Officially 1 month post-employment.

This weekend it is almost a month since I finished with Pfizer and to be honest it feels pretty good at the moment.  I'm not missing it all!  Far from it!  If someone rang up and offered me my old job back on a higher salary I would probably say "thanks but no thanks".   The last few bits of money from shares and bonus have been trickling in and the on-line saver is looking very healthy.

We have been keeping ourselves pretty busy since the last post, mostly getting Capsaicinoia up and running.  We have actually reached the point where we have opened the shop to family and friends so that they can check it out, try it out and even buy something!  The plan is to keep it open for a couple of weeks before we go up to Scotland, get feedback on what works and what doesn't and make the necessary tweaks and improvements before we launch officially to the Chilli Loving British public in April.

After our last post we went back to the Spring Fair at the NEC http://www.springfair.com/ and bought our first load of stock.  The orders have been coming in thick and fast and we have been furiously trying to get the web-site up and running and so far so good.  We still have lots to do.  My "to do" list fills a sheet of A4.  If you are reading this please check it out and let us know what you think?

http://capsaicinoia.com/

We seem to have found a great accountant http://angelaccounting.co.uk/ who is on our wave length and  is very down to earth and jargon free as well as offering what appears to be a good value service with no hidden fees and expenses.



Not much has changed with regard to the Bed and Breakfast side of things.  The Scotland trip is still on track and we have several businesses lined up to look at.  We'll keep you posted as and when we see them.  We are now heading up to visit with a friend of Mike's from Pfizer for a couple of days.  We head up to the West Coast where we will spend a few days viewing businesses and getting a feel for the area.  We are planing to spend a weekend visiting my friend Jane who manages Inveraray Castle on Loch Fyne. http://www.inveraray-castle.com/ and then head over to get Mum and Dad.  From there back up to the West Coast for more B&B viewings including one belonging to my Mum's cousin.  Couple of days in Lochiniver, couple in Bonar Bridge, one night in Forres and a couple in Aberdeen before heading back down to Edinburgh.  We then have another few days visiting various friends and family before taking Mum and Dad down to my sisters in Harrogate where we are having a bit of a family get-together to celebrate their 55th Wedding Anniversary.

The even bigger deal for me will be that we will be meeting up with Fi in Harrogate.  Our daughter who has been "down under" in Oz for a year and is coming back for a 3 week holiday!  Can't wait to see her.  She arrives back when we are still in Scotland but is going to make her way up to Harrogate to meet up with us there.

So what else is new?

I suppose we should mention that immigration to Barbados is still on the cards and has moved up the ratings recently due to the property prices in the main.  Our attorney out there Dennis Chandler is still beavering away trying to get Citizenship by Descent for Mike and to be honest if that comes through before May we are pretty sure that we would top all our other plans and just go there!  We have seen some properties there that we could buy for cash and still have money left over that include apartments we could rent out for holiday accommodation!  It's rapidly becoming a bit of a "no brainer"but would not work without the Citizenship for us and that is not a straightforward as you might think - another story for another time...

Oh!  We had a great night out for Valentines.  We went to a burlesque night at the Hare and Hounds in Kingsheath.  http://hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk/A great little venue with some fantastic burlesque performances!

Danny de Milo http://www.dannydemilo.com/
Felicia Noir http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000102109047
and
Twinkel Pink http://www.facebook.com/pages/Twinkel-Pink/149924488372785?ref=ts&sk=wall

All brilliant but my personal favourite was Felicia Noir, gorgeous, sexy, funny and a natural red-head like my own lovely daughter.

I have had to stop my own burlesque classes for the moment.  The big focus was on the next show and I probably won't be around for it.  Besides, there seems to be so much going on at the moment that there is not enough room in my head for burlesque and especially not getting ready for a show which I found took up a lot of time and energy before.  We have put our ballroom on hold for the same reasons.    We can pick it all up again when things begin to settle down and take shape.

My shoulder has also taken a turn for the worse making everything single thing I do very difficult and painful.  It looks like I'm just going to have to get the surgery over with if I am going to be able to live my life to the full in the future and be able to do all the physical tasks involved in running a B&B.  I have an appointment with the GP next week to get the ball rolling with that one.