I've been mislead about Victor's trip to Paris.

Wednesday 8th August

Olivia:

Hi,

I am not a happy puppy! Information has been purposefully withheld from me by Victor and Graham. I distinctly remember us all sitting together in the bar when they told me that they’d booked Victor on a holiday to Paris for two weeks. He was to be leaving on 31st July and returning on the 13th August. Today Graham casually tells me that Victor’s not coming home until the 16th. I am really missing him and now I have to wait longer before I will see him. I do not feel good about this. I feel a little bit angry because I have been mislead and I feel sad and disappointed because now I’ll have to wait another 3 days before I see my son again.

When you’ve had a bar on the Costa del Sol for a while, you know that the first two weeks of August are just completely loony. All the hire cars are out, there are traffic jams all over the place, there’s nowhere to park and the supermarkets are just out of control, trying to cope with 5 times their normal flow of customers. What do you do? well after 20 years of fighting my way through August madness, I am now walking on the wild side. I just adopt a completely chilled out attitude to the high density of people, the non-existence of supermarket trolleys etc. I once heard a Doctor talking about depression and here’s what he said. “I always tell my patients that an attack of depression has a beginning a middle and an end and one must simple tranquillise oneself accepting that one must pass through all these stages and then in a flash, the world will suddenly appear beautiful again.” What a very wise man. So what do I do about August? Well I go to my bar every day and act just like I would during any other month of the year. I remain relaxed. I calm my bar staff down and if people have to wait a long tome for their food, well that’s just how life is during August and if one can accept that simple fact instead of fighting against it, it is possible to stay both calm and happy. Oh! And counting great piles of notes flowing into the till also has a Zen like tranquillising effect on one’s spirit.