'cause there's no-one here to say we can't have cake for breakfast'

All reviews quoted in this article are real,  from guests that stayed at Toad Hall. They are all published and available to the public, though for the purpose of this article I have omitted names, or changed them.... Cause there are Karen's and Brian's in this world. Names marked with * are made up names. This week I had a discussion about how to calculate a review score. The discussion came about after Gareth, me and Jo shared an Uber to Reece and Dayna's housewarming gathering. Congratulations guys. Great house! Great night! Party bound Uber - Little lolly baskets and every type of charging cord ever invented for passenger use. Friendly guy. Safe driver. So...Gareth is offered via the app, to give a 'score'. In this case it's from 1 - 5 with 5 being super awesome and 1 being rubbish. Gareth didn't consult Jo and I, totally confident hitting the 5. Home bound Uber - Not so friendly. Got us home. G-force experience from the back seat, not so pleasant. What ...

I love what I do so in the words of Marc Anthony, I don't work.  I fail and create. I had a fail in the kitchen. Which really annoyed me. It was an oat, seed and nut loaf which should have been sliceable. It was far too crumbly. Some got eaten. I added more butter and honey in the hope to make a type of muesli bar - which kind of worked. A bit more got eaten. The original mix had made two 'loaves', so I still had more to use. Next came a topping for stewed apples. That got eaten.  I took half a cup and added it to a bread dough. I wasn't entirely happy with the result but I put it out for breakfast and called it ' Failed seed and nut bread '  Guests tell me 'It's not a fail!'. It all got eaten. The last of the mix has been made into Bliss Balls by adding dates and coating with coconut.   So, from a failed attempt, the breakfast table saw five dishes. I'm taking that as a win! On talk-back radio yesterday, the discussion was about the current Cost...

 If this works for you...yay! if it doesn't,  go to the variations section. 3 cups oats ½ cup dates ½ cup pumpkin seeds ½ cup sunflower seeds ¼ cup flax seeds 1 cup hazelnuts - roughly chopped 2 Tblsp sesame seeds 2 Tblsp rice pops (yes, the breakfast cereal) 1 tsp mixed spice 80g butter ½ cup honey Put the butter and honey in a pot and melt. Throw everything else into a mixer Add melted butter mix to the dry ingredients - mix well Prepare two loaf tins with baking paper Divide mix between tins Bake - 30 mins @ 180° (160° fan-forced) And when that doesn't work.....variations Muesli slice.... Take one of the failed loaves and add 50g butter and ¼ cup honey - melted. Press into a small tray and pop in fridge. Slice when cold, Apple crumble topping... 4 apples - peeled and sliced - Bake in oven till soft but not smashed. Fold through 2 Tblsp lemon curd Top with failed seed and nut loaf Serve with yoghurt. Failed seed and nut bread... Using a bread makers white bread recipe  ...

Choosing the right strength There are a lot of buzz words around when it comes to talking about agility in business. Various world and local events have reminded us that being able to pivot in business will keep us in business. This comes with the decision process of what to stay firm on and what to create some flexibility around. Understanding core value, playing to strengths and meeting market demand all become part of the conversation. Who are our customers? This question always brings us back to what we do best. Visitors to the area is the answer to that questions. Hosting visitors is what we do best. It's how the house works best.  Our new visitor to Hawkes Bay currently is a whole bunch of workmen from all sorts of trades coming to help with the clean-up and rebuild from Gabrielle flying through.  They are a different customer to the international tourists we host. They most certainly have different needs to the sports and school teams we host. They need breakfast earlie...

 If this is going to work, I need to stick to the program... When I decided to start writing a blog I had the idea of publishing each Tuesday. I even said this to Gareth - Tuesday is publish day! It needs to be regular and consistent. He wrote it on the blackboard, where all our ideas and disciplines get written. There in plain site, to remind us of what we said.  ...and then...I published last Friday.  So this is a re-set post. The other thingie I said was that I would never mention the C word again. For the record, the C word now has 2 meanings - sickness and weather! Not mentioning them again.  This coming Saturday is our  wedding anniversary.  17 years married. 7 years of friendship before that. I know I am lucky in love. I do not ever, not for one second, ever take Gareth and I's relationship for granted. We are lucky. We love, like and respect each other.  We have worked together for a long time. Our first job together was painting a foot bridge ...

One man's disaster is another man's travel story We hosted 30 people during the week of Cyclone Gabrielle - the bitch!!  Most of them were international travelers that now have a wonderful travel story to tell their family and friends back home. It will be an experience that sticks with them.  After all, it's not every adventure that has you stuck in a 3 story hostel with 30 others, no power and no way out of the area. We all just had to chip in and wait it out. Walking along the beach and being amazed at the debris, of which we now know was a considerable amount of forestry slash.  Gazing in shop windows waiting for them to re-open, the city like a ghost town for a few days.  Getting just a little bit day-drunk...oops, that was me - not so much the guests. Anyhooo...we did have some fun. Card games were played A LOT. Board games too. Two English travelers had what seemed like a whole backpack of travel games. Cards and dice based mostly. I think every time I sat nex...