Moray restaurant Scribbles striving its way through lockdown
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When lockdown began Faith Houlding feared she was staring at the very real prospect of losing her life's work.
Faith has been running the Scribbles restaurant on Elgin High Street for almost two decades.
For the five years prior to that she worked in the same premises when it was Bella Pasta.
Scribbles had to close completely for the first three weeks of lockdown.
Since then however, the popular restaurant has been managing to hold its own by operating a delivery service for four days each week.
Faith said: "It's certainly not about making a profit at the moment.
"It's simply about ensuring there's cash flow so I can pay the rates and the utility bills and all the other overheads."
Faith describes the past few weeks as a "rollercoaster ride".
She recalled: "We had a very emotional meeting on the Wednesday before the furlough scheme was announced.
"Scribbles has 29 staff on its books and I had to explain that I couldn't give them the hours they needed and that I was going to have to lay people off.
"There were a lot of tears and a lot of hugging.
"Then the furlough scheme was announced on the Friday and we found that we could protect jobs after all.
"I still have sleepless nights though.
"When we are allowed to open properly again it will have to be with a reduced number of diners.
"So you have to worry about what that will mean."
At present Scribbles is operating with a skeleton crew.
Two chefs have come off furlough and two other members of staff are working two days a week each to help Faith take the delivery orders.
From noon onwards, the phone hardly stops ringing until late in the evening.
Faith said: "It's pretty hectic and it's a lot of work for so few of us. Ideally, we could do with more help, but you've also got to be careful about social distancing.
"My husband John and my daughter Rachel have been helping with the deliveries, as have a couple of my friends.
"It's wonderful that I have such a fantastic team of people around me.
"I've also done some deliveries myself – and that's been really nice.
"It's great to have that interaction with people – even if it's only a 60 second chat on a doorstep from 6ft away.
"It's also been very nice to see old customers again."
The restaurant is currently taking orders from noon onwards between Wednesday and Saturday, although that might soon revert to between Thursday and Sunday.
But what does the future hold?
Faith said: "Scribbles has come through hard times before.
"I know people are desperate to go out and enjoy a meal again.
"I've know because I've been told precisely that same thing so many times recently.
"The powers-that-be are going to have to find a realistic balance between keeping people safe and not allowing too many to lose their jobs.
"It's going to be a very difficult balance to get right."
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