New Year's Day

As mentioned previously, I was up early on New Year's Day to get breakfast for our overnight guests. I have to say that Karen Tucker came to my rescue and helped me with the fry up - That woman is a godsend. Three and a half hours sleep had not left me feeling on top of my game, but there was plenty of work to do. The cleaning up of the bar area was the first order of the day and my brother-in-law Melv assisted me in removing all of the debris left over from the previous evening's revelry. This done I started to replace bottles in order to be ready for the lunchtime session. The cellar needed attention too. I removed all of the empty barrels and made sure that the temperature was okay in there. I couldn't afford to let what beer I had left (half a barrel of Spitfire) get abused. This was going to have get me through until my next visit from the dray man. Lunchtime was relatively quiet. We had a few people in and when we shut the doors at two thirty I prepared to say goodbye to Claire, Steve, Kelly and Alex. They had been a massive help and it had been wonderful having them around during a really important phase of my time here as landlord. They left at about three o'clock and Helen and I sat by the fire with the children and Mon and Melv. I was feeling quite fed up. The whole Christmas/New Year thing had been incredible, but now it was over and it all felt a little anticlimactic. Furthermore I was about to say goodbye to my family and although I would see them the following weekend I was still feeling down. They left for Northampton at four thirty after lots of hugs and kisses. Max, my four year old had a 'Jedi Knight Light Sabre' and was prepared to use the force if necessary! It would soon be time to reopen and I was hoping that it would be a quiet evening. Mon and Melv were staying an extra night and this softened the impact of saying goodbye to Helen, Max and Joe. I had given the kitchen staff the night off and planned on getting an early night myself. If only I had known! From seven o'clock that evening people started to arrive in steady numbers, it was obviously not going to be the quiet night I had planned. By eight o'clock I was flagging, but Mon and Melv kept me plied with coffee and apart from my concern with having only one beer available, everyone seemed happy. I had spoken to Helen earlier on to check on her progress and I figured she would be home between nine thirty and ten. It always takes longer with the children on board as you have to stop for more comfort breaks. Anyway apart from needing a bottle of ProPlus pills to keep me going, everything was ok in the Provi'. At nine thirty the telephone rang and I expected Helen to tell me she was home. Instead I heard her say, "Tim, don't worry, we are all okay, but there has been an accident." My heart missed a beat and the most fearful images raced across my mind. A vehicle had come towards them with its lights on main beam. Helen had moved to the left thinking the other vehicle was too far over towards her side of the road and we think she suffered a blow out. She then lost control of the steering and careened across to the opposite side of the road hitting a tree; the car spun and then rolled over ending upside down in a field. Thank God for seat belts and child seats! I was stunned and couldn't concentrate on what was happening. I told Melv and he took over behind the bar for me. I had to wait nearly an hour before Helen was able to talk to me again. She told me that they were all being taken to the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford for checks, but that they were relatively unscathed. I made the decision to go to them there and then. I'll tell you more later on this week as I have to go now and prepare the bar for tonight's session.