very much like a swan...all calm and serenity on the surface, but paddling like mad below the waves....still, only time will tell.

One more weekend of cookery is left in this current financial year and that should see us playing around with more new recipes from the Propre New Booke of Cokery of 1545. We'll then plunge into the new fiscal year and all that it holds with the Easter event the following weekend, so if you're in the area you'll have two bites of the proverbial cherry to pop along and see us in action.

What does the new year hold for us? Well it's a return to cookery on the first weekend of the month along with high days and holidays, culminating in a 7 day event over the Christmas holidays; there's an extra weekend in July to add as well, but truth be told I can't remember the exact dates at the moment and need to have a look at the wall planner in the office before I can furnish you all with the details....rest assured that I'll let you all know in good time for this as it is one of the main events of the summer, with the Saturday seeing King Henry VIII and his queen arrive by boat once again to be received by entertainment on the riverside, splendour and pageantry in the Privy Garden and a small al fresco meal as well...I believe that the day will also culminate with foolery and shows in Base Court as well as the possibility of fireworks (but don't quote me on that at the moment).

What are we planning for these weekends? Can't tell you at the moment as we're still in the planning stages, but what I can say is that the aim is to go a little more experimental than this last year, although what that will actually involve we haven't sorted out yet but I can promise a departure from the hum drum repetition that we've fallen into with all the events melding into one 'samey', 'normal' affair.....well that's the idea anyway!
Easter though will be a see of dull 'normality' with us cooking a meal to be served at 4.00 each day....this is to fit in with the rest of the Palace and to establish a baseline for the year to show the difference with the experimental weekends...or so I'm assured by our manager.
Don't forget, for those who haven't been to see us for a while, we've altered our working times in the actual Historic Kitchens and our days in front of you lovely people now run from 11.00 a.m. until 30 minutes before close of the Kitchens...this now means that we can get all the little planning and preparation jobs done much more efficiently and devote much more of our time in public...to the public, rather than worrying about whether the bins were empty or the washing up liquid was in the right place.

Still, enough of this procrastination.....off to sort out shopping lists now. More news as and when it happens either here or for passing thoughts...Twitter!