Being not terribly experienced in the art of international travel, we were somewhat taken aback on our last big overseas trip when we flew from Paris to Cork on Air Lingus, and were expected to pay cash up front on board for any drinks we may have wanted. Not something we'd ever previously encountered.

But we had heard some horror stories from the people who joined us on the French cookschools, who'd flown somewhere in Europe on Ryan Air, and had discovered that the cheap airfares weren't quite as advertised.So for all those reasons I found  this video  which Gail has just sent me, absolutely hiliarious.

Could possibly be the Irish accents that does if for me...

Drove up to Auckland yesterday to watch Courteney race in the Auckland K1000, and the photo above is of the sprint finish between her and Melissa Holt - with the rest of the field some distance back.

Courteney won! - which is seriously cool, becos Melissa is a considerably older, more experienced rider, and in beating her, Courteney is proving to herself that she has more than made the step up from junior cycling last year to the elite level.

Her father said she could do it ( thats him in the back of the photo in the middle, having exhorted her to nail it as they sailed past) -  he's pretty accurately predicted each stage of her progress, and is suitably elated with what she achieved yesterday.

I am delighted for my daughter, becos I see the level of sheer hard work and committment that goes into her training, and it was with respect to that, that I simmered at the finish line, listening to the man on the microphone, pay only the most minimal, patronising attention to the womens race, while feeling the need to constantly update us on the progress of the male  A grade race. Like that was the only one that mattered.

I suspect he was beginning to wonder why the woman with the camera was glaring at him....

To them, I think it was. Chavinism is alive and well within sporting ranks in NZ, and the fact that the winning woman only gets a quarter of the payout of the successful man, just about prettty much sums it up for me.  Nothing but tokenism.

 I wonder where these people were when Sarah Ulmer was racing?

But I am not going to let those twats detract from what was a great performance. I know how hard she's working, and to see her get those results is a buzz for everyone around her.

And  then  to cap of an exciting weekend,  we've just heard today that Maddie Brunton, Courteneys closest rival and friend all thru junior cycling, who is now specialising in triathalons, has just won in Lausanne, Switzerland, where she's about to compete in the NZ team for the Worlds. Very cool!

Because of course girls can do anything!

Matt, one of our kitchen team has just come over to house with a container of strawberry plants that his mother promised me. Kim had split her plants and ended up with a number surplus, and offered them to me.

Delighted to be the recipient of such healthy looking plants and will take them down to one of the raised gardens later today to plant them out.

She has however, given me a whole heap more than I needed, and has suggested that if I know anyone who would like some, then to pass them on, and being me, I will most definitely mention it to likely candidates in the restaurant tonite.

And it did occur to me that if anyone reading this in the next couple of days would like some, then flick me an email,  and I'll save some for you- but I don't suspect they'll be around for long...

The local Kaimai Classic multisport race was on last weekend, and for the first time in a number of years, none of our family was in attendance. Hannah had been planning on doing the whole thing herself, and we were support crew, but a twisted ankle in a race the previous week, put paid to that idea.

Resting her body is not a notion that Hannah is especially good at, but even she knew it would be folly to try to do that much too soon.

While she was home though, she showed us this video made of the Motu Challenge from 2009  ( click on Motu to view), that again, the family have raced for a number of years. For the last couple of years, they, with Ash Hough doing the mountain bike leg, have been the first mixed team home.

So good in fact that they came in just behind Richard Usscher, who you see a lot of in the video becos he's the top individual male.

Our team seem very practised at going about their business and staying just under the radar - but I liked in this video that Hannah got interviewed as she ran up from the kayak, about to hop on the bike for the last leg of the race.

You don't see Rick or Courteney in the video, but they had done the run and the inital road bike legs respectively, and it was with very real pleasure that a team with  2 females in it, crossed the line ahead of a team of all male college boys, who were none too pleased at the finish line at being beaten by ' girls'.

Love it when that happens!

!

Hannah crossing the finish line in 7 hours, 27 minutes and 36 secs... 3rd overall in fact, not that you would know from the commentary on the video..

I think they're all frigging awesome!!!!

As I pontificated about at length last year, we had a litter of puppies a year ago to the day - one of the more stressful, but ultimately satisfying experiences that we've been thru. And definitely one that qualifies for the 'glad I did it, but don't think I'd want to go thru it again' adage.

Of the many positives to come out of it though, was the relationship that we have struck up with the owners of the father dog - a family who are even more Weimaraner obsessed than we are. And to celebrate the one year old birthday of the puppies Karen sent me thru a photo last nite of their 4 - all of whom are related to our 2.

Going from left to right of the photo you have, uncle, brother, aunt and dad - and how they got 4 Wei's to sit still for the camera for the time it would have taken to compose that shot, god knows!

Aren't they gorgeous!

Our daughter is currently racing in the 3 day Te A Tour, and this has just been written about her on the website after the first day racing...

  The women’s race provided the excitement for the spectators at the finish, with an almost full peloton charging towards the finish line. Courteney Lowe showed why she is one of the most promising female cyclists in the country with a strong surge down the middle of the road to claim stage one line honours. Along with claiming the sprint ace and QOM jerseys she will also wear the yellow jersey into stage two.

I'm going over to watch tomorrow, and will take some photos.

Proud? Who, us?!  As Rick has just said 'thats cool!', which is somewhat of an understatement, but which is typical of my husband.

The Te A Tour was one of the first races Courteney ever did, as an U15, and she's gone back every year over the last 6 years. Now shes racing as an Open Woman, and showing the kind of class that her father has predicted every step of the way that she had.

He's nailed it every time - and like her, when she suceeds greets the news with a calm, relaxed sense of pleasure.

As he has just said - it is all very cool!

Courteney heading to the line up for the Time Trial, with the Zipp wheel her uncle funded and a tri wheel borrowed from an incredibly generous Richard. As you get towards the back of the Time trial lineups, and into the more serious riders, the equipment they wheel out, gets more and more serious. Thanks to some very generous people in her life, this is now a very serious time trial bike....

Even me, who doesn't know very much about the technicalities of these things, think that it looks pretty spunky!

I am truly shattered. We were up before 3am this am in order to head down to Taumaranui to support Hannah and Andrew in the Kararau Krusher - a multi sport event.

A long day was had by all - but once again my offspring never cease to amaze me with the quite alien ( to me!) levels of energy and grit that they exhibit. And once again I marvel at how my childrens sporting endeavours get us out to parts of the country that we wouldn't ordinarily go too. Shot down the Western Access route quite quickly, becos so little traffic on the road at that time of the morning.

We came back via Te Kuiti and Te Awamutu becos Gail had told us about a new cafe, foodstore and cookschool that had opened up and we thought it'd be a good opportunity to have a look, but too late coming thru. Courteneys doing the Te A Tour in a few weeks though, so we'll be looking for somewhere for coffee then...

I've retreated from the restaurant tonite cos I'm beat- went over for the first hour but felt quite surplus to requirements and since we have a cookschool in the morning, I will be heading to bed soon. I need some catch up snooze. The restaurant is fully staffed, and all is proceeding smoothly. I won't be at the restaurant for the next 2 Saturday nites becos we have weddings on, so always reassuring to know they can cope without me. Makes life much easier!

Some photos of our girls day...

The start....

Pep talk from her father - he can't help himself...

The start - in the main road at 8am...

With multi sport - transition happens in different places and since the athletes are going from road bikes to run to kayak to mountain bike, there is a fair amount of equipment that needs to be in the right place at the right time. Rick is reading Hannahs instructions at this point about what she needs at each transistion. Our daughter has an exceedingly  dry sense of humour which sneaks thru - her assessment of the time it was going to take to do the mountain bike leg - 'Ages'.

Zoe, part of the family and the support team heading to the kayak transition with Rick and bags of stuff...

At the end of the run leg...

And about to paddle 20 odd kms on the river - as you do!

Courteney is currently in Wellington, racing in the 5 day international Womens Tour of New Zealand. To our enormous pride, she was picked to replace Alison Shanks who pulled out of the National Team, and she is currently living, eating and racing with some of her cycling heros ( all the rest, older women who race professionally overseas) - and no doubt absorbing huge amounts of information and advice along the way... Not to mention just the sheer experience of cycling at that level.

She's doing fantastically well so far, and we hold our breaths day by day, becos things in cycling can change radically from one day to the next, but just wanted to share with you this photo of the NZ team riding at the front of the pelaton at the start of the Day 2 Road race. We haven't seen her in the NZ kit yet cos she didn't get it until she arrived in Wgtn.

Thats our girl on the far right of the photo:

( I'm crying! Shit!)

The NZCT New Zealand National Team pose for a photo at the head of the peloton.

I'm just heating up the oven to cook a tomato tart for lunch. Each trip down to the vegetable patch at the moment is yielding copious quantites of tomatoes, and I'm having to come up with inventive ways of using them. Not, I might add, that I'm adverse to having them very simply with just a sprinkling of salt and splosh of balsamic on good bread. But we've had that for lunch repeatedly over the last few days - so trying to be a little more original today.

Oven's on to get good and hot, becos with our cream cheese pastry it needs to go into a really hot preheated oven otherwise the butter tends to melt and run out before the glutens get a chance to set - and runny butter means ovens that need cleaning, and that is one job I'll make a determined effort to avoid!

Going up the Mount this morning I decided that I should write about Bev May, Courteneys cycling coach, becos she is an extraordinary woman - one of those special people who underpin sport in all codes right across NZ, but never for financial gain or personal selfaggrandisement. They do it simply for the love of the sport.  Courteney has just raced in the Bev May tour - a 2 day womens event that the Morrinsville cycling club put on to honour Bev, who has been a stalwart of NZ cycling since the 50s.

When she first started racing in 1958, she needed a special license to be able to race against the men - with no other women cycling back then, if she didn't race the men, she wouldn't have had any races. Her exploits are legendary within cycling circles, and her scrapbooks  of newspaper cuttings that Courteney brought home last year to go thru, reveal a time in NZ history when cycling was  huge.

In 1988 a serious accident put paid to her racing career, but she has continued to be heavily involved in the sport - especially with coaching young up and coming riders. No less a cyclist than Julian Deans was coached by her in his junior years.

She has been Courteneys coach for a number of years now - and Rick has sat comfortably in the background, watching the relationship between the two of them develope and thrive.

She's totally old school - you get good by doing the miles! She brooks no dissent, and gives out few compliments, and has been absolutely brilliant for our daughter, who requires much more cossetting in general from her father.

The Bev May Tour has been an annual event since 1990, and one of Courteneys mentors, Sally Fraser won that first Tour, and comes back every year to compete.

The list of previous Tour winners reads like a who's who of top NZ female cyclists - Sally Fraser, Sarah Ulmer, Melissa Holt,  Marina Duvjnak.

Courteney had a great tour over the weekend - and for once I watched Bev show some emotion as she came over to hug her. Rick even got a hug after prize giving - and was told that she thought Courteney could go all the way.

 Two very emotional parents drove back to Tauranga, feeling enormously proud to their daughter, and full of gratitude to the special woman who has so absolutely been the right person in the right place for Courteney...

Father and daughter discussing tactics before the road race on Day 2...

Courteney taking out the first QOM - the spotted jersey she's wearing shows that shes the current Queen of the Mountain - something she retained on Day 2.

Sonya Waddell, the eventual overall winner in yellow jersey, discribed Courteney in her acceptance speech as her little nemesis, and someone to watch becos she had the makings of a future champion.

Criterion Stage - officials including Bev stand by the sprint finish as the cyclists do the circuit.

Hannah, whos a good cyclist in her own right - but also manages to fit in kayaking, and running and multi sport and...- came to watch her sister in the criterion, and was heard to mutter that she might do the Tour next year..

She took out the sprints...

And at the end, the normally, quite matter of fact Bev, gave her not one but 2 hugs - which I missed becos I was so shocked I didn't think to have the camera ready, and then proceeded to launch into advice on the major Tour of Wellington that Courteney leaves for tomorrow.

According to Bev's principles - its self indulgent to feel sorry for yourself when things go wrong - you're allowed 10 mins after a race but after that you are required to snap out of it; and likewise, we're not allowed to get too celebratory when things go well.

It's all good, but whats next on the agenda...!!!

And thats why I now take a camera and capture some of these moments, becos time is swinging by so fast, and its hard to believe how far we've journeyed with these 2. I have a photo of Courteney in her first ever cycling race, which I'll unearth one day - and the contrast between that lacking in confidence, plump, shy, preteen, and this streamlined mean machine that we have now is simply huge.

