Friday, October 19, 2012

Old Grumpy - open for business!

hi there

my apologies for not doing this update earlier in the week, i've alas been busy with this and that. anyway, you should have gone along to the grand opening and experience the Old Grumpy effect for yourself instead of waiting to read all about it here!

'tis true, what you have heard, if what you have heard is that Old Grumpy's Gallery is armed and fully operational. the sign on the door says so!



i do quite like the very Basil Fawlty emphasis on the "yes" and "open" in the sign above. i am impressed, surprised and it has to be said equally disappointed that the doormat is quite straightforward.




"welcome" is a nice, polite gesture and i imagine all are welcome. i can only assume Mum was in charge of getting the above. if it was left to Dad i guarantee the above would have written on it "no riff raff" or "all potential patrons will be subject to vetting and approval".

on towards the opening and Dad seems to have had a good idea involving booze.



no harm in toasting the start of what we all know shall be a most successful venture!

i gather young Ethan, whose one picture has appeared twice on this blog thus far, has developed a bit of a following on this site. nice one! sadly i do not have any new pictures of Ethan to share here (Dad has no doubt "set him to work" on some sort of construction project), but i am delighted to present his sibling, Melissa, who is the gallery manager. 



Melissa must have, quite frankly, an abundance of talent, ability and patience. i would not even like to think of what it's like being "interviewed" by my Dad to be honest, but i am pretty sure i would fail any number of the points that form part of it. well, i would probably do very well in the section about "getting any music or film requested" as i still appear to have that job (hope Fairport Convention landed by now!).

best of luck, Melissa. i am sure you will get along just fine with Mum.

onwards, then, to visitors to Old Grumpy's Gallery. i am not inclined to put a picture here of every single person that visits the gallery, no matter how inclined Dad is to send me pictures of that nature. here is, however, one of the first, if not the first, person through the door.



who is it? i have absolutely no idea. Dad refers to this gent as a "tyre kicker on holiday from Doncaster". i am not sure he specifically went from Doncaster to Mount Maugnanui to be at the opening of Old Grumpy's, but if in fact he did well then splendid!

if for some reason, by the way, you do wish to feature on this blog, then by all means when visiting Mount Maunganui please stop by Old Grumpy's, tell my Dad that you wish to appear here and then nature shall soon take its course.

on that note, please visit the Old Grumpy's page over one Grand Social Network to both click that you "like" it and to get details of how to get there. and get there you should, really, looking at what they have in stock!



yummy! the fine people of New Zealand will be quite aware of what those items on the shelves are. for those unaware, they are confectionaries and cakes from a company called Loaf. they are exceptionally tasty and well worth getting your hands on. go visit Old Grumpy and buy!

back, briefly, to Melissa. i really do hope she likes having her picture taken on a random, frequent basis. she may well be thinking that he's taking lots of pictures presently, like this one of her wrapping an item in cellophane, because of his "novelty factor" at the gallery opening.



this is, alas, not the case. he is a rampant photographer as regular readers here will be all too aware. Dad has, after all, once taken dozens of pictures whilst just simply standing in a passport queue. which is possibly against some sort of regulations, so let's forget i mentioned that for now.

Mum, of couse, is by now well used to his camera shenanigans, and simply ignores the lens as she takes a quick break to catch up on the news.



a final picture for now of the A Team that helped put this all together with Dad! names are as per Dad's mail, so if they are wrong please accept my apologies and i assure you that Dad will say i simply read his mail incorrectly.



right, next to Mum is Diane, who helped with all the displays and colour co-ordination. i ask you to look no further than any picture of my Dad wearing red shoes to understand how important and probably how difficult that task will have been for her.

next to Melissa is Cheryl. Cheryl is an incredibly talented arts and crafts practicioner, and she has designed and created some special candles for exclusive sale via Old Grumpy's. no doubt i will be getting some pictures of them soon, or perhaps you can follow the link to their page on the book of faces to see some!

well, what can i say but comment on how delighted we all are that everything has gone very well so far! no doubt more updates will feature here in the not too distant future!


visit Old Grumpy's Gallery!

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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