The Bank is the Heavy Weight Champion of the World!!!!

So with bated breath I waited the whole weekend and hit the street Monday morning and hit every bank I could. Denied, Denied, Denied!!! No one would touch me. So a quick stop for lunch with a friend and he says Credit Union. So I hit the other one in town and I was denied there too. So I figured I’d go open an account and not bother with a loan. I’ll do the unthinkable. Cash advance on my credit card. I’ll pay it back when I get the money. Ya right famous last words. This is where so many ppl get into trouble. I’ve always been good with money and I can stretch a buck along way. What can I say? It’s the Scottish in me. So I hope I’ll be ok.

 Now I know in my last Blog that I would go to another bank. But if I stay with the same bank I can switch over my merchant stuff and upgrade to an electronic system with out paying a penalty. And on Sat I was watching a financial program and the other banks don’t hold a candle to my bank. So better to be with the Devil you know than the one you don’t. So I put my tail between my legs and called up my bank and asked to have a meeting to open an account. The meeting was arranged for tomorrow. But there was a death and I have to go to a funeral tomorrow so I called to change the appointment today at 11:00 and got a voice mail. Hearing nothing by 15:00 I called again and left a message but there was no return call. Maybe they read my last Blog and don’t want to talk to me hee hee hee.

In the mean time I had a meeting with my designer today. She showed me the first draft of what she saw for the restaurant. I loved every bit of it except for the pattern of the lounge chairs. So it’s back to the drawing board there but, everything else looks great. In order to get an approximant Quote she needs to go back into the restaurant with the Contractor and Electrician to do hard core measuring and stuff (what ever that may be.) So we are going in Fri the 3^rd. This afternoon Patrick e-mailed me and asked if he could speak with the designer as he is looking after all the marketing, menu design and logo design and wants to work with her so everything matches up. I told him we were all meeting at the restaurant on Fri and if he could join us that would be great. He obliged, so it will be a big happy meeting on Fri. I hope to Blog on Fri night to let you all know how it went.

Now about the Funeral. I know I told you all that I would try to keep this Blog professional and not personal but I need to tell you about Gary. As a young lad I took a job washing dishes at the Oshawa Golf Club. It was 1986. After a few months there we got a new Chef (Gerhard Beck) an old school, hard German Chef. I was terrified. I think it took about 10mins before he yelled at me.  I was going through the typical teenage stuff that boys do. And Mom was losing control of me fast. "In Steps Gary". On the surface he was mean! Yelling and controlling and you said yes sir, no sir to him. Mostly yes sir!  Gary hated being called Chef. It was Gary he wanted to be called. Gary took me under his wing. I was going to high school and working 30-40 hours a week. But truth be told Sometimes I went to work and punched in got into my whites and he’d make me do my homework!!! I hated him for it. I never wore socks, I’d cut through the golf coarse in the winter time and when I got to the kitchen I couldn’t feel me feet. I’d it sit in his office with my feet in buckets of water to warm up. Then there was the time I quit and walked out on him (one of three if memory serves). Only to find him the next morning at my door, telling me to come to work. I said Gary I quit. He said I know, now get your shoes on and come to work. There are so many stories like that. I was with Gary for 4 yrs I think? I kept in touch with him for the passed 20. He was a hard man but had a heart of gold. I love him for it and model myself after him. I’m a hard Chef. I know it. But I believe in my staff and all of my apprentices have gone onto great careers. Nothing wrong with being hard as long as you’re fair!

Sadly Gary was very ill the last few years of his life and succumbed to kidney failure August 30^th 2010. He is the reason I became a Chef. And lets be honest here he’s also the reason I never got mixed up with the bad crowed in those impressionable years.

Chef Gerhard’s Commis for ever!!!  Glenn