A hot 1st day of June today - and my world.
I rarely work at Tyntesfield on a Saturday, but this week, here I am. The ticket office has a nice rhythm to it - first thing it is quiet, and we all set too in preparation for the impending visitors. Then around 0945 the daily briefing. We circle the supervisor in rapt attention, which today was run by Sue, who informed us that one of the paid staff was off sick, and there would be no bus driver after 1.30pm. Eek, that's just 5 of us to man the Ticket Office, cover lunch and man the coursesy bus all day, and two of us were volunteers. Seasoned volunteers, but volunteers nonetheless.
To the barricades then, Dave and Myself on the tills, Amy and Beth on the membership stand outside. And in they came like swarming bees to the honey pot. Outside the temperature rose to the low 20oC's, inside the queues were kept almost to single figures by the use of fast track scanners as in the image above. We worked like a well oiled clockwork machine. Teas, water, biscuits and sweets kept us going. By 2pm the rhythm always changes. Numbers of visitors begin to drop and the morning house tickets return as shifts change in the house team. Time to count out timed tickets in bundles of 50 ready to do it all again tomorrow. Visitor numbers drop quickly after 3pm and by 4pm when the house closes, it's the merest, but steady, trickle. Still two hours to go but a calm begins to descend. There's even time to laugh and chat while toiling away. Dave had been on the courtesy bus since 2pm, and Beth went home to write an essay, leaving just me, Amy and Sue to mop up the day and reflect. I finished at 5.15pm and headed to the shop to buy Julie some soap. I like the rhythm of my days at Tyntesfield very much.
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