Friday 1st June

Well, rainy May has passed so maybe we can look forward to flaming June? We have finally sold the last of the soup, so it will not appear on the menu again till the Autumn. Pam has done a new cake, Cherry and Cinnamon so why not try a piece when you are next in.

I will have to visit our man who does the hanging baskets soon and see if they are ready. The yard is looking good but I think there's always room for more flowers.

We have been very busy this week with the half term upon us and there has been a noticeable increase in holiday makers. Some have found us for the first time and others who are returning and its always good to see familiar faces.

We have had several compliments on the quality of our filter coffee lately and its always very pleasing to know that even the most basic coffee that we do is so well received. The mixture is specially blended for us by Mastins. Although you will not be able to get the exact blend that we use, Mastins do have a retail arm called Wilkinsons which is in the alley beside Thorns (just off Exchange Street) Its a lovely specialist tea and coffee shop, well worth a visit.

Amy is back from her holiday in Gran Canaria and is sporting quite a tan. She had a great time but says she is glad to be back. Her first day in was Wednesday and it was sooo busy it was a baptism of fire for her, but she is such a laid back person that she takes it all in her stride.

Below are a couple of photos of fun on the park and ride with Rachel getting mugged by balloons.

That's all for now, see you in the cafe.

Bye y'all  

Friday 8^th June

What awful weather.!!!Today its cold and drizzling as I sit here with my coffee at 7.30am Talk about flaming June. Is this pay back for the lovely April?

Still, the yard looks lovely now we have all the baskets to accompany the window boxes. This year we have an extra hanging basket making four in all, together with two wall baskets so the yard is looking  particularly pretty. Our man in Long Stratton who does them for us has done a really good job this year and I hope you will enjoy them as much as we will. You may wonder why we don’t spend as much time and effort on the small garden to the left of Looses entrance. The simple fact is that this is not ours and in fact belongs to Looses and we are still searching for the green figured person in that shop who will take this patch under their wing and match our displays. Perhaps when you visit them you could hint that you have noticed their sad, slightly neglected, little patch.

If you come in soon, give some sympathy to Amy as she is feeling under the weather at the moment and could do with lots of TLC.

Jennette is off for two days on an exciting adventure. Her daughter Lisa is treating her to a 2 day shopping break in London, staying at a swish hotel  and taking in a show as well!!! So don’t forget to ask her how she got on but if you are short of time best not!!!

Pam and I are pretty excited for two reasons. WE are about to take on another young lady, who will work part-time for us. We are confident she will prove an asset to Morello’s as she has a pleasant, bubbly personality. Her name is Nina and we have known her for quite some time as a friend of Amy. She was looking for a new job just as we had begun to realise we needed another member of staff. If all goes to plan, she could be with us before the end of June so watch out for a new face behind the counter.

I did say for two reasons and the second is that Pam found a really good deal on a holiday, on teletext for us. So we are off on Monday 11^th for a week in Turkey at Icmeler. Neither of us have ever been to Turkey before , but have heard so many good reports about it, so we thought we’d like to give it a try.

One thing I’m a bit disappointed in, is the lack of comments on our Guest  page. Come on, are you reading these blogs? Are you visiting our web pages? Surely you have some comments that you can share with us all. Please, put a comment on the page, its real easy and we can get some feedback as to how we are doing. It will make the pages more fun to get some dialog going. So come on ,Help me out here!!!!

                Well that's it for now, got to get ready for work.

Bye y’all  

Wednesday 27th June  

Well its been a while, but we have been so busy since we got back from holiday. We found the area of Turkey we chose to visit as being rather disappointing. Icmeler is next to Marmaris and they are both extremely touristy (if you know what I mean). 

One of the off putting things is the amount of hassle that all the traders subject you to. You can't walk anywhere down any street or any promenade without being virtually accosted by someone trying to sell you something, go on a trip, visit their restaurant etc.. Also our Hotel the 'Abacus complex' served up the worst food we have ever experienced in any hotel, would not recommend eating there, ever. Having said that, it was clean and the rooms were air
conditioned which was very welcome.

