Wow what marvellous weather we are having . I have taken some more pictures today and some of outside, showing the new flowers in the window boxes which add a bit of colour. 

I was disappointed with the winter pansies I put in in September, as they have nearly all died. I think it was my fault because I didn't change the soil from the summer bedding.( cheap skate I know but I thought it would be alright.) Anyway I hope these new primulas will last until I get the busy lizzies in again for the summer.

I also had a wander through the Castle grounds and took a few pictures. You get some interesting scenes of Norwich from there, and its very peaceful. The sun was shining brightly and it was like a spring day. Pity there aren't more flowers coming up thru the grass like at Chapelfield that would really be nice. Editors Note: Steven's photos of Norwich are available on a new page. To see them just click here.

We had some lovely customers in today. Three in particular stand out. Two sisters came in and revealed that their joint ages add up to 174!!!! And another lady was 86. They were all amazingly young looking, sprightly, funny and very chatty. I had a lovely time talking to them. Its one of the reasons I love being in the Café so much. We get to meet and talk to so many interesting people and they all have tales to tell.

Tomorrow is Saturday, so Amy made a Strawberry Cheesecake today as many of our regular Saturday customers really look forward to it. We are always quite busy on this day but we never know, of course , just how busy we are likely to be. Our regulars know to come in before 12 or after 2 to be sure of smaller queues. But we have extra staff on this day and try not to keep anybody waiting too long. Its amazing how patient our customers are and we very rarely lose anybody because we are full. Our customers will wait for
a free table, we have quite a quick turn round as lots of people are out shopping and haven't the time to linger with us, and also we try to encourage table sharing. It's a good way of meeting new people and opening up whole new areas of conversation over lunch.

A little quirky thing we do on Saturdays too, is that we ask customers to give us the name of a famous person, when they tell us their order. We then use this name to locate the customer when taking out the
food. It causes some amusement to hear 'Elvis" Madonna, Shirley Temple, Brad Pitt, Nelson Mandella, George Brown, The Queen  etc. being called out in the restaurant and everyone joins in the fun. We catch out some customers who can't think of a name quick enough but that's no problem to our staff!! They
will think up one for you . I particularly like the old time film stars, so be warned if your not quick enough you just might end up as Greta Garbo or Groucho Marx!! Editors Note (Or Muttley!!!!)

See Y'all    

       

7th February 2007

Thought you might like to see what we get up to when not serving you coffee. So on Sunday when we were at the ice rink at the Sports Village by Asda I took some photos of us looking decidedly unsteady on ice!!!  It was a good two hours and for £5 was good value. It was a larger rink than I expected, having last been on the one outside the forum. 

It was very cold at first but you soon get warm careering around, out of control and the fear factor of how hard is the ice when you fall gets the adrenalin and blood pumping. So the pictures show Pam, Jennette and Kirsten and family members.

Have just finished business and today was sooooo busy. Really don't know where everyone came from!  It was more like the sort of days we have in the summer certainly not February which generally is the quietest month of the year.

If you were there then I hope you did not have to wait too long. It underlines the sense of trying to get to us either before 12.30 or after 2pm. (Its much more civilized then.) The home made soup is going well and we quickly sold all the Lentil and Bacon and then went on to Curried parsnip. Very warming for cold frosty days.

I have today just finished making a new soup and one I haven't tried out before. Its Sweet Potato and Rosemary with Roquefort.  Sweet potatoes have a low glycemic index and are rich in betacarotene, which helps build
the immune system. Rosemary boosts the circulation. So this soup does you sooo much good. (I may have put a tinsy bit too much chilli powder in this one as it has quite a bite: so beware!!!

It's good to try different soups and see how people react to them. Mostly our customers are a trustworthy lot and over the years have come to know that there really isn't a bad 'Home made' soup and are prepared to try anything I have a go at. Which is a lovely compliment that I really do appreciate.

We are heading for the school holidays, 11th to 18th February so beware, this is a busy time for the café though we do have our part time girls to increase staff numbers. WE have a lovely atmosphere at this time and the
Café will be really buzzing.

It's lovely when we are busy to listen to the hum of all the conversations going on as our customers catch up with the latest news or. If they are sharing a table, perhaps getting to know new people.

That's it for now.
Until next time
Bye Y'all

8th February

What a day!!! Weather forecasters advising everyone not to travel unless really necessary as lots of snow expected and we woke to none, but there was a very hard frost and by 8am it had started so by the time we were ready to leave home Pam and I were able to have a snow ball fight in our drive (It's one way to clear the car of snow!) 

It was 1.5 degrees as we headed towards Norwich and the roads were very quiet. The park and ride was nearly empty so we knew we were in for a quiet day and that's how it turned out.  The snow never arrived in Norwich. There was a fall of some wet stuff and it was a miserably cold, wet day. Even so, we had a flurry of hardy shoppers and office workers at lunchtime that rescued the day for us and even had two people sit outside!!! (Those smokers are a hardy lot!!). 

We did not get a customer after 2.30 so by 3.30 we had closed up and were on the way home by
4.10 which is very nice and makes up for the  long hours of the summer.

