Hopefully the volunteers at Little Downham felt well looked after! All the catering team have until recently been on the other side of the counter so we tried hard to make sure there was plenty of food and drink. Fence judges got bacon rolls and tea / coffee before the briefing, then their choice of baguettes, cakes, crisps, biscuits, drinks, fruit to take with them. We managed 3 tea / coffee / snack runs on Saturday and 4 on Sunday. SJ control, XC control, XC starters etc had their own tea and coffee making equipment (refreshed with extra hot water through the day) and were taken a plated meal (proper china!) of their choice from poached salmon, baked gammon, vegetarian quiches (home made) as well as new potatoes, and various salads, then there was a choice of three puds and cheese and biscuits and fruit. Tea coffee and wine were available for those who were coming in to sit down for their lunch - the dressage crew and the scorers - as well as the food previously mentioned.
*Dribble*
At the end of the day there was more tea, coffee, wine, strawberry cream scones and little cakes and as a thank you every one is offered a choice of bottles of wine or a schooling voucher as well as our gratitude for making it possible to hold such an event!
I love the idea of giving schooling vouchers. I wish more places offered them.
As ever there are some moaners - like those who are told that the plated lunch won't be ready until 11.50 but insist that they are special and need theirs at 11.10, even though they are not busy until 12.30 (and have only a few yards to travel before they're where they need to be). Sorry to the lady who had a rant about it in the loos only to find that when she went for her threatened rant to the catering staff the person asking what she'd like to eat (it by now being 11.50) was the person she'd been sounding off to . . .
Karma is a biatch.
I am still trying to get over the plated lunches bit! Gosh, I sound so incredibly obsessed with food. I assure you, it is only 90% of the time that food rules my life, horses and books take the other 10 %.
And my final whinge / observation: Running out of loo roll! As soon as we notice we refill BUT we're too busy to keep checking and it is not expected that if you put 18 fresh loorolls in the bogs at 8.30am they will all have vanished, cardboard tubes and all, by 10.30. Obviously a number of ar5eholes went into the bogs and nicked the paper to restock their lorries, rather than just using the appropriate number of sheets to wipe their behinds. Note to self: supply Tesco's cheapest rather than Andrex! I'm not trying to pin that on the volunteers though!