HOW I FOUND FUN IN A TURBOT

While on the delicious subject of literary quotations I cannot let pass 'Vanity Fair' and the exclamation - was it from old Mr Sedley? - to the effect that he would 'bring home the very best Turbot in Billingsgate.' At the time I first read that I am not sure that I knew for certain what a Turbot was, still less how to cook it. Nevertheless it sounded very good.

We didn't live, of course, in Mr Sedley's century. Despite appearances to the contrary I assure you I am not that old. Nor did I grow up anywhere within striking distance of the old Billingsgate fish market. No worries: on every high street in those dim and far off days was a chain store selling fish of every description under some wavy blue and white lines, which, now that I ponder the matter, must have been there to represent sea.

This was MacFisheries - though I am not sure about the capital F in the middle. The idea of littering the middle of words with capital letters seems to have been an invention of the eighties by which time MacFisheries - along with the likes of the Home and Colonial and the daring International Stores - had long joined that register of dead brand names in the sky.

(Whence just possibly it has been reincarnated. In a curious mixture of Apple computers and recreational fishing, which you can view at Macfisheries.com, you can learn about Arkansas Fly Fishing while downloading MacScrabble. You couldn't make that up, could you?)

Now selling fish has always seemed to me a hazardous and horrible occupation - almost on a par with catching the beasties in the first place. Anything to do with fish is cold, damp and malodorous with the added threat of slicing your finger in two along with the fish guts. At least if you work in a fish store you are reasonably assured you will not die from drowning but then selling fish and preparing it for the table must be so singularly uninteresting that the occasional spot of drowning might almost be welcomed as light relief.

Nevertheless, selling fish, along with all those preparatory jobs involving ice and sharp knives, has to be done by someone - at least until they get a better offer. Then they can hang up their industrial brand of apron and rubber boots for the last time and look forward to smelling of something slightly sweeter than fish heads. But in the meantime, guys, welcome to the cold, damp and smelly version of hell.

Or not as the case may be - for Elder Daughter, who makes it her business to know about these things and could make even a plum pudding smile and sit up at the table with a positive attitude - tells me that by applying a few simple techniques the guys at the Seattle fish market turned it from hell to a kind of heaven on whose door members of the public were clamouring to get in.

They even wrote a book about it, apparently, which, though I do not know for certain, presumably provided its authors with a better offer and escape from filleting fish.
Called FISH it seems to reduce to some very simple principles for turning a nasty, boring, sniffy job, working among the smelly and the slimy - and that's just the people - into something of which Seattle residents dreamed so much that they became sleepless.

Four principles standout - these being first to 'Be Positive.' Well, that is hardly original, is it? We all know the power of being positive, of not complaining or being 'chippy.' Yet how many of us put it into effect? We whinge constantly. And what we don't realise is that one person's whinge may destroy the carefully cultivated positive thoughts of an entire team.

Second principle is 'Be There.' Give everything you do, everyone you speak to, your full and undivided attention. Don't try and do two things at once. It doesn't work. Especially with people that need your attention.

Third principle is: 'Make someone's day.' And what a nice warm and glowing principle that is. And how easy it is to 'make someone's day.' Some of us have such awful days that our day can be made by a smile, someone remembering our name. It doesn't have to be a big thing. What do I know about this person that I can do to make them feel special?

And the fourth principle is: 'Have fun.' Work does not have to be monotonous and boring. You can let your hair down. Even the dreariest activity can be made entertaining and fun so long as that activity involves people acting and interacting positively.

So there are the four principles of FISH and blogging about them is my way of making the job of remembering them fun. And who knows, if you like them to I may just, but only just, have made a contribution towards making your day as well.