Woke up pretty early with alot to do in a short period of time... Unfortunately after dealing with all the legals as well as with our finance company - we were probably not as energized as we should have been - it had taken a bit of the shine off the big day. I suppose for me it was more of a surreal feeling - a little disbelief that this was actually happening... i would believe it when i walked in the door... or probably when we took the keys... or maybe when we first served food...
So first to the bank for the insurance stuff.... we were given a quote which included a $13(odd) fee for the National government imposed "Terrorism Levy"... "It is called a Levy to save it being called another tax" says Darrell - our very helpful insurance guy.... Apparently every business is paying a percentage on their insurance toward a "terrorism tax.. oops i mean "levy" "... it depends where you live as to how "at risk" you are of a plane flying into your "restaurant" - however - there is still a risk - even in Warrimoo.... The "levy" goes up according to where you are and we were advised that if we were in Sydney the levy is 18% of that insurance premium, if you are high rise - it is more....
Sean and i both thought this was quiet funny... well we laughed anyway...
I considered that if terrorists wanted to fly into our building - we could probably whip them something nice up... something "flame grilled" at least..
I also considered that it would be some great publicity we would receive and started thinking about how this could happen after hours.... i mean the rest of the insurance covered us for everything else - so the disruption would not be so bad... possibly... :-)
I can picture the headlines now....
"Al Queda attacks small restaurant in Warrimoo... Government heads warning and moves all troops from the middle east, issues a written apology to the people of "everywhere in the middle east" and promises to insure banana prices do not exceed our hourly pay rate for the next 7 days"
It could be a sacrifice worthy or world peace...
I then asked Darrell if we could skip paying the terrorism levy - although i thought it was funny - i was also a tad disgusted in it. ( he said... um ... "no").. Anyway seeing as we were buying a product that prayed totally on our fears - we signed the dotted line - comforted by the fact that we were covered in case of terrorism and Tax Audit and we soldiered on...
Back up to 285 Great Western Hwy, Warrimoo - home of "Victoria's Too" (the current restaurant name) and what i consider to be one of Sean and my most exciting adventures together yet.
When we got there Dion - our chef was there. Dion is a 34 yr old guy who has cheffed all over Australia, Lizard Island, Jupiter's on the Gold Coast as well as the local Ori, Byron Bay Hotel and many other quality establishments to name a few. Dion is a local guy and has moved back to the area after his adventures... I would describe Dion as being passionate without a doubt and with the skills to back it all up... He is also full of idea's and energy and shares our principles when it comes to the standards we want in the restaurant.
- Met with Paul - and got our keys...
- Changeover of Electricity, Phone, and Gas put Sean on the phone alot..
- An Electrician coming at 12 to fix a fan... Paul left payment for this and left.
- The Council coming at 12noon to finalize the inspection of the new illuminated "exit" signs... done
- A Health Inspector coming at um..."two weeks ago" to do a final inspection on the place.
- Dion in the Kitchen moving stuff, inspecting equipment, writing lists etc
- Mel in the Dining room chatting with Greg from Nestle about Coffee.... (not having ever ever drank a cup of coffee in her life)... Greg a bit of a schmuck...
- Sean on phone to the "sign man"
