Au revoir Dots.

It has become completely apparent during the past week that trying to write 2 blogs is insane. What was I thinking? Well I know what I was trying to do: Neatly compartmentalise my life - family over here, cooking over there, big ribbon on top.

In trying to work out how I was going to manage all of this and turn the new blog Island Family into a sleeker more professional looking animal, I ended up doing an inordinate amount of reading of blogs and about blogging. Some very good blogs in fact. Almost one of the first ones I read in a post called "10 things you need to know about successful blogging" or suchlike, was NEVER under any circumstances START A SECOND BLOG, when you already have one that works.

Well that certainly gave me some food for thought.

Anyway this has been one of those weeks where one does a lot of thinking on the meaning of life and all that, and I came to the conclusion that my life isn't in neat boxes (apart from the books in the garage, as yet still unpacked) I am time-poor (along with money-poor. Bang goes that Post Modern theory on balance) and the world does not need another food blog. I also happen to love writing my blog about the family and living on this rackety island, so to hell with potential Ukrainian Internet Stalkers (no offence to my Ukrainian readers if you are not into internet fraud) and other privacy concerns.

As I'd already mentioned previously, I have a terribly over-active brain and only about another 50 years left to live - so I sort of want to do it all. The upshot, dear readers, therefore is that in my new, consolidated blog  (everything from here has been moved there) you're going to get me whinging on about the housework  interspersed with chocolate chip cookie recipes and lots of pictures of children sailing. It's kind of how my life rolls.

I have every intention of shamelssly promoting Island Family, so just like a normal blog, in other words. Please feel free therefore to 'follow' and 'like' and all that other Social Media-speak as much as you wish. Tell a friend. Share on Facebook but most importantly - please make comments, even if it is to tell me that the recipes dont work or I shouldn't swear at the children but I need comments if I want to grow this blogging career of mine.

So thanks for reading me here and all the lovely comments on Facebook, and it's au revoir to 'Joining the Dots'  and hello to Island Family. Just a click away.

Bye for now. See you on the other side

Monday Morning

 

We are well and truly back into our weekly routines now and we're starting to find some rhythm with the bakery too.  I did a bit of juggling last week with the new food blog kicking off and ended up posting it most nights past midnight, but that too will find it's own pace in time.

The weekend was busy with parties and entertaining. On Sunday James went on one of those very special days: An island treasure hunt where the boys go from island to island looking for clues and treasure. They went to Fallen & Broken Jerusalem, Dead Mans Chest and Salt Island - having to snorkel in from the boat with clues been tied to masts of sunken ships and the like. Thrilling stuff as you can see from their beaming faces.


Happy Boys and Birthday Boy Sam


The boys and I love to listen to music in the car, especially on the drive into school in the mornings. Today we put on a new CD and Shosholoza sung by the Drakensburg Boys Choir came blasting out of the speakers, which had us choking up with memories of South Africa, and then to almost finish us off (tears were running down my face by this time) was Johnny Clegg's Asimbonanga  which is a hauntingly beautiful song about Mandela ("we are all islands") when he was still imprisoned. We decided that it made us heartsore for Africa, not homesick - as home is here, but what a wonderful start to the week.

Island Family

OK, I've done it. I've just finished one of the first of  many "to do's" on the 2013 List and have finally set up the bakery blog. It's dead simple as I've had enough of tinkering around with flipping blog settings and whatnot, so it will be gussied up in time. For the moment then, here it is ...'Island Family' (click here for link).

The plan is to have daily updates with lots of ideas for food, fun and anything else that is currently taking up space in my over-active brain or on the menu.

The other idea is to start migrating readers (now over a 1000 ) on to Island Family, which is meant to be shared and promoted (please feel free!) and then to password this blog for privacy reasons. I've always felt a bit ambivalent about this blog being open (as I've often alluded too) so once Island Family is up & running properly, I'll give everyone lots of notice and then make the changes. I'm also not a great fan of mixing things up and am increasingly becoming averse to Happy-Christmas-Buy-My-Jewellery-type blogs  and so would like to keep things separate for all our sakes.

