Busy Day

Yesterday was my day for stewarding at Durham Cathedral. I normally work Tuesdays, either morning or afternoon. I was on the morning shift, which means I have to be up at 6.30 to catch the 7.50 bus. I was first to arrive so I opened up the information desk for business. At 9.30, a party of Dutch tourists arrived whose tour company had not booked them in. This is a scam which several unscrupulous tour companies operate: they advertise the trip to the cathedral as part of the holiday, charging the customers accordingly, but they don't book the visit with us, so they don't pay us but pocket the money themselves; so they simultaneously rob the customers and the cathedral. On this occasion, the tour rep. had also neglected to inform the tourists that they had to pay for guidebooks and couldn't take photos, so we had to do that. If the tour companies book in then the visitors do get free guidebooks and they are given a visiting time when nothing else is happening in the cathedral so they can see everything at their leisure, otherwise, they take pot luck and, if there is a service taking place, for example, they only get limited access. Unfortunately, there is nothing the cathedral can do about these tour companies. We also had a school party booked in, consisting of 140 children with only 6 adults which is definitely insufficient supervision. Fortunately, the children were well behaved and no accidents occurred, but, if a child had fallen or been taken ill, there could have been a real problem. Legally, there should be 1 adult to 10 children.
We also had the usual number of casual visitors and our job is to act as hosts and hostesses making them feel welcome and answering questions. It's a wonderful job, in the most beautiful and most spiritual building in the world. I love it, in spite of the above rant. I'm not complaining about the tourists, it isn't their fault. It's the tour companies who don't play by the rules that I'm cross with. I finished work at 1.00 and spent the afternoon enjoying the sunshine with a magazine.