Saturday, May 20, 2006
Reaching New Heights
Even though the summer tourist season is officially over, we continue to reach new heights at Mexicali Fresh. We now have one year's worth of info on our point-of-sale system, and regularly see "daily doubles" (sales doubled over same day last year). Our management staff has expanded to include Dwight and Nicky, who are preparing to move into Duty Manager positions when Newmarket opens in just 90 days. Everyone is taking their vacation time (except JB and me) over the next two months so that they are all fresh and rested for the grand opening in mid-August.
We have engaged the services of an architect to help us through the consent process with Auckland City Council. I met Deborah at the American Women's Club. She and her husband Robert have been here for 20 years, he's been a practicing architect. It so great to find someone who speaks the same language. Right, you say, don't they speak English in NZ? Well, yes. But it's still not the same language in so many ways. It's such a load off JB's brain to have someone take care of the details, and Conor is working with their designer to suss out the interior details. It's so great to have them in place when we take on our next project.
A fellow we got to know on our trip to Rarotonga in February has just made international news by being the first double-amputee to scale Mt. Everest. What an amazing triumph!
Keith Richards is lodged up the road from us in Remuera after recovering from brain surgery. He and his wife and kids had lunch in our little town of St. Heliers, but I missed the big event! St. Heliers is just down the hill from us . . . think Del Mar in 1960. I love this place and regularly visit the butcher and green-grocer after my walks on the beach.
The American Women's Club just had it's 64th Birthday Luncheon at the Tamaki Yacht Club, and I was in the fashion show. What a hoot! As soon as I get the pictures from our "official" photographer, I will post them for all to see. Ashley has asked me to be the model for her first hair colouring training session. Hmm, maybe a new career in the offing?
As they say here, toodle pip until next time.
We have engaged the services of an architect to help us through the consent process with Auckland City Council. I met Deborah at the American Women's Club. She and her husband Robert have been here for 20 years, he's been a practicing architect. It so great to find someone who speaks the same language. Right, you say, don't they speak English in NZ? Well, yes. But it's still not the same language in so many ways. It's such a load off JB's brain to have someone take care of the details, and Conor is working with their designer to suss out the interior details. It's so great to have them in place when we take on our next project.
A fellow we got to know on our trip to Rarotonga in February has just made international news by being the first double-amputee to scale Mt. Everest. What an amazing triumph!
Keith Richards is lodged up the road from us in Remuera after recovering from brain surgery. He and his wife and kids had lunch in our little town of St. Heliers, but I missed the big event! St. Heliers is just down the hill from us . . . think Del Mar in 1960. I love this place and regularly visit the butcher and green-grocer after my walks on the beach.
The American Women's Club just had it's 64th Birthday Luncheon at the Tamaki Yacht Club, and I was in the fashion show. What a hoot! As soon as I get the pictures from our "official" photographer, I will post them for all to see. Ashley has asked me to be the model for her first hair colouring training session. Hmm, maybe a new career in the offing?
As they say here, toodle pip until next time.
Friday, May 05, 2006
Tsunami Warning . . . Not!
All of us learned of the impending tsunami from the earthquake in Tonga today by calls and text messages from those abroad. The New Zealand Civil Defence (yes, that's how they spell it) has egg of their face because they didn't forewarn the populace until the threat had been deemed non-existent. There's a flurry of blame and finger-pointing going on here in the South Pacific, but we are all alive and well. Tyler was prepared to wear his swim trunks to work this morning, but it turned out to be unnecessary.
The real tsunami is the government announcement that they have required Telecom NZ to unbundle their local loop. I like to think it's because of the well-reasoned flood of emails to the Communications Minister I have let fly over the past year, but I think it's because they have finally figured out that NZ's ranking at the bottom of the OEDC is due to the restrictive monopoly held by Telecom, something we in the US figured out in . . . oh, say 1990. Let's hope our broadband uptake can match Mexico's in the next few months.
The real tsunami is the government announcement that they have required Telecom NZ to unbundle their local loop. I like to think it's because of the well-reasoned flood of emails to the Communications Minister I have let fly over the past year, but I think it's because they have finally figured out that NZ's ranking at the bottom of the OEDC is due to the restrictive monopoly held by Telecom, something we in the US figured out in . . . oh, say 1990. Let's hope our broadband uptake can match Mexico's in the next few months.
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