Takes my breath away really.....and it really doesn't matter where it all leads too - people who know what they're talking about,  are starting to predict big things for Courteney - but I figure that at this stage that doesn't really matter, becos what has been achieved so far is simply amazing, and so to my mind, what comes next is all pure bonus.

We've had a really good nite in the restaurant, and I've flicked back over to the house feeling nice and mellow, to watch the finish of the Elite National Road Cycling Championships. Tonite was the male race, and its always good to watch it with Rick who explains the finer points of the tactics to me.

But my nice benevolent mood got disturbed when they showed the presentation ceremonies at the end. The first was for the top 3 place getters, naturally enough, and then they had another presentation for the top 3 U23 males, which is also fair enough.

So what I now need someone to explain to me, is why they had an U23 presentation for the male race but not for the female race?

HUH?

I mentioned in the electronic version of the newsletter which went out last nite ( the hard copy one takes a little longer to get out there - I'll be doing the envelopes for it,  for the rest of today, and Simpson Print will print off the letter now they're back at work, and then we'll fold them all and get them in the envelopes and stamps on and out in the mail , hopefully by the end of the week. A considerably more laborious process - but I have people who are adamant that they prefer to recieve a letter that isn't a bill in their letter box, and while they continue to feel so strongly about it, I will continue to send it to them...), that Courteney was racing at Elite Nationals in Christchurch.

So as promised, here is a link to the results. 7th in a field that classy, for her first stepup to the major league, was an awesome achievement, and her father was beside himself with delight when he rang.

Courteney herself, was a little more circumscript, but she obviously got a real buzz out of the experience - huge numbers of spectators, massive police escort - the full deal really.

Series of photos on the site for those who are intererested - this link shows her in the middle  of the peleton in Waikato/Bay of Plenty  colours - black and red.

Thought it was interesting on the TV news last nite that they quoted the ( is it?) Danish import,  Linda Villumsen, as having been a previous winner of the Tour de France. Most people I speak too, have absolutely no idea that there is a female Tour.

The male version has become very well known, but the female one gets no coverage at all here in NZ.

Hmmm....

(Courteneys 2nd from the front in this shot)

( Talking to me apparently, after its all over with a clearly elated father)

It is a glorious day - sunny and still. We went up the Mount this morning, and came home to breakfast at the out side table, far from the maddening crowds at the Mount. There doesn't appear to be any visual sign of the holiday crowds diminishing over there yet - and will probably be another couple of weeks before our chances improve in terms of getting a carpark a little closer. At the moment you have to park so far away, that you feel like you've done your exercise before you actually get to the base of the Mount, so I mumble a bit, but on a day like today, it isn't really a hardship, to amble along the boardwalk...

Put up the sun umbrellas at the back of the restaurant, becos it will be a magical day to sit out in the sun - not that we expect to be that busy for lunch. Most of the tourists are over at the Mount. We do however have lunch time regulars that we see every week, and they will no doubt be in some time this week.

Most of our suppliers are back on deck - some large wine deliveries happening today, now I can reorder, which is a relief, becos Simpson Print are on holiday and if I run out of any wines I can't get the list reprinted just yet. And I always feel a bit twitchy when I can't front with something thats on the menu.

We didn't have any white fish over the weekend becos the fishermen had decided to have a holiday - and explained it to people accordingly. Likewise, we don't get our next delivery of Clevedon Buffalo yoghurt and ricotta until tom, so the couple of dishes that feature them have had to be slightly rejigged in the interim. Its not too much of a hardship, and my approach to it is far more relaxed than it used to be.

Business' are actually allowed to take holidays, and if that means a bit of a reshuffle for us for a time, then so be it. Most customers that we get at the moment are also on holiday, and we're finding them pleasantly receptive to that reality.

Rick headed over to mow the lawns on the far side of the restaurant before the lunch crowds arrived, and I tried to get some photos of the dogs outside so I could show an up to date one of Benson, our pup.

We took him over to see his father and brother on Monday, having been told pre Christmas, that his brother, Gus was now larger than his father Daz. We remember Daz as a strikingly large dog, and Benson didn't seem anywhere near that size to us, so we were curious to see how he measured up. We're reasonably dog-centric, but Karen and Mark are even more so than us. They have 4 dogs all up, 5 on the day we called in, becos they were babysitting a pup.

Gorgeous, just gorgeous!

Benson and Gus have turned out to be 2 peas in a pod. Identical size and head shape - and we all swore that they knew each other, and were gratifyingly affectionate. They're both stand higher than Daz, but haven't yet filled out as much as he is. At 10 months old, I guess they still have a bit of development to go.

He is a beautiful dog - one of the most even tempered we've ever had, which I'd put down to no seperation anxiety. He's been with us and his mother all his life, and pretty much believes that life revolves totally around him, and he's fabulous and thats all there is to it. A complete boofhead!

Having the litter of puppies in 2009 was certainly an interesting experience, and pretty much took over our lives for a couple of months there. I don't think it is something we'd rush to repeat - Kazza is going to be fixed up this month, so her next season doesn't cause us too much grief, with a fully developed male around the place.

But there is no doubt that there will always be room in our lives for dogs - we just seem to be geared that way, and watching all those Wei's the other day underscored for me that that is no bad thing.

( On day 2 of life - tiny and precious)

(And 10 months on - a beeootiful pooch!)

I'm not especially a fan of New Years Resolutions, but Chris sent me thru this little annotation at the weekend, and I decided it wouldn't be too bad a philosophy to attempt to adhere too over the coming year...

Christmas Day on the beach! God we live in a beautiful place!

I'm just about to head over to the restaurant for dinner service, but have been sitting at my desk answering some emails, and catching up on some  reading, and that led me to this website, which is one I check in on daily.

Its American, and as such is very American-centric - but it has some fascinating links, especially relating to politics.  I'm a big magazine reader, and one that I ponce on with particular glee when it arrives, is Vanity Fair. I just love the ecletic mix of indepth articles, on a wide range of subjects. And often, as with the Copenhagen business at the moment - I'm not even bothering to plow thru the  ridiculously repetitive newspaper articles on the subject, preferring to wait,  until it crops up in a later edition of Vanity Fair, becos that will explain the myriad aspects to me, in one  well written, hit. And that is how I prefer to get my information.

Tina Brown was the editor who revived Vanity Fair - back in the 80's I believe, and this website is of her making, and shows her touch in many ways. It can be a bit of a time waster...

But need to go over to the restaurant, becos busy tonite, and a constant stream of people wanting vouchers and other bits and pieces, as  time runs out before Christmas. 

I'm having a baking kind of day, which is sitting very comfortably with me. Ricks searching for inspiration in some cookbooks for some menu changes, and we've had a discussion about various aspects of that, and I've left him to it, and headed into the kitchen to turn the fruit thats been macerating all week, into 2 large cakes.

The first will come out of the oven at about 5.30pm so that is going to mean that I'll have to flick back over to the house during service at about 9.30pm to remove the second one from the oven, but that is one of the advantages of living so close these days. It isn't a hardship to do so - I just have to remember!

My daughters have requested the full monty when it comes to Christmas baking. They want Christmas cake with the 'proper' icing - by which they mean almond and royal icing - christmas mince pies and christmas pudding. My mother would be delighted. An emigree from Ireland, Betty never budged all her life, from the conviction that Christmas dinner involved the traditions, even if she had transplanted herself from a cold Northern hemisphere winter to a more moderate climate. Christmas was Christmas - and no variations would be brooked.

So the fact that her granddaughters hold true to that tradition, even though she has now been gone for over a decade would give her immense satisfaction, I am quite sure!

I acquiesce, and do as instructed, in no small part becos I too love the cakes, pudding and mince pies, and becos it does remind me somewhat intensely of my mother. She and I have just had a wee private conflap as I lined the tins with baking paper - a chore that always takes me straight back to her kitchen in Palmer Cres.

We were estranged when she up and died suddenly of a heart attack - family and business had not been a happy mix for us - and part of the needed healing process has been to be able to reach back to some of the nice memories. Christmas cake, Christmas pudding and Christmas mince pies are very much part of that list.

I use her mince recipe - I think the original book it came out of was one of those Women Institute type recipe books, printed back in the fifties. The pudding recipe I've used for years, is slightly different to hers but only in minor things like the fact I use brioche crumbs rather than conventional bread crumbs. I have the brioche dough rising at the moment - and will eat the surplus  brioche toasted with the exquisite loganberry jam that Rick bought back from Somerfields when he went to get our first strawberries of the season from them yesterday. The pudding is a Roux brothers recipe, from their book on patissiere, which is a classic we refer to alot.

The cake recipe comes from Pat Foster at Jamele - she gave it to me last year when I commented on how delicious the fruitcake was that they always have in the salon in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

All week I've had a large mound of raisins, sultanas and currants macerating in red wine and Pedro Ximenez sherry - stirring it occasionally and watching the fruit gradually plump up.
And now after  a half hour of creaming butter and very dark sugar, and combining it all with eggs and flour and spices, the house is filling with that beguiling smell of Christmas baking, that I do so love.

Ironic really. Becos in the Christmas cookschool series which we are currently about halfway through, we very deliberately stay away from anything to do with dried fruits, becos experience in both the restaurant and with wedding catering has taught us that a significant percentage of people don't like fruitcake or its related culinary cousins. Most wedding cakes we encounter in todays world are chocolate or banana or carrot cake. That is just the way things are.

So I confess that I share, what I am quite sure would have been my mothers satisfaction that the next generation of females in this family also want proper Christmas baking in their lives. It'll be my pleasure to pass on the recipes, if and when they ask for them. In the meantime I'll enjoy the process of cooking them for all of us.

Back at my desk, after a very pleasant week away. Just been over at the restaurant sorting and restocking wine, and working out ordering lists. We're heading up to Auckland later this afternoon, to take Hannah and her boyfriend out for dinner - she turned 20 while we were away - and its the first time we haven't been around to celebrate with her, so figure that late is better than never.

 The birthday cake is made, it just needs to be iced, and I'll have to buy some more lollies for the icing, becos we opened a couple of the bags last nite and... they kind of got miraculously emptied, as we watched the machinations of Henry V111 and Cromwell on TV.

The trip back on Saturday was lengthy - left Kina Beach at about 6am, and pulled into the house here, sometime after 9.30pm - but everything is so slick with getting vehicles on and off the Picton ferry, and the roads coming up the North Island were refreshingly quiet, so we made good time.

A very big week for Courteney, who won 2 golds at Nationals, in both the Time Trial and the Road Race - a spectacular way to finish her junior cycling career. She's been selected to represent the central North Island in the Oceania Games in Invercargill in November, and will be racing with the Open Elite Women from now on, which will be a big step up, so quite a way to go out on.

 Checking back thru the records in the event book, there aren't many double golds ( although women weren't included in National racing until 1981, whereas it started for males in 1935 - but don't get me started  on the distinctly paternalistic attitudes that emanante from certain quarters in Bike NZ. I'd go on far too much!) 

More important than that nonsense is the fact that the girl did good, fantastically good, and the people that matter in these things, know what she achieved, and she has been surrounded by a wealth of positive and supportive feedback. Her father is beyond chuffed - he puts a huge amount into these races with Courteney - his support and technical knowledge is massive, and watching the 2 of them with their heads together pre-race, discussing tactics, always makes me smile. He carts bikes and wheels and the myriad bits and pieces that bikes require, around. And he does it all with a great big smile on his face becos he loves it.

Me? I'm just surplus baggage really - along for the ride, but keeping discreetly in the background, becos the whole endeavour is well out of my league, and if I make too much noise, I distract from the main event.  I make the sandwiches for race day, organise the various restaurants that we ate at, and take photos, but beyond that pretty much do as I'm told, which may seem surprising to some!

But the week was all about Courteney, as we were sometimes, somewhat benignly reminded, so I didn't get to see any wineries, beyond Kina Beach where we were staying, or venture too much further from the immediate area we were staying in. But that was  OK, becos we were in a beautiful cottage, that Pam and David from Kina Beach Winery had moved onto the site, and lovingly restored. An old school house - with the absolute perfect day couch for reading, while looking out over the vines. I managed 3 books - as you do! And went for big long walks along the beach on the non race days.

Kina Beach Winery is a classic example of the sort of wineries that I am proud to have on our wine list, where the focus is on the terroir and on hand crafting. The amount of work involved is hard for someone like me to comprehend - all the shoots were starting to emerge while we were there, and they were being hand pruned to keep growth in check. As I looked out over all the rows of vines, I marvelled at the repetitiveness of a job like that, while bearing in mind that its only one of the many aspects of vineyard management.

I did however finally get to visualise the difference between the Nelson and the Marlborough wine districts, having now driven thru both - albeit a very quick flick thru the Marlborough one. For years I've laboured under the misconception that they were pretty much in the same geographic area - but I discovered that not to be the case at all, and now have images firmly established in my minds eye of how different they are.

