Christmas Day

Received my insulin injection around 6.30 a.m., went to see my grandchildren playing with their newly opened toys around 11 a.m.,got a present off my daughter, opened the Pub at 11.30 thinking i might get a few aperitif customers,(hour not contents).There's no Pub culture here, everything turns around the meals. Nobody actually drinks aperitifs in my bar they all drink 'Real Ale' but it is drunk at aperitif time. Normally I don't open for the mid-day custom, I leave that for the two bars on the square although today I made an exception. Early on I got two customers who had gone to the square first, only to find the other bars closed. This meant things were looking up except that they were the only two locals that came in. Ten past one I had a good crowd of two English families who are on a weeks Christmas holiday staying in two houses down the road a bit.They enjoyed my local beers and ciders before heading off in mid-afternoon. My regular crowd came in at my normal trading time of six in the evening, drank their beers, then between seven and eight, headed home for their evening meals. The protagonist from yesterdays story came in, I told him that I was suspending him but it turned out he came in to apologise then left. I was quite busy until about 7.30 and one two were getting slightly tipsy, including my friend Jean-Yves, a.k.a. Jaquot last nights hero: eventually they left but just before they did, a group came in, sat around the fire, brought in wood to build it up a bit and ordered one glass each of chouchen (popular local mead) and white wine before leaving me by myself for a few hours until two brothers came in around 10 o'clock, slightly tired,(which is a local euphemism) followed by the wife of one of them, drinking their beers until I asked them to leave at midnight. One customer on Christmas eve night and three customers on Christmas night. I hope that the new year will be better, which it should because it's the main holiday as in Scotland. Christmas is really for family.