Who needs an MBA when you have housework and Halloween?

The Crew from the The Lost Ship. Photo by Emily

 

No surprises what the boys went dressed up as to the Halloween Party. They are boys. We live in the Caribbean. It's really not that difficult.  James channelled Johnny Depp (rather well I thought) although he's smiling too much in the photo above.  After a few drenching rain squalls, he was looking much more authentic.  Georgie had been scheming up his costume for weeks. He even had a whole story that went with it.  Botanist on the Lost Ship stays out in the tropical jungle for too long and goes mad (probably due to the mosquito's and the humidity, I should think.  I too have days when I could relate to this story.) William as the 'Crazy Cabin Boy' was  pretty good at striking a pose and seemed to rather enjoy scampering around looking menacing, but of course he's far too cute, so just ended up looking scrumptious.  Anyhow, for not a single cent spent, we managed to pull all this lot together on Friday evening, ably assisted by some loud music, quite a bit of Chile's cheapest finest and a rather well-stocked props box (which since we only live in slip-slops, shorts and vests these days, means most of Tyler and my former wardrobes).  

 

Not that I ever thought I would say this, but I've quite enjoyed cleaning the kitchen this morning, There is something surprisingly soothing about Soft Scrub and washing up dirty saucepans that seems to put my rather jangled nerves back into line, and by the time I had finished cleaning out the fridge (you can see I had a LOT of thinking to do) I'd already thought through a few future business scenarios and come up with a plan. But not the cash. That's where Halloween came in.  A surprising source of business wisdom I know, but I was much comforted by the fact that we seemed to pull together a prize winning costume combination out of fresh air, which is pretty much how we are going to have to fit-out and pull together the new bakery and coffee shop, which will be 'ours' by the end of the week. Terrifying and scary, I know, but clearly we are nothing if not resourceful, so I took heart from this and slashed our budgeted fit-out costs by about 80% and felt much better afterwards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving along

Another week has gone by. It had nothing particularly special to distinguish it from all the others I don't think. It's still bloody hot. Lots of mozzies. The kids have been off doing judo and sailing and football and piano and squeezing in a bit of school and homework occasionally. Lots of baking. Lots of hedge funds. St Claudette of Jamaica is still on her mercy mission, thank goodness (we tidy up the house every Sunday evening before she arrives on Monday).

We're definitely moving into a new phase in our island life as we settle into the business and our new routine. I'm sure that everyone is a bit tired of me wittering on about how howmuch sailing the children have been doing, which is always a lot anyway, and how exhausted we are. I'm reduced to thinking in 'Pinterest' inspirational messages which one cuts and pastes into ones life and I feel like I need to push the Refresh button a little bit. 

Time therefore to start a new blog, before the hard work really kicks in.  We hopefully start the building work on our new bakery outlet/shop in about 2 weeks time and then we'll have about 5 weeks to get it all finished to be open in time for Christmas. It's a lovely space where we can showcase all our breads and baked goodies, as well as seasonal and local produce. Most importantly however is that it will also have air conditioning.

I'm busy developing a new website for the bakery (very slowly I must hasten to add) as well as a new blog which is all about our adventures with some eating, drinking and recipes thrown in for good measure. I'm almost ready to start the transitioning (it's on Word Press) so I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime I'll carry on wittering along here until we all lose interest, I'm eaten alive by mozzies or Blogger (the blog platform I use here) implodes in a hissy-fit of blogging overkill and shuts itself down. 

Dory & Custodite Euntes!

No wind! Georgie sailing in St Thomas on Columbus Day. Photo by P. Clark

As I generally write my blogs on a Sunday afternoon, I'm always tired and vaguely harassed by the long list of things which had been earmarked "weekend" and still need doing.  Today is no exception, with the added frisson that the Baker had his first Sunday provisioning baking gig this morning (ie a 7 day week). Needless to say we have both spent the entire day dozing (under the guise of 'reading' 'relaxing' and 'catching up') with Tyler nobly dragging himself off for a spot of fishing [and catching fish he has phoned to tell me: we'll have it tonight!] with James & William, before he picks up Georgie from his first international regatta in St Thomas.

 

It was Georgie's 10th birthday on Monday, taking the number of children on double digits up to two. As a late starter (I had James when I was 38) I did consider what it would be like to combine menopause with toddlers (now I know) but I never banked on having such a gorgeous child as George. He is an enormously special person: Kind, thoughtful, sentimental and quirky and we are so pleased he could go off and sail this weekend, due to the kindness of friends.    

The bakery has now been open a whole month, which frankly feels more like a decade.  Our first full time employee started on Monday as did our provisioning contract. We are in the process of drafting the lease for our new premises and worrying about plans, deadlines and cash flow. We have so much on the go everyday, that our weeks just whizz by in a blur which leaves one stupefied with exhaustion at night. Tyler fell asleep mid-sentence on Friday evening as I was saying to him "We've been invited to the Dove for drinks...." which I guess was a 'no' and joined him not long after.

We love the bakery, and so too - thankfully do others, but I wouldn't even begin to pretend that any of this has been easy. A friend the other day said 'what gives you 48 hours and the rest of us only 24?" to which I can only reply - very little sleep and a rather short temper. I don't entirely believe in coincidences and find myself reading and rather enjoying Max Hastings' biography of Winston Churchill. Whilst I would never make the mistake of "Doing a Martha" (Martha Stewart compared herself to Nelson Mandela when jailed for insider trading. What!) I do find the psychological character of Churchill very interesting, and how complex but how simple the achievement of great things is. There is no secret apart from "Keep Going" . Translated on Babel Fish ("Bobble Fish" as George would call it) this is 'Custodite Euntes!'  which I rather like. If we had a family crest and motto, this would be it.  By the way, I only did Latin for a year (amo, amat, amaram, whatever) so feel free to correct me.

Well, I'm off to pour myself a G & T and get ready to receive my menfolk  and then we can all watch a bit of America's Cup and then stare down the painfully long list of things that still needs doing (Hello QuickBooks my old friend, I've come to talk to you again...). Anyway in Dory-language we've got to "just keep swimming, swimming, swimming swimming".

I love Dory and so does George.