Jennifer North's Six of the Best

Best Holiday

This has to be Goa to celebrate my 40th birthday. I jetted off on Christmas Eve at 6pm, exhausted from working flat out 7 days a week for 5 weeks with pre-Christmas parties. I didn’t get any sleep on the plane overnight as everybody was celebrating Christmas.

On arrival in Goa at 9am (5am English time) it was like walking into an oven with complete mayhem in the busy airport. The drive to the hotel was undertaken at breakneck speed, I think the driver’s name was Sterling Moss! I really don’t know how he circumnavigated the menagerie of people and animals ambling across or simply sitting on the roads and taking the quickest way around the roundabouts, be it to the left or right.

The phenomenal contrast between those who have and those who don’t seen when passing through the mango groves with huge lovely houses contrasting vastly with people living under corrugated tin sheets in the next field. Goa is known for it’s amazing beaches, but there is much history, innumerable temples and fabulous food.

Wherever I go, I love to explore at ground root levels with a good travel guide and using public transport and taxis to visit cities and historical monuments. It’s the only way to really get to know the country and its people.

Best Album

This is tricky! I have an eclectic range of styles of music very dependant on how I feel. I love a good opera and classical music as part of my heritage of having a cellist for a father who worked in many places including the Royal Opera House as well as for The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. To the contrary I love Madness, punk rock and soul which take me back to my teenager years. You see my issue!

Finding one album where I like all the tracks is trickier again! The first time I got my ipod, I loaded every single album I’d ever bought and then spent months deleting all the tracks I didn’t like. However, it is a toss between ELO “All Over the World” and the Foo Fighters “Concrete and Gold”. But I’m not going to choose which one!

Best Sporting Event

I’m big fan of rugby and take a passing interest in most main-stream sporting events when I can watch on tv or listen to the radio. I’m not avid event goer as I don’t like big crowds of people. I love swimming and cycling, and I love to cycle at my own speed exploring the countryside along the back lanes. I have a lovely titanium framed road bike which makes cycling hills so much better and achieving distances far quicker!

Best Film

I love a good Bond or Harry Potter and would probably say that Harry Potter and Sorcerer’s Stone is something I never tire of. It has to be something that makes me laugh or cry or holds my interest, nothing with horror, violence or gore. I get bored very quickly if the plot is implausible or the acting is bad.

Best Book

I would say Harry Potter especially as described above because of it’s the incredible imagination and detailed descriptions. However, I will choose Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I read this for my English Literature ‘O’ level and fell in love with learning to understand the complicated language and dialogue. I too fell in love with Mr Darcy!

Best App

I’m going to be a real nerd! It’s a Point of Sale app (The Good Till) that allows me to see all the management reports, optimise profits and performance in real time whenever I choose! The ipad doubles as the POS and is used to wander around and complete the stock take. It’s eliminated so much time, made it so much easier for the staff to use and eliminated hours of work for the staff in entering data on to different systems as well as for me, at weekends, checking and resetting onerous spreadsheets.

If you'd like to know more about Cibus Training and Consultancy and how we can help you to stay on top of food hygiene and health and safety requirements and legislation please get in touch with Jennifer at info@cibustraining.co.uk