14 North

Last Friday I was lucky enough to go to 14 North on the quay in Douglas IOM for the PokerStars Human Resources Christmas party.

I'd never been to 14 North before and was unsure what to expect, having eaten in a number of restaurants on the IOM with mixed results, immediately on arrivingy mind was put at rest by a lovely warm welcome, our waitress took us upstairs to our table and settled us in with friendly chat and many smiles.

14 North is not the largest of restaurants being a former private residence with the ground and first floor being devoted to tables and chairs and the kitchen either downstairs or out back I didn't see it what it lacks in size it makes up for in Intimacy.

Our table of 20 almost took up the whole of one side of the upstairs room so our noisy chatter didn't disturb too many regular diners, I knew they were regulars by the way they interacted with the staff and by the smiles on their faces.

It took a while for our meal companions to assemble and while we waited our waitress fetched us drinks having guided me skilfully to a lovely cocktail.

Eventually we were all present and watered and the pre-ordered starters began to appear, delivered hot or cold as appropriate they were unanimously agreed to be tasty, I'd ordered a spicy sausage flatbread that when it arrived could easily have served as a main course, it was hot spicy and delicious and I was forced to control myself to leave room for my main course.

Without asking my waitress offered to wrap it for me to take home which was a lovely touch.

The main courses duly arrived also piping hot or suitably chilled I had a steak which for a change arrived cooked as ordered medium rare, I enjoyed it thoroughly but couldn't finish it and yes my waitress took it away and wrapped it for me to take home, everyone at the table and from what I could see the restaurant enjoyed theirs just as much as me.

Pudding for me was cheese and biscuits which arrived sans butter, quickly and courteously remedied and was composed of four flavoursome local cheeses and 8 assorted biscuits that I enjoyed too.

At last replete from a lovely meal we left vowing to return and I for one will surely be back, 14 north get in there as a football playing friend of mine would say.

Why do they do that ?

I just spent a very frustrating hour trying to get Access 2007 to display a custom menu on a form, I remember doing this a while ago and it wasn't that hard.

Adding a custom menu to a form adds value by making getting around a lot easier for users which is probably why Microsoft decided to remove this functionality when they "upgraded" the software to 2007.

I'm not one to stand in the way of progress but sheesh, it's like upgrading a car by making all the buttons on the dashboard black with black lettering that lights up black when you press em !

Am confidently expecting the next iteration to disallow the use of alphanumeric characters.

Ok end of rant back to the day job.

John

Verifying my blog on Empire Avenue

EAV:c1560821196111c3

Ok so what's that all about I hear you ask, well I was recently put onto Empire Avenue by my boss who is a social media genius by the way called Jon Weedon, here's a link to his blog so you can bask in his awesomeness http://jon1.com/

Empire Avenue to get back to the subject in hand is a social media share dealing networking sort of a thingy that is really quite addictive if you happen to be a social animal like me, stop laughing you lot !

Ok so why am I posting a long number, well as part of setting yourself up and earning EAV's (the currency of the game) you have to verify your blog hence the id number, see simple huh?

Ok so why not follow this link and have a look, yes I get EAV's if you do, I'm obviously now trying to beat my boss and have a long way to go so any and all help will be appreciated :)

http://empireavenue.com/?t=moy8idj

More to come on this I feel sure.

John

Back with a reconciliation

hello everyone, been a while aye?

While I've been away much has happened to me, around me and by me and I'll try and bring you all up to date as quickly as I can.

Firstly I am now in a new job that has probably the longest title I've ever owned, Senior Manager Online Training and Intranet Development which basically means that I have two full time jobs to hold down, it seems incredible to me that only 12 months ago I didn't really have one !

Secondly I am still at the same company and still on the Isle of Man which is good news all round, though Fraggle Rock may be cold wet and insular it is also beautiful, safe and secure, having said that over the winter I'm afraid the UK and the rest of the world or "Across" as it's locally referred to were cut off for quite a few days as the ferry wasn't able to get across to Heysham, I hope you were all ok and not too worried.

Thirdly there's some great and some terrible customer service over here to report on so look forward to some more posts soon.

Gotta go as work beckons, take care all I'll be back soon.

John