New year, new hope
Finally, solution to The Problem and a very heartfelt thank you to our lovely customers.
Finally, solution to The Problem and a very heartfelt thank you to our lovely customers. My faith in humanity and in what we are doing has been restored – now we just need a proper rest and then we will be ready for 2008. We ended the year feeling really rotten – although New Years Eve was good fun in both sites and Jude and I both managed a sort of forced, probably slightly edgy jollity, we were feeling pretty grim.
I have been directed to postings on the good old East Dulwich Forum concerning the fact that we are now closed and note that I am thought of as both hysterical and rude by some its members, so perhaps I should choose my words carefully now.
Or perhaps not.
Let any of those who are of the above opinion put literally every cent they have into something and then work 7 days a week not only paying back loans in the business but also at the business itself, only for it to be severely compromised and jeopardized through absolutely no fault of your own and then email me and tell me about how calm and zen-like you feel. My guess is not very - unless you have access to industrial quantities of valium, a route we have chosen not to go down.
So back to the grimness. I was feeling frankly that in today’s world there seemed to be little point in trying to achieve something like Green & Blue – you are either scuppered by gross inefficiency, lack of responsibility, greed or spite or an evil cocktail of all of the above. We have never been in this for the money – there are much easier ways to make considerably more – and never will be. Yes, we plan to have as many as 6 or 7 across London in due course and while we need to be profitable and hopefully one day personally more comfortable than we are now, primarily this is about selling the best wines we can at the best prices we can afford in a place that means something and has value to a local community. Because it is a business driven by a passion for what we do, perhaps we are much more affected by situations such as these than others might be, but certainly we were both feeling like perhaps we had made a profound mistake in even attempting it after all.
And then we met with Liz, our angel of mercy customer referred to in a previous blog and everything changed. It changed because not only did she, for the first time since this horrible saga began, have a practical and seemingly workable solution but also just because she cared enough to give up her valuable time (she has two small children, so her time is very valuable) . That really does change everything most profoundly, not just in real terms but also in how we both feel about things after all. And so as not to be seen to be too hard on the forum, this feeling was compounded by the numerous very positive posts we have received.
Perhaps, if we now have such amazingly wonderful, loyal customers who are willing to do this much to help us stay in business, than we are achieving what we set out to do. Not perfectly perhaps and there is always room for improvement, but enough so that we have the will to continue and hopefully continue to improve.
Thank you very much Liz – and all of the rest of you. You have no idea of how much it means to us.
We are now officially on holiday although as we are now closed – not a good situation – we are having to spend a bit of time on The Problem. The shop will be re-opening Monday and then the bar as soon as possible after that and School of Wine and various tastings will happen as planned. I am writing this in a hotel room in Bangkok – all we have seen of Bangkok so far due to a combination of jet lag (hugely more potent than usual given that we weren’t exactly chipper to begin with) and the above mentioned tying up of loose ends. We will be going to an island tomorrow and that is when hopefully the complete rejuvenation of mind and body will commence, so we look forward to seeing all of our customers when we are shiny, happy people once more.
Very, very happy new year to all of you.
I have been directed to postings on the good old East Dulwich Forum concerning the fact that we are now closed and note that I am thought of as both hysterical and rude by some its members, so perhaps I should choose my words carefully now.
Or perhaps not.
Let any of those who are of the above opinion put literally every cent they have into something and then work 7 days a week not only paying back loans in the business but also at the business itself, only for it to be severely compromised and jeopardized through absolutely no fault of your own and then email me and tell me about how calm and zen-like you feel. My guess is not very - unless you have access to industrial quantities of valium, a route we have chosen not to go down.
So back to the grimness. I was feeling frankly that in today’s world there seemed to be little point in trying to achieve something like Green & Blue – you are either scuppered by gross inefficiency, lack of responsibility, greed or spite or an evil cocktail of all of the above. We have never been in this for the money – there are much easier ways to make considerably more – and never will be. Yes, we plan to have as many as 6 or 7 across London in due course and while we need to be profitable and hopefully one day personally more comfortable than we are now, primarily this is about selling the best wines we can at the best prices we can afford in a place that means something and has value to a local community. Because it is a business driven by a passion for what we do, perhaps we are much more affected by situations such as these than others might be, but certainly we were both feeling like perhaps we had made a profound mistake in even attempting it after all.
And then we met with Liz, our angel of mercy customer referred to in a previous blog and everything changed. It changed because not only did she, for the first time since this horrible saga began, have a practical and seemingly workable solution but also just because she cared enough to give up her valuable time (she has two small children, so her time is very valuable) . That really does change everything most profoundly, not just in real terms but also in how we both feel about things after all. And so as not to be seen to be too hard on the forum, this feeling was compounded by the numerous very positive posts we have received.
Perhaps, if we now have such amazingly wonderful, loyal customers who are willing to do this much to help us stay in business, than we are achieving what we set out to do. Not perfectly perhaps and there is always room for improvement, but enough so that we have the will to continue and hopefully continue to improve.
Thank you very much Liz – and all of the rest of you. You have no idea of how much it means to us.
We are now officially on holiday although as we are now closed – not a good situation – we are having to spend a bit of time on The Problem. The shop will be re-opening Monday and then the bar as soon as possible after that and School of Wine and various tastings will happen as planned. I am writing this in a hotel room in Bangkok – all we have seen of Bangkok so far due to a combination of jet lag (hugely more potent than usual given that we weren’t exactly chipper to begin with) and the above mentioned tying up of loose ends. We will be going to an island tomorrow and that is when hopefully the complete rejuvenation of mind and body will commence, so we look forward to seeing all of our customers when we are shiny, happy people once more.
Very, very happy new year to all of you.
