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Having finished her call to Leah, Jinnie put her mobile back in her pocket and checked the Arrivals board. The Virgin flight from Heathrow was shown as landed, but baggage in hall had not yet come up, so she strolled over to the exit from customs and found a place at the barrier just as the display clicked over to “Baggage in Hall”. From personal experience Jinnie knew the Upper Class passengers would be first to emerge from the baggage hall, and her sister, Dan and George were booked in Premium, so they should be next.
The visitors were some of the first out after the Upper Class passengers, Jinnie could tell by the luggage labels. George was in charge of luggage and had four cases on a baggage trolley. Jinnie chuckled and guessed three of those cases belonged to Penny and Dan, while one belonged to George, but he was the one lumbered with pushing the trolley. Penny spotted Jinnie and hurried over to the barrier, hugged her and said, “Gosh, sis, that’s some tan you’ve got.” Jinnie replied, “Don’t forget we’ve been here more than two weeks, and before that we were on a cruise. If you think I’m brown, wait until you see the twins.” George and Dan arrived and said hello before Jinnie led them all to the car, and they headed for the villa.
As Jinnie drove up the drive she was happy to see the Gibsons’ van in the turning circle. As she parked, the twins came running out of the house and hugged the three visitors. Jinnie asked, “Where is everyone?” Willie said, “Daddy is asleep on the patio, and Mr. Gibson is cutting the grass right down near the back wall.” Millie joined in, saying, “Izzy, Mrs. Gibson and Violet are in the Garden House. We helped Izzy carry all her things there.”
Once again there were fresh flowers in the hall, and the house smelled of air freshener. Penny asked, “Have you got a new maintenance company? Something is different.” Jinnie explained about Violet and how she had been working with her parents through the summer and had got them to change some things. “And she has done a good job,” said Penny. “Absolutely,” replied Jinnie. “But next week she is joining Bearcat (Caribbean) as their very first management trainee.”
Jinnie took Penny and Dan up to the guest suite, where she was delighted to see that it was spotless and again had fresh flowers. Penny said, “If this is Violet’s doing, then it looks like you have picked up a good employee. This suite is positively gleaming.” The twins accompanied George to the Garden House, where the Gibsons had just finished. Izzy saw them coming and was waiting in the doorway. She said, “Hello, husband.” George replied, “Hello, wife,” before hugging and kissing her, much to the twins’ disgust.
Before leaving, Violet sought out Jinnie and said, “I just had to come and thank you, Dame Jinnie. I could hardly believe it when I was invited for an interview at the HQ of Aunty JoJo’s as a management trainee. Everyone on the island knows Aunty JoJo’s and what a good employer they are. But to find out that I was actually being offered a job which included working at the Continental Restaurant, the Ennios St James, Bearcat Catering, Artisan Donuts and DKL was amazing. I am even starting on enough money to buy a car. I don’t know how to thank you enough.”
“The way to thank me is to work hard,” said Jinnie, “and to prove that I was right to recommend you. Let me tell you that we love to promote people from inside the company, so the sky’s the limit. The three ladies who interviewed you all started working on the counter of Aunty JoJo’s. The Managing Director of the Aunty JoJo’s Worldwide Division, based in Florida, started in the Aunty JoJo’s Bridgetown branch, and the Managing Director of our Fast Food Division started behind the counter of our very first sandwich shop in London.”
***
The twins adored having George staying with them, he was the fun uncle every family loved. He was the one who was always willing to play with them, to swim in the sea or the pool, to play beach cricket, to tell them jokes and to pull their legs. Watching George with the twins from her lounger, Jinnie said to Izzy, “It really is a shame you can’t have children. George is wonderful with the twins.” “I know,” said Izzy, “but he only said to me the other evening that as much as he loves the twins, he is glad they are not babies. He says he can’t stand babies. So perhaps this is all for the good. He can be their favourite uncle and then hand them back.” Jinnie chuckled. “Well, it seems a good deal. The twins have fun, he seems to have fun, and you and I get time off from supervising them.”
