Sunday, October 27, 2013

Tipping Point

 

 
The Family Empire is growing

After a few very tough months, I'm pleased to say that the Tipping Point appears to have been reached. We've been super-busy again this week with the bakers cranking it out: On Saturday we reached 200 loaves by 7am - our biggest bake so far.

Starting up one's own business is really not for the work-shy or feint hearted. It' a bit like parenthood, which as we all know is the most democratic club in the world - even little Prince George's parents are novices, right now. As a former management consultant, this is all rather bemusing.  I think if a 30 year old sparkplug in a sharp suit tried to tell me how to run my business right now, I would probably kill them. Or challenge them to a Quick Books Marathon. 

So it's been a good week all in all, and we're back to conquering the world again. Kids have sailed during half term break, Tyler baked a lot of bread and I flitted around in my new little baby, Jim the Suzuki Island Car, soon to be  acquired.

We scrubbed up last night and went off to the Fish 'N Lime, our local fab place for dinner, to celebrate the afore mentioned tipping point. Luckily a large birthday party was also in full swing and so we got a DJ thrown in for good measure, and a good 'opskop' was had by all. Kids had to sleep in cars, it all got a bit silly and I think we staggered home about 2am.  Poor old Tyler was up again 3 hours later, back in the bakery and we also put in some spiritual duty, but we then got to sleep it all off at Little Bay, for a blissful afternoon on the beach with friends.

Island Life definitely has its perks. And fortunately everyone has to eat bread.















Sunday, October 20, 2013

On the up and up


It's a long weekend and we still have Monday to look forward too. We've had the best day today. Although it may not look like it, that's William hard at play at a fundraiser today, island-style.

Chris & Alec: Rainbow Visions

Friends and Family joined the Andersons on Little Thatch, my 'happy place' in the VI,  to eat and drink and raise money for Alec Anderson & Chris Brockbank who are representing the BVI in the 2016 Olympics. They are super chaps, and our boys heroes.  Not a raffle or silent auction in sight, just a wonderful day with the boys going for hops on the 49, lots of snorkeling and limin' with good friends. I honestly could not think of a better way to spend a Sunday, could you?


 

It's been a good week in the bakery too. We've had our first 'Chef's Tables' - showcasing our food with a 6 course tasting menu for invited guests, with two more to go next week. Now that we've survived our first year and have shown that we can bake the odd loaf or two, we are positioning ourselves for the new season which is about to kick off at the beginning of November. It's the official end of the Hurricane Season, which means that the Snow Birds return and the yacht charters start up again and by all accounts, it is meant to be a good one - with bookings up considerably from last year. Once we get going, we'll be flat again until after Christmas (I'm already having Icing Biscuit nightmares) - so we're making the most of days like we had today.

The boys are all on half term break next week (yes including the homeschooled ones) and will be off sailing and doing boy-island-stuff.

We have a lot to look forward to including impending visits from family and hopefully good news about some plans we have for the bakery. James is also starting to prepare now for the Caribbean Dinghy Champs in Antigua on the 17th November, which is super exciting. 

We are most definitely on the up and up again.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Back



Apologies for the long break from writing, but I sometimes find it hard to share and care, given our present exigencies.But it's a Sunday morning and hey, we're all still alive and kicking, James is busy off winning regatta's over in St Thomas and it feels like a cooler morning today with a lovely, gentle breeze wafting onshore.

Trying to remain even vaguely human, let along civilized when the temperatures sore into the mid 30's and the humidity is 100% or close to, is just something I cannot seem to ever get used to: Sellotape doesn't stick, salt dissolves into water and the blood thickens in ones veins. I put aside all my Green credentials and embrace arctic air conditioning with alacrity and basically hide away until it cools down a bit.

The bakery is starting to pick up again after a fairly brutally quiet August and September. This is not an easy market (there is little homogeneity) and we are slowly learning how to respond to it. Apart from LIAT, food is the  topic amongst expats: The lack of it, the condition of it, the price of it, the general inconvenience of it all. Talking about food here is like talking about the weather in England ("chilly today, isn't it?"/"no plain yoghurt again, is there?") and one has to sometimes bite one's tongue and not mutter "it's a friggin island, not Surbiton". 

So we're proud to be part of a growing group of local food producers who are working hard to make a positive difference, but I would be lying if I said it was easy. Somedays it feels harder than hard. Hence no blog and a real desire to forgo reality and spend the entire day on Pinterest.

Homeschooling is also a bit of a misnomer at the moment, as frankly we havn't been home very much lately. We're working all hours to push the bakery into the New Season, and the World's Most Patient Boys are having to lug their books around wherever I may be. They deserve a medal for fortitude and have probably learnt more social and interpersonal skills than sums and spelling, but such is our life for now. All rather too pioneering for this gal, some days.

We also celebrated Georgie's birthday this past week with a Bear Gryll's Survivor party at Rogues Bay with 16 little boys and a couple of dads. I got to stay at home and watch as much Downton Abby as I could manage before falling asleep in front of the TV and the party was deemed a great success.








Anyway no peace for the wicked - it's time to "Spray & Pray" as my dearest friend Billy calls my grumpy Sunday housecleaning sorties. There is a weeks' load of washing to shove into various machines and little boys bathrooms to hose down. I usually feel mildly virtuous after a Domestic Session, but it takes a lot of loud music and quite a bit of swearing to get through it all.

Till next week. Promise.