That alone makes the trip worthwhile for me - seeing in situ, where wines are made, adds a large amount to the perspective I have of the various wineries that we deal with. And the more I know, the better, I figure.

 Which is all useful incentive to get away more often to these wine growing areas - a suitable New Years resolution
perhaps... The staff at Somerset continued on in our absence seamlessly - remindingly us both that we're not quite as indispensible, as we can sometimes be guilty of thinking we are. But we're lucky - they're good people. Jamie even mowed the lawns around the house in our absence which has earned him serious brownie points.

We were staying in an area just eastward from the Upper Moutere Highway - a small peninsular surrounded by sea with 3 vineyards on it. I expected to see lots of grapevines, and was taken aback by how many olive trees have also gone in, alongside the cherry and apple orchards. Its a beautiful region.

The restaurants in and around the region were a real mix - Hopgoods in Nelson was easily the most outstanding. Unfortunelty we had to rush our meal there, becos Rick  was due at a Managers meeting, but it had an air of casual confidence and extremely good food that we really enjoyed.

One of the places closest to where we were staying was Jesters House - a totally unique and personable set up. We had our daily caffeine fix there, and were completely taken with the ambience. I don't do eels, but watching a family with 3 gorgeous little boys, line up for their eel food, so they could go and feed the eels in the adjacent stream, was a really nice way of filling in a lazy hour or so. And I was literally stunned by their composting loo. I am the sort of person who comes over all precious with portaloos, but who was able to laugh at the description the owners had written on the toilet wall of how to use the loo. Somehow it all just felt perfectly normal and natural, and an eminently sensible thing to do.

We started a worm farm here at Somerset earlier this year, and I had to initially work thru a feeling of revulsion at the mass of worms, but have moved well beyond that stage, and now regard them  as extraordinary creatures. I suspect that that is maybe enough progress for this year though - I'm not sure that I, or Tauranga, is quite ready for the concept of a composting loo - although really when you think about it, it's a septic tank, which we have, brought up a little more close and open. Hmmm...

And the other great lunch venue had just reopened for the summer season - the Mapua Boatshed cafe, situated literally on the beach.The owner told us he opens for 6 months of the year, becos there are things in life more important than money. I'm not totally sure our bank manager would concur, but I respect the sentiment! Casual and  gorgeous. The Camping ground that you drive thru to access the cafe is apparently a Naturalist one in February and March, which would add a whole new perspective to watching a tennis game as you drove past I suspect. Courteney thought it was a truly disgusting concept - she's very prim, our daughter - and needed to be reasurred that she wasn't likely to be confronted with any naked bodies on the way out!

Met some Austrians at David and Pams, when we popped in for a drink, who have just bought a house in the Kina Beach peninsular, and who run a cookschool back in Austria. Showed us pictures of the set up, which is in converted stables -listening to what they do and why was all interesting gist.

One thing about the hospitality trade, is that you never really get away from it - restaurants and eating out, food and wine, are everywhere.  Even in a week that was 'all about Courteney", we got to see and take on board, all sorts of interesting little pointers about our industry and how other people do things, that will impact in some way on what we do here. And I figure that that is very healthy.

But that is not forgetting of course, that the trip was really all about this!

She truly is amazing...

My computor, which is the business computor, is on my desk, ( naturally enough!),  which is in the hallway by our bedroom door. Our house only has 3 bedrooms, and even though both our daughters have left home this year, they reacted with complete indignation at the thought that I would claim one of their bedrooms for a proper sized office.

Apparently leaving home is not really leaving home...

So I continue in a small cramped space and dream of the time when I will have the luxery of a large desk, and room to spread out. It will happen...

Becos of the accessibility of the computor it is not unusual for me to come home to find one of my daughters at my computor, and I have got used to muttering  when I go to use something and find it altered or adapted to suit their needs. You get that!

Courteney made a unilateral decision this week to change my screen saver, which Chris French had installed yonks ago - a series of  photos of lovely dogs - which was always pleasant to have in the background. I didn't realise that you can create a screen saver from your photos, which is what Courteney has done - and being photo mad, I have lots on the computor.

So now out of the corner of my eye I get to catch all sorts of idiosyncratic photos of family and business, that are completely random. And I'm discovering that I really like it.

Photos are moments captured in our lives, and they often give pause in the nicest possible way - and rather than now having to consciously sit down and go thru them - I'm getting this random imagery at all times of the day.

Hmmm..... Sometimes kids have their uses!

The family did it again! The Motu Challenge yesterday, was run in bleak, cold, blustery conditions and the team performed magnificantly. They even went as far as improving on last years time, which given the conditions, was an extraordinary  achievement.

First home was a team of all males - top male atheletes, in their specialities who were sponsered to attend the race.

Second home was Richard Usscher - a consummate professional multisport athlete.

Third home was Hannah Lowe, Varsity student and parttime athlete, in a team with her father, her sister and Ash Hough. Not professional, but bloody awesome athletes.

Proud? Who, me?!!!

Did I mention it was wet, bleak and absolutely freezing...

Rick, waiting for Ash to appear at the end of the mountain bike stage - trying to keep warm

Courteney who road almost the entire road leg behind Richard Usscher, who just happens to be one of NZ's top multisporters, and a male to boot...

The river was flowing fast, and looked evil...

But that didn't bother Hannah - she paddled 27kms, hopped out with a smile on her face, and run up the hill to her bike with her father, changing gear as they ran...

Leaving Ash and Courteney to bring up the rear with the kayak...

And they finished 6 mins earlier than they had last year...

And they're all bloody awesome!

We are at the tail end of a Saturday nite - all mains are out and most tables are on coffee, so I've beaten a retreat to the house becos I've become redundant. Its been an early nite, cos the All Blacks are playing in Australia, and those that have been brave enough to come out, have ensured that they've done so early enough to be home before kick off. You get that!

One of the tables in tonite includes a lady younger than me, who has always shown a strong interest  over the years in my aquamarine ring - so much so that when I see her now, I just automatically take the ring of and hand it over. Tonite her husband took lots of photos becos he's planning on getting one made for her - and I told him to go to David Stride, who made this ring for me years ago, and who went out of his way to find a stone and a setting that I loved.

There is a story behind it all though....

When Rick and I got engaged we couldn't afford a proper engagement ring, we bought a secondhand one ( antique sounds better!) and borrowed the money from my parents to do so as I recall. We'd just bought a house, and there was nothing spare.

We exchanged wedding rings when we got married, but I was never particularly enamoured of the mass produced plain gold band, that was all we could afford at the time. And when I got pregnant I had to take the ring off becos my fingers swelled in girth, and somehow I just never got round to putting it back on.

Apparently that used to cause confusion for people I have subsequently been told - becos I didn't change my surname when we got married, and apparently becos I didn't wear any rings, people assumed that we weren't married. You get that!

Customers of ours owned an antique shop in Cambridge and once we were over there, and I spotted a gorgeous big square cut blue stone ring, which I fell in love with, and had to have. As you do. We bought it - a blue quartz stone and I wore it constantly on my dress ring finger..

Back at about the same time I used to do some teaching for Otumoetai College - taking some of the cooking students for an introduction to working front of house in a restaurant. I never felt that I was an especially good teacher, and was always very conscious that some of those guys weren't remotely interested in what I had to say - so it is always with considerable surprise that I occasionally bump into some of those ex students, who are now very grown up and with children and everything, who tell me that I helped fire up a passion for hospitality. Thats a nice feeling.

For one young girl though - the biggest influence I had was all to do with my ring. Apparently she coveted it back then, and when she started coming to the restaurant years later with her husband, she would always pounce and ask to try it on. I didn't realise till quite a few visits later that she had been one of my ex students - she looked different out of uniform and a few years older.

By the time we got to chat about all this though the ring was different. I used to clean the old one by boiling it in a mixture of water and Handy Andy - I wore it all the time and it got really dirty. And that worked perfectly for years, until one day, shortly after my mothers funeral when I was feeling washed out and exhausted I put it on the stove, and lay down on the bed for a rest, but fell asleep and awoke some time later to a very unpleasant acrid smell and the immediate realisation of how stupid I'd been.

The ring, predictably was ruined. With the saucepan boiled dry  the ring had cracked thru the middle. I cried.

Thought I'd claim insurance only to discover that if you damage your ring when you're cleaning it, then its non insurable. Go figure!

So for a couple of years I wore no rings and didn't really think much of it, until one day David and his wife, Carol were in the restaurant and somehow it all came up in conversation, and David told me that he'd look out for the perfect acquamarine stone for me and make me the perfect ring. I didn't have the heart to tell him that we couldn't really afford the extravagance of a step up to a custom made acquamarine stone, and really thought no more of it until one day he rang to say he had a couple of stones for us to look at.

I went into his workshop, convinced that I was going to say 'that's lovely David but not quite what I was looking for' - but then he brought out a couple of stones. One was easy to dismiss, but the second was exquisite, and somehow I just knew that I  had to have it, and I don't really know why cos I'm not really a 'bling' person, but I just knew that I needed that stone.

What finally clinched the decision was my father telling me to go for it, becos one of his regrets was that he had never bought Betty the square cut emerald of her dreams, becos they never could quite justify the cost. And he wished they'd stepped over that obstacle and done it, purely for the hell of it, becos now he'd never be able too, since Betty was gone.

We couldn't justify the cost either, but my sweet husband was relaxed about it, on the condition that I wore it on my wedding finger, something I was happy to agree too - so we maxed out the credit cards and bought it, and its a decison I've never regreted.

And the thought that David may get another commission becos someone likes this ring, somewhat obsessively, is rather a cool thought. I hope she's as happy with hers, as I've been with mine!

All of which has nothing to do with restaurants, but kind of proves that over the years you can meander down some interesting byways in your dealings with people, and all of which I figure, adds to the rich tapestry of what we do.

I have pretty much given up on eating apples over the last few years. Almost invariably they would be disapointingly floury textured when I bit in. Nothing like the ones I remember we used to get from an apple farm in Carterton, when I was growing up. After too many disappointments, I just kind of stop going there.

I'd sort of put the difference down to the distortion of memories, and figured maybe they weren't really that stunning back then, it was just the way I chose to remember them that way.

But then our vege supplier dropt us in some yesterday to try, that not only were a thing of beauty to behold, but when we bit in, were juicy and firm, and  simply scrummy. Hallelujah!

Just like I remembered...

I'm going to be eating a few apples over the next little while!

Been a big kind of day. We drove down to Turangi with our last 2 puppies in order to rendevous with people who were driving up from Paraparumu and Palmerston North to take them home. I felt like we were engaged in some kind of illicit transaction as handfuls of cash were handed over for canine merchandise, and things fetched out of the boot of the car...

We'd got there early so we could run and feed them, prior to the continuation of their journey in new cars with new people, going to new homes. And even though I knew that the time was right for them to embark on this next stage, I have to confess that the heartstrings were definitly plucked at the sight of those little faces with quizzical looks being whisked away...

But all 6 puppies have gone to homes of Weimaraner lovers - people who adore the breed as much as we do, and who were  delighted with the puppies - and what has been a pretty intense 8 weeks in our lives, has come to a happy conclusion, for which I am very grateful. There was a week or so there, where we still had 2 to sell, and we were beginning to wonder what exactly Plan B was, if we didn't get takers before they turned 8 weeks old. As much as we love dogs, we didn't think it was necessarily a very wise idea to keep 3 siblings - the need for dominance would have made life a bit tricky, not to mention just the sheer physical output required to keep 5 dogs happy.

So we're very happy with the outcome - we now have 3 dogs, which will become 2 in the near future, cos the older girl isn't going to be with us for too much longer, and that is a number we feel comfortable coping with.

The little boy that we've kept is currently having a cuddle on Courteneys knee - enjoying his first evening in the house. The 2 older dogs have eyed him warily as he tried to snuggle up on their beanbags - the mother dog will allow it, but the older dog is most indignant, and he's gradually getting the message that that is no go territory.

Rick is adamant he's going back out to the kennel to sleep tonite - an opinion his daughter is debating  somewhat vigorously with him, but I get the feeling she's on a hiding to nowhere.

We came home via lunch in Taupo at a new Deli that an long term customer of ours, Joan McBeath, has opened, Salute in Horomatangi St, which was just delightful. Deli/ cafe - with a small selection of Italian wines, and Bollinger, by the exquisite glass full; a range of cheeses including the marvellous Clevedon Buffalo line that I'm currently raving about to anyone who will stand still long enough to listen; and a lineup of lovely provisions - all presented in a simple, elegant space with opera music playing, and the most gorgeous hand basin in the bathroom that I have ever seen. We will go back...

