Friday December 7, 2018

I love everything about the festive season leading up to our family highlight, Christmas Dinner. With twenty guests expected and parents who have spent a lifetime in the restaurant business, no pressure? Around the 23rd my wife and I go into military mode as we plan the hundred and one finer details. Last year we […]

Tuesday October 30, 2018

This month’s blog allows me to use my current favourite word, ‘meme’. I am not allowed to use this word at home as my wife says she is sick of it. Apparently, there is no meme evident in our children’s lunch. They just happen to like cheese and tomato sandwiches. There is a common meme […]

Friday September 7, 2018

I recently returned from a holiday at my parents’ home village, Arpino in the Lazio region of Italy. We were there to celebrate the baptism of my nephew. My sister raised a few eyebrows in the family by appointing me Padrino to the boy. I am not sure what delighted me more, being entrusted with […]

Saturday August 4, 2018

In Catalonia they have a lovely old expression when bidding farewell to a friend. “Que no haya novedad”. “Let no new thing arise”. Because as we know, change usually means trouble. But in business change must be seen as an opportunity to be embraced. Possibly the biggest change to hit business in living memory was […]

Tuesday July 3, 2018

Yes, that is a word. ‘Shoreditchification’ refers to the London Borough of Shoreditch and its transformation from a post-industrial backwater into Hipster Central. This is slightly different to ‘Gentrification’ which is simply estate agents calling an area something different and hiking the house prices. Personally, I still call ‘High South Gosforth’ Longbenton but I am […]