Nick On The Net

He shoots, he scores

2006-08-22T20:54:00.000+01:00

Well, he shoots anyway.

Chelsea scored. Three nil as a matter of fact. Manchester City, but three nil none the less.

Claire seemed to enjoy it. She kept doing the nudgy arm thing but it was clear she didn't know much about football, which was OK because I was more than happy to tell her although it would have been better to tell her over a beer afterwards.

Weekends are great, but it's crap when the house clears out on Monday. By Thursday I'm climbing the walls. I grew up in the restaurant business - what do you want from me?

So Claire - too young perhaps, but we'll see. She also knows nothing about football.

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Nine Rooms updates every Tuesday - Gina - Nick - Claire - Alan - Joey

Blue Moves

2006-08-15T22:04:00.000+01:00

What do you do when your season ticet holding mate is out of town and he give you his tickets to see Chelsea at home on the first day of the season?

Do you
a) Politely decline
or
b) Bite his hand off, turn on the old Stampfer charm and ask a girl to join you

You have to have a pretty good reason not to go to a football match in the summer, but I like to think the charm helped.

I'd like to think that me taking Claire along has nothing to do with the meal we shared last week. I'd like to forget that I am her landlord. I'd like for Gina to call her dad back.

I may be lord of the manor, but that's about all I survey.

At the moment.

The Armani jeans, I think.

Game on.
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Nine Rooms updates every Tuesday - Gina - Nick - Claire - Alan - Joey

The kids are all right

2006-08-08T21:56:00.000+01:00

I suggested to Clair the idea of selling the house. She said it was a bad idea because she liked living here. This seems a little strange because her door is often locked and you can never really tell when she is having fun. She has changed quite a lot recently. She's more outgoing even she seems to be going out less.

I was cooking an Italian meal the other day, which we split with some wine. She noticed I had been cooking more for them these days and asked if it was because I was lonely or did I miss the restaurant. I said it was a bit of both. I'm not really a loner. I never have been. I like company. OK, more than it like me. I don't "hold court", but I like being in the crowd, so long as it's the right one.

And this group of people - even wierd Joey - are a good bunch of people.

I took four calls from Gina's dad this week so I guess they she isn't returning his calls. It's always the same time every day. About 9am, which in California I guess is late at night. He asked if she had a mobile but I said I didn't know (she doesn't) and left it at that. She needs to call her dad though.
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Nine Rooms updates every Tuesday - Gina - Nick - Claire - Alan - Joey

Thai me up, Thai me down

2006-08-01T21:20:00.000+01:00

The Thai restaurant I was looking at is out of my price range. The profits from the last place won't go even cover the deposit. But I could persuade my mother to sell this place.

I could sweeten the deal by paying for the refurbishment of the house. The profits from my old restaurant would cover that. I could convert the house into flats, and sell up for twice what its worth now and four times what we paid for it originally. I would get the refurbishment costs back and split the profits with my mother and buy the restaurant. Admittedly that would leave everyone without a home, but they are big boys and girls, as I explained before.
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Nine Rooms updates every Tuesday - Gina - Nick - Claire - Alan - Joey

I know what I like

2006-07-25T23:04:00.000+01:00

I went to the Tate Modern with Rhona who I used to work with when we were both at my dad's restaurant. She has a share in a Greek place in Kensington that's doing well.

I pretended to like a lot of the stuff, but I don't like modern art. But I don't hate it as much as I like her, so who cares?

The only time it was uncomfortable was when she spoke about work. What could I say? "Oh, I rent out my mother's place to make ends meet while I do nothing" I don't think so.

I need to start working again. There is a restaurant failing on Globe Road. It's this Thai place and they have all the signs of looking to close down. If I could buy it then I would be in business. With my experience and contacts I wouldn't have much trouble staffing the place.

Worth thinking about.
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Nine Rooms updates every Tuesday - Gina - Nick - Claire - Alan - Joey

House meeting

2006-07-18T12:37:00.000+01:00

The house meeting revealed that the drugs probably belong to Joey. I think her knew the game was up, and to show there were no hard feelings, he baked some brownies. I went easy on him. In fact I didn't even say I knew whose drugs they were - I just left them on the table and walked away. As far as I'm concerned, people can do what they want as long as no one gets hurt, but drugs bring back things and create bad people.

Gina agreed with me, because Americans have their heads screwed on well when it comes to things like that. We had a chat about music and how modern stuff is mostly old stuff rehashed. I didn't go over the whole drugs thing with her because she's been through a lot with her mother dying.

She says she's been sightseeing a lot and visiting friends since she's been here. Gina's a very honest person, but she said she didn't know anyone in London when she arrived, so I'm not sure that's the whole story.
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Nine Rooms updates every Tuesday - Gina - Nick - Claire - Alan - Joey

Busted

2006-07-11T08:52:00.000+01:00

I am not happy. I found a quantity hashish down the back of the sofa and it is not on. I questioned Claire about it and she suggested I ask Alan, adding, "maybe he can stick it on Ebay".

When I said I was serious, she suggested I call a house meeting, which may be the only way to do things, since it was hard enough getting everyone around the table the week we moved in. What gets me is that having provided everyone with a roof over their heads, people leaving drugs around is not on.
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Nine Rooms updates every Tuesday - Gina - Nick - Claire - Alan - Joey

Joey's Callers

2006-07-04T08:51:00.000+01:00

Joey has been getting a number of callers lately, which is unusual for a person as anti-scoial as he is. Maybe they are friends from work, although I am not sure where Joey works. I think he works with Claire on the TV magazine. That makes her his boss, which explains the tension between them. He seems to spend a lot more time with everyone else but her.

Mummy called the other day. She was in Buenos Aires and wanted to know if Argentina were still in the World Cup. I can't believe that she wouldn’t know this and she was probably calling to check up on me, but not wanting to show enough caring to take ever be seen to be on the back foot with anyone ever.

I think we should get a pet. It would be good for the house dynamic and would help the others learn a bit of responsibility.

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Nine Rooms updates every Tuesday - Gina - Nick - Claire - Alan - Joey

The Thais That Bind Us

2006-06-27T09:06:00.000+01:00

I welcomed Gina to the East End with a Thai meal which I cooked for the house with no extravagance spared. Tom Kah Kai with Barolo '94 and the rest takes care of itself. Everything went well and the age difference between us melted away.

I realise they do work hard so it's good to give them the chance to let their hair down. Joey's presence is always an illusive one at the best of times. After a lot of arm-twisting he finally agreed to stay in for dinner, but turned up shoeless in a surfing t-shirt and left early with a cold or something.

Which then made it OK for Alan to feel that he could go while Gina and I finished off the wine and talked about Tony Blair's role as George Bush's lapdog.

Claire's a nice girl. She's in her late 20's, I would guess and is the editor of TV Wow magazine (American readers - it's a television listings magazine) and she used to work with Gina's mother stateside. She knows Alan from a previous job, I think. For a journalist, she's not that cynical. She has asked me to set up a wireless network in the house but doesn't want to pay for the modem. It was a bit rich to suggest that right after the meal I had just cooked and paid for.

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Nine Rooms updates every Tuesday - Gina - Nick - Claire - Alan - Joey

Introductions

2006-06-21T21:01:00.000+01:00

I'm Nick Stampfer. I thought I would write a little about me, since that's what most bloggers seem to do.

I'm a chef, or at least I was until my restaurant was bought by an Irish pub company. Technically, I'm out of work, but I'm enjoying not doing anything for a bit, living off some of the money I made from the sale (although that wasn't a lot after debts). Anyone in my line of work can tell you two of the happiest days of their professional life: the first is when you open your own restaurant and the second is when you close it.

I live in my mother's house, which was our family home until she and my dad split up. I strongly suspect she prematurely exhausted any hopes of a reconciliation while I was young enough for her to win the marital home in the divorce settlement. He had affairs - the restaurant business and late nights bristle wth the talons of infidelity.

House secured, she ran off with my dad's somelier and is on an extended holiday blowing my inheritance, and, I would imagine, Jean-Francois, although hopefully not at the same time.

Doing less is much more fun when you have other people around. The one thing about restaurants is that there are always people around and I missed that after we closed. Alan moved in a month ago, Joey about a week after that. In return for good food and a roof over their heads, they give me money and the (sometimes) pleasure of their company.

The newest arrivals, Claire and Gina, move in this week, which brings the total to five including me.

So here's to new beginnings (I still make toasts when I open a bottle of wine - old habits). It seems like a good time to start a blog.

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Nine Rooms - Gina - Nick - Claire - Alan - Joey

First proper post

2006-06-06T21:04:00.000+01:00

No - sure enough, it works. Except I can't figure out how to delete the old ones. Andy Warhol may have been on to something. Maybe technology means that everyone will be famous for seven and a half minutes, but they'll be twice as famous. Or they'll be like Tom Cruise famous for a few seconds. That would be bad.

I guess the alternative is to be unknown for a lifetime. I think I would settle for "being known as long as people were interested", kind of fame.

Which, the way I'm going on now, won't be very long.

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Nine Rooms - Gina - Nick - Claire - Alan - Joey

Post Again

2006-06-06T21:02:00.000+01:00

Cooool. Let's try that again. It might have been a fluke.

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Nine Rooms - Gina - Nick - Claire - Alan - Joey

First Entry

2006-06-05T08:53:00.000+01:00

Hello. I'm blogging. Let's see if this works.

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Nine Rooms - Gina - Nick - Claire - Alan - Joey