An experience

This weekend we have finished up and cleared out the cafe. For the past 3 years we have been the co-owners of the Blue Lily cafe. over that time we have also catered at the Wainuiomata Golf Club and done various other bits of catering. For someone who doesn't really like cooking it means I have overcome this fear - I still don't like general cooking but know I can cook for numbers. I have gained food safety unit standards so I can even cook safely. I have learnt about the liquor laws and a lot about employing staff. While there have been issues with staff we have also had some great people working for us so there is a mixture of relief and sadness in closing. On the other hand there are many things I will not miss but I think the cafe will be missed by many in the Village. It will be interesting to see what we do and talk about with the cafe!! Now we just have the garage sale and tip trip!

Melbourne

For the last 6 or 7 years I have been lucky enough to go the the Geography teachers of Victoria annual conference. The conference is Sunday Monday but I flew over on Saturday morning. On Saturday afternoon I revisited places I went to when I was 16. I went to Melbourne in 1963 to attend Girls Brigade leadership training course. One of the day trips we did was to travel on Puffing Billy from Belgrave to its then end point and then we walked to Emerald Lake. This time I was able to go by train the whole way. In fact the train goes on further but I would have needed to get an earlier train to do the extra distance. The weather was fine just getting a little cool towards the end of the day.