George, the twins and Dan trudged back up the beach. Dan collapsed, exhausted, while Willie asked, “Can we have an ice cream? George says he will buy them from Anderson’s.” Jinnie replied, “I suppose so, but you must bring them back for everyone. That’s seven ninety-nines.” Ten minutes later George and the twins were back with the ice creams, and Millie said, “This is new ice cream. Anderson was there putting in a new fridge with a glass front and loads of different flavours. We have got chocolate, but we got vanilla for everyone else.” Jinnie said, “You mean he has got rid of that machine that clunked and clanked.” “It seems he has gone to an American ice cream in metal tubs,” said George, “and is selling it by the scoop now. I must say it is good ice cream.”
“Did you see the brand?” asked Jinnie. “Yes, it was ‘Franks Original’, and the board said it came in twenty different flavours,” replied George. “I don’t think I could name twenty flavours.” Jinnie laughed and said, “I wonder if he knows that Franks is owned by TT SuperBurger. When we go for dinner tonight, I’m going to pull his leg about selling me my own ice cream. We should get a discount.”
That evening at Anderson’s the twins chose to sit on either side of George, and Izzy said to him, “You’re highly privileged.” Winston arrived to take the orders and, of course, the twins wanted to start with Coconut Shrimp and follow it with Anderson’s special Fish Fingers. George asked Millie, “Would you recommend the Coconut Shrimp, madam?” Millie and Willie looked at each other as if they couldn’t understand such a silly question and chorused, “Of course, it’s lush.”
George turned to Winston and said, “On madam’s recommendation I will have Coconut Shrimp for my starter. But I think I’ll have the Lobster Curry and rice for my main.” A laughing Winston said, “That’s an excellent choice, sir.” Winston worked his way around the table and, one after the other, they all chose Coconut Shrimp, and Dan said to Willie, “This shrimp had better be good, as we are all having it on your recommendation.” Izzy whispered to Willie, “Don’t worry, he is only pulling your leg. He knows it is delicious.”
Dan said to Millie, “Well, you were right. That shrimp was ‘lush’. Now to find out if the swordfish steak is any good.” “I don’t know,” answered Willie, “I’ve never tried it, but Mummy and Daddy often have it.” Of course, Millie and Willie, as usual, enjoyed their Flying Fish Fingers and Chips. But they were rather bothered when it came to dessert. They knew they wanted to try the new ice cream but were unsure which flavours to choose. Winston told them the mixed ice cream on the menu came as three scoops of their choice, and they decided that two of the flavours would be vanilla and chocolate, but they couldn’t decide on the third.
The twins went off with Winston to look at what was on offer and came back with ear to ear grins. Izzy said, “What have you two been up to?” “Well,” said Millie, “we couldn’t make our minds up whether to have Mint Chocolate Chip or Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, so Winston gave us a scoop of each.” “So you have four scoops,” said Izzy. “Yes,” replied Willie, “and lots of chocolate.” Winston arrived with the bowls of ice cream and produced a squeezy bottle, asking, “Who wants chocolate sauce?”
As the party walked back to the villa, Willie said, “That was the best ice cream ever. Does your ice cream parlour do all those flavours?” Jinnie replied, “Yes, the ice cream is very good. I rather enjoyed it on my apple pie. Winston says it is selling far better than the old soft ice cream at all the restaurants. I don’t know exactly what flavours the shop in Worthing sells, but I know there are twenty flavours at any one time.” “We need a visit,” said a serious Millie, to much laughter.
***
Jinnie was on her usual lounger, enjoying the dappled sunshine coming through the trees fringing the beach. The twins were digging in the sand at the water’s edge with George and Dan, and the rest of the adults were reading or snoozing. Suddenly Jinnie’s mobile rang and the screen displayed “Jorja calling”. Jinnie said, “Hi, Jorja, have you got some news, or is it a problem?” “It’s a bit of an update, boss,” replied Jorja. “My contacts with the oil company tell me that our North Sea bid was well received. We have a slightly lower price in than the incumbents, and they rather like the look of our example menus.”
“That is good news,” said Jinnie. “Well, it gets better,” continued Jorja. “We have been invited to a meeting in their London offices on Wednesday the week after next, to talk about how we would handle a seamless takeover of the existing contract and all sorts of other contract details. They have asked for a list of attendees, but have said we should include a senior financial person, people authorised to sign a high value contract and a dietary expert. Seb and I intend to fly over. Of course, Chris Jones and Miranda will be on the list, and I think we should ask Brian, but he is out of the office on holiday. I think you should be there. It’s a huge contract for us, nearly $100 million over four years with an option for a four year extension. But we don’t have a dietitian over here. Do you have one in the group we can borrow?”
