The opening

this week Chef opened his own restaurant. Well he and two partners did. It is all VERY VERY exciting. It has gone OFF like a frog in a sock. Imagine! A frog in a sock! And that is how much this place is JUMPIN'. Today, they went through FIVE crates of milk. FIVE. That's like a bazillion litres. Yesterday, which was a cooler day and had a cold breeze blowing, they sold 36 KILOS of hot chips. But that undermines the AWESOME menu MY HUSBAND has created - lots of divine salads, wraps, burgers, the best breakfast offerings anywhere (seriously, how am I meant to decide between field mushrooms, goats cheese and pesto on sourdough, corn fritters w/ fetta and rocket, pancakes or eggs with mushrooms, beans, bacon...and so on???). The market is families or anyone with offspring or young people in their care. Them and those weird weird people who have dogs and take them walking. Weirdos. There is a massive, wonderful park right beside the cafe, with a flying fox, a massive climbing frame, loads of sand, play equipment for a range of ages and then on the far side, a bike track with wide open green space. But back at the cafe, is a creek running by that leads out onto Pittwater, one of the most gorgeous stretches of waterway in Sydney. So the outlook from the cafe is across lawn, native plants to Pittwater with boats moored and so on and so forth. Put simply, this is breeders heaven - you can feed them, let them run off to God knows where and sit there eating good food, drinking awesome coffee (or in my case, endless pots of tea) and just hang out - everyone happy. There is just one problem. staff. The wait staff SUCK. That is all that needs to be said at this stage. There will, apparently, be much yelling and "what the fuck?"s at a meeting tomorrow, when the head waitress is seriously quizzed on why she had NINE staff at her disposal and NO system of who was looking after what area. There will be questions why the groovy (expensive) take-away order buzzer system isn't being used, instead just yelling "chicken salad? someone order chicken salad?" eeeuughh it just makes me shudder. Anyway - at least they are aware of it and know it has to be fixed, and fixed FAST. But as we know it is actually all about me, it dawned on me today that I am in serious single motherland for quite a few months now. And that I'm going to have to mow the lawn at some stage this week. .. that said, I'm feeling almost ready for the week ahead. I still haven't ironed work clothes, but I've made up a few dinners that are ready in the freezer, all the boys school uniforms are washed and bags are ready for tomorrow. Bec made mention the other day of just feeling old. I've been mulling over this concept for a few weeks now, as the last two months have been pretty darn stressful for me and ther have been days, no, actual moments of time, when I can physically feel my body ageing. I can feel my hair greying, my skin sagging, my organs slowing down. Now I know, you're all going "oh for fucks sake, get over it" but I'm serious. It is quite a surreal experience and not one I am entirely comfortable or happy about.