This is not the 'baby' of which I had spoken of earlier. That new arrival - like most first babies, seems to be  taking it's time.

Sports fans

So, we had a rather fab weekend.

Both Georgie and James were racing in the Martin Luther King Regatta on St Thomas over the weekend, and it was the first time Tyler and I had managed to go along and support the boys at an international regatta, as we usually just work instead.

Sailing in another country is not quite like packing up the soccer kit and driving over in the school bus.  It requires logistics spelt with a capital L and squibillions spelt with a capital $. As eight kids were competing from the BVI, we managed to organise two bareboat catamarans from our new sponsors The Moorings  to haul all the boats, sails, kit, dinghies, sailors, coaches, parents, siblings, wine, beer, crisps and 500 towels for three days over to our sister US island.

By the time one has finally arrived it does take quite a few G & T's to restore ones faith in humanity, but this weekend was definitely the way to go. We may just have the new equivalent of the Barmy Army (The Parent Posse?) in our devotion to support our children's quest for world domination in small boats. On tropical islands, mind you - I would feel slightly less enthusiastic about the Isle of Wight, for example.


The Supporters Tents BVI Style

Lots and lots of time is spent watching this from bobbing dinghies (a small price to pay):

 

And then one supports ones children by yelling things like "Trim your sails" and  "JIB NOW!" and "Arrrghhh what are you DOING???" and also "EEEkk watch out for number 84 STARBOARD" etc and then one mutters "good grief I need another beer it's so stressful" to ones equally stressed out fellow parent supporters.  

This carries on the whole day, with various breaks for lunch (not the big sailors, they - poor sods get lunch in their boats so they can carry on racing).

Then they all come back to the yacht club, talk strategy with the coach, hang out on more boats and then do it all again the next day.

The sailors are then rewarded with prizes and showered with kisses from their grateful parents who've all had a rather excellent weekend supporting them, catching up with friends and reading Jilly Cooper. The parents then very heartily endorse youth sailing as a wonderful family sport and eagerly ask when and where the next regatta is going to be. For the children's sake, of course.

As you can see it's tough being a racing parent, but someone has to do it.

(Thanks to Nadia for the brilliant photos. Our boat dropped their camera in the sea)

Make the apron

The famous apron 'pin'

We have been without Internet access for a few days which was quite interesting. I went cold turkey for the first few days and felt quite anxious about missing anything important but then it soon joined all the other things that I don’t really miss like American TV, over-priced boutiques and Mr Delivery (not to be mistaken for Dudu, Woolies, Waterstones and Burts Bees all of which I miss very much).

I’ve decided that my new year’s resolution after all the usual ones of cutting-down-alcohol-losing-weight-yada-yada, is to spend less time online. I’m still deeply addicted to Pinterest but do recognize it as the ultimate ‘virtual reality’ which encourages procrastination of the worse kind: I’d much rather ‘pin’ a gorgeous artisanal-looking apron than make the damn thing (even though it goes onto my "To Make" board) which I did end up starting to make this weekend, as I had a lot more time - ha! Funny thing is, is that my 'artisanal apron pin' is by far my post popular repinned- pin (I do realise that I'm speaking double-dutch for some. Please bear with me) which must mean that most people are just like me ie. armchair artisans.

I also love the chattiness of Facebook and all the gossipy goings-ons, but really a couple of times a week is sufficient rather than a couple of times a day (I think I've now seen enough of everyones holiday photos, lovely as they are were and I see the skiing ones are starting now). Anyway let’s see how we go. I'm not promising anything, but ever the quest for squeezing more time out of the day.

We’ve just about recovered from Christmas: The house is back to normal (although I have been allowed to keep The Saint for 2 full days a week now) and we’ve had a small respite in the Bakery for the past couple of weeks. The Family is now ‘expecting’ however and we are preparing for a new member of the Family. Sorry for being so cryptic but we havn’t signed any of the final documents yet, but when we do – we are off on a new adventure and the due date is soon!

Boys are racing this weekend (Copy:Paste) and we are going over to St Thomas to watch them and to do some shopping (for the new arrival) which is exciting as we’ve not been able to support them up until now.

January is deepest ‘Mid-Winter’ here in the islands and last week was blissfully cool – bordering on chilly, in fact. On Saturday night I was in leggings, a long sleeved TShirt and my fluffy lambskin slippers which I’d not worn since 2010. GracieBoyCat immediately attacked them (one of the disadvantages of being blind and horny) as he thought they might finally be his Teenage Sweetheart. They are now looking a little worse for wear, but I did enjoy flopping around feeling all Winterish, sleeping under blankets, watching movies in bed and making casseroles for supper. Amazing how the small things in life make one happy. Slippers, how sad.

PS When silly old Blogger is working properly again I'll post a picture of the said apron. Bet you can't wait. Shall I post one of the slippers, too? Life must be slowing down here in the islands, although it dosn't feel like it on the ground

Happy New Year

 

 

Georgie's Lego Candelabra

We had a really lovely New Years Eve at home with a fabulous meal set with all the linen, crystal & silver and then some pyrotechnics on the balcony. Most of us managed to last out until Midnight, but some of us had to be woken up to be informed that it was the new year. Then we carried on sleeping and had a super lazy New Years Day doing absolutely nothing. I cannot remember a day when we all did nothing but sleep, eat and read.

 

Today is the last day of our holidays (the Bakery is already open) and I thought I'd better do my post now as I already have that slight tight throat and queezy tummy feeling which comes with a To Do List the length of my arm. I can also see that my temper is already shortening again. Holidays, whilst very welcome are also a little bit cruel, as just as you are starting to relax and the deep purple shadows are fading under ones eyes, it's back into the maelstrom again slightly off-kilter for having switched off a bit.  Many people are already back at work so my Blackberry is pinging and I'm currently working on the bakery accounts. There are cupboards to tidy, school clothes to sort out, fridges to clean and the usual mound of washing. I have to keep reminding myself that these are the Wonder Years, but they are - really!

Our new awning

We are looking forward to 2013, not that 2012 was bad or anything, just tough. Our plans are much the same as last year and 2013 will hopefully see the bakery mature.  We will soon start wholesaling with another oven and a van being acquired, although we are enjoying having the little bakery shop. We are also planning our first family visit back to South Africa & England in August (it would have been almost 3 years since we had left) which will be a highlight of the year. There are some other big changes in the air, but these will depend on how the bakery does. 

I continue to enjoy writing the blog despite the fact that our lives don't deviate much from the baking-working-sailing-housework routine. It does mean that we haven't dropped off the face of the earth - which some predicted would happen when we moved here and I know the grandmas like seeing pictures of the kids. I'm still of a mind to password it fairly soon however, but I still need more family and friends to go onto Facebook so that I can do this. Interestingly, although I write this to keep in touch with family & friends off the island, the biggest readership is now on the island. I even had two people (who I didn't know) discussing it in front of me at the bakery (not realising that I was the writer). They were remarking on how my house was always filthy and had possibly missed the slightly self-depreciating tone that I use, but I wasn't going to correct them, was I?

To all our friends - both here and absent - we hope everyone stays safe, healthy and prosperous. Our biggest hope however is either to see you or hear from you so please stay in touch!

 Here's to 2013. Day 2.

Holidays at home. Just noticed the dog on the cushion. Also William seems to only own one TShirt.



Christmas catch-up

We're having a much needed and wonderfully lazy Sunday morning. The children are upstairs somewhere squabbling quietly amongst themselves and still playing with their Christmas presents and T emerged for about 15 minutes and then disappeared, probably back to bed. I had a brownie for breakfast and am still in my nighty. The various pets demanding food or love and attention are being studiously ignored. We may have a swim later, mainly to try and straighten out aching bodies.

