Morningstar Manor

Every so often it was good to carry out a tour of inspection. It kept the staff on their toes, made them feel appreciated that the boss cared enough about them to visit them in their places of work.

Plus there was the possibility of running into a few tenants.

After a fleeting visit to the 13th floor, where he accepted the fawning devotion of his minions gracefully, he stepped into the maintenance department to listen to Ruprecht's grievances, then went to the back room of the Mocha and brought a smile to Joy's sour face.

"I'll have a tall skinny latte," he told her, "at my usual table."

Which was free, as luck would have it.

He sat and sipped and looked around with great interest and satisfaction.

Brian hunched over his desk, scribbling at a long list of integers and figures, tapping his pencil against his lower lip every so often as he squinted in concentration. This was some damned tough stuff, but he was glad to be doing it. It kept him busy and if he looked busy, his boss wouldn't be able to get on his case about NOT being busy.

The Lamb always has a rather Irish feel about it but tonight everything about it is green. Not the beer, though - that would be sacrilege.

There are traditonal dishes on the menu - irish stew and colcannon amongst them - traditional drinks and also traditional music both live and piped.

Drink at the bar, eat at the tables, and there is a dance floor for anyone gutsy enough to brave the speed of the fiddler.

Elspeth was hungry but didn't want to order in. Didn't want to go out. So to the Mocha she want, magazine in hand and glasses perched on the end of her nose not so much because she needed them to read but because she'd forgotten she had them on. She settled into a seat with a huge chocolate muffin and a pot of Earl Grey and started flipping pages.

__________

Brian, for once, wasn't working on a Sunday afternoon. He was studying. Hard. His first big test of the semester, in a class he hated but needed to ace. So, with a mug of coffee at one hand and his texts at the other, he sat in the corner and dove into the book, only looking up once in awhile to give his eyes a break.