Ian twisted his knee sometime in the middle of January, it turns out that it is a repetitive strain injury, he’s never had one of those before and if it hadn’t been so painful he would have been quite proud of it, after all he isn’t renowned for doing anything strenuous on a regular basis if he can help it.
Needless to say, the injury stuffed up his cycling routine and with it any ideas he had of cycling from Busselton to Augusta this side of the winter.
To make matters worse for him, the Café has remained busy all the way through the school holidays and is still ahead of last year on a week by week basis, so he has been working long days on his feet, when he should have been resting, but he has been resting when he can and the kids are getting quite adept at getting his beer from the fridge for him, so although the recovery is taking a lot longer than perhaps it should he has been able to get regular pain relief when he is not working.
He has been out on his bike twice this week without any problems, although he is taking it very easy, but he feels good about it and is determined to get out his winter gear when the time comes so that he is fit for next summer.
Showing posts with label Running a Business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Running a Business. Show all posts
Friday, March 12, 2010
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Merry Christmas and Apologies
Early November to 24th December 2009
Firstly, to anyone out there who is still remotely interested in what we are getting up to, or whether we are still alive and kicking, we apologise for the lack of regular blog over the last six or seven weeks.
The last few weeks have been manic for us with regard to work and play and we just haven’t had the time to sit down and blog on a regular basis, and you know what it’s like, get a few days behind and you’re looking for a gap in your life when you have enough time to blog about those few days in one hit.
Don’t find enough time to blog about a few days for a few days and you are looking for a gap in your life when you can blog a week etc, next thing you know 7 weeks have gone by and it’s time to hold your hands up, apologise, say Merry Christmas, and promise that it won’t happen again.
That is to say, the lapse in blog won’t happen again, not the say Merry Christmas won’t happen again, after all we would hope that we would still be around next year to say it again, the merry xmas bit that is.
We will from now on be eating allbran for breakfast in an effort to get a bit more regular, and if we don’t manage it every day we’ll try to make sure we keep you in touch with our movements at least every couple of days.
The Café has been very busy over the last 7 weeks, this has also coincided with us staying open until about 5’ish Monday to Friday, which invariably means that Ian isn’t home before 6pm and as he starts at about 7am most days and is trying to get fit enough for this bike ride that he wants to do from Busselton to Augusta at the end of the summer, we are not normally in the mood to do anything other than relax after dinner.
The bike ride is the one that he had planned to do at the end of November, but because of the longer hours in the Café and the fact that we are not going to have daylight saving this year, Ian wasn’t getting a chance to practice and he felt that although he was pretty sure that brute force and ignorance would get him through it if required, he wouldn’t enjoy it and he wants to be able to enjoy it, so it has now been put back to the end of the summer.
Over the last few weeks the kids have had loads happening as well, there seemed to be something extra to do with Scouts every week, Bowling, Billy Cart Racing, Garage Sale, Meetings, Camps, Fundraising, getting ready for the Scout Jamboree in January, and all this on top of their usual meetings.
The kids have all done well at school, with Marisa being one of a select few to be in the “One Club”, you only get in it if your results are predominately “1” and definitely have none below a “2” for effort, but then she would wouldn’t she.
Kristian has been taking it easy at school and doing just well enough to keep everybody happy, but he didn’t break into a sweat all year over his class work so we will be pushing him a bit next year to try and get a competitive edge to is work and get him into the “One Club”. He knows he can do it, it’s just that nobody told him that’s what they wanted him to do, so he kept his head below the parapet and had a nice life, in which all his teachers think he is so wonderful.
Fraser has really come along great guns in the second half of the year, after a few misunderstandings between Fraser and his Teachers in the early part of the year, they have worked out how to keep him interested and motivated and he has really come on well, finishing the year top of his class in Science and well graded in Maths, while also working extremely hard to get good results in most of his other subjects.
We are very proud of all three of them.
The school packed up a week before Christmas and we have tried to work it again this year that Carolyn is able to stay at home with the kids, looks after the house, reads the instruction on how the Hoover (Vacuum to you non-English types) works, that sort of thing, while Ian slaves away in the Café, and so far it has worked quite well, the Hoover got switched on on Christmas eve.
The Saturday before Christmas we went round to some friends house for a few drinks in the evening, that is to say Ian went round at 6pm as he didn’t want to go to the Carols by Candlelight service in Busselton, he might have gone if it was going to dark but the thought of Candles in daylight didn’t really do it for him, Carolyn and the kids turned up after the show and the kids played computer games with our friends kids while we had a beer and put the world to rights until about 1am when we caught a taxi home.
On Christmas Eve we invited a few friends and neighbours round for drinky-poos and nibbles, including the kids there were 19 of us and it turned out to be a very relaxed, pleasant evening.
It was the first time that we have had people round for drinks since we have been here, quite sad really, but it is something that goes back to our days in the pubs back in England.
As a landlord of a pub, everybody wants to know everything about you, you don’t know everybody in the town, but everybody in the town knows you and it is quite unnerving at times, you just don’t have a private life except when you are locked away in your own little flat with the curtains drawn, so we have always tried to keep ourselves to ourselves and it has been hard to get out of the habit.
We are only a couple of months short of being in Busselton for 2 years now and up until these last couple of weeks we have still been using the pub as our place to unwind at the end of the week, as we would have done in England.
As in England, a night in the pub over here can be expensive, whereas a few drinks with a few friends sitting under the patio over here can be just as much fun at a fraction of the cost, you just have to drop your guard a little bit and let people get to know you, it’s taken us nearly 2 years to work that out, positively frightening really, but we’re confident we’ll get better at it from now on.
We hope you had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy and Prosperous New Year
Firstly, to anyone out there who is still remotely interested in what we are getting up to, or whether we are still alive and kicking, we apologise for the lack of regular blog over the last six or seven weeks.
The last few weeks have been manic for us with regard to work and play and we just haven’t had the time to sit down and blog on a regular basis, and you know what it’s like, get a few days behind and you’re looking for a gap in your life when you have enough time to blog about those few days in one hit.
Don’t find enough time to blog about a few days for a few days and you are looking for a gap in your life when you can blog a week etc, next thing you know 7 weeks have gone by and it’s time to hold your hands up, apologise, say Merry Christmas, and promise that it won’t happen again.
That is to say, the lapse in blog won’t happen again, not the say Merry Christmas won’t happen again, after all we would hope that we would still be around next year to say it again, the merry xmas bit that is.
We will from now on be eating allbran for breakfast in an effort to get a bit more regular, and if we don’t manage it every day we’ll try to make sure we keep you in touch with our movements at least every couple of days.
The Café has been very busy over the last 7 weeks, this has also coincided with us staying open until about 5’ish Monday to Friday, which invariably means that Ian isn’t home before 6pm and as he starts at about 7am most days and is trying to get fit enough for this bike ride that he wants to do from Busselton to Augusta at the end of the summer, we are not normally in the mood to do anything other than relax after dinner.
The bike ride is the one that he had planned to do at the end of November, but because of the longer hours in the Café and the fact that we are not going to have daylight saving this year, Ian wasn’t getting a chance to practice and he felt that although he was pretty sure that brute force and ignorance would get him through it if required, he wouldn’t enjoy it and he wants to be able to enjoy it, so it has now been put back to the end of the summer.
Over the last few weeks the kids have had loads happening as well, there seemed to be something extra to do with Scouts every week, Bowling, Billy Cart Racing, Garage Sale, Meetings, Camps, Fundraising, getting ready for the Scout Jamboree in January, and all this on top of their usual meetings.
