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: