It was a very wintry cold January morning, when I agreed to test drive a neighbours van round the industrial estate where I cooked. I,d lost my van to agents of DVLA last july(more on this at some point in the future).I decided to quickly head to the local Asda .There were loads of bargain to be had probably saving me more money than my local cash and carry on many items. I cut out the engine and decided to start the engine impromptu again and as I revved the engine again and again, I saw from my mirror a woman carrying grocery loose her balance and drop to the ground, her shopping scattering all around her. Another motorist got to her aid before I could. As the motorist helped her up I noticed she looked frail and harassed but her face rekindled a warm memory in me . I soon reconciled the face. It was Fara . We had worked together at my first job as a student in the early nighties. Why? I thought had she not aged into a vintage beauty. She used to be very pretty with huge brown eyes and a mass of unruly curly hair that cascaded down her back. Whatever happened to my old friend I thought. Life must have been cruel to her as she looked a shadow of her old self." Fara you ok? remember me Kiru from St Martins.?"
"I remember you she said" and burst into tears.
We both thanked the good Samaritan and after gathering her groceries, proceeded to Asda,s Cafe so she could recuperate before continuing on her journey home. I found that Fara had been injured somehow at the old factory where we worked by over exposure to freezing working conditions. During our conversation she continued to be very teary and this concerned me." Can I come and work for you"? She asked" I don,t want any payment you can pay me whatever you want I am not greedy." she continued. She laughed when I suggested she might yet regret that no payment offer as January was always the most difficult time for our business in terms of cash flow.
Hastily and forgeting that cardinal rule of business, I offered her a job that I really didn,t have to offer. I hated cleaning and having fired my kitchen assistant on the day I had my baby last year, I had been waiting for business to pick up before hiring another help.
Fara brought Sparkle into my kitchen from the moment she handled the mop head.I didn,t think my good old Cookworks fryer could look any newer. she meticulously and patiently scrubbed new life into old and tired equipments. I was tempted to ring my nemesis at my local environmental health office and invite her for an inspection so I can gloat. She always complained of my unwillingness to throw away old equipments and declutter my unit. But caution reigned over premature exuberance. And rightly so. For of course, though I paid Fara money the company couldn,t really afford ,for Job I needed done, she did not see this as proper work and talked far too much about every single thing relevant,important or not and this of course impacted on my ability to work quickly and efficiently.Yours truly is currently permanently sleep deprived owing to my two beautiful toddlers bless them! Any one who has ever worked with me including and especially the boyfriend knows that I hate being spoken to when I am cooking.How do I get fragile Fara to shut up? Worse still she knew my work time table so that even when I told her that I didn,t need her she would still turn up and help and I would be obliged to pay her.
During that hot spell in June when Londoners advisedly ate little I ceased the opportunity to steel my resolve to gently lay her off. "Fara" I began as she peeled some maris piper with a small pen knife she,d insisted on bringing from home.(she didnt like using potato peelers!) "I think you need to take a break next week. I won,t be working because of the hot spell. We are not making any money at the markets" ." I,d been thinking of setting up my own street food company"! she blurted out in response."Wow that,s that,s brilliant I lied, flabbergasted and genuinely worried for my old friend. "You must tell me what to do , which markets to trial,how much I would need to invest, where to buy my equipments ......." " Enough already Fara THIS job is not easy and I don,t think you are strong enough to take the knocks and grind of this industry" .Despite my best efforts to dissuade her from taking this plunge ,she stuck to her gun so I gave up and cursed the day DVLA impounded my van because the boyfriend forgot to pay the road tax.I would not have test driven my neighbour,s van to Asda and would certainly not have bumped into Fara and would not therefore be party to the impending heartache she will inevitably experience especially with the charlatans that run some of markets she will trial .I arranged for her to take a basic food hygiene course and to obtain public liability insurance and reluctantly gave her details of two starter markets .Two weeks later the daily phone moans began. First it was "How very labour intensive the business was" then it was the shafting of the market organisers,then what did I think about her abandoning her original cuisine and cooking falafels instead?.
Untill further notice, my daughter is under instruction to sweetly dismiss Fara,s calls with "My mum will call you back later" surely my sanity comes before friendship.!
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