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Coming up to a year of Cousin Jacks
We cant believe that is was nearly a whole year ago that we opened Cousin Jacks and me and my father stood outside the store and took this photo in mid May 2012.
So much has happened in the first year like any first year of a new business. New products have been introduced like the ever popular South American Empanada and the Pork & Fennel sausage turnovers, some slow sellers we said goodbye to (remember the Salmon Pasty?). We’ve had such wonderful staff work for us and then move onto their next life’s journey. The lovely Malcolm is still with us though from day 1!
We’ve had such wonderful local press and food bloggers write such nice things about us and we were even a finalist as the best new business in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs.
We’ve had on average 3 serious experiences of interest for a franchise per month pop into our inboxes which is amazing for a new family business to receive and we’ve even started to wholesale out our little pasties to other pasty loving business’s.
Next Friday 17th we will be holding a little party as the store closes to say thank you to all the team that built the store both physically and behind the scenes and of course all the staff will be coming, if your in the area that evening as a loyal customer pop by and say hello.
Onwards and upwards to another year of the best pasties in Australia!! (as officially voted by your tastebuds and tummies).
Videos from our Wedding
It is with great pleasure we can now say our wedding video + the extras are now complete!
All are available via YouTube in SD quality all the way up to top HD quality to watch. Here are the links:
The extras:
Wedding Slideshow (this was the slideshow shown during the reception)
Speech – Father of the Groom, Terry
Speech – Mother of the Bride, Helen
Speech – Best Man, Damien
Speech – Groom, Mark (did I really rabbit on for 22 minutes, jee’s sorry everyone!)
Sanna and I would like to say a huge thank you to our friend Jay who goes by the name of jng99 & IN5AN3 Productions on YouTube, for all his time on the day filming, photographing and then the hours and hours of editing at home after the wedding. Also thank you to old friend Dom who came all the way from England for our wedding and did a lot of the camera work also. Jay’s done a stellar job of the videos and the slideshow shown during the reception that we will cherish for years, and hopefully show our kids one day.
We hope you had a great time at our wedding, wow it was almost 6 month ago now, and hope you can relive the memories through these videos!!
I needed this
After a very long and exhausting 12 hour shift standing on my feet at Cousin Jacks due to a staff member not turning up to work suddenly. I really needed to sit down in the theatre with a ticket to the amazing Warhorse in my left hand and a beer in the right. Thanks so much to Sannas mum for buying the tickets for us and were really sorry we couldn’t make the lunchtime performance with you but we really enjoyed the evening performance of the show.
I would really recommended to anyone thinking of going to see it, with or without a much needed beer 
Wauchope roadtrip video
I thought I’d share the video of the road trip I was invited to a couple of months ago. We were on the search for the best driving roads within a few hours drive North of Sydney. 5 luxury cars and 6 friends, it was a great 2 day trip and a lot of fun.
Winters not here yet
It was a lovely day to catch up with Chris n Christina in Elizabeth bay today. The sun was hot when it came out from behind the clouds and proved winter is not here yet.
Mum and dad you will recognise the house.
My favourite song
I have to say my favourite song of all time and the one that nearly brings me to tears every time I listen is Groove Armadas Edge Hill. To quote a comment I read once and I couldn’t write it better myself:
“That mid-section keeps on reaching higher highs and renewing itself. And the acoustic guitar is like running water
One of the most classical pieces of electronica ever made. Been a favourite of mine for years”
and the original album version from 2001:
Honeymoon day 17 – The last day
Our last day of our honeymoon, sad 🙁 and we had a 7 hour stopover in Los Angeles. We looked up on the net where is close to LAX airport to spend a few hours. We found Manhattan beach just 15 mins drive south of the airport.
It’s not a touristy beach like Santa Monica we visited before and had a real local feel. We got dropped off by the taxi and walked out to the pier end. Quite a few surfers and body boarders. Look at how many houses there are going off into the distance.
Manhattan beach turns out to be the home of beach volleyball. There were about 50 beach volleyball courts on the beach.
Hope the surfers don’t find a shark this big with them.
There are some lovely designed houses along the beach front and all are unique in their designs.
A lovely sunset to finish our last day on our honeymoon
So many countries we have been to. For me the highlight was the islands in the Caribbean. The waters were blue and warm, the people were friendly.
Where it was nicer over the amazon was it was less humid and people weren’t trying to sell things to you a lot of the time. Oh yeah no yellow fever mosquitoes either. It was a experience to say you’ve been to and seen the amazon though.
Honeymoon day 16 – Florida Keys
It’s our last full day of our honeymoon and we docked early at 7am at Fort Lauderdale. Welcome to the USA, the world of copy and paste, fast food and brands at every turn.
We got off the ship (it was sad to leave it behind) and picked up our hire car quickly. We planned to drive the length of Florida keys. From the beginning at the north east to Keys West down in the south west.
Sanna organised a Ford Mustang convertible for the drive which wasn’t expensive at all apparently. A white muscle car so I’m showing my muscles.
Mustangs are relatively cheap for a sports car in the USA so we saw a lot of them.
Driving on Florida keys, the roads are straight and over light blue water.
The water is shallow all around.
Some of the old bridges connecting the keys have fallen into a bad way so they replace with new bridges.
Lots of shipwrecks in the keys and lots of diving history about also.
We got to west key at the end of Florida keys and first thing was to find a car park. This is another monster of a car!
European convertible versus American convertible.
How about this for a parking solution. You put $15 in a envelope and put it in the post box and call a phone number to tell them your plate number.
Some of the houses in Keys West were quite old looking and quaint.
The main street in Keys West.
Sloppy Joe’s is a long time famous bar in Keys West. Live music all day, the warm smell of beer in the air
and sloppy food, didn’t think much of the food but it wasn’t expensive at all.
Look Ernest Hemingway’s house! I can’t remember what he was famous for? A poet? Answers on a post card please.
The Southernmost point of mainland USA!
This is the Southernmost beach of the USA. What a beautiful place to be married, shame we’ve done that now, this place would be beautiful!
Next stop a quick stopover in LA.
Honeymoon day 15 – last day on ship
I woke up early to try and make the most of my final day on ship and to watch the sunrise
For lunchtime there was the ‘galley market’ where they open up the gallery to give you every gourmet food you could think of. It was a FEAST.
Sanna laying by the pool after the massive lunch, we both felt so full
That evening was a final dance party and Sanna danced off the lunch
