Season 2010 review (at last)

Just a quick non review related sentence, if anyone goes to Toys R Us and sees a Sony Ericcson W910i phone with a set of headphones and a Guns N Roses logo as its main screen or has already got it you git, its mine ya bugger give it back! Such a pain.

So lets see if i can remember the season, these days i'm lucky if i can remember yesterday. Well, i started the season thinking that this season i better set myself up for a struggle, UK economy was rubbish (still is) Greek economy was worse than UK (still is). The first thing i noticed was the price of things in the local supermarkets, most people used to go abroad to buy cheap booze and cigs to take back with them but you can buy your booze at stupid prices now in the UK, so items that were alot of supermarkets bloodlines like booze weren't being touched which through the season would hit the traders hard.

The resort when i turned up looked alot better than most seasons it was quite clean and looked quite fresh. My bar on the other hand looked like it had been hit by every natural disaster known to man along with a few stray cats strutting around like they owned the place. With a swift kick up the ass of the cats and a bit of Mary Poppins clean up magic the bar was ready to open.

May i was expecting to be very quiet but from the first day i had hit double my daily target which was a good feeling but i take a day at a time and never take anything for granted any day can be a fluke or lucky. May continued in this fashion which gave me a good set up for the season but then the tax hit from 19% to 21% but didn't change my prices.
The season just kept getting stronger and stronger through june then another tax hit 21% to 23% still kept my prices the same due to the UK economy and wanting to give my customers value for money which i think is what kept the bar full most nights due to getting a very large measure of real spirit for very little money also a pint bottle beer for less than a pint in the UK. Its was great to see so many regular customers back and also at least 50% of my trade was new customers which is the way you want your business to be, if you just rely on regulars all the time at some point your business will fade away. The internet did help with trade but no more than other years about 20% were from different websites that had read good things about the bar and the other 30% were from word of mouth within the resort and walk by trade. Out of all those customers i only had one couple who never came back for a second visit but then again they were very rude to me when i was only being polite to them so it was no great loss. Thats the best thing about running the bar alone, i meet ever single person that comes in to my bar so i can then see who returns and who doesn't, its a great feeling to see people return.
Through the season i changed my menu 3 times as i kept on coming up with new cocktails, next year i'm sorry to say the smoothie cocktails will not be available as it was just to much of a pain in the ass to make LOL especially when most nights it was manic in the bar then an order comes in for 4 different smoothies aaargggh! A plus point out of this came the confectionary cocktails i developed and new for next season i have the Banoffee pie cocktail. The cocktails i devised were the best sellers all season and it was a close call between Oceanic cocktail and the Fry's Turkish Delight cocktail to which was most popular. I know a few people have e-mailed me for recipes and i will get round to replying very shortly.
Before i knew it my season was coming to an end but with a bang and phut as everything started to go wrong, computer blew, amplifier blew, tree lights blew, bar flooded, high winds and heavy rain hit bar trade badly when i was still making double target in beginning of Oct but i still carried on, the bar would have only closed if it had collapsed as my regular customers no matter what the weather still came in for drinks even if it meant catching a taxi.

It was very sad to see so many businesses close during the season and even more i would think won't be open next season, no matter who the people are or where they're from you wouldn't wish for their business to close and if anyone is happy about the fact that a business closes down or wants a business to close down then those people should be ashamed of themselves as one day it may happen to them.

So thats about it for this topic all i can say is it was my best season out of my 4 on the island so far wiith Oceanic and have another 2 seasons left on my lease which i will complete no matter how good or bad the next 2 seasons are.

I am also looking forward to getting back to start the refurb but in saying that the people i went to see about quotes for a new roof didn't get back to me after 3 weeks and still haven't so god knows how long it would take for them to build it haha.

So all thats left to say is "Roll on 2011".

Don't forget i still update through the winter but usually fortnightly as all i do is play with toys LOL.

I have got some pics to post that i've taken through the season so that will be in the next topic.