The kids have all done well at school, with Marisa being one of a select few to be in the “One Club”, you only get in it if your results are predominately “1” and definitely have none below a “2” for effort, but then she would wouldn’t she.
Kristian has been taking it easy at school and doing just well enough to keep everybody happy, but he didn’t break into a sweat all year over his class work so we will be pushing him a bit next year to try and get a competitive edge to is work and get him into the “One Club”. He knows he can do it, it’s just that nobody told him that’s what they wanted him to do, so he kept his head below the parapet and had a nice life, in which all his teachers think he is so wonderful.
Fraser has really come along great guns in the second half of the year, after a few misunderstandings between Fraser and his Teachers in the early part of the year, they have worked out how to keep him interested and motivated and he has really come on well, finishing the year top of his class in Science and well graded in Maths, while also working extremely hard to get good results in most of his other subjects.
We are very proud of all three of them.
The school packed up a week before Christmas and we have tried to work it again this year that Carolyn is able to stay at home with the kids, looks after the house, reads the instruction on how the Hoover (Vacuum to you non-English types) works, that sort of thing, while Ian slaves away in the Café, and so far it has worked quite well, the Hoover got switched on on Christmas eve.
The Saturday before Christmas we went round to some friends house for a few drinks in the evening, that is to say Ian went round at 6pm as he didn’t want to go to the Carols by Candlelight service in Busselton, he might have gone if it was going to dark but the thought of Candles in daylight didn’t really do it for him, Carolyn and the kids turned up after the show and the kids played computer games with our friends kids while we had a beer and put the world to rights until about 1am when we caught a taxi home.
On Christmas Eve we invited a few friends and neighbours round for drinky-poos and nibbles, including the kids there were 19 of us and it turned out to be a very relaxed, pleasant evening.
It was the first time that we have had people round for drinks since we have been here, quite sad really, but it is something that goes back to our days in the pubs back in England.
As a landlord of a pub, everybody wants to know everything about you, you don’t know everybody in the town, but everybody in the town knows you and it is quite unnerving at times, you just don’t have a private life except when you are locked away in your own little flat with the curtains drawn, so we have always tried to keep ourselves to ourselves and it has been hard to get out of the habit.
We are only a couple of months short of being in Busselton for 2 years now and up until these last couple of weeks we have still been using the pub as our place to unwind at the end of the week, as we would have done in England.
As in England, a night in the pub over here can be expensive, whereas a few drinks with a few friends sitting under the patio over here can be just as much fun at a fraction of the cost, you just have to drop your guard a little bit and let people get to know you, it’s taken us nearly 2 years to work that out, positively frightening really, but we’re confident we’ll get better at it from now on.
We hope you had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy and Prosperous New Year
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Gullible
Saturday 31st October 2009
We slept like logs last night after the exertions of yesterday, apart from the obligatory wake up call in what seems like the middle of the night by the puppies.
The first person to order anything in the Café this morning was a tradie working down here for a couple of weeks, he ordered his coffee with Ian and then said “bit bad about the stabbing at the show last night”, it didn’t surprise Ian because of the bad feel about the place but it was the first he had heard about it, but if memory serves him well he thinks it happened last year as well.
Kate was the first member of staff in this morning, when Ian said to her about the stabbing, she said “apparently there were six people stabbed”, one of her mates who was at the show had sent her an email letting her know.
A couple of hours later the Baker who we had seen at the show, came over and asked us if we had seen anything of the stabbings last night, apparently one of his staff had been standing next to the two people who had been stabbed.
As you can imagine, we are now confused as to how many if any did get stabbed, maybe the reason we haven’t had any more reports is because every body else got stabbed, or maybe it’s just a load of tosh, suppose we’ll have to wait until we get the local paper on Wednesday to find out.
We have relayed what is supposed to have happened, to the kids and as they recognised the aggressive behaviour at the show last night, they seem to understand why we wanted them to go with us and not with a group of mates.
It was a fairly busy day at the Café today, these last three days have totally changed the way the week was going and instead of struggling to achieve last years figures for this week, we have blitzed it.
This evening Carolyn and the kids went to the Scout Camp to help feed a load of foreign students who had come down from Perth to help tidy up the bush fire breaks at the campsite, it appears that as part of their visa which allows them into the country to be educated at university, they are required to do a certain number of hours voluntary work, each year they come down to tidy up the campsite and all it costs the Scouts is accommodation in the bunkhouse and food.
We have supplied a load of muffins for the students and a meal for the obligatory awkward student who happens to be a vegetarian, probably the only vegetarian WA.
Ian stayed at home because Carolyn wasn’t sure how late they would be staying and Ian wanted to watch the Arsenal v SCUM football match live (SCUM = spurs).
A lovely evening was had by all, Ian watched with delight, as despite the rough house tactics employed by the Scum, Arsenal stuffed them 3-0, Carolyn and the kids had a great time round the campfire eating and telling stories and got home at 11.30pm absolutely knackered.
And finally, it’s dippy Saturday staff time and this one is a classic.
Todays dippy member of staff is Max, lovely girl but says what she thinks before she thinks about what she is about to say and believes what Ian says.
Ian was making what we call over here a slurry, anywhere else it will be called a paste, but basically he was whisking up some gravy powder and water to make a slurry/paste.
Max said “that looks like chocolate”, knowing full well that Ian was making gravy.
Ian said “it tastes like it too, try it”
So she did, didn’t say anything, but did not go back for seconds.
About fifteen minutes later Ian got her again.
He said to Max “the other day I was helping Fraser with his homework, he had to find out what the word gullible means, so we went to look it up in the dictionary and it wasn’t in there”.
Max said “isn’t it, I would have thought that it would have been”.
Carolyn collapsed in a heap on the other side of the kitchen, saying I can’t believe you fell for that one Max, Max mumbled something along the lines of believing that Ian was telling the truth and Ian almost felt guilty for doing it, but decided against it.
We slept like logs last night after the exertions of yesterday, apart from the obligatory wake up call in what seems like the middle of the night by the puppies.
The first person to order anything in the Café this morning was a tradie working down here for a couple of weeks, he ordered his coffee with Ian and then said “bit bad about the stabbing at the show last night”, it didn’t surprise Ian because of the bad feel about the place but it was the first he had heard about it, but if memory serves him well he thinks it happened last year as well.
Kate was the first member of staff in this morning, when Ian said to her about the stabbing, she said “apparently there were six people stabbed”, one of her mates who was at the show had sent her an email letting her know.
A couple of hours later the Baker who we had seen at the show, came over and asked us if we had seen anything of the stabbings last night, apparently one of his staff had been standing next to the two people who had been stabbed.
As you can imagine, we are now confused as to how many if any did get stabbed, maybe the reason we haven’t had any more reports is because every body else got stabbed, or maybe it’s just a load of tosh, suppose we’ll have to wait until we get the local paper on Wednesday to find out.
We have relayed what is supposed to have happened, to the kids and as they recognised the aggressive behaviour at the show last night, they seem to understand why we wanted them to go with us and not with a group of mates.
It was a fairly busy day at the Café today, these last three days have totally changed the way the week was going and instead of struggling to achieve last years figures for this week, we have blitzed it.
This evening Carolyn and the kids went to the Scout Camp to help feed a load of foreign students who had come down from Perth to help tidy up the bush fire breaks at the campsite, it appears that as part of their visa which allows them into the country to be educated at university, they are required to do a certain number of hours voluntary work, each year they come down to tidy up the campsite and all it costs the Scouts is accommodation in the bunkhouse and food.
We have supplied a load of muffins for the students and a meal for the obligatory awkward student who happens to be a vegetarian, probably the only vegetarian WA.
