Back to Work

Simon;

I've had a day and a half off, and it's helped heal the Wembley wounds that'll be there for a long time. My Mum came to see us, and in case you thought that your mum was the best in the world, i'm sorry to shatter your illusion. It was probably a good try though.
She arrived on Sunday afternoon and after visiting the shop and pottering around Wood Green Katie cooked a lovely roast chicken (and other stories) in the evening, washed down with a very acceptable Montepulciano D'abruzzo (£2.99 or 2 for a fiver), and then we watched 'Enchanted', a wonderfully daft story about fairy tale characters finding themselves in New York. If you haven't seen it here's a little clip I love a parody (Vanessa, for example).

Then we all went to beddybyes and looked forward to a lovely bank holiday Monday sunshine special. However we probably should have looked at the weather report.
However it didn't put us off, and after a croissant and cuppa we headed off to Bruce Castle.
This is the second most famous place in Tottenham. Bruce Castle was Roy Castle's great great grandfather, and the family motto was 'Dedicatum O Dedicatum'. We saw some amazing antique tap shoes which had been passed onto Roy to do his world record attempt. There were also statues of Norris and Ross McWhirter, and Roy's trademark trumpet.
Sir Rowland Hill also lived here for a time. Here's a statue of the great man. Not only did he invent the penny post, and as no doubt you stamp collectors will know, he was actually Harry Hill's great great grandfather. They have a family motto, which we saw at Bruce Castle. It was 'Stoofus TV Burpus', which I think translates as, 'sorted, respect due'.
Anyway we had a great time there, and I got a postcard and a couple of books about the Hills and the Castles to read when I got home.
IN the evening we jumped on the bus and arrived at Muswell Hill (another of Harry's relatives, as I beleive). We had a great meal at ASK (a restaurant chain owned by Morrisey), and managed to dodge the showers on the way home.
So it was back to work today, and Tim had the day off to make up for yesterday. My Mum came in with me this morning and stayed in the shop for an couple of hours, as I tried to look as though I knew what I was doing. I unpacked boxes, phoned a couple of customers, answered a few emails, blew some balloons up and introduced her to one of our local customers (I say customers in the loosest possible sense) Andrew, who was on his way to get his hair cut, but wanted to come and say hello to Mrs Key. He was charming, and stayed in the shop longer than I've ever seen before (I told you my Mum was special).
Eventually it was time for her to go back to the mighty City of Bristol, and as she got on the number 29 bus (traditionally known as '29, bus of crime'), to get into London town I was left with a lovely feeling of the fun we'd had over the last day or two.
The day at the shop was rather encouraging too. We sold books and stuff, so hurah.

I hear that the Independent on Sunday has been to Fulham/Waterloo. Well done to Adam and Matthew. Superstars innit.
And also congrats to the choice of bookshop that managed to get to number 21. I hope that someone gets a big old bonus for this, and I ain't talking about the regional manager.
We're going to an awards ceremony ourselves on Thursday. We've been shortlisted for New Business of the Year award at the Haringey Growth Business Awards. We might get a trophy, and also we've had to let someone know our dietary requirements for the ceremony. Blimey, we're living the life of Riley.

laters