Came home and took our little man for his first run down below with the 2 older dogs - his first excursion out into the wide open space, all of which he took to with total aplomb.

Its going to feel very strange getting up tomorrow morning to only one little body, urgently bursting to get out of the kennel - not the tumble of puppies that we've been used too, but am sure he, and we, will adjust pretty quickly. In fact the little tyke is currently showing no signs whatsoever of missing his siblings...

The puppies are growing up rapidly, and we are  into a nice sort of routine that isn't quite as fraught as the first few weeks. I  now understand why people looked at us sideways, when we mentioned casually that we were thinking of having a litter. They knew that it would be an involved process, but we were blissfully ignorant of quite what was involved. Ah well! Its been a step learning curve, but one I'm glad we embarked on becos we've learnt alot in the process, and now have 7 bonny wee puppies, that really are a pure delight. We've advertised them on Trademe, and have had a heartening level of interest, becos that was the other issue that was looming on the horizen, what were we going to do if we didn't sell them all? We hadn't quite got round to devising a Plan B.

I'm also incredibly glad that we at least had the foresight to do the mating at a time that ensured delivery over a quieter period at the restaurant, becos it doesn't bear thinking about, how we would have jiggled it all if it had happened right in the middle of our catering season. This way we're getting time to enjoy them. Its quite easy to loose a half hour or so after feeding them, when they play and curl up on our laps, and we watch fascinated, as the personalities increasingly start to emerge. Its probably the first time in my life( and no doubt the last!), that I've wished that my lap had a wider circumference than it does, so I could fit more on, when they clamber up, intent on snuggling in. There is no doubt that they are going to be very people adjusted when they go to new homes in a few short weeks.

They are cute beyond any words that I can adequately use to describe!

I've come over to the house just now to feed them, while I wait for the last few tables to finish their coffees and depart. I've changed into my 'puppy' clothes and therefore don't want to head back over till the restaurant is empty. Its going to be a bit of a mission organising the tables for tom nite - we're heavily booked,  and the table configuration is causing some angst. Sometimes you need to wait to see what it looks like when you move the tables into position, before you know whether its going to work, and we can't do that until the customers have gone.

Table positioning is a jigsaw puzzle that requires alterations virtually every nite becos of the size of the bookings , and is one reason I'm often bemused at the demands that some people make when they make bookings, in terms of where they want to be seated. But then we also quite regularly get people who demand a 'quiet' table. Something that requires me to pause always before I respond, and mention to them that we are a restaurant, and are open to other people, and can't therefore guarantee in advance what the noise levels are going to be. But if you want to eat out on a Saturday nite which is almost invaribly the busiest nite in the week, then theres a reasonably high probability that there is going to be an elevated hum in the restaurant... Different people generate different noise levels. Sometimes a table of 8 for example, can be relatively quiet, with conversation centered around one person speaking at a time - and sometimes it can reach crescendo levels when all 8 are vying for center stage at the same time.

The moral as always is, you can't please all the people all the time, I guess!

We've had an exceptionally quiet week to date, which I blame on the chillingly,  frosty weather thats descended, and yet we're turning away tables for tom nite, a Saturday nite. Hate it when that happens! But does mean we're keen to fit as many tables in where we can, so as  to try and up the weekly total to something vaguely more respectable. And when good customers ring wanting a table I hate having to say no - and will contort myself as far as I can to fit them in.

- Just been over to the restaurant, and delighted to see that Nicki and Holly had the tables pretty much sorted. We needed to fit in another 2, but I think we've done pretty well. No doubt when Rhonda turns up tom afternoon, she'll decide to adjust one or two, becos she's the master at fitting in tables, and we all defer to her. I just say yes to good customers,  when they ring wanting a table, and then leave Rhonda to figure where we're going to fit them in. But it always seems to work becos we get the odd late cancellation, or people are amenable about waiting in the bar until a tables available.

Some aren't though. Some people can't bring themselves to alter their plans by half an hour -and just point blank refuse to be flexible. Which is fine. We simply can't fit them in then when we're full - theres only so many tables and so many chairs to go round. So if they don't want to come a bit later when a table will have come free, they go somewhere else, and thats just the way it is.

The puppies are here, and have quite successfully turned Rick and I into gooey eyed bores!. They are simply the most beautifully adorable things I've ever seen. Kazza is proving to be a spectacular mother - the power of the maternal instinct is truly humbling to watch - and our dining room has been transformed into this tableau of the most exquisite domestic bliss. We sit and watch entranced as the puppies, who still have their eyes tightly closed, and can't walk, wiggle their way towards their mother, grissle and groan, and scream their indignation when they can't find a conveniently positiioned teat; flop over each other, collapse in exhausted piles after  energetic suckling; and then murmur their contentment. Its all just too gorgeous. Having to leave them to go to work is proving to be a major bugger!

Hannah and Courteney are heading home today, and we're under no illusions that its not to see us! Hannah had to go back to Auckland last Sunday before they made their dramatic entrance into the world, and has been demanding photos during the week so she can be introduced. Courteney didn't have to go back till Tues, so she had a chance to make her acquaintance, and is keen to catch up.

We ended up needing a caesarian section to ensure live puppies, which will make me forever guilty about the facetious comments I made in an earlier blog about the tedium of waiting for nature to take its course. The staff at Bethlehem Vet care were truly wonderful, and our appreciation for the way they answered the call and came in on a Sunday nite, is most definitly heartfelt. After what had been a torrid few hours watching my beloved dog really suffer, it was with immense relief that we let the professionals take over. Like it when people know what they're doing!

We thought there were 6 girls and 1 boy - which suited Rick cos he's keen to keep a boy and only having one meant he wasn't going to have to make a decision. But I heard a loud exclamation this morning and when I went to investigate was shown 2 male puppies laid out side by side. . Not quite sure how we missed that - but there you go!

Did I mention that we think they are uttterly gorgeous?!!

My siblings and I, all had to do Speech and Drama when we were growing up. Something I never showed any real aptitude for, being the type of personality who is too rooted in my present to ever be able to indulge in the flights of imagination necessary for good acting. I have however developed a voice which carries, sometimes inauspiciously so,  especially when I'm discussing something at the restaurant, that I don't necessarily mean for other tables to hear. Sotte voce is not a concept I ever grasped especially well.

Our speech teacher, Mrs Northcote Bade was a special delight - a grandmother figure for me, when I was otherwise deprived of one. My mother never really understood that in those last few years, she was paying more for me to go and sit in Mrs Northcote Bades gorgeous antique filled den( she lived in a Chapman Taylor house ), and discuss my woes and anxieties, more than I was learning to modulate my voice and diction.
That den was lined floor to ceiling with wood and glass bookcases - it is buried deep in my pysche as a place of emotional nourishment, and is a look that I tried to describe to the designers when we were working on the bar for the alterations at the restaurant, some years back. ( And something I thought we'd achieved very successfully, until shortly after we reopened, post alterations, when one of our old customers walked in, looked around, and told me with a distinct twinkle in his eyes, that it reminded him of an upmarket bordello!) Our shelves here are filled with wine , whereas Mrs Northcote Bades were old books, but walking into it often evokes her for me, regardless of Mr Eriksons opinion!

I was thinking about her this afternoon as I sat patting our heavily pregnant dog, and remembering a poem I did at some stage in my short career: 'Waiting, waiting ,waiting for the party to begin, waiting, waiting, waiting for the laughter and the din...'
It always had special resonance that poem, becos it evoked that childhood despair brought on by how painfully slowly time could pass when you're waiting for something special to occur. Something I haven't felt in a long time, becos these days I have the reverse problem, where life is so busy, that the days  flit by, rapaciously quickly, and I'm often left staggered by how far thru the year we are already.

So I haven't felt that sense of time dragging slowly in a long while - and yet here we are now, as we  wait for our dog to retreat to a quiet corner and have her babies. Her tummy is a round drum, and shes getting aggressive and territorial with the other dog, who's always up until now been queen bee - and we wait, and we wait, and we wait some more..Aware that we are not running this process - it will happen when she is ready, and we just hope to be around to capture the marvel of the creation of new life. I thought today at one point, that it was iminent, but she has gone of the boil, and decided she isn't ready as yet, so we wait, and we wait...

Caesars are beginning to make sense! None of this being at the mercy of nature - in, out and sorted. Much more business like! I jest!!!!! Honest... But it is novel, being so not in control...and just having to go along with the process.

We've just had a huge weekend, and its had absolutely nothing to do with the Jazz Festival that has filled Tauranga and the Mount with happy people. Rick and I didn't get to see any of the music, becos we were heading over the Kaimais before 7am each morning with our youngest daughter and  all the paraphenalia that comes with road cycling for her to compete in the 3 day Te Awamutu Tour - a junior tour that attracts riders from all over NZ.
Hannah came on Saturday but decided to run up Mt Pirongia, when she discovered it on the map, before coming on to see her sister finish the first stage, as you do!

Courteney had an awesome weekend and to her huge credit, won the U19s - and proved in the process that she has enormous reserves of determination and strength. Cycling is her life, and when you see your children have this kind of success, you can't help but feel very real satisfaction that she is so good at what she loves. Life tends to be  alot less complicated when that happens.
( And having observed her up close over the weekend, her mother is now reassured that she has that extra level of grit and determination - the fire in her belly as someone said yesterday, to have what it takes to go for what she wants.) Pretty cool really...

Saturday am - heading to her rollers to start warming up, cool, calm and collected..

Team talk - her father who gets everything organised for her, helps, advises and supports; discussing tactics...

..

Start of the race...

.

Rick keeping virgil at the comp point on the circuit. They're going to all appear round the corner at the bottom of the hill any moment, and we want Courteney to be at the front when they hit the line at the top of the hill...

Thats our girl!!

Final stage - Time Trial on Monday, warming up on one bike, with her specially kitted out timetrial bike waiting for her. Time trials have been Courteneys weak link in Tours for the last few years, but thanks to the generosity of keen cyclists from the Tauranga Club, who've supported her in inumerable ways, shes got over that bete noir, and went out there as Tour Leader, and determined not to loose precious seconds.

So for now, she is the top U19 female road cyclist in NZ. That will change becos there are others who will tilt at the crown and claim it back on occasion - but she proved to herself at the weekend that she could do it. Her coach and her father believed she had the ability - and now she does too. And that is pretty cool to see!

I tried to send this link in the newsletter that I sent out electronically today, but something didn't transpute and it didn't work. I think its too cute not to pass on, so, for those who love dogs and need them in their lives, stop and have a wee smile...

I have just had a wee afternoon siesta - the dogs and I, becos I seemed to be wilting a bit. Both my daughters came home yesterday, Courteney to stay for the weekend. Shes picking up her time trial bike at the moment,( having also dropt in her computor to Chris who is our guru for all computor problems!),  which an incredibly generous friend has rebuilt for her, and kitted out with the latest equipment. We feel very priviledged to have the enthusiasm and generosity of the people in our lives that we do.

 Hannah flicked home for a pit stop, and to drop of the mountain bike that she'd sold on Trade Me - she'd organised with the lady who'd bought it to pick it up from us - as you do. On the way down she'd picked up her new mountain bike from Errol at Velo Sport - a very generous supporter of both our daughters - plus the double kayak that she needed for the Arc Race, which she is currently competing in as I write this.

We'd been texted thru a provisions list, that included somewhat escoteric things like marine flares, and as we pointed out to Hannah, we aren't really the kind of people to have that sort of stuff hanging around in our cupboards. Food yes - and we came to the party with bacon and egg pie and pasta bake, and muesli bars and..., and got the flares from a friend who, by virtue of owning a boat, does possess such stuff.
Her car was jammed packed with the stuff you need for races like this - bikes and bags and headlights, and as Rick examined her new mountain bike, she showed me the heart rate moniter that one of her professors had given her to wear for the 24 hours of the race, when he discovered that she was doing it, becos he thought it would reveal some interesting data.I'm more interesting in her finishing in one piece!

The Arc is a 24 hour adventure race that you do in teams of 4, and this is her first experience  and her first launch into the unknown. And it is unknown, becos they don't tell the competitors until they all rock up at the starting point at 8am today in Pauanui where they were heading first.Hannah said they all got a 'random' text during the week, saying the first leg involved a sea kayak out to a 'submarine'.  From there they have to use a combination of physical prowess and mental toughness and orienteering skills to work their way thru the various disciplines. Rick showed me the video of last years race ( click on Arc 2008 down below on the screen that comes up, and it should run), and I decided I needed a wee lie down!