Ian stayed at home because Carolyn wasn’t sure how late they would be staying and Ian wanted to watch the Arsenal v SCUM football match live (SCUM = spurs).
A lovely evening was had by all, Ian watched with delight, as despite the rough house tactics employed by the Scum, Arsenal stuffed them 3-0, Carolyn and the kids had a great time round the campfire eating and telling stories and got home at 11.30pm absolutely knackered.
And finally, it’s dippy Saturday staff time and this one is a classic.
Todays dippy member of staff is Max, lovely girl but says what she thinks before she thinks about what she is about to say and believes what Ian says.
Ian was making what we call over here a slurry, anywhere else it will be called a paste, but basically he was whisking up some gravy powder and water to make a slurry/paste.
Max said “that looks like chocolate”, knowing full well that Ian was making gravy.
Ian said “it tastes like it too, try it”
So she did, didn’t say anything, but did not go back for seconds.
About fifteen minutes later Ian got her again.
He said to Max “the other day I was helping Fraser with his homework, he had to find out what the word gullible means, so we went to look it up in the dictionary and it wasn’t in there”.
Max said “isn’t it, I would have thought that it would have been”.
Carolyn collapsed in a heap on the other side of the kitchen, saying I can’t believe you fell for that one Max, Max mumbled something along the lines of believing that Ian was telling the truth and Ian almost felt guilty for doing it, but decided against it.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Bandana Day
Friday 30th October 2009
After being flat out all day yesterday we thought that we would probably come back down to earth today, but it wasn’t to be and we had our busiest day of the year today instead.
It is Bandana Day today and Ian bought all the staff a bandana to wear at work, everyone wore one, even Ian, apart from Aden who doesn’t like to get involved in public displays, but as he doesn’t very often come out of the kitchen we let him off.
Bandana Day is the fundraising day for a group called canteen who are a children’s cancer charity, the bandanas were only $3 each and we bought 10 for us and the staff, we even wore ours to the show in the evening.
We did manage to get our dishwasher fixed today though so that made life a little bit easier, and the staff weren’t sorry to see it working again, it’s been costing them a fortune in moisturiser for the last week.
Ian didn’t manage to finish work until 6.45pm tonight because we had been so busy, he rushed home and got changed, and then we all went to Busselton Show.
No family tickets at Busselton Show, everyone has to pay, last year the guy on the gate took pity on us as there were five of us and let Kristian in for nothing, this time there was no such luck.
The show was busier than last year, there were more people wandering around and the organisers had managed to fill all the stalls, which they hadn’t managed to do last year.
There was a different feel to the show this year, there were a lot more aggressive, drunk, drugged kids wandering around than last year.
Ian reckons that it had something to do with us not having daylight saving this year, there are problems at the show every year by all accounts, but it normally happens after dark, presumably because there is less chance of being seen or getting caught after dark.
Because we don’t have daylight saving this year, all the idiots come out to play an hour earlier, unfortunately this means that they are aggressive/abusive etc while there are still a lot of families around and that won’t do the shows reputation any good whatsoever.
The show was loaded as usual with overpriced tat and dodgy burgers and although all the stalls had been taken, there were a couple of food stalls missing from last year and we’re sure that there were more art and craft displays, we had a go on a couple of rides, ate some dodgy food, watched the fireworks, had a glass of wine with our neighbours from the shopping centre who run the Cleanskins Wine franchise and had a stall at the show, then went home to try and get an early’ish night after an exhausting day.
After being flat out all day yesterday we thought that we would probably come back down to earth today, but it wasn’t to be and we had our busiest day of the year today instead.
It is Bandana Day today and Ian bought all the staff a bandana to wear at work, everyone wore one, even Ian, apart from Aden who doesn’t like to get involved in public displays, but as he doesn’t very often come out of the kitchen we let him off.
Bandana Day is the fundraising day for a group called canteen who are a children’s cancer charity, the bandanas were only $3 each and we bought 10 for us and the staff, we even wore ours to the show in the evening.
We did manage to get our dishwasher fixed today though so that made life a little bit easier, and the staff weren’t sorry to see it working again, it’s been costing them a fortune in moisturiser for the last week.
Ian didn’t manage to finish work until 6.45pm tonight because we had been so busy, he rushed home and got changed, and then we all went to Busselton Show.
No family tickets at Busselton Show, everyone has to pay, last year the guy on the gate took pity on us as there were five of us and let Kristian in for nothing, this time there was no such luck.
The show was busier than last year, there were more people wandering around and the organisers had managed to fill all the stalls, which they hadn’t managed to do last year.
There was a different feel to the show this year, there were a lot more aggressive, drunk, drugged kids wandering around than last year.
Ian reckons that it had something to do with us not having daylight saving this year, there are problems at the show every year by all accounts, but it normally happens after dark, presumably because there is less chance of being seen or getting caught after dark.
Because we don’t have daylight saving this year, all the idiots come out to play an hour earlier, unfortunately this means that they are aggressive/abusive etc while there are still a lot of families around and that won’t do the shows reputation any good whatsoever.
The show was loaded as usual with overpriced tat and dodgy burgers and although all the stalls had been taken, there were a couple of food stalls missing from last year and we’re sure that there were more art and craft displays, we had a go on a couple of rides, ate some dodgy food, watched the fireworks, had a glass of wine with our neighbours from the shopping centre who run the Cleanskins Wine franchise and had a stall at the show, then went home to try and get an early’ish night after an exhausting day.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Life on Mars
Thursday 29th October 2009
Don’t quite know what happened today really, we were mobbed in the Café today, probably our busiest day of the year so far and just to make it interesting, about 15 minutes before our afternoon member of staff was due to start and we were committed to letting other staff leave as they had worked maximum hours, the staff members mother phoned up to say that she wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be in.
Nothing like a bit of notice, and that was nothing like a bit of notice, fortunately Carolyn was able to come in and help with the close up.
Whether it has anything to do with extra people coming to town because the Busselton Show starts tomorrow, we don’t know, we certainly didn’t have this sort of fluctuation last year, long may it continue.
We watched the last episode of Life on Mars tonight and Ian is a bit confused, he can’t work out whether Sam was from 1973, in which case how did he know about modern police practices, or had gone back in time during his coma, in which case why? And how did he manage to get back to 1973 after presumably dying after jumping off the top of the police station?
Don’t quite know what happened today really, we were mobbed in the Café today, probably our busiest day of the year so far and just to make it interesting, about 15 minutes before our afternoon member of staff was due to start and we were committed to letting other staff leave as they had worked maximum hours, the staff members mother phoned up to say that she wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be in.
Nothing like a bit of notice, and that was nothing like a bit of notice, fortunately Carolyn was able to come in and help with the close up.
Whether it has anything to do with extra people coming to town because the Busselton Show starts tomorrow, we don’t know, we certainly didn’t have this sort of fluctuation last year, long may it continue.
We watched the last episode of Life on Mars tonight and Ian is a bit confused, he can’t work out whether Sam was from 1973, in which case how did he know about modern police practices, or had gone back in time during his coma, in which case why? And how did he manage to get back to 1973 after presumably dying after jumping off the top of the police station?
Friday, October 30, 2009
Great Aussie Craftsmanship
Tuesday 27th October 2009
Marisa received a Bronze Certificate from school today for her results in an unannounced Maths test that she took a little while ago, the certificate reads Conqeusta 2009 but she doesn’t know what the test was for and the school haven’t told us what it is for, they have just handed out the certificates and presumably we are expected to be impressed.
As it is we are quite impressed, maths is Marisas weakest subject and she has to work hard to do well, so this is a good result.
