We've just had a gaggle (?) of chefs, Craig, John and Matt  come over from the restaurant to have a look at Courteneys new bike. A bike that she has literally just taken possesion of,  now Richard has added all the important bits and pieces, and which is a seriously spunky time trial bike.

Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of Richard, and Phil at Koops Cycle, she has now come full circle and is back with a red Avanti bike. Coincidently the first proper road bike she got in her early days of riding was a red Avanti, and its been a process of upgrading ever since. This bike as the photos below attest, is a whole different beast to that first bike, but then, so too is the rider. Courteney has done many thousands of kilometres since, over the last 5 years, and is a whole different creature to the young girl who started out way back then.

I should also possibly point out, that in those days one bike fitted all requirements, but now, at the level she competes at,  life is much more complicated, and we need road bikes and time trial bikes and training bikes, and various wheels, and...

Ricks and my appreciation of the sponsership that Courteney has been so graciously shown, is needless to say, extremely heartfelt! We feel totally humbled.

Much excitement in the house at the moment, which naturally spills over to the restaurant. She has just been named in the Womens Road Team for the  UCI World Road Cycling Championships in Melbourne at the start of October, a major feat given she's having her first year of Open racing.  I'm talking the best male and female cyclists in the world, those guys who were in Le Tour de France,  all in one place. Its going to be huge apparently. According to the website its the next biggest road cycling event to the Tour de France....

A couple of years back I wrote a lengthy blog about my daughters, and included photos of their progress thru life, on the momentous occasion of them both leaving home.  We owned the restaurant before either of them were born; I waitressed with an ever increasing belly, thru both pregnancies, and their whole lifes have been fitted around the day to day requirements of the business. They have grown up knowing no other way. I'm only too aware that that has occasionally had its downside for them - but from where I sit now, those negatives have been well and truly outweighed by the extended whanau that has been built up around them, woven thru by the connections with Somerset.

The interest people show in what they're doing is always very special, and I hope you will therefore forgive me, this somewhat self indulgent little rant, but we are just so proud of her, becos we see how hard she works for what she's achieved!


We are currently between cookschool series - the Christmas one starts next week, and Rick is just now finalising the recipes. I need to do some more research on the wine we're going to use, and then hopefully we'll be sorted.Like it when we get to that stage!

 So many people tell Rick that they wait for this class to decide what they're going to cook for Christmas, and as a result he always feels an inordinate amount of pressure to both come up with ideas that are useable, and also ones that are original. After 13 odd years of doing classes, and therefore 13 Christmas series, that is no mean achievement!

 I'm always somewhat bemused by the people booking a class for the first time, who don't like the fact that we don't have the menus published in advance. It makes me curious that people are so focused on what they can and can't eat, or who won't come to a class if theres something in it they don't like the sound off. To my mind the classes are so much more than just the taste of each individual dish - it is about the total package, the hints about techniques or suppliers, the interaction with the other people, that make each and every class a positive experience. We have some ladies who've been coming to every series we've ever done, and who pride themselves on the fact that they've never cooked a thing!

 That is all the proof I need, that the classes are about a whole lot more than simply going home and duplicating the recipes.I know that I am a better, more intuitive and confident cook as a result of what I've observed over the years, and it delights me when others make the same comment.

But each to their own I guess...

In amongst everything else thats happening at the moment we are starting to look forward to our next European cookschool. By serendipity, someone dining in the restaurant, knew someone who owns a glorious property up in Piedmont in north Italy, and planning is now well underway  for 2 weeks of cookschools, in late June and early July 2012. Timed specifically to allow my husband to plant himself roadside on one ( at least!) of Le Tour stages, becos we won't be too far from the French Alps. Interest for the trip is gratifyingly high, and if anyone wants further details then don't hesitate to contact me.

The level of excitement that having the trip on the horizon has generated has made me realise just how gloomy the last couple of years have been, and that I really do need something to look forward too.

I am conscious however that my perception of gloom doesn't come close to matching what the businesses in Canterbury are currently enduring, and I have made a silent promise that I will never again mutter about the costs of the very comprehensive business insurance that we pay. When you see what could possibly happen, totally out of the blue, paying insurance suddenly makes total and complete sense.

I think instead I will be very thankful for what we have, in the here and now.

We look forward to catching up in the near future.
Live happily!