The past 6 weeks or so have been pretty brutal, although we got through them somehow. Since we still have not managed to find experienced staff we simply did not have time to start training so close to Christmas. This meant 3am starts and 20 hour days for T, putting us up there with the Chinese Takeaways (which we ate most nights) and T driving past revellers on his way into the bakery every morning.   In the week before Christmas I took leave to help out and the days blurred by in a cycle of pastry making, baking, icing and deliveries.  The boys sort of got on with things and Claudette waged war on the home front, with the kitchen looking like it had been flour-bombed most days and all the machines on constant cycles trying to keep up with everything.   



This is how I did NOT look

Without a doubt the lowest point was having to go to a rather smart party in seriously grubby work clothes - in my case with a 'doek' in my hair, no make-up, tiny shorts, no bra (don't even ask why) and my oldest flip flops. So much for my 500 'pins' I've carefully been curating on 'My Island Style' Pinterest board featuring elegant white dresses, coral jewellery and jewelled sandals. Ha!

Gratifyingly, the Bakery was super-busy and we had a wonderful response to our Christmas list, for which we are both relieved and grateful. On Christmas Eve we made almost 500 mince pies and only stopped when we ran out of mince meat and apart from some gift boxes we had to tuck away for our own presents, we were completely sold out everyday. Tyler went grocery shopping at 10pm on Christmas Eve to make sure we had some fresh milk in the house but we had managed to get to the bottle store for champagne 5 minutes before it closed, demonstrating yet again the  priorities in our household (keep Mommy happy).

On Christmas Day morning the boys were mercifully kept pre-occupied with their stockings which Santa (and Grandma) had so thoughtfully provided. We also woke to a power failure so a great excuse to not to have to do anything apart from just open presents. For Christmas I received 3 aprons, India Hicks Body Polish and alcohol which I'm not quite sure what this says about me, but will all come in very useful!

Luckily we had been invited out for Christmas lunch otherwise it would have been Chinese takeways again, and we had a lovely afternoon in our old neighbourhood eating delicious turkey and all the trimmings and playing charades. We were happy to come home with full tummies and go straight to bed with 8 hours sleep being the best present of all! On Boxing Day we only got out of our pyjamas at lunch time and then suddenly had to pull ourselves together as we had friends over for a braai.

The rest of the week has been beautifully cool and quiet, with me on holiday and not getting through my 'To Do' list and the boys doing science experiments, 'killing' each other on the Wii and spreading Lego all over the house. Tyler and I both scrubbed up a bit yesterday for a very pleasant evening at friends for New Years drinks with the most delicious Jamaican food imaginable. We are planning to have our very first New Years 'At Home' just with our boys, the RoyalVariety Show on BBC, some sparklers and a delicious meal that T is planning. Couldn't think of anyway or anyone I'd rather be doing this with.

Happy New Year to all our family and frinds around the world and hope that 2013 is both onward and upward for all.

Christmas snaps

 

 

This was going to be our family Christmas card, but that, along with many other things didn't happen this year as we played Business-Start-up-At-Christmas in all its full Island technicolour glory (or should that be gory) and then pretty much fell over in a collective heap on Christmas Day, although the energy that the boys displayed opening their Christmas presents belies that a little. We are all still standing, the Bakery was a blast and we even managed to relax for a few days (although I suspect Tyler just loved the 8 hour sleeps more than anything else!).

 

Frankly I'm too tired to write much so will post a few pictures for now and then write a longer post over the weekend. Just wanted to touch base and wish all a Merry Christmas and hope that you are all enjoying your holidays. 

 

Boys do Christmas Crafts

This present was clearly a hit!
 

I think this was the Jedi Starfighter stage
 

I would love to say Georgie's yelling "Let's recycle" but he wasn't

Boxing Day braai



 

Carrot Bay House Christmas

 

 

 



 

Boys

Despite a tough couple of years experienced by all immigrant families establishing themselves in new countries, we've somehow managed to produce and maintain three lovely boys - smiley, quirky and real little gentleman who all seem to be going from strength to strength.