We think we might drive up tom am, armed with some hot choc in a flask, and something sweet and comforting to eat, as you do, to hopefully  see them emerge from the bush, safe and sound - probably about 7.30/8am if all goes according to plan.
 How she fits it all in, god knows. It makes me tired just thinking about it.

Ah well - I'll go and do some baking, which is  the kind of useful contribution that I can make!

Both our daughters left home this week - Hannah returning to Auckland for her second year of study, and Courteney going to Waikato where she will study and train. She is happily ensconced in Bryant Hall I'm happy to now report, having left behind a slightly apprehensive little girl on Wed. The subsequent texts indicate that she found her feet pretty quickly!

We opened the restaurant in 86, a few short months after getting married, and it was our stated intention back then not to have children until we were debt free. Fortunetly  nature intervened, becos if we'd have waited for that miraculous state of affairs to have come about, then we would have missed out on the last, pretty amazing 20 years. Hannah was born in 89, and Courteney in 91 - and in a funny kind of way, even though the balancing act back then between family and a business with tight financial constraints was pretty fraught, I think the children have helped the longevity of the business. If we hadn't had kids we would possibly have been too intense with the restaurant and burnt out, whereas the girls have given our life a significant otherness, which has created its share of stresses and strains at times, but which over all we feel significantly blessed to have had. They are inordinately special to us both.

In the early days Rick and I were it. We had staff but simply couldn't afford to pay for too many hours, so we ( and my parents who were our business partners back then), did the bulk of the work, as you do. And where we were, our daughters came too - Hannah became adept at entertaining herself as her father prepped, all day. I've told before the story of chocolate bread and butter puddings, individually made, that ended up tasting of garlic to our mystification, until we remembered our daughter had been sitting on the bench, tantilising close to a pile of peeled garlic cloves...

When Courteney came along we made the call to stop lunches at the restaurant ( we used to do 5 a week), a decision made easy by the fact they weren't busy back in the early 90's, and our trials with day childcare had made me miserable. We wanted to be home with the girls and were aware that we were incredibly lucky to be in the position where we could make the call to do that.

For years we had Wendy, who with her daughter Freya would come and look after the girls - feed them, bath them and put them to bed, while we came into work in the evening. There had been others but Wendy  was our longest and most wonderful and when she left we decided we just didn't have the stomach to go thru the whole process of trying to find the perfect person again, so instead we built a tiny room to the rear of the restaurant with bunks in it, and from then on our daughters came with us in the evening. Usually they'd pop next door to see their grandparents, then eventually head for bed out the back, and at the end of the nite we would pick them up and carry them to the car, and from the car to their beds at home, until such a time as they got too big to lift and then we would have to wake them. I used to fret ( does a mothers guilt ever end?!), that we were setting them up for a lifetime of stirring at midniteish, but since then we've bought my parents property next door to the restaurant, and for the last 5 years the girls have spent the evenings in this house not needing to be disturbed at nite,  and they haven't shown any signs of sleep issues. Getting them to bed in the first place is really the only problem...

Long term customers quite regularly reminisce about how they remember the days when the girls used to be parked up at a table in the corner, doing their homework, or heading for the toilets in their pyjamas with a toothbrush in hand. I used to wonder whether customers who didn't know us would react negatively to the unprofesssionalism of 2 little bodies around the place, but I used to assuage that twitch, with the knowledge that it simply felt so right for us to have the girls there, that if it was a problem for others, then they were going to have to deal with it.

The restaurant has been an ever present part of the girls lifes growing up - the economic reality that it represents never goes away. We have pretty much taken for granted that they would work in it with us, becos we like the notion of them coming to grips with the idea that returns are generated becos of effort expended.

And while our business reality has meant that for us as a family we haven't been able to buy into the Kiwi tradition of 3 weeks at the bach over summer, it has allowed us to have 2 holidays ( working ones admittedly, but still...!), in Europe, to Italy and to France, and the memories built around those trips are pretty special. So I don't think my daughters can argue too much neglect!

We have become a tight foursome over the years, but a significant other in our family is Zoe, who's acted as a mentor and friend to the girls as they hit their teenage years, and who has a permanent place as part of the extended whanau. Shes stoked to think that there might actually be a spare bed to nab next time shes in town, rather than having to bunk down on whatever surface looked the softest as she's done in the past...

And now of course, at the restaurant, our staffing levels are considerably higher than they used to be, which frees Rick and I up alot more to work on the business rather than those fabled 20 hour days in the early years, day after day, when we used to do everything. Now we have awesome staff who have taken a huge amount of that stuff away from us, giving  us a broader perspective, and more time of course, to follow our daughters activities. Cookschool schedules are plotted carefully after first checking everyones diaries; wedding bookings are only taken if they don't clash with major tours. That is just the way it is, and we've got to a place where we feel pretty comfortable about it.

I think my daughters have been lucky to grow up in what has inadvertently become a kind of  extended whanau of staff and customers who've become friends over the years. They have lots of people around them who take a vital interest in what they're doing and who look out for them, and as a result Somerset is about our daughters as much as it is about Rick and I.

They leave home as two fit, happy together young women, who believe that the world is their oyster, and to say that I am in awe would be somewhat of an understatement!

We had a cookschool today - we're now well into the current series, and we're enjoying the food and the people. And the wine, Mt Difficulty Target Gully Riesling. One of my life's missions is to try to convince people that rieslings are great food wines, so I slip one into a cookschool series occasionally, and have been delighted by the positive responses from people so far with this one.

The dogs and I have had a siesta this afternoon - the weather has been so wet and muggy that there wasn't much incentive to do anything else. I'm itching to get in and start cleaning the house, but my daughters' paraphenalia is currently spread over every available horizontal surface as they organise themselves to leave in the next few days. So am trying to exercise a little restraint, and wait until they're gone, and we can then have a thorough cleanup. Will be very satisfying, becos its somewhat overdue!

In amongst the other stuff, we've spent the last 2 weeks trying to get our youngest dog pregnant - something that I had thought going into the exercise was going to be reasonably prefunctorily and straight forward. But I was wrong- very wrong!
Our breeder had put us onto the owners of a dog who live over in Rotorua - a delightful family, just as passionate about Weimaraners as we are. Was very cool to pull up at their gate to the view of 3 dogs rushing over to inspect us.
In trying to find a day when Kazza was prepared to entertain the notion of allowing the male near her, we ended up tooing and froing from Rotorua a number of times. Karen even brought the dog over to us a couple of times. In the end we had success- but lord, what a process! I thought nature would have jigged things to be a little more straightforward, but after talking to a vet contact, I realise that I was just ignorant going into the exercise.

Our pooch is very subdued, which we are hoping is a sign that she is pregnant - and I don't think I'll be able to wait the 5 weeks that the books tell us it takes for them to show, and I think we'll be taking advantage of modern medicine and popping down the road for a scan sometime soon.

All interesting!

Kazza and Rick waiting somewhat apprehensively for the male dog to be introduced. We needn't have worried, as I mused to Campbell, our vet,  one of the things I learnt from the exercise was that the bitch controls the whole process. If she isn't interested there is no way the dog is going to get near - she lets him know in no uncertain terms. I was very proud of how staunch my girl was, and had to periodically remind myself, that her being sniffy wasn't the purpose of the exercise!

Daz very keen to get up close and personal!

Their second mating - when Karen brought Daz over to us. This holding them together stage took 50 mins the second time - we'd been told 20 mins was the norm, but no-one was tempted to rush them - we just drunk cups of tea and waited! As you do!

So we are seriously hoping that all the effort was not for nought, and our somewhat subdued pooch  has successfully concieved!

I have spent a reasonable amount of today flicking back thru old photographs - both on the computor and in a box under my desk.
Digital photography constantly amazes me with both its immediacy in terms of the gratification of being able to see the photo straight away,  and the degree of control I have to play around with the photos, once I've downloaded them onto the computor.  Have just followed my daughters  out of the house as they went to get their bikes to go on a club ride, and made them stand still for a minute so I could get a photo of them, for something I need. Came inside, downloaded those photos, and then played around with the lighting in the one I wanted to use, to lighten up the shadows created on their faces from their helmets. And just like that - in minutes, I have the photo I need. Pretty cool really.

For both our major overseas trips I bought a digital camera - the first was a small one with a fixed lens, that was perfect for my needs at the time, but  which had me soon chaffing at the lack of a zoom lens. So before the trip to France I got a serious upgrade to a Canon, that I love, and which I've never resented lugging around, even though its a reasonably weighty piece of equipment.
Photos to me, are a record of times and people - and I love the memories that they can bring back, and the sense of immediacy that they create. I'm not arty in my eye and the way I look at things, so Picassa gives me as much technical support as I need at this stage. Instead I look on the photos that I take, as a record, a memento of life lived and the people that have coloured it.
My camera has possibilites far beyond my capabilities though and I am in the process of trying to understand more about the whole process, so as to broaden my horizons a titch. To that end I subscribe to a daily email from a Digital photography school, that quite regularly has some interesting information and links, and I'm seriously considering going and doing a workshop with Andy Belcher out in Maketu. He's a friend of a friend, and the person responsible for the photos of Hannah kayaking, that grace Waimarino Kayaks van, and the BOP Tourism billboards around town. And  which always make me smile when I see them, becos they're such stunning photos of my daughter!

Hopefully once we get the catering season out of the way - there will be time for an indulgent Saturday learning all sorts of new stuff with him.

In going thru the photos today I found this one of me, that Mark took in France, when we were at the Auberge doing Phillipes cookschool. Being someone who has never seen a photo of myself that I've liked, I thought this somewhat perfectly fitted the bill....

I am currently writing the electronic letter for December,  which I'll send out shortly, something I seldom do in one hit. Normally I need a couple of drafts and a bit of time in between, just to ponder what I've written. At one of my 'inbetween stages', I watched this video that a friend sent me of his son Shane  - who once upon a time worked for us - and who now  runs a trout guiding operation in Taupo. I think he prefers it to cooking...and I have to say it looks pretty magical to me!

The below was sent to me by a friend, and elicited a chuckle , becos in these overtly politically correct days when we try to please everyone and end up pleasing no-one, I often ponder the simplicity of a benign dictatorship...

 
  CHRISTMAS PARTY
 
 FROM: Pauline, Human Resources Director
 TO: All Employees
 DATE: 1st November 2008
 RE: Christmas Party
 I'm happy to inform you that the company Christmas Party will take place on December 23rd, starting at noon in the private function room at the Grill House. There will be a cash bar and plenty of drinks! We'll have a small band playing traditional carols...please feel free to sing along. And don't be surprised if the MD shows up dressed as Santa Claus! A Christmas tree will be lit at 1.00 p.m. Exchange of gifts among employees can be done at that time; however, no gift should be over £10.00 to make the giving of gifts easy for everyone's pockets. This gathering is only for employees! The MD will make a special announcement at the Party.
 Merry Christmas to you and your Family.
 Pauline
 ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---
 FROM: Pauline, Human Resources Director
 TO: All Employees
 DATE: 2nd November 2008
 RE: Holiday Party
 In no way was yesterday's memo intended to exclude our Jewish employees. We recognize that Chanukah is an important holiday, which often coincides with Christmas, though unfortunately not this year. However, from now on we're calling it our 'Holiday Party'. The same policy applies to any other employees who are not Christians. There will be no Christmas tree or Christmas carols sung. We will have other types of music for your enjoyment.
 Happy now?
 Happy Holidays to you and your family.
 Pauline.
 ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---
 FROM; Pauline, Human Resources Director
 TO: All Employees
 DATE: 6th November 2008
 RE: Holiday Party
 Regarding the note I received from a member of Alcoholics Anonymous requesting a non-drinking table...you didn't sign your name. I'm happy to accommodate this request, but if I put a sign on a table that reads, "AA Only", you wouldn't be anonymous anymore!!!! How am I supposed to handle this? Somebody? Forget about the gift exchange, no gift exchange allowed now since the Union Officials feel that £10.00 is too much money and Management believe £10.00 is a little cheap. NO GIFT EXCHANGE WILL BE ALLOWED.
 Pauline.
 ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---
 
 
 
 FROM: Pauline, Human Resources Director
 TO: All Employees
 DATE: 7th November 2008
 RE: Holiday Party
 What a diverse group we are! I had no idea that December 20th begins the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which forbids eating and drinking during daylight hours. There goes the party! Seriously, we can appreciate how a luncheon at this time of year does not accommodate our Muslim employees' beliefs, perhaps the Grill House can hold off on serving your meal until the end of the party - or else package everything up for you to take home in a little foil doggy bag. Will that work? Meanwhile, I've arranged for members of Weight Watchers to sit farthest from the dessert buffet and pregnant women will get the table closest to the toilets, Gays are allowed to sit with each other, Lesbians do not have to sit with gay men, each will have their own table. Yes, there will be flower arrangements for the gay men's table too. To the person asking permission to cross dress - no cross dressing allowed. We will have booster seats for short people. Low fat food will be available for those on a diet. We cannot control the salt used in the food we suggest those people with high blood pressure taste the food first. There will be fresh fruits as dessert for Diabetics; the restaurant cannot supply "No Sugar" desserts. Sorry! Did I miss anything?!?! ?!?!?!
 Pauline.
 ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---
 FROM: Pauline, Human Resources Director
 TO: All F****** Employees
 DATE: 8 November 2008
 RE: The F******* Holiday Party.
 Vegetarian pricks I've had it with you people !!! We're going to keep this party at the Grill House whether you like it or not, so you can sit quietly at the table furthest from the "grill of death", as you so quaintly put it, you'll get your f****** salad bar, including organic tomatoes, But you know tomatoes have feelings too, They scream when you slice them. I've heard them scream. I'm hearing the scream right NOW!!
 I hope you all have a rotten holiday, drink drive and die.
 The Bitch from HELL!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!! !
 ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---
 FROM: John, Acting Human Resources Director
 TO: All Employees
 DATE: 9th November 2008
 RE: Pauline Lewis and Holiday Party
 I'm sure I speak for all of us in wishing Pauline a speedy recovery, and I'll continue to forward your cards to her. In the meantime, the Management has decided to cancel our Holiday Party and instead, give everyone the afternoon of the 23rd December off with full pay.
 John

A friend who has a very established, and quite stunning rose garden dropt me in a bunch of 'Just Joey" last week - huge blooms with a perfume that filled the restaurant. They attracted a massive amount of comment, and I now want to go and find a plant.

