What's another year !

Evening All,

Tomorrow Monday the 5th of January is the date a lot of us return to work for the first time since before Christmas & I have to say the break has been just lovely.Skipping the rhythm of normal life, sleeping late, catching up with family & friends for mid afternoon drinks in town, going to parties 

( dressed in my first ever on line purchase...a  little sequin number I ordered pre Xmas from ASOS, that has already paid for itself in admiring glances & feel good vibes....)

Generally the New Year comes with new resolutions, but to be honest, I'm not one for new resolutions.I've broken enough of them in my time to know that my energy is better directed elsewhere. Like everyone else I know what I need to change & what I need to do & it's all in there in my head ready for action. Maybe those thoughts are resolutions in themselves.

However today I have  done something a little differently. For  first the first time in years I have bought a proper work diary, where I can write up my "to do"lists day by day, write in my orders, my appointments, my quotes. One big solid book of empty white pages waiting to be filled with how my work life will unfold in the next 12 months. Just looking at it this evening on the coffee table excites me, the possibilities that await it's blank pages, the successes, the drama. I cannot wait to start filling it...seeing how the story unfolds

This year we celebrate our 10th year of The Delicious Food Co. Ten years since we first rented a commercial kitchen in Smithfield with just one client & started a whole new adventure in the food business. Now ain't that something to celebrate.

To each & everyone of you I wish you a very happy, successful & healthy new year.

It's 2015 bring it on !

Shirley x

Working 9 to 5 ...what a way..Yeah !

Evening all,

I kinda promised myself I'd keep the blog up beat this year & I think I've  been fairly true to my word. When things have slipped I didn't post it in a blog but rather waited until things were better & off I went again.

I've been doing this foodie thing for  a long time now & sometimes I just wish I did something completely different, that I didn't have  responsibilities for so many things ... staff, suppliers, rent.

 Dolly was wrong when she sang

 "working nine to five what a way to make a living..., it's all taking & no givin" 

she really hadn't a clue, cos that's what it feels like to be self employed, except the hours are longer. Imagine just waking up & floating into work, doing what has to be done...Monday to Friday, nine to five, switching off my work head & the office lights simultaneously. 

Last week, as I juggled cold calling to prospective clients, with vat returns, chasing outstanding invoices with menu suggestions for a new client, ordering packaging materials etc all the while worrying about some family stuff,, I absently asked my 16 year old son
 "will I ever stop juggling"
 & quick as a flash he replied 

"mom, if ya wanna stop juggling, ya gotta quit the circus"

Now ain't that food for thought !

Shirley 

x

Anyone for (Commercial) Tennis ...?

Evening All,

Keeping all the balls in the air is not easy for anybody, especially us small business folk, at whom the balls often come at at the speed of  one of those automated tennis ball machines I've seen on the telly. 

Hit ! Lob ! Swing ! Miss! Repeat ! Hit ! Lob! Hit !, Hit ! Hit!

I think at last I'm beginning to feel comfortable in this rhythm of my life, it seems like it's all I've ever known.

It's been a funny few weeks. A valued staff member has left to become a taxi driver, we've lost an account that was busy but low margin & another few projects which we were working on have come to an end. With the extra time we've been working on our corporate business, which, whilst it doesn't have the consistency of the daily wholesale deliveries to shops, has double the margin, which means half the work.

Let's face it ...it's a no brainer as to which direction to take.

The other great thing about the corporate market is how the cheques/transfers  roll in. I now spend lots of time in the bank making lodgements, where I now consider the bank tellers my new best friends.With each lodgement that I make we exchange idle banter about our lives. We get to know each others stories & in that moment of exchange we care briefly about each other.

You see, the banks staff & myself have all been on the same journey for the past few years, we've all been fearful, stressed, worried about the future, but at last things feel better, lighter.

So as I end this weeks installment of my life let's raise a glass to the front line staff in banks who had no part in the decisions that were made by their directors that caused the recession, yet who probably got more than their fair share of contempt for a very long time.

Here's to moving up & moving on !

