Scrub, phone, email, quote, scrub, phone etc.

Wow, the last few days have been full on.

I was aware that a lot of – how best to describe this? – stuff needs doing when you start a business, but the actual doing of it was still quite exhausting. In the last couple of days, in between scrubbing the once filthy kitchen and replacing my broken mobile (with an iPhone – now I too get to refer to ‘my iPhone’ rather than ‘my mobile’), I have engaged suppliers for gas (Shell Gas Direct), electricity (Opus Energy), telephone and broadband (Chess Telecom); used sub-it.co.uk to look for a waste contractor; asked Magpie to pick up my recycling; got quotes for the extractor system to be steam cleaned; went on a mini-spree in Habitat in their 20% off everything sale (ends Sunday – some top bargains to be had); taken an online bookkeeping tutorial; engaged an accountant; and… oh yeah, and signed a three year lease on the cafe. Hurrah! And also Phew! No turning back now amigos.

All this activity has meant that my efforts to get the cafe even a little bit open have had to be put back. I was always being unrealistic, and knew it, but it’s sometimes good to light a fire under yourself. There is also the inconvenient thing called life, in which clothes continue to get dirty, fridges continue to empty themselves, and pesky kids insist on frivolities like needing to be picked up from school, eat food and be noticed. Don’t they realise Dad is on a mission to bring the finest vittels and smoothest coffee to the people of Brighton? And finally, there is the ongoing discovery of more and more surfaces that need a combination of wire wool, green scourers, hot soapy water and sanitiser to return them to the kind of cleanliness that will have the Environmental Health Officer beaming like a Cheshire cat rather than reaching inside his or her briefcase for a closure order. Man, this place was filthy!

However by Wednesday (9th December) I hope to get that front door open and welcome you all in. I’ve aimed for Wednesday partly to give myself a little room to breathe, plan a menu and source the ingredients from my chosen suppliers, and partly because I have to be closed on Tuesday anyway for the deep clean of the extraction system. By that time I hope to have another coffee machine to replace the one reclaimed by the coffee company. It was on loan to the previous tenant. I should be getting a Fracino Little Gem on a temporary loan from the lovely Zena (thanks Zena). That will keep me going until my brand spanking new Wega Pegaso 2-Group arrives in the New Year. Ooohheee, that’s going to be great! In fact I think that if any of you are coffee hounds, and want to come along to a grand unveiling in the evening, we should do that (email me at  iain@sevenbeescafe.co.uk).

Right, that’s enough of that. Off to bed to dream of Marigold gloves and gleaming stainless steel.