“I definitely want to be there,” said Jinnie, “and it fits in quite well. We are going home on Saturday, so if you fly over a few days early we can have a couple of pre meetings to thrash out our approach. I want you to fly Virgin Upper Class, that way you will arrive fully rested and ready to go. Talk to travel in Potters Bar, tell them I have authorised it and a good class hotel. I think we should include Sir Nigel on the list. He is so well known as an ex PM it will prove we are deadly serious.”
“Brian is over here in his holiday home,” continued Jinnie. “We are having dinner at the Continental with him and Belinda tonight. So I’ll sort out either him being there or his deputy. As for a dietitian, I think that Brooke might have one in the Fast Food Division. If she doesn’t, we need to hire a consultant quickly. I’ll check and let you know. I want this contract. It’s very close now, we need to throw everything at it.”
***
Jinnie and her party were already looking at the menu when Brian and Belinda arrived. They were led to the table and seated, Brian next to Jinnie by design, and everyone said hello to each other. Belinda said to the twins, “Gosh, how you two have grown since I last saw you, and my, aren’t you two brown.” Willie said, “Hello, Auntie Belinda. I’m glad you are here. Mummy said we must wait to order until you arrived, and we are very hungry.”
A laughing Belinda replied, “I suppose I had better get on and sort out what I want. I know that Uncle Brian has already made his mind up. On the way here he said he wanted a big steak and chips. But I want to look at the menu. Why don’t you order while I read the menu. By the time the waiter gets to me I will be ready to order.” While waiting for the starters to arrive, Jinnie told Brian about the meeting in London a week on Wednesday and asked if he would be able to attend. “No problem,” replied Brian. “We fly back to the U.K. the weekend before. I am due back in the office on the Monday of that week.” “Excellent,” said Jinnie. “Jorja and Seb are coming over, and we want to have a pre meeting to sort out our strategy for the meeting in their offices.”
Brian asked, “Who else is attending?” “Me and you, Chris Jones, Sir Nigel and a nutritionist loaned by Brooke,” replied Jinnie. “What do you think about including Nigel?” said Brian. “We could impress them by linking each accommodation rig with our network, talk about auto restocking and quick supply of special requests, linking the tills into the network so we know what is popular and what does not sell, so we can try something different.”
“I like it,” said Jinnie. “I’ll ring Nigel and tell him he’s on the team.” “Mummy,” said Millie, “why are you talking about work? We are on holiday.” Jinnie chuckled and said, “My darling, I’m never really on holiday. Even when we are on the beach, the world is still going on and business is happening. If I did not keep an eye on things the company might go bust and we might not be able to afford to go on holiday.” Millie and Willie looked at each other and went quiet while they considered that terrible prospect.
Unusually, the twins had ordered prawn cocktails and lamb shanks for their starters and mains. Willie put his knife and fork down on his plate and said, “Mummy, that was good. Look, there is no meat left on the bone, it all fell off. I like that, you can eat every scrap. That’s much better than lamb chops.” Millie joined in, saying, “The meat was lovely. We will have it again.” Izzy asked, “If I make that at home, would you like that?” Willie nodded vigorously and said, “We would. But we thought it was only available in restaurants.” Jinnie replied, “It takes a long time to cook, so it’s often easier to buy it in a restaurant. But I have seen it ready made in Tesco and Marks and Spencer, so I bet other supermarkets do it as well. I bet we could get it delivered from the Dark Kitchen.” “Oh yes, please,” said Millie.
***
Jinnie met Chris, Nigel and Sir Nigel at Potters Bar station and together they got on a Great Northern train to Moorgate. Jinnie looked around the train and said, “I’ve always wondered why these trains are almost exactly the same as the Thameslink trains but are not open from end to end. They are separate carriages with doors between them.” “That’s easy,” said Nigel. “It’s because they use the old Underground tunnels and were built to obey their rules.” “But that’s a bit odd because the new Underground trains are walk through,” replied Jinnie. Nigel laughed and said, “That’s because Sir Nigel’s government changed the law.”
The group got off at Moorgate and walked down to the Costa Coffee on London Wall where they had arranged to gather before the meeting at the offices of USA Gas and Oil Inc. Jinnie ordered a flat white and sipped it tentatively. She always liked to try the opposition’s product when the chance arose, and was delighted that, in her opinion, it was nowhere near as good as that offered by Artisan Sandwiches and was also more expensive. Jorja and Seb were waiting, each with an Americano in front of them. Jinnie nodded at the coffee and asked, “What do you think?” Jorja replied, “It’s not bad, but Aunty JoJo’s is better.”
They were joined by Brian, Miranda and finally Heather Dinner, the nutritionist, who was still a little nervous in the company of so many directors. She had met them all at the pre meetings and, in Jinnie’s opinion, had known her stuff and had even chuckled when Sir Nigel had pulled her leg over her surname being appropriate for a nutritionist. Five minutes before the meeting, the party entered the swish reception of USA Gas and Oil Inc. and were issued visitor passes and shown up to the meeting room, where coffee and tea were available.
Jinnie whispered to Brian, “I think this is their boardroom, but it is not very impressive. The reception is nice, but this is a bit of a let down. I wonder if we can drum up a bit of business for Wright Refurbishment. I bet Belinda would love to have a go at this room.” Miranda joined them and said, “Gosh, the coffee on the credenza is awful. I took one sip and changed to tea. At least you can make your own, and they have Yorkshire tea bags.” Brian said, “What do you think, could it be another opportunity for us to bid for a catering contract?” “Let’s wait and see if they offer us any lunch and if it is any good,” replied Jinnie.
The meeting commenced with the prospective client going through the bid paragraph by paragraph and questioning things. Jinnie thought the party had excellent answers to every question and, when the meeting broke for a refreshment break, Sir Nigel found Jinnie and said, “So far so good, I think the team is doing well.” “I agree,” said Jinnie.
After the short break the lead for the oil company started to probe Bearcat Catering’s financial standing. Seb explained that they were a wing of the bigger Events Division, which was part of the TT SuperBurger Group. This led to Brian saying, “As the Group Financial Director, I have a short presentation on my laptop which will explain both the company reporting lines and our financial standing. Would it be possible to plug it into your AV wall?”
The oil company’s IT man said, “I’m sorry, we don’t have an AV wall. The best I can offer is a link to a video projector and a projector screen.” “I think my PC can do that,” said Brian, and Nigel pulled a couple of cables out of his bag and said, “I’ll sort it out. I always travel prepared.” Moments later Brian launched into the presentation that he had given numerous times to prospective clients. Every time Jinnie sat through the presentation she learnt something new about the company and its many branches and links. Not only that, but Brian had updated the financial figures with the latest quarter and showed Bearcat Catering making a small profit and TT SuperBurger turning over £1.5 billion and a profit of over £240 million after tax.
The oil company’s EMEA Director nodded along with Brian’s presentation and when it finished said, “A most impressive set of numbers. I assume that your third and fourth quarter numbers are in line to beat the first two quarters.” Brian smiled and replied, “Our fourth quarter is traditionally our best quarter because of Christmas trading. The Events Division does a huge amount of its business with private company and public ticketed events, and our restaurants and hotels usually are 100% full. So we normally do well on like for like numbers, but we have opened three hotels since last Christmas as well as quite a few restaurants, and I hate to think how many fast food restaurants. Over our various chains around the world, I think we are probably opening a minimum of three or four fast food outlets a month, so we would be amazed if we did not beat last year’s numbers.”
The meeting broke for lunch and a trolley loaded with sandwiches and biscuits and thermos dispensers of coffee and hot water for tea arrived. Jinnie looked at the sad offering and tried a sandwich from a platter labelled “Egg and Cress”. She put it on a paper plate and, ignoring the coffee, made herself a cup of tea. She bit into the sandwich and shuddered. The bread was from a cheap supermarket loaf and spread with margarine, not butter. The egg was acceptable but sparse. The cress was sprinkled on so thinly that Jinnie had to open the sandwich to see if there was any in it at all. As she sipped her tea the lead negotiator said to her, “I notice that your team, to a person, have chosen tea. Any reason?”