The roses in our own garden which I inherited from my mother are in full bloom at the moment, and as little as I know about gardening, I have to say they are a source of great pleasure to me. One day we'll have lots more around ( and maybe a gardener as well...!

When we bought the house property from my father 4 years ago, this climbing rose had gone over the trellis accross the roof and was coming down the other side of the house. It gets watched very closely by me now and isn't allowed such unfettered growth.

The Garden and Art Festival is happening in and around town this week - and those people really know what they're doing, whereas I'm just happy to have inherited a few blooms that are capable of giving me such pleasure this time of year. One day, when we have the budget and the time, we will set Terry loose on designing a serious garden for us, but for now these roses keep me quite content. For now!

Labour weekend, and its been a busy one which is nice. Closed today as usual on a Monday, and Rick and I went over to the Mount as we normally do, only to find it occupied by most of the rest of NZ who were all keen to get in a bit of exercise before they head off back home  this afternoon after the long weekend. I get a bit precious about people who dawdle and block paths, but really I should get over myself, and remember that lots of people around, means lots of money being spent, which is good for all of us....

Courteneys been down at Road Cycling Nationals in Wanganui, for the last few days. Her father went down for the Time Trial on Thurs but had to head back that nite, becos we had a large outcatering wedding on Saturday together with the normal restaurant stuff, so he needed to be back, and missed her road race.

She got a silver in the Time Trial which for her was major, becos Time trials have always been her bete noir in Tours - her least favourite aspect. But all the training paid off magically, together with the disk wheel that one of the guys in the local club very generously offered her to use  - meaning that she went out totally fired up. Seriously cool - and we are seriously proud of her. Her father got a silver in the Nationals once, when he was a teenager, but he gave up riding when he started his apprenticeship. The world has changed dramatically since then, and I get the feeling with Courteney that work and study is going to take second place to cycling...

Warmed up and ready to go!

The start - At Time Trials they go off in 30sec intervals and ride by themselves. Sheer, hard grit the whole way...

The sweet part!

Proud? Who us?!!

Let me take you for a pictorial explanation of yesterday, when my family and Ash Hough competed in the Motu Challenge - a gruelling multi sport event that encompasses a 70km mountain bike leg; a 17km off road run; a 52 road bike leg; 27km river kayak, followed by 10km ride, and 3km run to the finish.

Our daughters have done the event before in college teams, but this year was different becos they'd teamed up with Ash Hough who's a world class mountain biker, and their father, who's not a bad runner - so the stakes were raised, and they were on a mission to be the first mixed team home.

The event is staged out of Opotiki, which is on NZ's East Cape and is very much quiet, hinterland countryside - picturesque and rural.  Although there wasn't much time to admire the scenery as we rushed around the various transistion points trying to keep ahead of the team who were flying...

Ash reading his bike for the first leg - 6.30am in the morning...

Now my daughters have their own cars, there has to be enough trophy stickers to go round all vehicles...

Team talk before Ash goes to position himself at the start

The easy bit, before they hit the mountainous terrain and go for it. These guys are mad bastards!

The team runner looking deceptively relaxed...having just warmed up and waiting for Ash to appear

Ash heading for home...

I accused Courteney of being a 'girl' at this point - Ash just back from 2 hours on the mountain bike, good naturedly concentrated on pumping up her tyres, before he focused on his next stage, which was going to be to do the road bike let for his school team. ( And for which he broke the record!)

Warming up - she'd agonised about wearing her TT helmet , worried that she'd look too poncy, but in amongst some of the gear we saw down there, she didn't look poncy at all. ( Hannah is standing alongside in strategic position incase Courteney and the rollers part company...)

 A shot intended to show how sporting events set up in the middle of nowhere - fill the space for a few short hours with a lot of noise and action and then disappear.

I got the distinct feeling the cows weren't relishing being by the finish line, and were rather looking forward to us all disappearing...

Rick finishing his section - not bad for an old fella. Went out 2nd and came home 2nd...

Courteney totally focused on the task at hand

Hannahs sitting in her kayak on the river edge knowing that Courteney is near cos I've just yelled that information at her, and had stunned faces look back at me cos I've referred to females ( 'shes' on 'her' way) and up until that point its just been males thru that transition, and not too many at that either...

As I said, its a beautiful part of NZ, but 27kms felt like an awfully long, long way on the river

She's amazing!

Hannahs bike, ready for her finishing on the river - a photo of some significance, becos Courteney suddenly and very graciously agreed to let her brand new and horrendously expensive wheels get put onto Hannahs bike for the last 10km bike ride. Up until then, she had been resolute in her determination that no-one but she was going to ride on the Reynolds, ever! But at that stage they knew they were winning the mixed teams, and they weren't too sure how far the next team was behind, but she knew that getting on the bike with those wheels would give Hannah a huge filip, and after 2 hours on the river, every little bit could help . So....

Complaining becos the computor isn't working becos of the change in wheels. There's no pleasing some people!

I was crying!!

Results...

And a needed glass of sustenance from friends who travel very well equipped, before Rick and I headed back to Tauranga, and dinner service at the restaurant. As you do!

Rick and Courteney are over in the Waikato doing a club race at Morrinsville - Rick racing with some elite male riders, and I know he won't be able to help himself but attempt to keep up, or kill himself in the process - so I'm hoping that the rest of the kitchen staff are able to carry him tonite, becos he won't have too much energy left over I suspect. Courteney is racing against top riders in her age group aussi, and will be interesting to see how she is positioned, with Nationals not too far away. Her very spunky new wheels got put on the bike yesterday and I'm sure they'll create a huge pyschological boost to make her go faster...

Hannah did her kayaking training on the river early this morning, and then came home to collect me, and we headed over to the Mount - her to run, and me to walk, and ponder the imponderables that take up space in my brain! Brunch at Slowfish apres and a companianable chat with friends who, by happy chance ended up at the next table. Since I've got home I've been baking ginger crunch and sultana cake under instruction,  for her to take back to Auckland, tomorrow.  What would I do without the Edmonds cookbook?!

In the meantime the restaurant has been taken over by a determined band of floral artists who are weaving their particular brand of magic, and I can't wait to see the final product. Gregor and Anna arrived prior to me leaving for the Mount, and when I returned I was somewhat taken aback to see their numbers had swelled considerably - and there was a positive hive of people making stuff.  Gregor is a world reknown expert in floral art, and he's currently in NZ doing a series of seminars that Anna has organised, through her company Silver Bubbles. Tonight they come to the restaurant for their final dinner - but prior to that they will have totally transformed the area around their table. Talk about working for your supper!!

I am not especially visually creative- so I have nothing but the upmost respect for those who have those sorts of skills.  Both Gregor and Anna have been a delight to work with, and I have felt totally relaxed about standing back and letting them get on with it. Did take down a few trays of coffee, when I got back from the Mount, but beyond that have stayed out of the way. They've been warned that if they touch my precious curtains they die! - but anything else is fair game. When I flicked over just before for some flour, I noticed there was a contraption suspended from the ceiling, and all sorts of other things under construction, so I await the final result with considerable interest and anticipation.

Rhonda, our restaurant manager, has been on holiday this week, and her absence has meant I've had to step up to the plate for lots of stuff that I normally no longer have to worry about, becos its all things she takes care of now. Been a shock to my system, but nor has it done me any harm. We've carried extra staff over winter becos we employed new people back in March when it looked like we were going to be opening another business. I wanted strong staff at Somerset, so that when I got tied up in the new business, the extension wouldn't be too noticecable. It takes at least 3 months to get waiting staff trained beyond the commie stage, so we felt we needed to start back then. The new business didn't eventuate, and so I've used the opportunity of having excess staff, to pull back a bit from the coal face myself. Going over once service is actually underway, and retreating once my presence is no longer required - which sometimes has been after only an hour and a half or so. Theres always lots of other stuff I can do at my desk, so time is never wasted. Rhonda has very ablely stepped into that gap, and runs the restaurant and manages the staff with a warm manner, that Rick and I value enormously. She cares about people, and has actively encouraged a postive dynamic between the kitchen and front of house, which regretfully is not the norm in this industry.  I think shes superb, and I love the way shes always looking at ways to improve and to learn.

 We both went up to a seminar on training staff at Taste some weeks back, and she took up the idea of giving the front staff product tests from time to time. Our menu is large and theres a huge amount of background information that you need to have to cover all the potential questions that customers might possibly throw at you. That kind of detail can't be assimilated instantly ( which is why I always get antsy when I read snarky comments from some restaurant reviewers about staff knowledge. Staff have to be trained. It takes time. They don't arrive at your door fully formed and knowledgable - its a process. Good restaurants will have layers of staff out front just as they do in the kitchen, and they're not all equal. But restaurant reviewers don't seem inclined to allow latitude for nuance like that.) Rhondas done one product test - and the differing answers were very revealing, as to the amount of knowledge the staff have. I'm hopeless. If I know something, I automatically assume its obvious and therefore everyone else will know it too - and taking time out to impart that knowledge is not something that I'm especially good at. So these tests are a very targeted way of seeing what staff do and don't know, and we will  work on more training geared around that.

Its all good stuff.

Not having Rhonda there, has meant I have had to be there at the start of the nite and thru to the end -and I've even had to carry some food around the restaurant on occasion! All of which has served the useful purpose of reminding me that I actually thoroughly enjoy being a waitress. I really do enjoy people, I love the interplay with those we know really well, and then sometimes like lunch on Thurs with a table of 3 who I didn't know at all, but who were lovely, and who, when I was clearing away their dessert plates commented on the fact we present our brulees in the Parisian style, and I explained that it was an idea that we picked up at Phillipes restaurant in the Dordogne last year, and that segued into a discussion about Paris restaurants and hotels, and a really good exchange of information. Call me shallow - but I love that what I do can give people pleasure, and in return create a sense of satisfaction for me. Life can be horrendously complicated, and when you have a simple interchange with people who are on the same wave length, is can just feel so easy and simple. And nice as a result!

Which is why I read this blog written in America with a degree of morbid fascination, becos it is alien to what I do and why I do it.  Waiting tables in the States must be considered to have periously low social status, and if you read thru some of his archives where he talks about nightmare customers, you can't help but wonder why you would bother going to work if that was the crap you had to deal with every nite. We get our occasional difficult personality, who stretches our realms of understanding a titch, but it isn't frequent.  Coincidently I'm reading a book on Paris restaurants written by an American who has lived in the city for over 20 years, and one of the most important points he makes at the start of the book is that, to eat well in Paris you need to know how to behave. Restaurants are an entrenched culture in France,  and both customers and staff respect each other and work together to ensure a mutually beneficial experience. Where is comes unstuck is when tourists don't understand the rules of engagement, and try to bend a French waiter to do things like they are ' back home'.  French waiters don't like being told what to do. Actually, most of us who have any level of skill don't appreciate being patronised, and the old adage about the customer always being right is complete humbug. Sometimes I watch people who create scenes and demand stuff with real curiosity becos I wonder what it is about them that makes them unable to let us get on with what it is that we do with a reasonable level of competency.