It was a bit busier at the Café today, although we were never really pushed it just seemed to be a constant plod for most of the day.
As well as having a fryer that is not working, we now have a dishwasher that is not working, so all the dishes had to be hand washed today which pleased the staff.
Great Aussie Craftsmanship, that’s what all the adverts say, every new piece of equipment that we have bought for the Café, mostly Australian, has packed up on at least one occasion.
We had a visit from the Environmental Health Officer this afternoon, we got a clean bill of health apart from some paintwork that needs repainting and new rubber matting on the floor.
Fraser and Marisa went to Scouts tonight and after dropping them off, Carolyn came home grabbed a bit of food and headed back out again to attend a meeting that was scheduled at Scouts for 6pm and she had forgotten about it. She hadn’t forgotten the meeting just that it was starting half an hour early this week.
After Scouts we relaxed in front of the box for an hour before having an early night.
Marisa received a Bronze Certificate from school today for her results in an unannounced Maths test that she took a little while ago, the certificate reads Conqeusta 2009 but she doesn’t know what the test was for and the school haven’t told us what it is for, they have just handed out the certificates and presumably we are expected to be impressed.
As it is we are quite impressed, maths is Marisas weakest subject and she has to work hard to do well, so this is a good result.
It was a bit busier at the Café today, although we were never really pushed it just seemed to be a constant plod for most of the day.
As well as having a fryer that is not working, we now have a dishwasher that is not working, so all the dishes had to be hand washed today which pleased the staff.
Great Aussie Craftsmanship, that’s what all the adverts say, every new piece of equipment that we have bought for the Café, mostly Australian, has packed up on at least one occasion.
We had a visit from the Environmental Health Officer this afternoon, we got a clean bill of health apart from some paintwork that needs repainting and new rubber matting on the floor.
Fraser and Marisa went to Scouts tonight and after dropping them off, Carolyn came home grabbed a bit of food and headed back out again to attend a meeting that was scheduled at Scouts for 6pm and she had forgotten about it. She hadn’t forgotten the meeting just that it was starting half an hour early this week.
After Scouts we relaxed in front of the box for an hour before having an early night.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
To The Jetty And Beyond
Monday 26th October 2009
It was a fairly quiet day in the Café again today, just as well really as one of our fryers has packed up, it did mean that Ian finished work early though so not all bad news.
Ian took the kids out for a bike ride this evening and thinking that they were only going as far as the jetty they were full of enthusiasm, Ian had other ideas and when they got to the jetty, informed them that they would be getting their ice cream from there, but not until they were on their way back from Port Geographe.
The kids whinged about it a bit, but once they had left it behind they cycled well, then on the way back they flew like the wind, the combination of an ice cream with their names on it and cycling with the wind meant that they made really good time.
In the evening after the kids went to bed, we watched a couple more episodes of guff that we had recorded, we have to watch on a regular basis otherwise the Foxtel memory thing fills up and starts deleting stuff
It was a fairly quiet day in the Café again today, just as well really as one of our fryers has packed up, it did mean that Ian finished work early though so not all bad news.
Ian took the kids out for a bike ride this evening and thinking that they were only going as far as the jetty they were full of enthusiasm, Ian had other ideas and when they got to the jetty, informed them that they would be getting their ice cream from there, but not until they were on their way back from Port Geographe.
The kids whinged about it a bit, but once they had left it behind they cycled well, then on the way back they flew like the wind, the combination of an ice cream with their names on it and cycling with the wind meant that they made really good time.
In the evening after the kids went to bed, we watched a couple more episodes of guff that we had recorded, we have to watch on a regular basis otherwise the Foxtel memory thing fills up and starts deleting stuff
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Great Moscow Circus
Saturday 24th October 2009
Isn’t it amazing how kids can get up, get breakfasted, get washed and clothed in minutes when it involves going camping with their mates, we knew the boys wouldn’t be a problem they wake up early every day, but Marisa normally needs two days notice to get out of bed for school and then a further three days to do the rest of it.
The Café was fairly quiet today, but we did enough to beat last year which was our goal.
With the oldest two away at camp for the day, we decided to treat Kristian and take him to the Circus, the Great Moscow Circus is in town and everyone that Ian has spoken to who has been said that it was great, so despite considering ourselves to be not circus people, we took the plunge and bought tickets for this afternoon.
It was great and Kristian loved it, we aren’t the sort of people to be impressed by this sort of thing, but we came out of the show extremely impressed and glad that we had made the effort.
After the Circus Kristian had a pizza before we all had an early night.
Isn’t it amazing how kids can get up, get breakfasted, get washed and clothed in minutes when it involves going camping with their mates, we knew the boys wouldn’t be a problem they wake up early every day, but Marisa normally needs two days notice to get out of bed for school and then a further three days to do the rest of it.
The Café was fairly quiet today, but we did enough to beat last year which was our goal.
With the oldest two away at camp for the day, we decided to treat Kristian and take him to the Circus, the Great Moscow Circus is in town and everyone that Ian has spoken to who has been said that it was great, so despite considering ourselves to be not circus people, we took the plunge and bought tickets for this afternoon.
It was great and Kristian loved it, we aren’t the sort of people to be impressed by this sort of thing, but we came out of the show extremely impressed and glad that we had made the effort.
After the Circus Kristian had a pizza before we all had an early night.
Horrible Little Things
Friday 23rd October 2009
It was fairly busy today at the Café, hopefully with a half decent day tomorrow we’ll beat this week last year, we seem to be beating last years figures every week at the moment so the thought of not beating it has become almost a phobia.
Marisa had to go to the doctors this afternoon after school and has been put on antibiotics, she can’t help scratching when she gets bitten by mozzies, fleas and all sorts of other horrible little things over here that like taking lumps out of her and she managed to get a couple infected.
The kids didn’t go to Freaky Friday tonight as they have to be up early tomorrow morning to go on their latest Scout camp, this time to Perth, to meet up with the other Scouts that they will be travelling and sharing equipment with when they go to Jamboree in January.
The kids were in bed by 7pm and we weren’t far behind them, they need to be up before 6am and are not very good at getting a move on in the morning.
It was fairly busy today at the Café, hopefully with a half decent day tomorrow we’ll beat this week last year, we seem to be beating last years figures every week at the moment so the thought of not beating it has become almost a phobia.
Marisa had to go to the doctors this afternoon after school and has been put on antibiotics, she can’t help scratching when she gets bitten by mozzies, fleas and all sorts of other horrible little things over here that like taking lumps out of her and she managed to get a couple infected.
The kids didn’t go to Freaky Friday tonight as they have to be up early tomorrow morning to go on their latest Scout camp, this time to Perth, to meet up with the other Scouts that they will be travelling and sharing equipment with when they go to Jamboree in January.
The kids were in bed by 7pm and we weren’t far behind them, they need to be up before 6am and are not very good at getting a move on in the morning.
Breast Cancer Research
Thursday 22nd October 2009
This morning while Ian was setting up the Café, the milkman informed him that there was a fire down at the other shopping centre.
Luvvly Jubbly thought Ian, hoping that nobody was hurt first of course, we should be in for a good day if it’s anything like the last time the centre was closed.
It turns out that there was a fire in the roof space of the record shop at the other shopping centre and when the sprinkler system came on, the water got into the power box causing the electricity to do what electricity does when mixed with water, leaving the centre with no power.
Our hope of a bumper day, was however short lived, IGA the supermarket for that centre has got their own generators and whoever lit the fire forgot to light one under the generator as well, so after the fire had been put out IGA were up and running and we failed to benefit by much more than a quick flurry first thing.