The weather was very hot rising from 30C to 39 C the week we were there. We did some nice things like the 'Lazy Day Boat Cruise' in the huge bay which is studded with offshore islands and is very beautiful. We saw dolphins which swam with the boat for a while and we swam in beautifully clear blue water. We met a comical and charming young man named Cesur on the beach at Icmeler. He is a trained Hairdresser but business was slow so was in charge of Sunbeds that day. 

He was rather taken with Pam's hat as you can see. We also went on a trip to the ancient city of Ephesus established in 560 BC and to see the remains of the streets, temples and the fine mosaics was fascinating, as was the amphitheatre which could hold 20,000. Up in the hills, above Ephesus, we also visited the place where the Virgin Mary is reputed to have spent the last 20 years of her life which is now a shrine and a very special place to visit. I hope you enjoy the photos below. As usual if you want to see a larger image just click on them.

Since our return, we have been advised by a Turkish Customer of ours of the area of the country we should have gone to, to find the quiet and 'real Turkey' we were looking for. We shall definitely return now armed with this list of places to stay. There is no doubt it is a beautiful country and the 'real' Turkish people are so warm and friendly.

Nina our new member of Staff has now joined us. She will be working part time in the Cafe and giving us that much needed flexibility in staffing so watch out for her (she's the tall one!!). Be gentle with her at first as she has a lot to learn. You'll see her picture on our home page with Amy and Jennette. Below is Nina with her 13 month old Aalyiah.

 

Also we have a young lady doing her work experience with us for two weeks starting this week. Her name is Isabelle from Framlingham Earl High School, so say Hi!! and make her feel comfortable. Pam and I are off to the Norfolk Show on Thursday so we are keeping our fingers crossed that it stays fine. Isabelle is pictured below.

We are getting quite a lot of visitors to the Cafe now who are holidaying in the region and its lovely to see new faces and hear the accents and is a precursor to the weeks ahead.

Well that's it for now. Take Care,
Bye Y'all

Saturday 30th June

As the last day of this wet and generally cold June draw to a close I have some further notes to share with you. The week at the cafe started off with an annoying incident when on Tuesday someone stole our hand soap and air freshener from the toilet. This is such a sorry little tale because, as you know, we go to the States fairly frequently to see our other daughter and there we love to visit the Bath and Body Works shop, as they do this really lovely hand soap which you just can't get in England. 

So on the last trip I stocked up on this product and put one of them in the toilet at the Cafe as a treat to our Guests. This particular one had a foaming action and was a treat to use. Also last week we bought an Oust air freshener spray from Tesco's and put that in the toilet so that was new and full!! What a sad individual it must be who would stoop so low as to steal these items. 

As my Father was keen on saying 'There's none so queer as folk'!! Isn't that the truth!! On a much brighter note the overwhelming majority of our customers are lovely people who we love to see and it's a joy to serve, so that's our reward. 

Nina, who as you know has now joined our team has a child 13month old Aalyiah and as you can see from this shot of mum and daughter, Aalyiah is quite partial to finishing off the bowl left from Pam's cheesecake mix!! 

 

On Thursday, Pam and I went to the Norfolk Show and what a great day that was. We got there at 9.30am and didn't leave till 7.20pm and even then we didn't see more than half of it!! Fortunately the rain held off all day. I have some photos to share with you of the animals and Pam in her new car, a Mercedes Sports an £86,000, 200mph, dream machine (Joke!!) 

We particularly liked the Alpaca's that are such great animals and Pam loved handling the ferett. We hope you enjoy the photographs below. If you want to see a larger image just click on them.

 

Pam is organising two events in our village this summer for St. Michael's Church, Gt. Moulton. The first is a flower festival in the Church on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22nd July. This will be on a wedding theme and is entitled 'Floral Tributes to Brides'

Entry is free but donations are welcomed and the first day coincides with the village fete so how about coming along and taking in both events? The second event is a Caribbean themed Garden Party in our garden at Great Moulton on Sunday 5th. August between 2 and 7pm. Proceeds from this event will go to St. Michael's roof repair fund. There will be a Steel band, The Steelettos to entertain, a two course meal and a licensed bar. Please come along we promise a fun afternoon Tickets are £12.50 (concessions available) and to order please ring Diane on 01379 677088 or they are available in the Cafe. That's all for June, here's hoping that July will herald the start of our Summer. 

See you in the Cafe 

Bye Y'all.