But then it would be boring if we were all the same?!

Sultana cake to check.. and Courteneys just rung to say she won ! - which is seriously cool! Must have been those wheels.

Time to check the sultana cake...

......

My camera doesn't really do justice to the atmosphere created - it looks quite extraordinary!

Tuesday is both the start of the restaurant week, and my bookwork day. We don't do lunches on Tuesday - its a day to get organised for the week to come, which involves for me,  clearing and responding to the answerphone; removing all the opened wine from the preceding week - the red comes over to the house to go into my beautiful french oak barrell that I've written a previous blog about, and which gets converted to red wine wine vinegar.

 The white that doesn't get used by the kitchen is poured down the sink - sacriligeous I know, but preferable to serving a customer oxidised wine.

I then plant myself at my desk and work thru all that needs to be down to get uptodate - wages, wine stocks and reordering, pay bills, deal with enquiries and quotes, and try and clear my inbox. It never stays cleared for long, but at least it gives me a temporary feeling of satisfaction.

Whereas my husband avoids the desk or sitting still like the plague, and instead 'does' stuff. Today he got stuck on the roof after cleaning out the gutters, when he realise he wasn't going to be able to reach the ladder - so he had to call for help...

He assures me there is a great view up there!

I need occasional forays over to the restaurant for restorative cups of espresso - and Rick and I had one this morning sitting out the back in the sun, trying to decide how the courtyard will look once the building alterations get underway, hopefully next year. Becos we'll be excavating down  underground for the cellar - I can't quite picture at this stage how it will look from our existing courtyard, but I'm sure all will be revealed in due course.

We went up to Auckland yesterday - ostensibly to pick Courteney up from the airport. She was flying in from Australia, having spent the last 2 weeks over there racing, and becos she wasn't due until 6pm, we made the most of the day by visiting a few suppliers and having a lovely lunch at  The Grove Restaurant. Beautiful food, in that stylised presentation that makes a plate look more like arranged jewels than morsels of food. Fussier and 'cleverer' food than what we do, and nice to experience and analyse. We always find it interesting. And was almost reassured by the table of advertising types seated next to us, who were indulging in a liquid and protracted lunch, and very much putting the lie to the current hyperbole in the press about business in general being in hunker down mode. Someone had obviously forgotten to point that out to these guys!

We called into Schott Commercial to find some new coffee cups for the restaurant. I love good china and glassware, and I also like ringing in the changes with how we present food. Certain trends sweep thru the food world, and I try to stay away from those that are too generally embraced becos it all ends up with much of a muchness. Watch out for glass plates - they're the up and coming trend at the moment.. I was there to find coffee cups and something to serve our licorice icecream in, and ended up being sidetracked by a dinnerset that we both really liked, and thought would make a change for the restaurant. Being me, its good  china ( ie. not cheap!), so rather than blissfully waving my arms around and ordering it, I decided to be a little more sedate, and come back home and calculate quantities, and get a quote before we make the final call. It has to be brought in specially from overseas, so is not a decision to be  made lightly, but the subsequent discussion over lunch would indicate that its a step we'd both like to take.  Part of the alterations we're doing next year will include the installation of a kitchen table, and I've been quietly acquiring some truly exquisite plates and service gear for that table, in full recognitiion of the fact that we want it to be very special, but they're in too small quantities ( partly becos of the price) to be used in the restaurant for general service.

Found some coffee cups which will mean I'll be able to retire the clunky ones we currently have, to catering stock. I bought them in a fit of pique a few years back, after getting a stream of complaints about my then existing cups being too small. An interesting aspect of human nature is that people tend to equate value to quantity, which in the instance of coffee especially is quite wrong. If you espress coffee to make a bigger quantity you will make a bitter inferior tasting cup. Or if you add extra milk to pump up the volume, you will dilute the coffee flavour - both of which seem to me to be contrary to the notion of a good cup of coffee. I'd far rather have a lesser amount of appropriately espressed liquid. But alot of people don't agree with me. On a similar vein was the fascinating fact that my then cups were tall, with a small diametre, so people felt they were too small. When I finally gave in, and bought some conventional flat white cups thru our coffee supplier ( the kind of thick lipped ones that are everywhere) the complaints disappeared. These cups were short and squat and had a much wide circumference and people obviously felt they were getting better 'value'. Visually the new cups looked bigger, but in actual fact they were only about 15-20mls bigger ( I checked, out of curiosity!), proving how deceiving  measuring something by eye can be.

However the thick, clunky china has been depressing me, and when I laid it out for a catering job on Sunday, I decided that it was definitely time to be proactive, and get something for the restaurant that was a finer china but which would still look like a reasonable size cup. I think I found that yesterday, and it will be interesting to see how they are recieved once they arrive. Ironically I suspect most people won't even notice, becos the difference is in the quality of the china rather than the shape. Ah well! At least I'll be happy!

We've also found some steel cups to serve the licorice icecream in. For years we've been using some lovely red china goblets - but, as sometimes happens when I go to reorder something, they were no longer being brought into the country, so I've been on the prowl for some time for something that would be appropriate. I remember eating at Longchamps - the fining dining restaurant at the long gone Regent in Auckland, and being served icecream in exquisite silver containers with lids. That is what I'd have like - but I'm settling instead for stainless. We're hoping to be able to keep the bowls in the fridge so they're cold when the icecream is plated in them - making them better from a service point of view. They're a little different - so I'm a little ambivalent at this stage as to how they will work, but we'll see once they arrive..

Resotech was next on the list. A fantastic company for patissiere requirements - whether the fact its owned by a frenchman has any significance with that fact I'm not sure, but its where we get a number of our baking needs. They also have a range of great equipment - I know it sounds odd, but I was drooling ( figuratively, not literally, you understand!), over some truly beautiful saucepans. There's something about the shape of some saucepans that are just especially voluptuous and sexy, and just make you want to use them.  The added advantage of these particular ones was that they also work for induction tops, something we've been pondering getting becos of the control it gives us  over certain pastry preparations.  Discussing them with the owner opened up the possibility of maybe using them in the stand alone  benches that we're looking at for the new cookschool kitchen, where they would give us the mobility that we need.   And becos our conventional steel pans won't work on them, I'd have to buy a whole lot of new saucepans.... Damn!

Also came back with 2 new sets of scales - very precise scales which we need. I like buying really good equipment, and I like the fact it makes what we do so much easier.  Now I'll be able to measure out exactly 183gm of icing sugar, rather than taking a stab in the general direction. The more baking I do, the more I've come to appreciate that approximations don't work. You need to be exact.

Then Country Road to check out their plates, and we got some frosted bowls for the sorbets ( sounds crass, but aren't!), and some red bowls for the Union Square style chips that we're now serving on the lunch menu. I pay retail price there, but its worth it sometimes, just when you're looking for something that will give a flash of something a bit different. The candle holders that I use on the tables for the tealights, are actually from Country Road, and are tumbler glasses not candleholders. But I liked them becos the glass is opaque, and I find the flicking light of a candle at a table hurts my eyes, if its not filtered in any way, which is why I like these. The opaqueness of the glass creates an attractive glow, rather than a bright light.

And from there to the airport to pick up our daughter, who emerged looking fit and gorgeous! Nice to have her home.

And now that I've finished for today, I have enough time left in the afternoon to indulge in another Tuesday ritual - a quick flick thru the pile of magazines that Courteney picked up for me in town today. As much as I use the internet for research, in increasing amounts, I haven't noticed a corresponding decline in the sense of pleasure I get from nestling down to peruse a pile of crisp new mags!!

Actually our wedding anniversary isn't until the 8 Feb, but with various things happening prior to that, we decided to escape up to Auckland for a couple of days of relaxing and eating out and enjoying each others company.

Our daughters were somewhat nonplussed that we didn't appear to require their presence, but once they'd adjusted to the odd notion that their parents were going to go away without them, they got on with what they were going to be doing anyway.

Booked into The French Cafe for our celebration dinner, and had a stunning menu degustation. When we get to finally do our alterations at Somerset, one of the things we are keen to introduce, is the concept of a kitchen table, and we will do a degustation style menu for that table - so interesting to see how these guys presented the food, and kept it flowing. I think there were 11 courses all up - but they are small ' amuse bouche'- tastes that tempt the mouth rather than overwhelm.Combined with some French champagne, white burgundy and then muscat de beames de venise for dessert - we departed replete and very happy! Friends of  ours were there, also dining that nite, so we got to share coffee and a chat at the end of an evening - and then a taxi back to our respective hotels. Its a small world, which in large part makes it a nice world!

We'd eaten the nite before on  friends recommendations at a Thai restaurant, Khao, which is in O'Connell St, off Vulcan Lane. It was, I discovered, after we found it, actually in the building that use to house the late, great Le Brie, which was one of my first seminal eating out experiences when I was in Auckland as a university student back in the late 70s. ( Not sure who paid, or who I went with - but do recall the French bistro style food and the bustly, fantastic atmosphere!).Khao was lovely - a worthy replacement, the food had a freshness to it,  which was delightful.  Much more interesting than most Thai restaurants I've eaten in to date. We will most certainly return.

We'd preceded that by a cocktail at the Bellini Bar at the Hilton, as you do, and reminded ourselves that we intend being in Venice for our 25th anniversary, which is rolling around rather quickly. I wonder if our daughters will handle being left behind for that one too!!

And then today we had a late breakfast at Gala - a cafe that Maggie Mowbray recommended to us some time ago, and which we keep returning too, becos the cooking is so interesting and sophisticated for cafe food. Intelligent and quality focused - I think its absolutely delightful. Its round the back in Mt Eden, just before you get to Sabato, in a developement that rather interestingly appears to be about moulding commercial and  residential  with state of the art design. All rather impressive.

We stayed at Elliot St Hotel - in part cos we'd gone looking for the food retail developements they've done there, last time we were in Auckland, becos I'd read about them, and was curious to see whether they'd managed to capture the European feel for small specialised retailers  that they were obviously hoping to achieve. And in discovering that we also noted that there was a hotel, which reminded us of the boutique one we'd stayed in in Bordeaux, so decided to give that a go this time.

Nice to have a bit of old Auckland architecture thats been cherished and restored, and the hotel felt small and comfortable, and just right.  Being on the corner of Wellesley and Elliot St its also nice and close to Symonds St, where our daughter will be based this year - and I'm sure we'll need to pop up occasionally. As you do!

Enjoy the big city buzz of Auckland, but am never sorry when we hit that southern motorway on our way home either. Looks like we're in for a reasonably busy nite tonite at the restaurant, so had better get myself organised, cos have some cookschool queries to follow up, before guests start arriving for evening service.

As I sit at my desk emailing thru changes to the wine list, and ordering a tea delivery from Tea Total, and filling in the wage schedule to fax thru to the bank, and debating whether I should zap over to the supermarket now to pick up some castor sugar so I can get onto the cherries in red wine syrup- or whether I should wait to see if Gilmours deliver the other 9 5kg bags that they forgot to drop of yesterday ( Rick ordered 10 bags - they delivered 1! - love it when stuff like that happens this time of year!);  but, as I contemplate all of that, I've re read a card that arrived yesterday from the Distillerie Deinlein, and the words have given me pause in all the rush, to consider what this should really all be about. I'm sure they won't mind if I borrow them and share  with you:

Christmas Gift suggestions:

To your enemy, forgiveness.

To an opponent, tolerance.

To a friend, your heart.

To a customer, service.

To all, charity.

To every child, a good example.

To yourself, respect.

(Oren Arnold - 1900-1980)

And so, from us to you - our heartfelt compliments of the season, and the hope that you get to have a special Christmas!

(The huge pohutakawa in our gully which has decided to flower this year - something it does only occasionally, and which I've decided to interprete as a positive omen for the year to come!)