Imagine our pride last night when James received the INTAC 'Sportsman of the Year" Award at the RBVIYC Commodores Dinner. We are so happy for him as James has shown such fortitude and determination throughout his first year of racing, all whilst maintaining his sense of humour and patience - both with his parents (as we struggled to get him to regattas and remember practise days) and most importantly, himself.  A Big Up, as they say on Isle 95FM,  to you James Noel Dawson, our brave and beautiful boy. Very well deserved. 

Those of you who know me, know that I'm actually quite a girly girl. I've always had a slight horror of becoming the consummate Jolly Hockey Sticks Mother of Boys, having to throw out elegance in favour of efficiencies needed for managing multiple sports calendars and truck-loads of smelly socks.

Quite a few of my fears have definitely been fulfilled and you should see the interesting line in Bad Hair scarves going on right now which William called "good Christmas hair"  because it looked like snow. He also offered to give me a 'massacare' the other day, as my nails were so tatty.  Tyler's current Unibomber- style beard also falls into the category of 'effeciency' along with Dilbert Pointy-Haired Boss hairstyles. Sadly no yummy-mummy, island-style happening here and definitely no yoga on the beach in my pink cowboy hat, as I had imagined my life to be once we hit the Caribbean.

But you know, so bloody what. My time for yoga and style will return and as long as one can scrub up (and shave) occasionally when it matters and remember not to go out in ones tracky bottoms, to hell with the yummy-mummy thing. I'd rather have three lovely boys anyday, who light us up from the inside and make all this Mortal Coil worthwhile - so Big Up, Dawson Boys xxx

The rest of the week was spent icing biscuits. 

12.12.12

I'm not going to pretend that we are having an easy week. We're not. The Christmas Season is kicking in and we're flying. I've already iced about 800 Christmas biscuits and Tyler is baking stollen as I write this. This is a GOOD thing!

The boys have had wonderful reports for the year and will be breaking up on Friday for 2 weeks of Christmas Holidays. I too go on 'holiday' which means one less ball in the air and can then mercifully just focus on the family and the Bakery for a while. The Tree (shipped in from Canada, no less) will be acquired on Saturday and trimmed on Sunday, with eggnog and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Carol CD which comes out every year (Memo to Self: Find It).

Today, however, has been a sad day for our family as we remember my sister-in-law who died seven years ago, leaving my very dearest Shelley, Paula and Myles without a loving mother and a wider family, bereft. My family was cruelly victim to losing both my brother Noel (born just before Christmas) and Beryl, and we live with these awful gaps in our lives everyday.

Nothing eases the loss, but we are stronger for knowing that life always carries on and we look with real gratitude for what we have: A fightingly fit 83 year old matriach of a mother/grandmother/great grandmother in Cape Town, a wonderfully connected and loving extended family, caring friends, a thriving business, a stimulating job, the best husband and my little tribe of boys. Our family lives on, thriving but mindful of how precious life is.

As I gear up for another long night of baking, my middle child said this: "I know you are working hard Mom, but at least you are at home with us". It may not be very glamourous but at least it's not Lagos or Dubai or SAA. I am where I want to be. 

I know we've passed Thanksgiving and it's not yet Christmas - but here's to my family and friends. I love you all very much. xxx

Beryl, Layla & Lia
 RIP

Work Play Sleep

Trying not to fall asleep

"Gee, your blog was boring last week, Sweetheart" my delightful husband mentioned to me one evening, so this post is filled with action-packed photos of speedster children, idyllic Sundays and some professionally taken photos of the bakery, so as not too disappoint my fan(s).

Saturday 1 December: First mince pies

The week was the usual work, work and more work. Claudette was flabbergasted that I'd not done any washing between last Monday and today ("Where da sheeeeeets? Ah Lawdy, My Dear, LOOK at da WASHING!!) with the children starting to scour the dark (but dust-free) corners of their bedrooms for odd socks and other items of clean clothing.

The Big Christmas Baking Marathon is starting to get a grip on our household again, which pretty much means that nothing else gets done, apart from some beans on toast for supper. This is a good time for the children to learn some  independence and how to make scrambled eggs for themselves.

