We have spent the last two weeks in Cuba celebrating the fortuitous timing of two people, a registry office, some of our very dearest friends and an enormous amount of cheese. Having arranged for all the above to be in the right place at the right time we felt that a holiday was well deserved, what with it being quite traditional, and had treated ourselves to 2 weeks in Cuba, a country that hangs on the edge of change, waiting for things to never be the same again.
The resolve was to leave everything Jabberwocky and day-jobby behind, and to do something that involved sun, cocktails and laughable attempts at speaking Spanish. In essence that is what we did, setting the out of office response, wishing the Beast a happy few weeks and leaving what was left of Jabberwocky HQ after the wedding, to sort itself out.
Cuba was fantastic. The faded colonial façades, the vibrant street life, the thousands of diesel spewing, grumbling but magnificent 1950s cars and the almost endless sun were perfect, and the Jabberwocky was safely back in Leamington Spa, far away from our thoughts until I found myself drawing one on a restaurant wall in Trinidad. It would appear that while you may be able to put 5000 miles between yourself and your large green food truck, you can’t necessarily stop thinking about it. Precisely what the point of the drawing was I’m unsure, but if you ever do visit Bar Santander in Trinidad (the rabbit was the best Barny has ever eaten and my lamb was divine, so do drop by if you’re in the area), and the Wocky happens to still be there, make sure you get a picture.
I think in terms of advertising we were playing the long game on that one. I can’t see many Cubans holidaying in Warwickshire any time soon, but still we somehow got talking about it. And then again when we met Carlene and Jim at the resort in Santiago. And then again when Barny bought a Cuban pizza from a street food vendor and I had to take pictures for prosperity, just in case it was ever relevant. And then again when we were at a bar in Havana and I thought the surprisingly well-mannered feral dogs were just too cute for words and decided that the Soliloquy would want to see them too.
My point is that I don’t think we can ever stop doing this now. We have sent ourselves off down this entrepreneurial path and come what may we are sticking with the Jabberwocky. We couldn’t take a holiday from it completely, even if we wanted to, there is no such thing as a Small Business Holiday.
Thus it came about that after a 29 hour day with 2 hours of sleep and 13 hours of flights we found ourselves planning the Alcester Food Festival in the car on the last leg of the journey back to Leamington. It just seemed like a good idea at the time.
The forecast for the weekend isn’t rain, so if you are around Alcester, Warwickshire it would be great to see you. We’re serving Jabberwocky Street Food and would love to hear your opinion on our latest menu item, unseen outside the R&D Kitchen here at Jabberwocky HQ, which didn’t even try and tidy up in our absence.
See you Saturday!
The cars won’t have been diesel, they’ll have been petrol/ethanol, but due to the nature of 1950s cars probably emitting similar quantities of black exhaust as the Beast so your mistake is forgiven…