As it turned out, today wasn’t much better than the early part of the week until most of the staff had gone in the afternoon, then for some reason we had an influx of customers that kept us busy for a while, helping to make up in part, yesterdays debacle.
This evening Carolyn went to Curves fitness centre in Busselton for a fundraising event, it was to raise funds for Breast Cancer research.
Despite meeting hundreds of local people every week, it’s amazing how few people you can recognise at one of these events, so after making a few bids for goods on offer and chatting with the few people she did recognise she went home, but she’s not going to let Ian know how much it cost him.
This morning while Ian was setting up the Café, the milkman informed him that there was a fire down at the other shopping centre.
Luvvly Jubbly thought Ian, hoping that nobody was hurt first of course, we should be in for a good day if it’s anything like the last time the centre was closed.
It turns out that there was a fire in the roof space of the record shop at the other shopping centre and when the sprinkler system came on, the water got into the power box causing the electricity to do what electricity does when mixed with water, leaving the centre with no power.
Our hope of a bumper day, was however short lived, IGA the supermarket for that centre has got their own generators and whoever lit the fire forgot to light one under the generator as well, so after the fire had been put out IGA were up and running and we failed to benefit by much more than a quick flurry first thing.
As it turned out, today wasn’t much better than the early part of the week until most of the staff had gone in the afternoon, then for some reason we had an influx of customers that kept us busy for a while, helping to make up in part, yesterdays debacle.
This evening Carolyn went to Curves fitness centre in Busselton for a fundraising event, it was to raise funds for Breast Cancer research.
Despite meeting hundreds of local people every week, it’s amazing how few people you can recognise at one of these events, so after making a few bids for goods on offer and chatting with the few people she did recognise she went home, but she’s not going to let Ian know how much it cost him.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Death on the Highway
Wednesday 21st October 2009
Today was probably the quietest day of the year so far at the Café, every shopkeeper in the centre was left wondering where the punters were, let’s hope it’s not a sign of things to come.
Fraser is getting rave reviews from some of his teachers at the moment, todays topic of the month was maths where he has been getting 100% for algebra and is generally getting an A grade for other maths.
This evening Ian and the kids went for a bike ride, this time the garage was open so they all had an ice cream and Kristian made sure they brought his mum home a mint Aero, her favourite.
Marisa got a phone call from one of her admirers tonight, it turns out that he is in the same Scout patrol as her, a patrol that has just been formed because of rising numbers and they are going to have a camp as their first patrol activity, in two weeks time.
The front page of the West Australian had a picture of a mangled car and lorry which had collided on the new bit of highway between Rockingham and Bunbury, it turns out that this is the first accident that involved a fatality on this new stretch of road since it opened, maybe a couple of months ago.
Now the reason we are bringing up this sad subject on the blog today is (1) we haven’t got much else to talk about, and (2) we have found it really hard to describe to people and put into writing how bad the driving is over here, but this time we have decided to bite the bullet and say it as it is.
Now everyone who has ever been to another country where they have roundabouts will recognise that in WA, they just don’t know what a roundabout is there for or how to negotiate it, but once you realise this fact, you can take evasive/precautionary measures and hopefully get from one side of the roundabout to the other unscathed.
The bit that really amazes us and that we can’t get to grips with, is accidents, accidents that quite often end in death or serious injury.
If your level of expertise at driving was based on not having an accident with another vehicle, then the drivers of WA would be the best in the world.
Maybe it’s because the car is their pride and joy, the thing that they cherish above all else, nice and shiny, preferably with a couple of stickers on the back which cause you to take offence and cover the kids eyes if ever you pull up behind one, and most importantly, a five or six litre engine under the bonnet, attached to a couple of girt big exhaust pipes so that it makes a lot of noise, and the funniest part is, it has about as much oomph as a Ford Transit with a blown exhaust and would be left standing by a 1300 Vauxhall Nova.
Anyway, we digress, the reason for this little rant is that you can almost guarantee that at the time of the accident and death on the new bit of highway, there was probably no other vehicle in sight and Ian has come up with a theory as to why this accident happened, it’s because they chopped all the trees down when they built the road.
What is he on about? You might be thinking.
Well it goes something like this, the roads over here are so quiet that you should be able to take a fairly accurate guess on how long it would take you to get from A to B so the chances of getting into any compromising situations is pretty remote.
Because the roads are so quiet and you are not likely to get into an awkward situation which might cause you to collide with another vehicle, you have to find something else to hit and WA drivers are good at that, there are umpteen small crosses by the side of the road that bear witness to it.
Today is the first time in we don’t know how long that we have heard about a fatal accident involving two vehicles that have collided, normally it’s a tree, the favourite pastime over here seems to be let’s see if we can knock a tree over.
Unfortunately for the driver and passengers concerned, they always seem to pick a girt big tree that’s probably been around for a couple of hundred years and intends to hang on for just a bit longer, hence dead occupants in the car and a tree that has got a couple of scratches in its bark.
Why can’t they aim the car at a bush, maybe scratch the paintwork a bit, but what the hell, they could still drive it home and tell their mates how you killed a bush by driving into it at 100kmph while it wasn’t looking and lived to tell the tale, but no they always go for the tree.
Hence, if they hadn’t chopped all the trees down by the side of the new highway, then the vehicles wouldn’t have had to collide because the one that wanted to collide, could have collided with a tree and left the other vehicle unscathed.
Many years ago, Ian had saw a comedian called Jasper Carrot on stage and part of his routine was about some statements received by insurance companies from people claiming for accidents in their cars, bearing in mind that this was probably about thirty years ago, the one claim which Jasper read out that stuck in Ians mind at the time was, “I had to swerve three times before I hit the tree”.
I know, you had to be there to really appreciate it, but it has got Ian wondering whether Australians are the human equivalent of lemmings, but instead of throwing themselves off cliffs, probably because there don’t seem to be many cliffs over here, they drive into trees.
Any death is a sorry tale, over here the roads are good, wide and relatively traffic free, there should be less fatal accidents per head of population than virtually anywhere in the world.
Today was probably the quietest day of the year so far at the Café, every shopkeeper in the centre was left wondering where the punters were, let’s hope it’s not a sign of things to come.
Fraser is getting rave reviews from some of his teachers at the moment, todays topic of the month was maths where he has been getting 100% for algebra and is generally getting an A grade for other maths.
This evening Ian and the kids went for a bike ride, this time the garage was open so they all had an ice cream and Kristian made sure they brought his mum home a mint Aero, her favourite.
Marisa got a phone call from one of her admirers tonight, it turns out that he is in the same Scout patrol as her, a patrol that has just been formed because of rising numbers and they are going to have a camp as their first patrol activity, in two weeks time.
The front page of the West Australian had a picture of a mangled car and lorry which had collided on the new bit of highway between Rockingham and Bunbury, it turns out that this is the first accident that involved a fatality on this new stretch of road since it opened, maybe a couple of months ago.
Now the reason we are bringing up this sad subject on the blog today is (1) we haven’t got much else to talk about, and (2) we have found it really hard to describe to people and put into writing how bad the driving is over here, but this time we have decided to bite the bullet and say it as it is.
Now everyone who has ever been to another country where they have roundabouts will recognise that in WA, they just don’t know what a roundabout is there for or how to negotiate it, but once you realise this fact, you can take evasive/precautionary measures and hopefully get from one side of the roundabout to the other unscathed.
The bit that really amazes us and that we can’t get to grips with, is accidents, accidents that quite often end in death or serious injury.
If your level of expertise at driving was based on not having an accident with another vehicle, then the drivers of WA would be the best in the world.
