I did something different this year – I did the unprecedented and closed the gardens for 2 hours and brought everyone out for lunch at Tarbush Restuarant in Batu Ferringhi. A New Year, a new way of doing things – that’s me always rocking status quo when I have the opportunity to do so

So we had a pretty complete team with 25 staff showing up with the absence of 1 worker and 1 part timer. So for those wanting to know, the gardens operates on a total of 27 workers inclusive of part timers/ guides/ admin office and gardeners to maintain the place as is. No small feat I should remind you…

Superb Tarbush appetizers on mosaic tables

Tarbush is situated in Batu Ferringhi set in about 200m from the main road. And it really does have quite a pleasant setting with mosaic floors and tables creating a lot of ambience for the place. The food is mostly Lebanese/ Arabic cuisine and the appetizers of the set menu were quite impressively churned out in substantial quantities. We had hummous and pita bread, lentil soup, falafels, samosas and fatoush salad and of course on top of that I unwittingly ordered more appetizers which included kibbeh (a zeppelin like lamb dumpling and of course! more samosas). So needless to say by the time the main course of lamb and chicken arrived with a delectable pilau we were all already clutching our stomachs and needing to ’stretch our legs’ .

2nd pic of the year with Bea looking stunned!

When time came to order the thick and cardamom-fragrant Arabic coffee, half the team settled down to their mini brass pans with wooden handles ushered down with some cooling fruit.

The whole restaurant was practically ours this afternoon. Today’s staff lunch went off with no speech, no fanfare, no lucky draw, no fancy dress or theme but just some good quality ‘ponteng’ time.

Kat with her bread

The team has been a great one as I think back over 2009. We have much to be proud of. In my speech last annual dinner 2008, I warned the staff that things did not look good for 09 but that if we buckle down and work hard we would ride through the storm.

I can safely say we did more than just scrape through in every sense of the word. And every single ounce of effort to make the garden cogs whirl away has been worth it. Well done team, I’m so proud of you!