华尔街中级英语学习教程第8课：意外事故Act8 (MP3和文本下载)

MICK: My name's Mick Hadden and I'm landlord of the Hollingbury Pub in Brighton. I've been here about eight years now. I hope to be here for another twenty years.

CLARE: Could you describe your work?

MICK: Yes, certainly. Um. Really not only am I a publican, but I'm a doctor, I'm a father figure. We're all sorts of help to all sorts of people.

CLARE: Can you describe for me a typical working day?

MICK: And, er, you've caught me on a typical morning this morning. That I've got a glass washer being fitted. I've got the machine's being changed. I've got a stock-take. I've got a VAT review. Plus, I'm speaking to you. That's even before I open the doors. Um, we open the doors at eleven and by then of course everything has to be right in the bar, which means clearing up from the night before. Making sure all ashtrays are cleaned. The tables are cleaned. Everywhere's dusted. hoovered. Everything's right just for the customer to come in at eleven o'clock. So then at eleven o'clock we open the doors and it's all systems go. When we close the doors at half past two we have to again clear up ready for the evening session at six. And the same is repeated then between six and eleven. And we're serving customers right up to eleven o'clock. By half past eleven we hope to have had the doors closed. All customers have gone home and then we're starting to prepare for the following day. If we're upstairs and relaxed, having a cup of coffee by one o'clock in the morning we've done well.

CLARE: Have you always been a publican?

MICK: No. I've only been a publican now for about ten years. Before that I was a taxi driver, in Brighton, which is a trade very similar to being a publican because you're meeting the public all the time. You listen to everybody's troubles and you try and help them out if you can. And that is what being a publican is.

CLARE: So are you happy with the decision you made?

MICK: Yes. I wouldn't change it for the world. And a publican has to have a good lady alongside him as well. Because it takes two. But that is one of the reasons why I did it. Because when I was taxi driving before I didn't see my wife and family that often and I missed that. Since I've been in this trade I see a lot more of them.

CLARE: Apart from the long hours are there any other disadvantages to the work?

MICK: Um. Yes. It's very, very difficult at the moment in respect of brewery rents, business rates, gas, water, electricity. Unbelievable bills are starting to come in now. And we can only get our profit from one source, and that is from the public. But of course you can only go so far. You can't price yourself out of the market. It's a very difficult time for trading.

CLARE: How about dealing with customers? What do you do if someone has had a little too much to drink?

MICK: Well, again, the law of the country states that you shouldn't serve anybody that looks like they're drunk. And you have to be very diplomatic and it's not easy when somebody is under the influence. But we try to be friendly and laughing and not play the big brother when we do it. We try to be nice to people and explain to them. Usually we can talk our way out of trouble and eject people peacefully.

CLARE: Yes, do customers ever get violent?

MICK: They can do, but again, as I've stated it's how you treat them. We've always tried to talk our way out of trouble.

CLARE: So what does it take to be a successful publican?

MICK: Number one, you've got to be a diplomat. And you've got to be patient with people because they are coming in to you and telling you, telling you their troubles, you've got to greet people, you've got to look after people when they come into your establishment. And at the end of the day you've got to be the ever-smiling, ever-nice gentleman and lady behind the bar.

CLARE: Let's talk about the customer's tastes. What are the most popular drinks here?

MICK: Well it's mostly a man's pub. Although we try and make it a family pub. It is typically a man's pub. Which means they come in for their smoke in the evening, a pint of lager, a pint of bitter. That is our main trade. Although we are starting to get a few more now of the continental beers. We're starting to sell a few more of those to the youngsters.

CLARE: So women have different tastes then?

MICK: Strangely enough, no. We find that women are quite happy to drink a half of whatever their husbands or boyfriends are drinking. They are quite content with that.

CLARE: A lot of pubs now are going towards becoming more like a restaurant. Do you serve food here?

MICK: We haven't really got the demand here for food so we're just purely bar snacks. When, especially when the chaps are finished work, they come in from work we're quite content to serve them the basic pub food. But we're not in the area here to be a restaurant type pub at all. No. It's very difficult in the trade these days because to have live music and entertainment you have to have a public entertainment licence. We would like to have karaoke, but unfortunately we've been stopped from having karaoke because we haven't got the licence.

CLARE: What about other entertainment?

MICK: Well we do a lot of our own entertainment. We have theme nights. We might have a Wild West theme night or we might have a 1940's theme night. Something like that.

CLARE:I know you mentioned this was originally very much a man's pub and you're trying to move it more towards a family pub. What lies ahead for you in the future?

MICK: Well, again, it is a changing industry. My vision for the future, my own particular pub, is that we will be more family orientated. And when I say family orientated I'm not talking so much about children because I still don't think personally that the pub's a place for children. I believe a pub should be where somebody can come and chat if they want to. They can join in with dancing to a record or tape if they want to. They can play darts if they want to. Or they can sit perhaps just in the beer garden if they want to. I want a choice. Somewhere where people can come and have a choice.

CLARE: If someone wants to become a publican what advice would you give?

MICK: You've got to be prepared to work very hard is one of the first things I would say. And as I've already repeated you must have a partner who's also very willing to work hard as well. You do lose a lot of family life yourself but the rewards can be great. Not necessarily financially, but mentally the rewards can be very great.