Maybe it’s because the car is their pride and joy, the thing that they cherish above all else, nice and shiny, preferably with a couple of stickers on the back which cause you to take offence and cover the kids eyes if ever you pull up behind one, and most importantly, a five or six litre engine under the bonnet, attached to a couple of girt big exhaust pipes so that it makes a lot of noise, and the funniest part is, it has about as much oomph as a Ford Transit with a blown exhaust and would be left standing by a 1300 Vauxhall Nova.
Anyway, we digress, the reason for this little rant is that you can almost guarantee that at the time of the accident and death on the new bit of highway, there was probably no other vehicle in sight and Ian has come up with a theory as to why this accident happened, it’s because they chopped all the trees down when they built the road.
What is he on about? You might be thinking.
Well it goes something like this, the roads over here are so quiet that you should be able to take a fairly accurate guess on how long it would take you to get from A to B so the chances of getting into any compromising situations is pretty remote.
Because the roads are so quiet and you are not likely to get into an awkward situation which might cause you to collide with another vehicle, you have to find something else to hit and WA drivers are good at that, there are umpteen small crosses by the side of the road that bear witness to it.
Today is the first time in we don’t know how long that we have heard about a fatal accident involving two vehicles that have collided, normally it’s a tree, the favourite pastime over here seems to be let’s see if we can knock a tree over.
Unfortunately for the driver and passengers concerned, they always seem to pick a girt big tree that’s probably been around for a couple of hundred years and intends to hang on for just a bit longer, hence dead occupants in the car and a tree that has got a couple of scratches in its bark.
Why can’t they aim the car at a bush, maybe scratch the paintwork a bit, but what the hell, they could still drive it home and tell their mates how you killed a bush by driving into it at 100kmph while it wasn’t looking and lived to tell the tale, but no they always go for the tree.
Hence, if they hadn’t chopped all the trees down by the side of the new highway, then the vehicles wouldn’t have had to collide because the one that wanted to collide, could have collided with a tree and left the other vehicle unscathed.
Many years ago, Ian had saw a comedian called Jasper Carrot on stage and part of his routine was about some statements received by insurance companies from people claiming for accidents in their cars, bearing in mind that this was probably about thirty years ago, the one claim which Jasper read out that stuck in Ians mind at the time was, “I had to swerve three times before I hit the tree”.
I know, you had to be there to really appreciate it, but it has got Ian wondering whether Australians are the human equivalent of lemmings, but instead of throwing themselves off cliffs, probably because there don’t seem to be many cliffs over here, they drive into trees.
Any death is a sorry tale, over here the roads are good, wide and relatively traffic free, there should be less fatal accidents per head of population than virtually anywhere in the world.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Acting Patrol Leader
Tuesday 20th October 2009
It was another quiet day at the Café today, so a bit more batch cooking and lots of cleaning, but only because the staff enjoy it.
Fraser and Marisa went to Scouts this evening and Fraser was made Acting Patrol Leader for the night, he did a good job of it by all accounts, even when he had to do his little speech bit at the end.
Because the big two were going to Scouts, Ian tried to get Kristian to go for a bike ride but he was having none of it, he’s not one to over exercise himself if he can help it.
It was another quiet day at the Café today, so a bit more batch cooking and lots of cleaning, but only because the staff enjoy it.
Fraser and Marisa went to Scouts this evening and Fraser was made Acting Patrol Leader for the night, he did a good job of it by all accounts, even when he had to do his little speech bit at the end.
Because the big two were going to Scouts, Ian tried to get Kristian to go for a bike ride but he was having none of it, he’s not one to over exercise himself if he can help it.
Wot No Ice Cream
Monday 19th October 2009
Carolyn managed to sell the five baby bunnies this morning, so we are back down to 13 bunnies, 2 puppies and a cat. We haven’t yet sold the kids.
The Café was fairly quiet today which gave us a chance to catch up with a little bit of the batch cooking, so that we can restock the shelves.
There was no Cubs on again tonight for Kristian, so Ian took all the kids for a bike ride along the cycle path to Siesta Park.
Shock, Horror, when they got there the garage was closed so they couldn’t get an ice cream, the only reason they go on these rides with Ian is because the get an ice cream for doing it, so the thought of having done the ride and not got an ice cream was something they couldn’t bear to think about.
Fortunately there is another shop about half way back where they could get an ice cream, all they had to do was find it as it wasn’t on the cycle path and it was in an area where they didn’t know where the roads went.
They found the shop in the end and after being forced to eat their ice cream quickly because it was getting dark, rode back as quick as they could because they had no lights, if they had voted for daylight saving it would have still been light and they could have ridden back at their leisure.
When they got home, Ian fired up the Barbie and cooked up a load of sausages that we had got from the supermarket, they were pretty crap, like most of the sausages over here so we won’t bother getting them again.
How can a country with such good meat make such crap sausages?
Carolyn managed to sell the five baby bunnies this morning, so we are back down to 13 bunnies, 2 puppies and a cat. We haven’t yet sold the kids.
The Café was fairly quiet today which gave us a chance to catch up with a little bit of the batch cooking, so that we can restock the shelves.
There was no Cubs on again tonight for Kristian, so Ian took all the kids for a bike ride along the cycle path to Siesta Park.
Shock, Horror, when they got there the garage was closed so they couldn’t get an ice cream, the only reason they go on these rides with Ian is because the get an ice cream for doing it, so the thought of having done the ride and not got an ice cream was something they couldn’t bear to think about.
Fortunately there is another shop about half way back where they could get an ice cream, all they had to do was find it as it wasn’t on the cycle path and it was in an area where they didn’t know where the roads went.
They found the shop in the end and after being forced to eat their ice cream quickly because it was getting dark, rode back as quick as they could because they had no lights, if they had voted for daylight saving it would have still been light and they could have ridden back at their leisure.
When they got home, Ian fired up the Barbie and cooked up a load of sausages that we had got from the supermarket, they were pretty crap, like most of the sausages over here so we won’t bother getting them again.
How can a country with such good meat make such crap sausages?
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Beach Ball
Saturday 17th October 2009
The Café was quiet today, we expected it really, Margaret River Show was on and the temperature was due to hit the 30’s for the first time this spring, so we didn’t expect to see too many people inside.
Carolyn and the kids took the puppies to the vet to get their second jabs, they were very well behaved, so were the puppies.
The puppies have doubled in weight since we got them about a month ago, they now weigh close on 10kg, so if the keep doing that for their first year, they will weigh approximately two metric tonnes each on their first birthday, now that would call for a big cake.
We went for a walk along the beach this evening and stopped off at Stilts, where the owner took another beer off line so that he could put Ians favourite on, just to stop him moaning.
In truth we wouldn’t have stopped if he hadn’t done it, so we felt obliged to have two pints rather than the one we were going to have, before going up to the Broadwater Food hall for a quick nosh and then back home for what was going to be an early night.
Instead of the early night we decided to watch the football, Arsenal v Birmingham, a bit of a walkover really, but the highlight was watching Sunderland score against Liverpool.
Now how ironic is this? A Beach Ball has been thrown onto the pitch and is bouncing around in the Liverpool goalmouth, Darren Bent, not exactly the best striker in the league, took a speculative shot that the Liverpool keeper had covered all the way.
The Football hits the Beach Ball causing the Football to change direction, leaving the goalkeeper totally helpless as the Football ended up in the net.
Outrageous you might think, the Beach Ball interfered with play and gave Sunderland an unfair advantage.
Then you watch it again in slow motion, and just as the Football is about to hit the Beach Ball you see the Liverpool Crest, Large as Life, looking straight at the camera and it is printed on the Beach Ball.
