Bread is the staff of life

So now we're in business... so what next...?

There are a few things we're learning - and as quickly as possible because we are determined not be one of the two-in-three-businesses which fail in their first year.

Nat's looking at all our procedures: what are we doing right? Well, not a lot to begin with. But we are sincere in finding better-upon-better ways to do things, so treating nothing as sacred allows her to cast a critical eye upon everything, at all levels.

In teh first two week she's already developed systems for doing pretty well everything in pretty well all areas of the business, with the exception of what the chef does an the way we procure our stock.

Food is - not suprisingly - a biggie. Our chef can make good things, but is not very proactive and definitely lacks presentation skills. So we've decided three weeks in that we are going to take the bull by the horns and just start showing him how we want things done ...and hoping that we don't get too far up his nose in the process but at the same time resolute that if we don't get what we want then we're better off looking for someone else anyway - but of course cognizant to the possibility of being chefless if it blows up in our faces.

I really think he'll be ok, but let's see...

The next thing is procurement. It's my job to source better goods at the best possible price but we;re stillin the process of sorting out what the better goods are.

We've just gotten in contact with Efes, a turkish style bakery who will be providing us with some tempting sounding panini and ciabata tomorrow to try as a medium for our lunches...

It's done, I'm in...

I've been on such a high since school finished! Not only did I manage to go out with an awesome burst of productivity to fill in some of the gaps in the online course I was making for them (courtesy of no classes in the last week,) I was also able to tender for the unfinished portion which, if I get it, means I'm going to gete paid twice for the same job! (hey, it's not my fault they never actually gave me the time to do the thing!) I'll be consulting.

So I'm in and working at Zil. Friday was my first day and I finished it feeling as bouncy as a schoolgirl and with as much energy as when I started the day. We did a pretty decent day, with NaWo out consulting while I participated in what looks set to become a pretty well-oiled machine.

I managed to finish the app for broadband, so it won't be long now till we've got a hotspot to offer clients, as well as a big screen TV.

I'm still not happy coz I'm yet to replace my old laptop and am chained to this old P4 in the office at home...hey, what about streaming movies and TV to customers via wireless...?

Gotta run...I'm cycling in to oopen up this a.m....!

Adjustments to be made

I've been getting up early for the last term or so, around 5. When I start at Zil I'll be arriving there at 6 to start with, so if I'm to keep my exercise going then I'll likely need to be up around 4:30...The challenge which has been that I am yet to make a serious inroad into my bedtime and, until very recently have still been up till after 10:30/11 on a regular basis and creating a serious sleep deficit and intensified my caffeine dependency.

I've been doing anywhere up to 5 strong coffees/day. My coffee of choice is the short macc, to keep my milk intake to a minimum. Now anything else seems milky and diluted.

I need to be hitting the sack earlier, by around 9 if I'm to get a decent night's shuteye and be up, fresh and ready for the day.

Oh yeah...my mental state vis-a-vis this change of vocation is starting to affect my relationship with some of my colleagues at work - well, some of my bosses anyway. One in particular, our school's registrar nearly got a mouthful from me yesterday. "You can take thins job and ..." understandable, as I well know that when one's menatl bags are packed and ready to go, everything else (in the words of Chuck Palahniuk) "tends to have the volume turned right down" and I find myself not overly concerned with the (now seemingly) petty demands and idiosyncrasies of the people whose job it is to make the education sept or a certain school run in anything less than a shambolic fashion... LOL...

Keep it tight, Mike! Keep it tight!

One Day @ A Time

Zach broke his arm yesterday at school. Poor guy, left forearm, radius AND ulna, SNAP! We saw the xrays but were not allowed to take pix of our son in his bed for the obvious security risk of hospitals having their pix taken... dumb, dumb, dumb, in that I'm sure the Muslim lady down the ward was unconsciously (in that she was unconscious) taking notes for whichever terror cell she belongs to, in readiness for ridding the world of infidel hospitals everywhere...

Ah, where would we be without our political correctness run stupid...? This is precisely the hysteria that made Hitler's job so much simpler.

...but this is a blg about coffee and the joys of being back in business for ourselves...

I've done two mornings at ...the cafe we are buying but not allowed to name or show publicly yet.

I am loving it and can't wait to use that la Cimbali for myself! In the meantime I'm trying to get out and exercise every morning to make sure I'm up to it, after months and months of sitting in front of a computer screen!

Ciao!

ahhh, coffee!

How shall I praise thee...?

The rare, few times in recent years when my caffeine levels hit rock-bottom I remember as being painful, at first, then rather serene and emotionally removed from my surroundings.

Is coffee, then, a social elixir...?

We're going to meet Em's uncle and aunt today, coincidentally ex-teachers who've gone coffee, now at Zamia, in King's Park.

Like so many others we've been recently meeting in the trade, they've been extremely generous with their time and advice and are allowing us to come and poke and prod them for info.

Background

We handed over our school in Japan last year, into the loving embrace of long-term friends & business rivals, who had already built a successful chain in the region and were busting to break into our town.

We had tired of the travails of being in business for ourselves: I, finally, after beating my head against the wall of long-distance involvment - and Natalie, who had already voted with her feet, 18 months prior, by taking a position with a local education group.

No, I wanted a job where I didn't have to think about staffing issues - including the major dance of finding and bringing them across the world to Japan, all without ever actually meeting them...talk about playing russian roulette!

...and training, management, marketing, course development, accounting...was the cleaner doing a good job...? etc. Everything but the very thing that got me into education: working in the classroom.

So, like a prodigal son, I returned to the Department of Education and Training, the favored fallback for of all who have ever dropped from whatever heights they might have attained and needed a nurturing place to gather their thoughts and lick their wounds.

...The sheer pleasure of being back and working with kids in a creative, albeit highly restrictive and bureaucratically convoluted environment, lasted about a semester.
Not true!

The fun of working with kids never really fades. What palls over time is the red tape and bloody-mindedness of people in educational power who have become vulnerable to the political winds, concerned about their careers and forgetful of what it's like in the classroom...I'm mindful of John Joseph, who told us that "education is a queer profession, in that it allows non-professionals to dictate what our job is and how we must do it."

...but that's all best saved for another place...

Thoughts with less than a week to go...

Just about everyone we know now knows that we've bought this cafe (can't reveal which just yet, still confidential!)

"That's great!"
"You're mad!" or even just
"Wow!" are typical responses we've had.

And so far I think I've been able to agree with every one of them, at some point or other, since we began this wild ride back into the private sector.

It's a full-circle, both of us... the unwitting realization of early adult fantasy, in that the hospitality jobs we worked thoughout high school and college were never surpassed in enjoyment by anything else we've done since. This is something we've admitted to each other many times over the years.

...I wonder how we'll feel in 12 months...?

And moving inexorably now towards where the caffeine hits the cup is getting exciting and quite scary... likely the greatest challenge we've faced since starting up in Japan, 17 years ago.

...but enough hyperbole.

We want to to record the experience, both for ourselves, our friends and for anyone interested in the phenomenon of major career change (especially into hospitality) and the retooling that's such a part of it.