This year I can proudly say that the clocks going forward did not take me by surprise. I was ready for time travel, and made it through to the other side with only minimal lateness. Spring is in the air in Leamington. Having neatly eclipsing the weekend, today, like Friday, is once more sunny and warm, prompting hopeful new attitudes and a sunny new look for the blog.
I have spent the last few days immersed in paperwork, trying to unravel the legal secrets of catering-van-ownership. There are, of course, many useful websites that can guide you through the mire of permits, inspections, regulations and of course, the great gangrenous monster that is Health and Safety. All of these Websites, most notably Business Link, will informationalize you until you can’t see daylight any more, but once you have fought your way through the data jungle you can reach for the golden chalice of Knowing-what-to-do inside the Mayan temple of Warwick District Council. However, should you choose to awaken the ancient permit givers of the Council there is no going back. The path to trading is filled with a giant boulder, better known as an Environmental Health Inspection, and it’s coming towards you, gathering pace.
Luckily, much as this is all a swashbuckling adventure to me, Barny has encountered the E.H.O on many occasions in the past, and is not worried. If everything is spotless you cannot lose, says he, sidestepping the boulder on the brink of the precipice and watching it vanish into the trees below. So, with that death-defying stunt in mind I begin the process of form filling, hoping to appease the Permit Gods with an offering of Paperwork.
Internet-based Information is something I consider to be a mixed blessing. It’s nice to know what steps there are, and how to go about them. It’s fantastic that the web can give you guidance on every aspect of the process, most of it not even from wikipedia. It’s just a shame that on a day as deliciously sunny as this, with spring so shamelessly in the air that I keep having to make sure the cars aren’t mating, I am indoors cursing the light for obscuring my screen.
Enough! The sun hath spoken, let us break.
Enjoying the new theme for the blog 🙂 Very spring’y.