ANZAC Day

Monday is ANZAC Day and we will all finally get a chance to take a breath, have a meeting, and do a little more staff training because we will be closed. It has been a wild ride over the past week or so. Let's see . . . We have had a near drowning, a sign code showdown, a fire evacuation and, biggest and baddest of all was a total plumbing failure. I'll wait for Tyler to tell the story of the near drowning and his heroics. Conor can relay the sign code saga and his coming of age JB-style. The fire evacuation was not such a big deal, other than it disrupted everything for about an hour on a busy weekend evening.

The plumbing. Oh my. Late Thursday night we got a call at home from Conor saying the drain under the steam table was backing up. JB said told him to call a plumber and went back to bed. The phone rings again, Conor was pretty insistent that this was more than a plumber call. All of the drains were backing up in surges. JB walked down to the wharf at about 10:30 pm and I didn't see him again until 4:30 am. He, Mike, Conor and Tyler spent the entire night sucking sewage out of the pipes with the shop vac, using buckets and brooms. There was a major blockage, and we are the fortunates at the end of the line. Security was called, Prince's Wharf Management showed up, the wharf plumbers we pressed into service . . . it was one gigantic mess. In absolute desperation they finally cut the pipe under the wharf to relieve the pressure, even though they had 3 big pump trucks pumping all night long at the entry to the wharf. We had to close on Friday because it took 14 hours for the enviromental cleaners to do their thing and to get the restrooms working again. (You have to have working restrooms if you have a liquor license.) Turns out there are 4 pumps, but one was on the blink. PW Management didn't take care of the problem. I guess they were too busy hasseling Conor over the signs.

We are ready to begin marketing Mexicali Fresh, and will begin distributing "Burrito Bucks" at the University this next week. Nobody knows what Cinco de Mayo is, but we are planning a celebration. There are enough Americans around who will want to party. We are going into the slowest season of the year, but have the British Lions Tour (Rugby) coming in June. When the All Blacks play, everyone says it's like the Super Bowl for weeks. Many of their supporters will be staying on a cruise ship docked off our wharf, and ground-central for the Lions is next door at Float. It is estimated that 15,000 Brits will descend upon Auckland for those 5 weeks. We are looking ahead to some exciting times.

Thanks to everyone for all of the positive wishes - we can feel your vibe all the way down here in Middle Earth.