In with the old

I now have an old Nissan Leaf fully electric car, an older 2012 model. Bought it for fun and to understand how it all works, as in how it fits into work life along with the pros and cons. I wanted to see what life is like living with electric cars and whether by using it to make my daily drive to work, to the shops and to teach karate, whether I can also keep my gas guzzling Mazda CX-7 and be cost-neutral.

The owner of the garage had already told me that it might say 90 miles as the range, but 70 is more realistic. I can accept that, given the age of the car and its batteries.

I had only zipped around town for the first 3 days and only got it fully charged for Saturday morning. It declared a range of 90 miles. I popped over to Christchurch for an order of KFC's 20 wing bucket and could see the 90 coming down pretty quickly to 70 something in no time at all.

Mark Cribb presents Humans of Hospitality Live

#gifted

Mark kindly invited me and Angela to come to his Humans of Hospitality Live event, named after his podcast. In the podcast he travels the UK interviewing people from the hospitality trade, drinks distillers, food suppliers and industry organisations in order to give you a different take on what it takes to serve a fantastic meal in a restaurant or to provide a great hospitality experience.

We had our 2019 staff Christmas lunch over at the Pig Hotel in Brockenhurst and had a great time there.

Logistically not the easiest for all of us to get to. Trains for some, some drove and then acted as a taxi to the station and back. I also left my car as I needed to take a box of presents in and collected it two days after.

I wanted to go there because it was different and a lovely setting. I also wanted people to take a walk around the hotel's amazing veg and herb gardens, as well as seeing the pigs. We were so busy having a fun time that we missed out on that.

We had the Green Room, a private dining space that can seat up to 14 people, and keep our noise fun and shenannigans away from the main restaurant. We were well looked after by the one member of staff, who I have now learnt was working his first day serving.

Doing a podcast one week and then my worst business presentation the next, it was a fun packed November. 2019 has been a great year.

I was invited by Dorset Council to take part in their first podcast as part of their Digital Dorset initiative. They asked some questions to the children of The Prince of Wales School in Dorchester and asked us to respond as well.

It was a bit of fun and some exploration by Dorset Council of different channels and I was delighted to be invited as the only business representative in the room. Whilst it was a gentle chat there are some real serious questions to answer with regards to a future labour force and healthcare.

We opened up a new location over in more rural Dorset at the start of this year and I've found Dorset Council to be very engaging on all levels. I will say it's a different "landscape" out there and maybe I haven't turned as cynical as some of the business owners I have heard.

Listen here: Google Podcast episode including me

The Digital Dorset Podcast series on Anchor for future podcasts.