I took a few more shots of our customers for the photo page and they look a happy lot despite the weather.

Bye Y'all

Sunday February 11th, 2007

What a week. Wednesday was really and unusually busy. But then we had all the warnings of bad weather for Thursday and the city was deserted. This carried on into Friday, despite the bad weather not arriving, though it was wet and cold. I kind of thought that Saturday would be busy with all the shoppers from the week but it never happened and it turned out to be a quiet day also.

Still I was rather glad of this because Pam and I had a dance exam that night so I had to leave early and leave the Café in the capable hands of daughter Amy and Helpers Kirsten and Rachel.

Rachel is off to the Maldives today, lucky girl. Leaving all this dampness behind for white sand and crystal clear seas and hot sun!!! 

Our exam? Well it was in ballroom and we passed, so all the hard work over last year paid off. That now leaves us to concentrate on Latin for 2007 and if we get time we may go for the next level in Ballroom as well.

We love to dance and it is great for fitness of mind and body and yes we love to watch the dancing on the telly.

I do hope I have some readers by now, Otherwise its pretty pointless talking to myself!!

Bye Y'all

Saturday 17th. February

Well what a lovely day it's been today. Spring is here in the middle of February! I have taken some photos from our back garden, the snow drops are so beautiful at this time of year. Some of the aconites are still flowering well but they won't be around for much longer. We also have crocuses, and a white Camelia in bloom and the Primulas haven't stopped flowering since last
summer. Its just the grass that's spoiling the view as it is still growing but its been so wet for so long its not been possible to cut it. Maybe if it's still dry tomorrow I might get it done.

Although the schools were on holiday it has not been a very busy week but we have had some lovely customers coming in. Some old and some new. Its always good to see new customers and very satisfying when they enjoy the experience and say they will be back.

That 'Hot' Sweet Potato and Chilli soup I mentioned before was quite a surprise as our customers loved it!!!. That was not expected, I really thought it would be too hot for our customers' taste, but they are an adventurous lot and my fears were groundless. So that's another one for my
permanent list.  I am making a Farmhouse vegetable for next week, that's a firm favourite but it might be Onion for the start of the week and that's a very tasty soup.

Pam and I had the day off together today which was a treat for a Saturday and Amy, Jennette and the girls were in. They said it was a good day, not too busy but steady which makes for a more relaxing atmosphere. As I've mentioned before we do get full at lunchtime and we have to be pretty alert and creative at finding tables for everyone. We accept it as a bit of a challenge and most of our customers are gregarious and friendly and are quite happy to share a table. When even that possibility has be fully explored then I have to go to the last resort......!!! I clear all the used plates etc and give the table a thorough clean!! Now that's the hint that I really need the table and most of our lovely customers see the problem.  If that doesn't work then I might be overheard to say, 'Are you still here?', or some other suitable, and equally subtle, remark.... So now I have let you into just one of my little secrets of how we keep the tables turning over during our busy times. Please don't let it put you off though, if you come when we are quiet you are welcome to stay just as long as you like, put your feet up and make yourself at home. But when we are busy, you have been warned!! And now you know the rules!!

You may have noticed that we do not have any background music in Café Morello. Well, we did until last year but to be honest the cost of the licenses, at over £400.00 was just becoming too much for a small business such as ourselves. I did enquire if, maybe we could just put the radio on at times and the licensing people said' Oh yes of course that will be £200.00' So that's when we stopped it completely. I know the artists and composers have to make a living and the licence fees help to pay them, but I just think that someone has gotten greedy somewhere and ultimately they lose out when they price out the small operators. So the upshot is that we are a haven of quiet in a noisy world, and the majority of our customers seem to prefer it that way. WE all get so used to wall to wall noise that it's a relief to get away from it. We have had only one customer in 9 months who said she thought some nice music would improve the atmosphere.

Did you know that we support 'Fair Trade' in quite a big way? If you are in to that sort of thing then it may hearten you to know that all our sugar and all but our de café coffee is Fair Trade. As is our normal 'breakfast' tea.

WE always have fruit on the counter as an alternative to our absolutely scrumptious, mouthwateringly good, homemade cakes (biased? me? never!!) and the bananas are Fair Traded, generally from St Lucia.

So I hope this diary entry has given you a further insight into our little world and as its now 12.45 am I think its high time I said,

Bye Y'all

Wednesday 21st February.

Can't believe this month is going so quickly. Had a day of decorating at home today and the weather was so mild I had all the doors and windows open. Spring really does seem to have arrived, we'll soon have daffs flowering in the garden as they are in bud now.

Yesterday we took some new pictures whilst on the Park and Ride bus. Jennette was pretending to be shy on one of the shots, but when I gave her the camera just see what the result was!!! They also have worked out that I am never in  any of the photos so they took one of yours truly. Hope you like the hat as its my favourite. I bought it last year at the Royal Norfolk Show and it's an Australian bush hat. I like hats and tend to wear one most of the time (well now I'd look silly wearing two wouldn't I?)