Put on some high heels and went out for dinner with my husband tonite to Astrolabe. Had been planning on taking our daughters also, but they both declined becos of study committments, and since exams are looming, and I've been less than impressed with the amount of study they've been doing to date, I decided not to call foul, but to leave them in peace and to head out as just the two of us. We had a lovely evening as we always do at Astrolabe - food and service were absolutely superb - am amazing place that somehow manages to be different things to different people ( restaurant/bar/cafe) , but always done with a degree of panache, that means we leave feeling warm and replete. I read with some disbelieve the review that was written in the Sunday Star  Times by Geraldine Johns a couple of weeks back  about Astrolabe, and  once again shook my head in incredulousness that the editorial  people on that newspaper, can honestly believe that its valid to employ someone with no industry credibility to write in 'shock, horror' tones about food businesses, when she writes complete and utter vapid crap. Her method appears to be to sound clever and snotty, and her reviews always belie a complete lack of understanding about the restaurant business, and a totally over the top sense of significance of her own importance,  and regret that she has to share restaurant space with the general public, who usually seem to cause her an inordinate amount of angst, and for which she always manages to somehow blame the restaurant itself. Her reviews are almost always trite, overwritten examples of hyperbole and drama, behind which I suspect is the desire to shock and titillate and provoke reaction.  She sneers at people, and I don't see that as valid or productive. It certainly isn't what I would call 'criticism'. I would prefer logical, calm analysis - but have long since given up expecting that from the likes of Ms Johns. The Astrolabe review especially provoked me, becos it was written about a business that we know well, and it started off absolutely hammering them. If you hadn't known the restaurant you would have stopped reading, assuming that it was a bad experience, but she actually goes on and  recoups towards the end of the column, begrudgingly giving them credit for knowing how to produce good food, and provide reasonable service - but her compliments are given with such ill grace, that a number of people I've spoken too about the review missed them altogether, and assumed that Astolabe had been annihilated .That pissed me off mightily, becos its completely undeserving. But you get that, especially from people who sneer. And as businesses in the food industry we have no come back from unfair comments in the media - beyond just getting on with what it is that we do, day after day - and not letting that kind of crap carry a disproportionate amount of weight. I like very much that the guys at Astrolabe have the class to do that.

Mondays are nice days for Rick and I, cos they're the one day of the week that the restaurant is closed. We used to do the occasional cookschool on a Monday, but have stopped now, as we've learnt to value that having at least one day clear of work responsibilites is really important for us on all sorts of levels. We get Sundays off too occasionally, but not this time of year, when we're heavily involved in the Christmas cookschool series, which is always the biggest of the year, and as such involves most Sundays in November. We're well into that series, and with things underway, relax into a nice routine  about the classes, that we both enjoy. I never fail to come back over to the house after a class with a warm glow of satisfaction, that is generated in large part from people articulating how much they've enjoyed the experience. In each class we still get a mix of people who've been coming for ages, and those who're arriving for the first time and are unsure of what to expect. I like it very much when those people leave raving, and promising to return. Makes the effort that we put into each class all worthwhile.

My brother called in last week and I showed him the plans for the building extensions that will one day give us a custom built cookschool kitchen. For the last few months we 've been bogged down in all the requirements of off street carparking that the increase in the building size is going to require, and as a result its been a while since I've looked at the plans. Explaining them to Alan was a useful reminder of why it is that we want to borrow yet more money and take this step, becos the cookschools have become such a big part of the business, and we both love the idea of the flexibilitly that the new kitchen will give us. So need to keep channelling energy towards that goal, since its valid in terms of the growth of the business.

We've been doing a lot of discussion since we got back to work, about business growth and what we see as our next step,  and have a number of ideas that we now want to bounce of people whos opinion we value.  One of our daughters leaves home next year, and the balances in our life will change as a result. Even though Hannah is very independant as she is now, the pyshological impact of knowing that your children are  moving into the next stage of their life journey, means that you get to contemplate where you are at, and what it is that you want to achieve. I confess that for the first couple of weeks after we got back from France, I did sucumb to a morbid sense of ' I don't want to do this anymore; lets sell up and run away' type mentality, that gradually diminished, until I've reached  a sense of remembering how much I enjoy what it is that we do. Conscious however, that there is more that we do want to do, and as our day to day focus moves away from  our children, room is created for other things, and those opportunities are what are being tossed around by us both at the moment. For the first 17 years in this business we worked incredibily hard just to keep our heads above the water level, and over the last four years, things have changed at an increasing pace, as we've been able to add to the core business. That is a process of growth that I expect to see accentuated over the next few years, and we have the energy and enthusiasm to focus. All cool!

Had an exceptionally lazy morning at home, becos it was wet and windy - no rushing over to the Mount to do any exercise. Headed into town for lunch at the Med as is our habit on Mondays - the Med is simply the best cafe we have in Tauranga. Jo is a consumate professional who delivers a consistent product day after day and has attracted a formidable cartel of regulars who go there every day, and sometimes more than once a day. She has created what I always envisaged as the quintessential cafe culture, where people feel wanted and appreciated, and are served  fantastic coffees. The tables are ridiculously close together and it just doesn't seem to matter becos we're all so used to it, and go there for a whole host of other reasons. It proves to me that these places where a fortune is spent on the setup and look, don't seem to grasp that the fundamental in hospo, is making the paying public feel good enough about what they experience to want to come back, again and again. Look gets forgotten very quickly, but how people are treated and the qualitly of what they are served does not. That rather than how flash somewhere looks  determines whether or not customers are going to come back and make a place viable.

On our way out of town we remembered the picture gallery thats been down on the Strand as part of the Arts Festival, and spent an hour or so working our way along all the extraodinary photographs of the planet. A depiction intended to remind us of the precariousness of the state of our environment, and that sentiment was very profoundly conveyed via the  photos. A fantastic exhibition which if you haven't seen yet, you really should make the effort to go and have a look at. The sheer size of the photos seems to accentuate their impact - quite amazing. Shows nature in all her glory, but there are also some very thought provoking photos of the impact that man has had on nature, and similarly the impact that nature can wreck on manmade constructions . Very sobering.

By chance we'd had a lengthy conversation with someone we knew at the Med today, who'd been in Mexico last Christmas, and who had heard about our plans to head there next year. Debbie raved about the place and the people and in doing so, helped fire up my enthusiasm for the project  after a period of been focused on France for obvious reasons. I believe we need another 2 people for the trip to become viable for the travel agents organising it -mailto:annie@cwtravel.co.nz, and I'll now put some energy into trying to convince people we know to come with us. Looking at these photos today, simply reinforced for me how big the world is and how much out there there is to see, and how we should seize every opportunity we get ,becos none of us know whats round the corner for us.

I've been working on a Notebook  for everyone who came with us to France - a compilation of recipes, notes and photos, which they're have as a momento. We've been bumping into those people, as we've been out and about over the last couple of weeks, and its been wonderfully gratifying to listen to them speak so positively of the time they spent with us. We worked pretty hard for those 2 weeks of cookschools - always hyper conscious of wanting people to have a good time, and acutely aware, that no matter how well organised we may be, if the customers themselves don't want to get on, then nothing we may do or say is going to impact. We were lucky. The people who came were great - and made a real effort to have a good time, in doing so making what we had to do so much easier. Its been a huge experience, which, as I expected, is going to be a fond that we will be drawing on for years to come. It all adds to what we do becos we look at things from a new perspective, and that is a really useful exercise.

The rest of my family are sitting watching the Tour of Southland on the TV - study has obviously finished for the night!- and I think I'll retreat to bed with a book, cos I don't share their enthusiasm for watching a pelaton. I  don't understand all the  attacking and counterattacking that goes on in the way they do - and it all just gets a tinsy bit repetitive, but to give voice to that opinion in the present company would result in complete incomprehension!

We have 2 daughters - one, who will be 18 in Oct and one who turned 16 in March. They are about as different as 2 females born reasonably close together, and both from the same gene pool can be.

Hannah, the eldest, takes after her father in many ways. This is her last year at school and we have no doubt that next year she'll be leaving home, even though she doesn't have a direct focus on what she wants to do. It seems almost too hard for Rick and I to grasp that after 18 years of being a tightknit family, one of our babies is getting ready to fly the coop. Ready, able and frighteningly competent, actually. Frightening, becos her level of focus and committment is something that I never had at her age and I am in awe of the goals that she sets herself and achieves. Having said that she is also a classic teenager with the messiest room I have ever seen in my life, and a wearying tendency to respond to parental enquiries with monosylabillic answers. Being of a more garrulous nature myself, I find some of those grunts distinctly testing!

Sport is Hannahs great passion - and she has exposed herself to a wide range, making us wonder at times whether she should be narrowing her options down and focusing on one or two - but as is her wont, she has countered all our arguments with a perfect logic, that we haven't been able to fault, and carried on with it all. Kayaking is her love - and she does flat water as well as  white. She cycles  - both road and mountain - and runs.  She has steadily built up this base of fitness , and is planning on doing the Coast to Coast as an individual next year. My kneejerk reaction is that its too much, but in this, as in so much I am quite wrong, and I've learnt to stand back and keep my comments to myself, becos she has proven time and again, that if you believe something to be achieveable and you work hard enough to make it happen, then it will. What you don't need are doubting Thomas's around, whose perception of what can be done is totally coloured by what they can achieve themselves. Hannah has a father who is incredibly fit, and who has actively encouraged his daughters to go out and do stuff - and as a result they don't put limits on themselves. Its been a salutory lesson for me to observe.

This weekend she had the school ball. Rhonda who works with us at the restaurant came over to the house and did the makeup for Hannah and some of her friends and they all left, looking stunning. When did our baby become so grown up? And when did our sporty, practical daughter turn into this feminine apparition? There was a definite lump in my throat as I headed over to the restaurant that nite.

We sat up and waited for her to  come home, as you do. Partly becos we naturally wanted to hear how it had gone, ( which is where those monosyllabilic answers can be so frustrating!) but also becos I had a pasta bake ready for her to eat before she went to bed, becos the next morning she was competing in the Kaimai Classic - a multi sport event. ( At least the need to get up early the next morning, cancelled out the need for any discussions on whether or not she was allowed to go to after ball events. She had other priorities, so it never arose as an issue.)

This is the second year shes done the Kaimai classic as an individual, and it was watching her compete last year, when it occurred to me that I was out of my league, and that what I thought my daughters were capable off, and what they were actually proving themselves to be able to do, was vastly different, and it was therefore time, that I shut up, and got out of the way. Theres a cross country run, followed by a mountain bike, then kayak down the river, road bike around Te Puna, and final road run up Wairoa Road and Crawford Road. She completed it in 4:32 - an improvement of 10 mins on her time last year.

The car loaded up with all the necessary bits of apparatus, and equipment needed!! We left at the crack of dawn to get the kayak down to the river and the bikes unloaded and her warmed up before the start of the race at 8am.

Suffice to say I think she is amazing!!  And as I contemplate the rain falling outside as I write this, I'm trying to find a little bit of that internal grit in me, to motivate myself out the door to go and do some exercise. It doesn't come as naturally to me as it does my daughters - but I'm fully aware that that excuse doubles as a copout that I should be ashamed of!

By virtue of the fact that my life is pretty busy - I don't get to spend much time, cruising the internet reading other peoples blogs, but the ones that I have got connected too, have convinced me, that the internet is an extraordinary tool for the sharing of information, in a direct and honest fashion, without being beholden to the editorial drift of a publication, or the requirements of any advertisers. On the internet, what you get is direct from  a massive range of people, and while some of it is pure unadulterated drivel, there is also a lot that is pertinent and relevant, and which can be fascinating.

I am not at all sure where this blog is going to take me - but writing is something that I really enjoy, and I hope thru the blog to be able to discuss some of what I discover in my day to day life.

I own a restaurant with my husband - and have done so for nearly 21 years. During that time, we've battled massive financial pressures, brought up 2 daughters, amd kept growing and learning. I love what we do. I love the people contact, the learning process with food and wine, and all the opportunities that come our way.

Lots of people entertain romantic notions about owning a restaurant business - thinking that it would be a glamorous thing to do. Certain aspects of it may be, but most of it is repetitive  and monotonous, just like any other occupation. The toilets have to be cleaned, the bookwork has to be done, and the potatoes peeled. And that is something that doesn't vary week in, or week out.  Everything has to be in place for when the first customers walk thru the door. Thats just the way it is.

We are alot bigger in every sense than when we opened in 1986 - we are now a 65 seater, as opposed to 45 back then, and in addition to the restaurant, we also have an outcatering wing, plus we do a significant number of cookschools during the year. Most of which are at the restaurant, but some of which have been overseas. One of the huge advantages of being a long established business is that  we have some absolutley formidably loyal customers, who we've known for years. We have people coming in for dinner with their new husbands ( or wifes) who I remember as young toddlers - and that sense of continuity gives me immense satisfaction. I really like the sense of digging our roots deep in the local community and developing this profound sense of belonging.

Owning a restaurant is not all glamour - there are lots of down sides that happen along, and what I'm hoping to do with this blog, is too discuss all aspects of that restaurant life ( without being specific about customers, becos that wouldn't be appropriate!),  as various things occur, and I feel a need to share. It won't be sent out - it will just be here on the restaurant website, for those people who chose to click in periodically. ( And if they want to pick up on anything I've mentioned, I'm contactable on anne@somersetcottage.co.nz).

We will just see what happens, and where it takes us!