Zucchini may seem a strange name for a wedding venue but it did start out in life six years ago as a restaurant and very successful one at that. We had hosted a couple of weddings and thought nothing of it until one day we opened up our email inbox to find 11 wedding enquiries. From this day forward we have never looked back http://www.zucchiniweddings.com/
was born and now we host in excess of a 100 weddings and functions a year between March and October, which is the wedding season here in Cyprus.
Blue Olive cafe/bistro is our latest venture and already has a huge following from the day we opened the doors on 29 January 2008. Many ex Zucchini customers came strolling through our doors which has been fantastic! To be honest I didn't think Blue Olive would take of quite as quickly as it has all a bit of a shock really and quite exhausting!
When I look back over the last six years I can see the progress that we've made has been phenomenal, although it hasn't come without many tears, some laughter but most of all absolute determination to succeed in a counry that would quite happily see you fail, and crawl back home with your tail between your legs, penniless I might add.
We found the Zucchini venue purely by chance and within 6 weeks of arriving in Cyprus we opened the doors to our new restaurant. This was to be a new chapter in my life and his, one that I had planned and longed for, and him, the DREAM that I know a lot of you out there have had at some stage in your life. The dream restaurant in the sun, bourganvilia around that rustic blue/green painted door, paint peeling from the sun, happy people eating, drinking and laughing over that long lunch before the afternoon siesta - well dream on, I hate to burst your bubble but it ain't nothing like that whatsoever, as I have well and truly found out.
Even my trusted tarot cards that I consult from time to time cast complete darkness over the situation (my state of mind wasn't good as you can imagine). I'll never forget looking at each other this one particular morning, the look on both our faces said it all - good grief what have we done this time and yes, it was too late to turn the clock back, we were now into the bank for a loan on the business plus our savings - looking back we were nothing short of crazy.
If all this gloom wasn't enough, coping with the heat was another thing entirely I remember sitting next to an open window in the restaurant barely able to breath - the air coming through that window was like air being blown from a very hot hairdryer and we are 350 metres above sea level which should of helped, not so - well we just sweltered and of course cried some more!
The standing joke amongst the staff was 'hey I hope you've hidden her passport' it was really that bad I was desperate to get back to London, those nice people and my home, which luckily we had decided not to sell - just incase.
As I have said before the contrast of working in Mayfair W1 and living in Peyia was so, so different, one moment I am dealing with A list celebs and the glitteratti of London and dealing with a very high profile board of directors and bosses, the next minute I'm trying to deal with a herd of goats running up the drive towards the restaurant, threatening to upset all of our diners - big hoot!! I can laugh now but at the time this wasn't at all funny.
The next crisis was a tornedo that was threatening to rip through the restaurant as we watched the three twisters come off the sea at Coral Bay, it was scary watching the tornedo approach and trying to find the best possible spot to hide so that you wouldn't be hit by shattering glass.
The forest fire almost took everything away from us including our home it started at the back of the restaurant in the forest. The fire was so close we had a two helicopters from the British bases and the Cypriot fire service controlling them from our car park sending them down to collect sea water to try and put the fire out. This little episode went on all afternoon, we had Mr.Squinks and Ted (pre-Athos days, he came later along with two othe stray dogs Nkki and Norman) in their baskets ready to get the hell out of there before it all went up in flames and we lost the lot.
This all happened in the space of about 4 months by now I was convinced there was some kind of dark force (remember the taro cards I had selected the 'Tower' - not a good card as you will know if you are familiar with the taro) out there telling me it was about time to quit and go home, at last an excuse, it was maybe the excuse that I needed or was it?
Oh and just before I sign out let me share this with you all, I discovered the final icing on the cake, snakes - yes snakes in Cyprus, it's full of them, some deadly others not so bad of course unless you have such a complete phobia like me and can't even bare to watch them on the TV - I spot them before you've even had time to blink. Just another horror for me to contend with until it gets cold and they sleep again! The joys of living in Cyprus!