Jinnie thought for a moment before saying, “Frankly, the coffee is not very good. Let me tell you a story. I inherited a lot of shares in the old SuperBurger company and was appointed to the Board of Directors. This was before the merger with Trattoria Trevi. At the first board meeting I attended we discussed the fall in coffee sales at their branches. I had tried the coffee served in the boardroom and it was poor. I was assured by the chairman that it was as good as any of the main high street competitors. But after a blind tasting of all the opposition’s products he had to admit that it came bottom of the heap. We did a similar thing with burgers and fries. Once we found a good coffee and a better burger, sales took off.”
“So, you’re telling me that our coffee and sandwiches are not very good,” said the lead negotiator. “Well, yes, I suppose so,” replied Jinnie. “The sandwiches and coffee we sell in our high street sandwich bars are far superior. We would not offer food of this quality on your rigs. The workers would not stand for it. Tell me, would you be up for a little demonstration of what we would provide for a sandwich lunch if we were doing the catering in this building?”
“What do you have in mind?” the negotiator asked. Jinnie pulled out her mobile and said, “I propose I order up a sandwich lunch from our takeaway service. I reckon we can have a delivery here in twenty minutes.” “You’re on,” came the reply.
Jinnie looked nervously at her watch as it ticked towards eighteen minutes, hoping the delivery did not get held up in the London traffic. A minute later there was a tap on the boardroom door and one of the receptionists entered with a DKL delivery driver. Both were laden with boxes and cartons. Jinnie and the receptionist organised the delivery on the boardroom table, platters of sandwiches, large cakes cut into wedges, a couple of dozen giant cookies and takeaway black coffees with pots of single cream.
Jinnie cast an eye over the spread and compared it to the original buffet on the credenza. The IT man said to her quietly, “Well, I certainly know which looks better. I recognise the Artisan Sandwiches packaging, so I know it will be good quality. I often buy my lunch from them. It’s way better than our staff canteen.” The lead negotiator helped himself to a turkey salad sandwich on crusty white bread, took a bite, chewed for a moment and said, “This is really good. I didn’t think for a moment that you could get this spread here in twenty minutes. Tell me, did you have it pre-arranged?” “Not at all,” said Jinnie. “It was a spur of the moment thing. And I suggest you phone up yourself for your next big meeting. But please try ordering some of the hot items. The pasties and sausage rolls are particularly good.”
***
On the train back to Potters Bar Sir Nigel said, “That went very well, far better than I could have dreamed of. I had great hopes that we would come away with an agreement to supply the catering on the North Sea rigs and, having shaken hands on that, I am more than happy. Getting legal to draw up the final contract should be a formality now. But it is the invitation to bid to take over the in-house catering and the request to have Belinda look at refurbishing the boardroom. They are the cherry on the top. Tell me, when did you dream up that stunt with the sandwiches?”
“That wasn’t a stunt,” answered Jinnie. “It was all a spur of the moment thing. How could I have known how awful their coffee and sandwiches were going to be? I just took a chance that DKL could get the stuff there in twenty minutes. Alright, I did only order what I know are their most popular lines, cheese and pickle, egg and tomato, ham salad, turkey salad, prawn mayonnaise, Victoria sponge, chocolate gateaux, coffee and walnut cake and giant chocolate chip cookies. It all went down rather well, I thought.”
Chris Jones said, “I felt I was a little out of my depth seeing you operate, Dame Jinnie. I don’t think I could have turned a negotiation on a contract into an order and possibly two more orders.” Sir Nigel said, “By the time you have been here a bit longer you will have learnt to think on your feet like Jinnie. I bet she is already planning how Belinda can get an order to refurbish the whole building.” “Well, I have been pondering that,” said Jinnie. “I had a chat with the IT man during the afternoon refreshment break, and he was telling me there are 1,200 people in that building and the whole place is a mess. Departments that work together all the time are on different floors, there is old furniture, and the IT cabling needs upgrading to make use of the new high speed servers they installed six months ago. I think a word in Belinda’s ear tomorrow is in order.”
“Now Chris,” continued Jinnie, “We need to start thinking about first tendering for the in-house catering. I know they have promised a specification, but we need to think about staffing and how we could run a contract like that. We need to stop Jorja and Seb from going back to Barbados for a couple of days. They have set up this sort of organisation in Bridgetown, and I don’t want to reinvent the wheel. It looks like your job just grew considerably.”
Chapter 23 – California beckons
© WorthingGooner 2026