Cheers,

Shirley

I've got a sick note...What will I do with it !

Evening All,

I'm sick.

It doesn't happen very often but after eight days of barking like the sick hound that I am I booked myself in with the doctor for an appointment.She said I was quite bad, but antibiotics wouldn't do

any good.As I spluttered through my appointment, she suggested 15 minutes on a nebuliser might do the trick, so they hooked me up & I did what I was told...big deep breaths, whilst devouring Victoria & David Beckhams glorious life courtesy of Hello magazine. At the end of the session with no improvement the doc suggested steroids to try & move things along..

Steroids..I don't think so, not yet anyway.

She has prescribed an inhaler & a codeine cough bottle, and a few days rest. Oh yes, I am now in possession of my first ever sick note, but what can I do with it. give it to myself or Mr Delicious ?(who incidentally is quite peeved as he too is a bit sick, just not as much as me )

That's the thing about self employment, getting sick is just not an option.

So being the trooper that I am I've been dragging my aching body out of my warm bed, on these wintery mornings, night after night of broken sleep. I've dug deep inside myself, lifted each box of The Delicious Food Co salads & sandwiches, despite the pain it causes in my chest & replenished the shelves of my treasured clients, all the while muffling my asthmatic coughs.and I' have to say I've played a blinder, not a single client has noticed how sick I am ..the sacrifice I am making just being there.

That is until today. When I got to the wonderful Accents Tea & Coffee lounge Daniel  produced a tea with fennel, ginger & honey when I delivered his sandwiches saying "take this ..you've had that cough all week "

To quote the great Spike Milligan

"I told you I was sick "

Shirley x

Oh ..The Irony of Life !.

Evening All,

Today was a lovely day.

Today my eldest daughter turned 18. It seems like only yesterday that I was rolling (on my fat pregnant belly) down a steep sand dune from my friends Crona's summer house in Wexford to the beach, trying to induce a labour which was already 13 days overdue.

When I presented the next morning in Holles St. they suggested I stay & asked if I had brought an overnight bag with me. No, I hadn't, in fact I hadn't even packed one.I remember Mr Delicious double parking on South King St. whilst I nipped into Dunnes Stores to pick up a nightie, baby gros etc.

There is an element of that me that hasn't changed since that day.

I'm still a "seat of her pants" kind of entrepreneur. Despite the highs & lows of our business life, the absence of cash at key moments, things always seem to work out. So today  I had the amazing good fortune, to be able to take my daughter (window) shopping in Tiffany in Brown Thomas

As we purveyed the beautiful jewellery, the impeccable John, suggested a glass of champers for both of us to celebrate her 18th.

So, it was with much joy & amusement & irony that this hippie foodie,whilst wearing her own

treasured tiny Tiffany lock & key, celebrated her daughters first (legal) drink with a glass of champagne in Tiffany @ Brown Thomas, whilst purchasing a beautiful simple Tiffany bracelet.

Today life is good !

Shirley

Casting my net at a networking event

Evening all,

One of the nice things about my new role as catering queen (in waiting) of the corporate sector is that it will require a change of image. I will need a new wardrobe, or at the very least a few "key pieces" for the season,...no more Converses, jeans or comfy Tee's,

I may even have to brush my hair..

..

On Thursday evening as one of Dublin Chamber newest members, I'll be attending an afterworks networking event in Mason Hayes Curran in Barrow St & I will need to look sharp, competent, a girl ready to do business. Already I'm wondering what to wear.

There are so many options to consider,

I could opt for

...the killer networker look.. pencil skirt, crisp white shirt, seriously high shoes...

or

I could pull that back & go casual smart, "I'm a nice girl, you'd be in a safe pair of hands with me"

or

I could just dress like me but smarter?

That's it,sorted, I'll wear a smart pair of jeans/ black legging, a designer Tee, a tailored jacket & my secret weapon, my new 5 inch chunky platform boots & nobody will even realise, as I smile & sparkle that this nice sweet girl from The Delicious Food Co, is in fact a killer networker at work.

Your business card please!

Shirley