We have gone quiet again after the school holidays, but as I've said before its nice and relaxing and we get more of a  chance to chat to all our customers. The middle of the day is still busy and from 1 to 2 pm we are
normally full, so avoid those times if you can. I've been told that our web site is getting lots of 'hits', so it looks like I'm not talking to myself, which is a bit of a relief!! WE hope you like the new sections on the site and if you have any suggestions of other stuff you'd like to see there, then send us an e-mail .

You may or may not know that today is Ash Wednesday. Now that means some of us will be giving something up for the next 40 days. Pam is going for chocolate so I said I'd join her. She then said to me, 'No you can't do the same you have to think of something yourself' So I pointed out the difficulty she would face when I bought a big bar of chocolate and ate it at night in front of her. She saw the sense then of both giving up the same thing! So that's no chocolate bars and no chocolate cake for a while. That would be a very good thing if it didn't leave all the other cakes still in play. I'm still trying to get off the weight I put on when I went skiing in January but the trouble is I like my food more than I should.

We are trying to go swimming regularly and we do a mile each week, so that's something. Pam and I are having a break from dancing for a couple of months and then we will get back to learning the Latin routines.
That's it for now so

Bye Ya'll

Saturday 24^th February.

Well!, what a day. It was so busy! It was fortunate that Rachel came back from her holiday to the Maldives. So we were 5 and  we really needed the extra pair of hands. Always a surprise when the city gets so busy and we have so many customers, especially as the weather was very damp to start and rained on and off all day. But it was mild and several couples sat outside.

We had fun with the names thing with Rolf Harris, Bing Crosby, The Queen as well as our regulars, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis and Johnny Depp all making an appearance!!!!

If you are a regular you may have noticed the ‘Encyclopaedia of Film’ book which has been on the window sill at the top of the restaurant for the past two years. This book belonged to my Aunt Alice and Uncle George. They lived in Burnley. George was a storekeeper and Alice, a retired cotton weaver who was my fathers’ only sister. They were both very special to me and were from a world and age that was very foreign to my experience. Alice worked all her life in the cotton Mill and as a result was very hard of hearing, SO TALKED VERY LOUD and tended to mouth her words, which was common in the mills where the noise of the machinery made normal speech impossible. 

She also became very poor sighted in later years too so this made her quite isolated. But despite this and because she came from very hardy, stubborn, stock, she managed on her own for 18 years after George died. She really was as tough as old nails and lived in the typical two up, two down stone, terrace house (with the privy in the back yard) until modernised. We still have her size 4 clogs at home with the irons on the soles and heels, like horses shoes. (That’s how they were able to get sparks from them). Alice died in the year 2000 aged 87 years. I found the book amongst her possessions and brought it back to Norfolk.

Well one of our customers, Terence Burchell, professional photographer and film buff has had his eye on it for some time and has been worried that it might go ‘walkies’ one of these days. Having spoken to him and being convinced of his genuine interest we came to an agreement that he should have the book. In exchange he has signed and given to us his book entitled, ’Norfolk Moods’. A pictorial record of the Norfolk Landscape.  I want to have it at home, to study for a while, but after that will put it in the restaurant for our customers to appreciate what a lovely special county Norfolk is.

Talking of books, you may have guessed that I really love them and am an avid reader. Over the past 12 months or so I have taken to leaving my old books in the cafe or other locations with the sole purpose of encouraging others to take them, read them and in turn release them as I have done. This is done in a particular way using a system from www.bookcrossing.com . Each book is given a unique identification Number and a record on the internet. Then, whoever finds and reads the book is encouraged to look up its details and write a little about where and when they found it, what they thought of it and where they in turn ‘released’ it. I think its a good system as at one time I had so many old paperbacks around it was becoming difficult to store them all. So to lighten my load I started to give them away and then discovered this novel way of sharing good books with others and providing a bit of interest along the way. So if you see a novel in the coffee shop with a bookcrossing reference or sticker you will know what its about and can take it if you want. (Don’t please take those not clearly marked ‘Bookcrossing’ as they are permanent fixtures to remain for the pleasure of all Morello customers)

Well that's it for tonight,

Take Care, and Bye Ya’ll

Wednesday 28th. February

What an awful wet week we are having and I just heard on the news that the last of the hose pipe bans has been lifted!!.. I hate these dull wet days even if it is mild, give me sun and blue skies any day.

The latest pictures are of some regular customers and guide dog Aula loves it in Morellos and even if it is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN to feed her she did manage some porridge this week which she really loved!!! Her owner Bernie says it will be her turn for the porridge next week. Bernie has a very clever program on her computer which reads aloud the text, so she can read my ramblings and find out all about Café Morello and our menus.

Its still very quiet in the café but it gives Pam and the team time to get some baking done. Our customers always show great interest in the cooking process and want to know what is being made. That's one of the good things about our Café. You can always see exactly what we are doing, nothing is hidden.

Got to go, time for work

Bye Ya'll

(Editor's Note: Was included on an e-mail this week sent round by a friend urging his contacts to view the images on display around Chapelfield and the Forum in the next couple of months. It concludes "Take a look and gulp a snack at Morellos whilst you are there." So Steven and Pam's fame is spreading. Have a good gulp!