Wednesday 29 April 2009

TBTE29.04.09



My stroll along the beach this evening revealed this latest act of vandalism/arson on several beach huts, with the firemen still damping things down. This is becoming a serious problem here on the island and to state the obvious I don't understant it. Beach huts are essentially such benign pieces of architecture after all and don't seem to me to be an obvious target for vandalism, compared to say, local authority property, but then I'm not a vandal. Perhaps if the people who did this are found they'll be made to build and paint new ones for their victims...now there's a thought, a beach maintenance working party as a sort of rehab. for vandals (with no ice creams!).

Tuesday 28 April 2009

Work Experience



Meet Toby, he's at the Artcafé in Mersea this week doing his work experience with us. He's helping us with our day to day chores and hopefully learning lots in the process about café life and the world of work. Actually Toby isn't exactly a stranger to us as he's James and Maggies nephew.

Monday 13 April 2009


Some like it hot...and small!

Sunday 12 April 2009

Easter



Our busiest weekend of the year is upon us and the lion share of the catering work as usual falls upon the tartist. In addition to this we've had a fair amount of upheaval to contend with lately and I have to say she's coping admirably, I'm so proud of her. So yesterday after a really busy day's business and after we'd done most of the clearing up and prep. for today we took a short stroll over the road to the church for some moments contemplation...it comes in handy being opposite such a place at times. I have to add we also avail ourselves of the public house opposite in equal measure, for a tray of drinks, after a busy shift too but yesterday we were thirsty for some quiet time.



So with chocolate eggs at the ready we began our easter Sunday at the artcafé this morning.

Wednesday 8 April 2009

Some TBTE's 08.04.09

We (theartist junior and Mabel the black lab.) took a most agreeable walk along to the end of the beach on this most perfect of April evenings, where we bumped into Sam who'd had the same idea. So, I thought I'd share some hastily taken shots with you from my 'phone camera.





Mabel's not really one for sunsets.




We watched the full moon rise over 'Buzzen' or if you're unfortunate enough to not be from these parts...Besom.



The sun sets behind the Packing Shed at this time of year.





and this scene has not changed for centuries.

Why So Big?


The tartist and I found ourselves with a warm croissant each and five minutes to spare which we used to good effect, pondering why a lot of people in recent years want everything they imbibe to be as large as possible. This may be in part due to businesses [especially the chains] 'upselling', where the word small has been completely erased from their lexicon. How often have we found ourselves in a high street café ordering a cappuccino to be posed the question "would you like medium, large or behemoth?" Actually in reality a few of them prefer the term 'grande' and when the term grande is applied to a cup of coffee you will inevitably find yourself holding something resembling a soup tureen, with at least two handles, containing about half a gallon of liquid. Now this to us seems to have very little to recommend it except from the retailer's point of view. Predictably the next question from your enthusiastic server is "would sir like a muffin with that?" [upselling again]. Having tried one or two of these chemically enhanced chocolate puffballs I'm inclined to reply "no sir would not like one of your effing muffins, thank you". At the end of our visit having queued up school dinner style, been up sold and pestered we're left with a feeling of disappointment and emptiness. Just don't get us started on panninis...more about those in a future post.

What I suppose we're finding it hard to grasp is, why in these times of rampant obesity are we opting to eat and drink ever bigger portions of ever decreasing quality? Why do we seem to opt for 'olympian' breakfasts, 'gut busters' and dishes that are 'mega' and 'giant' in favour food that is 'delicious' and 'nourishing', small but 'perfect'.