A Liverpool supporter, in his wisdom, for want of a better way of putting it, has thrown the Beach Ball onto the pitch and his team have lost the game because of it, they must have given him a right good hiding on the way home, as for Ian, he laughed himself to sleep.
The Café was quiet today, we expected it really, Margaret River Show was on and the temperature was due to hit the 30’s for the first time this spring, so we didn’t expect to see too many people inside.
Carolyn and the kids took the puppies to the vet to get their second jabs, they were very well behaved, so were the puppies.
The puppies have doubled in weight since we got them about a month ago, they now weigh close on 10kg, so if the keep doing that for their first year, they will weigh approximately two metric tonnes each on their first birthday, now that would call for a big cake.
We went for a walk along the beach this evening and stopped off at Stilts, where the owner took another beer off line so that he could put Ians favourite on, just to stop him moaning.
In truth we wouldn’t have stopped if he hadn’t done it, so we felt obliged to have two pints rather than the one we were going to have, before going up to the Broadwater Food hall for a quick nosh and then back home for what was going to be an early night.
Instead of the early night we decided to watch the football, Arsenal v Birmingham, a bit of a walkover really, but the highlight was watching Sunderland score against Liverpool.
Now how ironic is this? A Beach Ball has been thrown onto the pitch and is bouncing around in the Liverpool goalmouth, Darren Bent, not exactly the best striker in the league, took a speculative shot that the Liverpool keeper had covered all the way.
The Football hits the Beach Ball causing the Football to change direction, leaving the goalkeeper totally helpless as the Football ended up in the net.
Outrageous you might think, the Beach Ball interfered with play and gave Sunderland an unfair advantage.
Then you watch it again in slow motion, and just as the Football is about to hit the Beach Ball you see the Liverpool Crest, Large as Life, looking straight at the camera and it is printed on the Beach Ball.
A Liverpool supporter, in his wisdom, for want of a better way of putting it, has thrown the Beach Ball onto the pitch and his team have lost the game because of it, they must have given him a right good hiding on the way home, as for Ian, he laughed himself to sleep.
Friday, October 23, 2009
None of Ians Beer Again
Friday 16th October 2009
The Café was raging busy again today which was good, that means that we are back on track to beat this week last year.
This evening, after Carolyn had dropped the kids off at Freaky Friday, we went for a stroll to the Broadwater Beach Bar and Restaurant (Stilts), it was a warm evening after a long couple of days so we thought we’d pop out for an hour.
Lucky we were only there for an hour really, they had none of Ians favourite beer and no other weak beers, we have a habit of falling over if we drink strong ones, as we were only staying for one we had a pint of Becks.
It was quite pleasant down there sitting out in the garden listening to a quiet disco, the new owners have also put on Free Poker on a Friday night but we didn’t bother with that, we just had our pint and came home.
The kids had a great time at Freaky Friday as usual, it has been a long tiring first week back at school for them so they were a bit knackered and went to bed early, we weren’t far behind them.
The Café was raging busy again today which was good, that means that we are back on track to beat this week last year.
This evening, after Carolyn had dropped the kids off at Freaky Friday, we went for a stroll to the Broadwater Beach Bar and Restaurant (Stilts), it was a warm evening after a long couple of days so we thought we’d pop out for an hour.
Lucky we were only there for an hour really, they had none of Ians favourite beer and no other weak beers, we have a habit of falling over if we drink strong ones, as we were only staying for one we had a pint of Becks.
It was quite pleasant down there sitting out in the garden listening to a quiet disco, the new owners have also put on Free Poker on a Friday night but we didn’t bother with that, we just had our pint and came home.
The kids had a great time at Freaky Friday as usual, it has been a long tiring first week back at school for them so they were a bit knackered and went to bed early, we weren’t far behind them.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Operation Christmas Child
Thursday 15th October 2009
Carolyn went to COGGS assembly at school this morning, today was the day Operation Christmas Child were picking up the shoeboxes that had been filled by the kids.
Our kids are always very keen to take part in things like this and we think that it is good for them to spend a bit of time and energy thinking about others, so we always donate something from each of them so that they can hand it over in person.
We think the kids might be getting a bit presumptuous in their young age, in the past they have harangued us until our ears bled so that they wouldn’t miss out on taking their donation in, this time they haven’t said a thing since the letter came home a couple of weeks ago and Carolyn hasn’t looked at the pile of letters stuck to the fridge lately, so we were not as prepared as we might have been and the kids were concerned.
So the kids had to get up early this morning so that their shoebox donation (filled shoebox that is) could be filled and fulfilled, we always have a few shoeboxes lying around for situations like this so that wasn’t a problem, the problem was going to be getting sensible NEW stuff to put in it, nothing second hand please.
The shops over here don’t open until 9am and with the best will in the world you couldn’t rely on a shop to have what you wanted, you wouldn’t leave it to the last minute to buy a ball of wool from a wool shop if it was the only one in town, cos if you did sods law says that they would have run out, would not have anything similar to wool, have ordered some from the east, but it won’t be here for six weeks’ish, but they felt the need to open the shop with no stock because they didn’t want to let their customers down.
Fortunately we found a few bits at home that we could use, the rest we got from non conformist shops that open early because somebody might want to buy something on their way into work or school, so thank you to those shops and stuff the rest of them.
It was a busy day at the Café today, we were absolutely mobbed for about three hours at lunchtime with barely a spare chair in the place, just by coincidence, two of our part time staff popped in for lunch and had to wait for a table to be vacated.
It wasn’t really coincidence that they popped in for lunch, today is pay day so they had an ulterior motive, still at least we got some of it back.
Carolyn went to COGGS assembly at school this morning, today was the day Operation Christmas Child were picking up the shoeboxes that had been filled by the kids.
Our kids are always very keen to take part in things like this and we think that it is good for them to spend a bit of time and energy thinking about others, so we always donate something from each of them so that they can hand it over in person.
We think the kids might be getting a bit presumptuous in their young age, in the past they have harangued us until our ears bled so that they wouldn’t miss out on taking their donation in, this time they haven’t said a thing since the letter came home a couple of weeks ago and Carolyn hasn’t looked at the pile of letters stuck to the fridge lately, so we were not as prepared as we might have been and the kids were concerned.
So the kids had to get up early this morning so that their shoebox donation (filled shoebox that is) could be filled and fulfilled, we always have a few shoeboxes lying around for situations like this so that wasn’t a problem, the problem was going to be getting sensible NEW stuff to put in it, nothing second hand please.
The shops over here don’t open until 9am and with the best will in the world you couldn’t rely on a shop to have what you wanted, you wouldn’t leave it to the last minute to buy a ball of wool from a wool shop if it was the only one in town, cos if you did sods law says that they would have run out, would not have anything similar to wool, have ordered some from the east, but it won’t be here for six weeks’ish, but they felt the need to open the shop with no stock because they didn’t want to let their customers down.
Fortunately we found a few bits at home that we could use, the rest we got from non conformist shops that open early because somebody might want to buy something on their way into work or school, so thank you to those shops and stuff the rest of them.
It was a busy day at the Café today, we were absolutely mobbed for about three hours at lunchtime with barely a spare chair in the place, just by coincidence, two of our part time staff popped in for lunch and had to wait for a table to be vacated.
It wasn’t really coincidence that they popped in for lunch, today is pay day so they had an ulterior motive, still at least we got some of it back.
This Time, This Week, Last Year
Wednesday 14th October 2009
It was a bit busier in the Café today which was good, but it still only brought us back to where we were, this time, this week, last year.
The guy who came to quote for our little wall yesterday, turned up this evening with the quote, this one is closer to $1,500, which is a shame really because he seemed like an affable sort of chap and Carolyn knows his wife.