Sorry to appear just doom and gloom over this period in time but this was exactly how it was, there was no wood for the trees. My frame of mind was lets say freeze frame, I couldn't see an end in sight let alone see that things could only get better - one things for sure they couldn't get any worse - or could they?
was born and now we host in excess of a 100 weddings and functions a year between March and October, which is the wedding season here in Cyprus.
Blue Olive cafe/bistro is our latest venture and already has a huge following from the day we opened the doors on 29 January 2008. Many ex Zucchini customers came strolling through our doors which has been fantastic! To be honest I didn't think Blue Olive would take of quite as quickly as it has all a bit of a shock really and quite exhausting!
When I look back over the last six years I can see the progress that we've made has been phenomenal, although it hasn't come without many tears, some laughter but most of all absolute determination to succeed in a counry that would quite happily see you fail, and crawl back home with your tail between your legs, penniless I might add.
We found the Zucchini venue purely by chance and within 6 weeks of arriving in Cyprus we opened the doors to our new restaurant. This was to be a new chapter in my life and his, one that I had planned and longed for, and him, the DREAM that I know a lot of you out there have had at some stage in your life. The dream restaurant in the sun, bourganvilia around that rustic blue/green painted door, paint peeling from the sun, happy people eating, drinking and laughing over that long lunch before the afternoon siesta - well dream on, I hate to burst your bubble but it ain't nothing like that whatsoever, as I have well and truly found out.
Even my trusted tarot cards that I consult from time to time cast complete darkness over the situation (my state of mind wasn't good as you can imagine). I'll never forget looking at each other this one particular morning, the look on both our faces said it all - good grief what have we done this time and yes, it was too late to turn the clock back, we were now into the bank for a loan on the business plus our savings - looking back we were nothing short of crazy.
If all this gloom wasn't enough, coping with the heat was another thing entirely I remember sitting next to an open window in the restaurant barely able to breath - the air coming through that window was like air being blown from a very hot hairdryer and we are 350 metres above sea level which should of helped, not so - well we just sweltered and of course cried some more!
The standing joke amongst the staff was 'hey I hope you've hidden her passport' it was really that bad I was desperate to get back to London, those nice people and my home, which luckily we had decided not to sell - just incase.
As I have said before the contrast of working in Mayfair W1 and living in Peyia was so, so different, one moment I am dealing with A list celebs and the glitteratti of London and dealing with a very high profile board of directors and bosses, the next minute I'm trying to deal with a herd of goats running up the drive towards the restaurant, threatening to upset all of our diners - big hoot!! I can laugh now but at the time this wasn't at all funny.
The next crisis was a tornedo that was threatening to rip through the restaurant as we watched the three twisters come off the sea at Coral Bay, it was scary watching the tornedo approach and trying to find the best possible spot to hide so that you wouldn't be hit by shattering glass.
The forest fire almost took everything away from us including our home it started at the back of the restaurant in the forest. The fire was so close we had a two helicopters from the British bases and the Cypriot fire service controlling them from our car park sending them down to collect sea water to try and put the fire out. This little episode went on all afternoon, we had Mr.Squinks and Ted (pre-Athos days, he came later along with two othe stray dogs Nkki and Norman) in their baskets ready to get the hell out of there before it all went up in flames and we lost the lot.
This all happened in the space of about 4 months by now I was convinced there was some kind of dark force (remember the taro cards I had selected the 'Tower' - not a good card as you will know if you are familiar with the taro) out there telling me it was about time to quit and go home, at last an excuse, it was maybe the excuse that I needed or was it?
Oh and just before I sign out let me share this with you all, I discovered the final icing on the cake, snakes - yes snakes in Cyprus, it's full of them, some deadly others not so bad of course unless you have such a complete phobia like me and can't even bare to watch them on the TV - I spot them before you've even had time to blink. Just another horror for me to contend with until it gets cold and they sleep again! The joys of living in Cyprus!
Sorry to appear just doom and gloom over this period in time but this was exactly how it was, there was no wood for the trees. My frame of mind was lets say freeze frame, I couldn't see an end in sight let alone see that things could only get better - one things for sure they couldn't get any worse - or could they?