The upshot of this domestic crunch however is that we've upped Claudettes hours to deal with the washing crisis (you have no idea howmuch washing 3 little boys and a Baker generate on a daily basis) and we wont have to scandalise The Saint on a Monday anymore.  I consider this my Christmas present and an excellent one at that!                     


The week seemed to last about a year with me ignoring any signs of jetlag and Tyler doing his usual 18 hour days and the boys at school. Our week actually carries on right up until 2pm on a Saturday, at which point we close the bakery and zoom home, usually on our knees.  Amazing, however, how a hard week can just melt away when you have a lovely weekend.

On Saturday, James raced in the VI Cup off Little Thatch, and did rather well for himself (he's gone from last in his class to mid-field) but then had to sail upwind for 2 hours to get back to Tortola - which meant he slept really well that night!

Saturday night was bitter/sweet as we dressed up as Kraftwerk (white shirt, black jeans, thin tie & eyeliner) and Siouxie Sioux (my personal 80's heroine) to say goodbye to our former neighbours who are moving on to Singapore, at an 'Eighties Party' at the Last Resort. The Last Resort is a rather special place, where generally one doesn't get out alive: It's a slightly rattly restaurant/club on it's very own island which is, of course, only accessible by boat. Not quite Vegas, but similar. It's a bit like the John Lewis of Parties: Never Knowingly Not Fun, which this party most definitely was with lots of bad dancing.

After at least 3 hours sleep we awoke to mist, grey skies and a distinct chill (mercifully) in the air on Sunday morning,  which along with my Mypradol-worthy headache, almost had me staying in bed and getting the duvet out. However we'd been invited to join some new friends on their beautiful catamaran, so we braved the rather gloomy day and drove through torrential rain to get to Village Cay. "What's that?" the seven year old asked Tyler as he grabbed his windcheater to take along for the choppy-looking Channel. He did not remember what one looked like, as I dont think Tyler has ever worn it here before.

And what a wonderful day it was: The sun came out and the sea glittered. We snorkeled at The Caves on Norman Island, which we'd not done yet and then headed off to the Indians where we moored off and played for hours. The boys kayaked, paddled boarded, wakeboarded and I even waterskied (having not done so for at least 15 years) whilst Tyler managed to snooze on the trapeze.

We staggered home and all fell into bed , the children as happy as clams but too tired to even eat supper. Tyler and I had egg on toast in bed and then slept like the dead. Bliss.

The Seven Year Old Skipper. Don't do this at home folks.

Back on-island

I'm home after nearly 3 weeks away on business. I need to state this right up-front (that I was on business that is) as I was asked a couple of times whilst away if I was enjoying "semi-retirement"?  The first time I was asked this, I sprayed my coffee/wine/Red Bull all over the poor person who had innocently assumed I was, more due to my minor outrage that I would even be considered "semi-old" enough, let alone that my life here must be the very opposite of  "semi-retirement". As my mother has pointed out (several times in fact) I now have 3 full-time jobs, which does mean, I suppose, that I must definitely still be young then.

It was a long trip. It had it's up and downs, but there were highlights. Staying at the London NYC on Election Day in New York was a good way to kick-off the trip. I had a fine time sitting in the Gordon Ramsay 'Maze' Bar people-watching whilst I nursed a glass of prosecco (I'm not good at nursing drinks). It was too cold (0C to be precise, we lost over 30 degrees in one afternoon) to go out and join the revellers in Times Square, but I was very happy to watch it on TV whilst saying  "that's only a few blocks away from us".

I can never get enough of swishing through the veld on the Gautrain, which is a deeply cool way to arrive in Africa, but the trip took a bit of a nose-dive when the next day my credit card was swallowed just in time for the weekend. Since the taxis in Joburg all seem to be very smart Mercs, this was not really a hardship but it put pay to any spontaneous popping in on friends and shops. Despite all of this, I was able to enjoy   'Joburg Book Club'  which sort of carried on until 2am-ish, shopping with girlfriends, a lovely lunch with my former boss and his wife and a really fantastic evening out at our old family 'local'. 