It was a bit busier in the Café today which was good, but it still only brought us back to where we were, this time, this week, last year.
The guy who came to quote for our little wall yesterday, turned up this evening with the quote, this one is closer to $1,500, which is a shame really because he seemed like an affable sort of chap and Carolyn knows his wife.
Kids Go Back
Tuesday 13th October 2009
It was a bit quiet in the café today, it’s probably got something to do with the kids going back to school today and their mothers putting the house back together.
Fraser and Marisa went to Scouts tonight, as they are going camping yet again in a couple of weeks time we had to turn up with assorted forms suitably filled out and yet more money so that they can go.
Unfortunately we’re only getting rid of them for one night and they wouldn’t take Kristian, but we’ll still try to enjoy it.
We had a guy round the house this evening to quote for a small wall to stop the grass from encroaching onto the flower beds, we only want it one block high and it’s 34mtrs long, so not too difficult you would think, but the last quote we had was for about $1,400 which we thought was a tad on the pricey side.
It was a bit quiet in the café today, it’s probably got something to do with the kids going back to school today and their mothers putting the house back together.
Fraser and Marisa went to Scouts tonight, as they are going camping yet again in a couple of weeks time we had to turn up with assorted forms suitably filled out and yet more money so that they can go.
Unfortunately we’re only getting rid of them for one night and they wouldn’t take Kristian, but we’ll still try to enjoy it.
We had a guy round the house this evening to quote for a small wall to stop the grass from encroaching onto the flower beds, we only want it one block high and it’s 34mtrs long, so not too difficult you would think, but the last quote we had was for about $1,400 which we thought was a tad on the pricey side.
Jungle Bungle Closed
Monday 12th October 2009
Ian and Carolyn are full of aches and pains, we slept pretty soundly but we are putting that down to exhaustion and if it’s right what people say about the aches being worse two days later, then god help us tomorrow.
The Café was quiet to start off with today, but by mid morning it was pretty busy and Carolyn, who we had hoped wouldn’t have to work, had been brought into play and spent the entire lunchtime and beyond working and barely got out in time to pick up some bunny food from the Feed Merchant before he closed.
Now that’s something we didn’t do in England, go to a Feed Merchant, only farmers and posh people who own horses go to Feed Merchants, the rest of us mere mortals used to get it from Pets at Home, a bit like Bunnings for pets at home, or the supermarket.
As Carolyn was coming into work and it was the last day of the school holidays, we decided to let the kids go and play in Jungle Bungle, the owners of Jungle Bungle had other ideas and turned them away because they weren’t opening today now that is pretty much Busselton Business in a nutshell, prime position on the seafront and still plenty of people wandering round, but they might not want to come in and play so we won’t bother opening.
So the kids came to the Café and after feeding their faces, went to the library to read.
We had another early night tonight, the aches and pains have not been getting any better and we are not looking forward to facing them again tomorrow.
Ian and Carolyn are full of aches and pains, we slept pretty soundly but we are putting that down to exhaustion and if it’s right what people say about the aches being worse two days later, then god help us tomorrow.
The Café was quiet to start off with today, but by mid morning it was pretty busy and Carolyn, who we had hoped wouldn’t have to work, had been brought into play and spent the entire lunchtime and beyond working and barely got out in time to pick up some bunny food from the Feed Merchant before he closed.
Now that’s something we didn’t do in England, go to a Feed Merchant, only farmers and posh people who own horses go to Feed Merchants, the rest of us mere mortals used to get it from Pets at Home, a bit like Bunnings for pets at home, or the supermarket.
As Carolyn was coming into work and it was the last day of the school holidays, we decided to let the kids go and play in Jungle Bungle, the owners of Jungle Bungle had other ideas and turned them away because they weren’t opening today now that is pretty much Busselton Business in a nutshell, prime position on the seafront and still plenty of people wandering round, but they might not want to come in and play so we won’t bother opening.
So the kids came to the Café and after feeding their faces, went to the library to read.
We had another early night tonight, the aches and pains have not been getting any better and we are not looking forward to facing them again tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
XXXX=This (anagram)
Saturday 10th October 2009
Today was probably our quietest Saturday since we have been at the Café, there we were all stressed out with loads of inexperienced staff at our beck and call and the customers didn’t come in, the whole shopping centre was as dead as a Dodo and for no apparent reason.
By 12 noon we had come to the conclusion that things weren’t going to get any better and started cleaning up ready for close, we were so rarely disrupted by customers that we were finished and walking out of the door by 2pm, over an hour earlier than our previous best and we had cleaned the fryers as well which normally gets done on a Sunday.
This afternoon we went down to Broadwater Beach Bar and Restaurant (Stilts) and had a couple of beers, it looks like this place is going to be like a long running soap, nobody seems to know what they’re doing, they’re brand new wine list is already out of date because Carolyn drank and enjoyed the only bottle of pink fizz that they had in stock, last week and they also ran out of the beer that Ian drinks after his first pint.
When we got there we ordered the bottle of wine for Carolyn, the same wine that she had enjoyed last week, after about twenty minutes of two members of staff trying to find it in the fridge they came to the conclusion that they didn’t have any, but didn’t have a clue as to what to offer as an alternative.
We scanned the wine list again and selected another Rose wine which turned out to be very nice and at only 6.5% was very drinkable, as for Ian, he had to settle for drinking XXXX Gold and was not impressed, he has come to the conclusion that XXXX is only called XXXX because you can’t write SHIT on a beer pump and won’t be drinking it again.
From there we walked up to the Broadwater Food Hall for something to eat, the kids love going there because they have five different outlets to choose from and they can choose from any of them.
We felt the kids deserved a treat at the end of the school holidays, they have had a pretty good holiday anyway but they have all been really good over the last couple of weeks and enjoyed their meals.
From there we walked home and were in bed by about 9pm, still knackered from the stress of the last couple of weeks.
Today was probably our quietest Saturday since we have been at the Café, there we were all stressed out with loads of inexperienced staff at our beck and call and the customers didn’t come in, the whole shopping centre was as dead as a Dodo and for no apparent reason.
By 12 noon we had come to the conclusion that things weren’t going to get any better and started cleaning up ready for close, we were so rarely disrupted by customers that we were finished and walking out of the door by 2pm, over an hour earlier than our previous best and we had cleaned the fryers as well which normally gets done on a Sunday.
This afternoon we went down to Broadwater Beach Bar and Restaurant (Stilts) and had a couple of beers, it looks like this place is going to be like a long running soap, nobody seems to know what they’re doing, they’re brand new wine list is already out of date because Carolyn drank and enjoyed the only bottle of pink fizz that they had in stock, last week and they also ran out of the beer that Ian drinks after his first pint.
When we got there we ordered the bottle of wine for Carolyn, the same wine that she had enjoyed last week, after about twenty minutes of two members of staff trying to find it in the fridge they came to the conclusion that they didn’t have any, but didn’t have a clue as to what to offer as an alternative.
We scanned the wine list again and selected another Rose wine which turned out to be very nice and at only 6.5% was very drinkable, as for Ian, he had to settle for drinking XXXX Gold and was not impressed, he has come to the conclusion that XXXX is only called XXXX because you can’t write SHIT on a beer pump and won’t be drinking it again.
From there we walked up to the Broadwater Food Hall for something to eat, the kids love going there because they have five different outlets to choose from and they can choose from any of them.
We felt the kids deserved a treat at the end of the school holidays, they have had a pretty good holiday anyway but they have all been really good over the last couple of weeks and enjoyed their meals.
From there we walked home and were in bed by about 9pm, still knackered from the stress of the last couple of weeks.
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