Memories...

I've been watching the tennis at Queen's this afternoon. Archie has been browsing through this book. It's not new. It was published in 1987, in fact. T in Holland gave us her copy - we have lost ours. It's a collection of recipes from cafes and restaurants all over NZ, at a time when we owned a restaurant. JR was one of the chefs invited to contribute to the book.

Being self employed - running a restaurant - was the hardest work I have ever done! I was very glad to get back to teaching - weekends, holidays, sick leave, even time set aside every day for a cuppa! JR did ALL the cooking, while I did most of the dish washing, serving, and the Bookkeeping. Considering that I was hopeless at arithmetic, this was an impossible task. AND, just to add to my misery, the government brought in the dreaded GST (VAT)!! No month balanced, though we had an accountant. Perhaps he gave up...

Some years later, as is their right, the Inland Revenue Dept requested The Books. They studied them for weeks, then called me in and asked me to show them a month where the totals actually made sense. I took them home, and tore my hair out trying to find at least one month (in four years!) that balanced. I had to return and admit defeat. Tears may have been involved... They fined me a nominal $100 or so - they could see I was too stupid to be capable of any serious fiddling!

This morning we met up with the BorrowMyDoggie family to show them the Braidburn Valley Park, and how good Archie is on the bus. This is a handy walk for them if they have him for the day.

We had a lovely walk, met a few dogs, had a chat with a young Rottweiler and his owner. Young A was in charge of Archie on the bus on the way back. A sleepover is in the offing...