The highlight of the trip was probably the five days I stayed with my 83 year old mother in Cape Town. She gamely kept up with me as we did some extreme shopping last Saturday, whilst I piled up on bakery goodies, Jedi Starfighters and yet more shoes for the boys - which is just as well as I didn't have a spare second in London. Being a Taurean, I have a set Harvey Nichols-Sloane Street-Peter Jones-Kings Road routine which I've probably done twice a year now for the past 15 years.  I was a bit anxious that I couldn't stock up on our usual elderflower cordial and John Lewis Christmas crackers but I'm sure life can go on without these items, despite my need for seamless continental continuity.

I also managed to go 'off piste' and see some friends who I had reconnected with on Facebook. I caught up with my first serious boyfriend who now has a child the same age as we were then (20) and a lovely friend in London who I had not seen for 18 years. Seeing friends again is one of my greatest pleasures. I'm reading an excellent biography on Queen Alexandria at the moment and what struck me was how they all kept completely connected with each other through constant letter writing and the expansive sharing of news about the minutiae of everyday life. I like this.

The flight from Gatwick to Antigua on Virgin Atlantic was actually brilliant, as the planes have just been upgraded with remotes that look like iPhones and iPad TV's. I spent a very happy 8 hours swiping away and catching up on music, movies, reading my book, munching choc ices and relishing the last bit of time to myself before getting back to my "semi-retired" life here on Tortola.

It was hard to leave the boys behind, especially as I knew Tyler was already working flat-out with the bakery without the added demand of 3 kids, various needy animals and copious amounts of washing and other domestic stuff. Everyone managed heroically but we were all relieved to be back together again and no permanent damage appears to have been done.

We really do live in a backwater here and so I like going out into the big wide world, only to return again.  I always get terribly smug when asked "which hotel" when arriving back in the Caribbean and am able to reply "I live here". 

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. 

Sunday afternoon

I'm just about to make myself a cup of tea and as a special Sunday afternoon treat, watch The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (for the Aged & Beautiful) again, which is a lovely film about a group of more advanced citizens who end up in India. The cast includes Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith and Judi Dench amongst others - and if  you haven't seen it, you simply must.  

 

It's been another good week and although we seem to end up in a little puddle of exhaustion by Friday, we are definitely starting to adjust to the hours and "full-on-ess" of running our own business with a busy family. The bakery is getting better and better everyday.In the past week we've added rosemary seasalt foccacia, soda bread and carrot cake to our daily list. On Friday we made white chocolate mousse cake, rose madelaines (having one now with my tea, gorgeous) blackberry & star anise friands and little sea dollar sugar biscuits.

The amazing news news is (and we're feeling very cautious about getting too optimistic just to have our hopes dashed) but we may have found our perfect little outlet/cafe. We will know in the next few days and then  the hard work REALLY begins - as we pretty much have to gut the place and redo it ourselves at night and over weekends, due to our miniscule budget. The children are just about to add paint stripping and plastering to their growing list of business skills they are acquiring along with grating, icing and carrying.

 

We've had a very social weekend too: A big braai on Friday night which turned into a complete party and which was a fairly painful way to start Saturday morning and then some friends around for dinner last night here, which was a lovely evening.   Most of our affairs are very informal with children usually banging around somewhere, but last night we polished the silver and got out the good glasses.  For some reason I always think that souffles are the epitome of Grown Up Dinner Parties, although this may be because I grew up in the Seventies, but Tyler executed a rather brilliant cheffy recovery, after I botched the tart citron and he whipped it up into a delicious lemon souffle - which felt a bit serendipitous.

 

Another highlight of the week was receiving my nephew Myles's cookbook at the post office. Felt very emotional as I read it and seeing Jane & Myles in it. They have a lovely restaurant on the West Coast of Ireland in Strandshill, Co. Sligo and have worked extremely hard and done so well. A lot of the illustrations are done by Myles's sister Paula, who lives in Melbourne (we are scattered to the 4 corners, we really are) so a real family affair.

