Days 279 - 283 - I've been weighed, I've become a Grandad and started at the new kitchen

I will start with the announcement that today I became a Grandad. No matter how I try and make it sound better, it makes me sound like an old git! Gramps, grandad or grandfather......, doesn't matter which is used, I sound old! I have just turned 45 and have the mental age of a 10 year old! That aside, I am off to England for a couple of days next week to see my daughter and her little boy. I will take some photos and post them when I return.

Had a day off today, so while out, I decided to weigh myself on one of those futuristic modern scale things. To my deep joy, I have not put on any weight since I was last weighed about 5 weeks ago! I haven't lost any, but to be honest, after my indulgences over the festive period, I'm quite happy with the result. I am back on the trail now, so hopefully the pounds will start to fall off again.

On to work... We opened our new kitchen at Saffy's bar on January 2nd and after a slow first day, we have done pretty well. It's been nice seeing some faces from the old restaurant and meeting some new ones. It seems to be working pretty well so far and it's much less stressful than running the other place. I think we're going to be much happier here than we were there. Even though I'm not really getting the chance to cook the food I want to cook, I realise that sometimes you have to compromise a little in order to make something work. Our menu is a pretty standard English pub type menu, but I'm still putting my all into every plate of food that leaves the kitchen and trying to do it better than the rest! All the food is still fresh and freshly made to order and I'm still going to be able to show them a bit of me with the Sunday starters. This week it was only a simple tomato & mozzarella salad, but it's light, looks good and most importantly, tastes good. Here it is...

It's also a big help that Laura is able to cook all the food as well, as it takes the pressure off of me and I can get on and do other things. It's been really hard this week as we no longer have my all singing, all dancing oven and we are having to use a much smaller one which we are not used to. I managed to burn some of the Yorkshire puddings this week, but I'd made plenty, so we didn't need them! Sunday went pretty smoothly with 28 covers and all in all, it was a very successful first week.

I will bid you all farewell for now and look forward to filling you all in soon!

Jimbo xx