 

OK, off to go and fall asleep on the sofa.

Quiet Fireworks

 

It's been a good week. Although we still havn't got the 'eating early/going to bed early' routine quite right yet (the children have learnt that we dine like Mediterranean Families i.e late) there is a semblance of some new order kicking in.

The bakery is going like a rocket and we are hoping to have our new patissier starting very shortly.   We are hunting for an outlet as we need something bigger and our poor customers have to endure the bakery oven temperatures which climb to over 45C somedays. The cupcakes melt, the icing slides out of the cakes and one feels close to self-combusting. September is the hottest month of the year on the island, but the hotter it is the more it keeps the hurricanes away - so I'll live with the heat, thanks.

On the domestic front, Saint Claudette of Jamaica did take mercy on us and return, and we now have a sparkling clean house. This makes me indescribably happy. Wo betide any man, beast or child who does anything now to upset this apple cart. I have pointed out, at great length and volume, that life would not be worth living. 

This week is our wedding anniversary. I've had a blissfully quiet Sunday morning looking through our wedding album and I just can't stop smiling. What struck me was what an incredibly happy day it was. In every photo everyone is smiling and laughing their heads off, despite the fact that it was feezing cold (there was snow on the mountains in Cape Town in Spring).

I realised pretty quickly that I had married someone extra special when Tyler managed to persuade the hotel to allow fireworks at midnight (they are banned in Franschoek as it's a valley bowl and noise reverberates) as he promised they were "quiet ones". I think we woke up every dog between Franschoek and Stellenbosch and half the poulation (who thought the revolution may have just started after all) and Tyler had quite a bit of fast talking to do the next morning!

Here's to you Liefie. You've never stopped charming me (and everyone else) after all these years.

Week Two: Mission Normalising with an excellent Sunday thrown in

Week Two of the bakery being open and we're still standing, but only just.

I always thought we knew what hard work was, but all of before now feels like 'kindergaarten' or 'school fees' or whatever other metaphor one would choose to describe the past 25 years subordinate to the Real McCoy: Start-up bakery business, job, 3 kids and until today (drum rolllllll please!) ....no help. But that has changed as we now have the wonderful Claudette in our lives. I think I may have just become Claudette's Mercy Mission: "Goodniss meee, dis house is beeeeg. Ah ma 'lord, it's Dirteeee!" I am completely terrified that she will not come back again. We've already been fired by a cleaner once before. Hold thumbs for Saturday, when she is meant to join us again.

So the Bakery is up and running and we are very happy about this state of affairs.  The Baker gets up every morning  at 3:30am to get to the bakery by 4:30am to have the first bread out of the oven by 6:30am, in time to get the second baking in before the first lot runs out. It's all good. Really very satisifyingly, humbingly, gratifyingly good.  Hopefully we have another new baker starting in 2 weeks time and we are also looking hard for our bakery outlet premises. We need both very much and soon.

Saturday was spent doing either bakery (the baker) housework (the bakers wife) or parties (the bakers children). On Saturday night we all fell asleeep almost face down into our braaied ribs and baked potatoes.

Sunday was actually a Perfect Island Day, thanks to the McCallums, Bonnie & Paul with re-Action and their lovely friends Larry & Cindy. We sailed off to Peter Island on the 55' Cat with 6 families including 10 kids. I thought this was pretty brave of Bonnie & Paul. We moored off Peter and the kids kayaked, snorkelled and swam to their hearts content whilst a group of grown-ups took a rib dinghy over to the "Rhone" wreck for a dive. It was a wonderful, wonderful day with lunch set out on the beach for us and a lazy afternoon spent jumping off the boat and swanning around.

The Dawson Clan, who were 'Sundaying' the hardest of all - just needed this bit of time out after a few gruelling weeks. It was as we had wished it to be: hard work during the week and family time over the weekend. A perfect day which just happened and can never be ordered, which are of course the best ones of all.

Here are some photos: