The Margzville Star April 2003
Volume 1, Issue 1
Welcome to the April edition of my newsletter.
Margaret Gill Executive & Personal Lifestyle Coach P 03 5348 2552 M 0407 377 173
The Newsletter for Foodies and high achievers seeking more time & less stress in life
T H E
F O O D I E
C O A C H
www.margaretgill.biz
Silence is golden, so they say, and indeed I've been a bit quiet of late. I've been transitioning away in the cute house that has become my country retreat. Comically dubbed Margzville by my friend Dan, I am developing my own great little place in the world. It is often said that the obvious is right in front of our nose. After months of struggling to work out what all this transitioning is about, I seem to have found the obvious answer right in front of me. I was sitting out in the gorgeous sunshine at the H ill End Café here in Daylesford, one of my most favourite places in the whole wide world to just hang out.
Ever wondered how to eat well and enjoy the finer things of life, whilst maintaining balance, health and happiness in a busy, stressfilled world? You are not alone. So in addition to my current business and personal clients, my new highlytargeted niche market is "foodies".
Foodies "Passionate devotees of food who approach any opportunity to savour and experience food with awe, wonderment and excitement, be that experience ever so humble or ever so grand."
After that momentous breakthrough, I'm finally inspired to get back to the newsletter; but, what to write? There are so many serious topics to write about. In my coaching I'm constantly working on serious life and business issues with my clients, so I thought it might be nice to balance that with some lighter stuff. I believe w e are constantly bombarded with the serious things going on in the world at this time, so each month I'm going to write about an experience I've had either eating or adventuring out and about in Margzville. Why not start with the delightful Tale of Hilary,
the Hill End Chicken.
As I gazed out over the lush green treetops reaching up to graze the edge of the clear blue sky, I thought to myself how fabulous it would be if I could do this all the time and not feel guilty. Then in a moment of clarity it came to me and, in my infinite wisdom, I wrote it down. Face to face appointments in Melbourne or Daylesford
The Tale of Hilary, the Hill End Chicken I have the pleasure of doing a volunteer Sunday shift at the Daylesford Information Centre with Ginger, a flamboyant local character who loves leopard skin print, jazz, the chooks and animals on her small farm and working part time at the Hill End Café. Ginger is full of fun and delightful stories and supplies me with fresh free range eggs from her girls. These days all my recipes start with “wipe poop off eggs”. Each egg has the date they were laid lovingly written on them in pencil. A
special treat was the eggs laid on Valentine’s Day; they had little hearts drawn on them. Such is life in Margzville. Last week Ginger shared the tale of Hilary, the latest addition to the hen pen on her farm. A recent Hill End Café customer commented that he liked their new chicken. Picking up the latest of many stuffed toy chickens that have migrated into the café, Susan the owner started to tell the tale of how these stuffed chooks were never
intentional, they just stared appearing from nowhere and now form part of the café’s theme. The customer said ‘No, I mean the real one’ and pointed to the dainty little white chook out on the footpath happily pecking away. Hilary of Hill End was soon christened and she b ecame the talking point of the day. Happily she pecked and scratched outside the café until closing time. (Continued on page 2)
© Margaret Gill 2003
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THE NEWSLETTER FOR FOODIES AND HIGH ACHIEVERS SEEKING MORE TIME & LESS STRESS IN LIFE
Came time to go home and no one had come to claim her. It was apparent that Hilary wouldn’t make it through the night with the fox population very active in the chicken coups around town. Hilary was a sitting chicken if she stayed on her own, so Ginger naturally volunteered to take her and look after her. Unbeknownst to Hilary, she was heading to the Hen Hilton, luxury a ccommodation with daily food scraps from the café. This was definitely a first class upgrade for Hilary.
introduce her to the other chooks out playing in the yard. The introductions went well and Hilary seemed happy so Ginger went inside. All quiet for a few moments until an almighty SQUARK came from outside. Then a loud thump as Hilary hit the fly screen door, spread eagled flat up against the wire with a look of sheer panic in her eye. Behind Hilary stood, The Rooster!
quite content in solitary confinement. Ginger however still felt Hilary needed the girl talk of the main penthouse. She thought she’d give it another go in the evening twilight. So the porters came by to collect the luggage and Hilary was moved to her new shared accommodation. Like before all quiet until Ginger got back into the house then squawk squAWK SQUAWRK! Back to the henhouse and Hilary is flapping and Ginger went out and peeled Hilary off squawking and hanging upside down the fly screen door. Hilary wrapped her from the perch, terror reigning. Guess little wings right round Ginger and whim- who is standing under the perch? Fearing going straight into the pentpered and clung to Ginger like a small The Rooster! house with all the other chooks and child as they marched back over to ducks might frighten Hilary, who was Hilary’s solo suite, with The Rooster a Hilary will now live her days, happily la yalready hinting at being a rather refined very unhappy, unfulfilled chappie in hot ing eggs at the Hen Hilton in her own wee thing, she was placed in a sep apursuit. private suite with room service, daily rate suite where she happily started to fresh nest and a turn down service in lay eggs and make herself at home. Safely back in her cage after her lech- the evenings to include gourmet snacks After a few days Ginger decided Hilary erous ordeal, days go by and Hilary from the café. might be getting lonely so decided to keeps happily laying eggs, seemingly Margz
Hilary’s Top Ten Hen Tips to Share 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Know your personal boundaries Just because all the others stand for it doesn’t mean you have to Don’t settle for just a ny old rooster, make sure you settle for the best Know who you are, what you stand for and what you deserve Don’t stand for less than what you deserve Be yourself Don’t let anyone take advantage of you or corrupt your value system Don’t be concerned what others think of you and your value system Don’t let anyone push you out of your own personal power Eat well, do a rewarding days work and live a stress free life in luxury surroundings
The Rooster is now considering my new six-week program,
How to Become Irresistibly Attractive! I’m excited to tell you I will have the licence to teach this program to groups, individuals and roosters very soon.
Become Healthier, Wealthier, Wiser
Life Coach Says You Can Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too Do you love to eat delicious food? Do you deny yourself the pleasure because you’re worried about your health or your weight? Now, thanks to Life Coach Margaret Gill of Daylesford in Victoria, you can have the best of both worlds. Her new foodie coaching programme combines the principles of good health with the pleasures of good food, highlighted by a ‘Tailored Tour of Tastes’ around the Daylesford district where clients can eat and be merry.
Margaret’s foodie coaching programme is unique, not because it focuses on fitness and good health, but because it does so without the cost of giving up fine food. Margaret says that a person becomes healthy by learning how to balance all aspects of their life, including exercise and diet, not by trying to achieve society’s ‘one -size-fits-all’ standard.
in 2003. A range of tour options will be available, from an individual self-guided tour to a group weekend that also includes special-interest classes. Each tour is customised so that the client can choose to focus on places to eat good food, places to buy good food, places to learn about what goes into good food – or a combination of all of them!
The individual coaching period of three to six months is conducted over the telephone or, if the client prefers, face-toLife coaching is a programme that forms a face. The focus is on the client achieving partnership between coach and client. the right balance in their life – including Just as no elite sportsperson would try to not only physical well-being, but also relawin without a coach, many successful tionships that are satisfying, contentment people have found that employing a life with self, an enjoyable job, and other ascoach helps them to achieve their dreams pects of living ‘healthy, wealthy and wise’. and goals more quickly, and with less effort. The client designs the life they truly The second unique feature of this prowant, and the coach speeds up the proc- gramme is the Tailored Tour of Tastes ess by keeping the client accountable to weekend to the Spa District surrounding their promises. Daylesford. The tours will start running later
The foodie coaching programme is designed for people who want to be more successful, have fun, and find balance in their lives – and who also happen to love great food. Margaret has added this programme to her executive and personal lifestyle coaching practice because she wants people to stop feeling guilty about their love of good food.
Want info about the Tour or Tastes sign up for my online E-Zine at
www.margaretgill.biz © Margaret Gill 2003
APRIL 2003
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Are You A Foodie? — Take the Test 1 If a recipe called for prosciutto, would you go out of your way to purchase prosciutto if you already had bacon in the fridge?
A Yes, most definitely, I would never corrupt a recipe with a lessor product and deny myself the total taste experience
3
B If I had time I would, but feel bacon would be 2 ok if I’m busy
1
C What is prosciutto?
2 Would you consider it fun to drive around lots of different suppliers for three hours seeking the quintessential food item, when you could buy similar products at the supermarket in 15 minutes?
A Yes, most definitely, even if it’s basic food items, I always ensure I have the very best quality even if it takes me longer
3
B If I had time I would but usually just stick with what I know and is accessible
2
C I only shop at the supermarket
1
3 Would you order instant coffee at a café?
A I’m horror struck that you’ve even asked, I don’t even have instant at home!
3
B Never at a café but drink instant at home
2
C I really like instant coffee and have no problem ordering it anywhere
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6 Do you buy cookbooks or magazines that you’ve never actually cooked from but just like looking at the pictures?
A I’m considering buying another bookcase
3
B Maybe one or two
2
C Most cans have a recipe on the label
1
7 Would you plan a holiday totally around what you could get to eat at your destination?
A Doesn’t everyone?
3
B Yes, if it fitted in with other things I enjoy doing
2
C McDonalds are pretty well everywhere these days
1
8 You’ve heard a rumour about a new food establishment doing exquisite things with food, would you go out of your way to visit it?
A The engine’s running – tell me the address
3
B Next time I’m going that way I’ll call in
2
C Why would I bother, I never eat out
1
9 Do you consider licking your favourite chocolate sauce off your naked lover as:
A A tasty desert option
3
B A sensual act
2
C Physically impossible - I hate chocolate!
-5
4 Do you stand looking at food in shop windows?
A My forehead is constantly bruised from hitting my head against clear shop windows and shopkeepers often ask me to stop salivating down their window!
3
B Only if something catches my eye
2
C Supermarkets don’t have food in the windows
1
5 After a truly amazing gastronomically delicious experience (big or small), do you email / phone or go totally out of your way to share the encounter with friends?
A My phone & petrol bills are horrendous3
3
B I’d share the story next time I saw them
2
C How ridiculous
1
Mostly A’s and Above 20 Most definitely a foodie, you are a devotee and would never corrupt a recipe or relinquish the opportunity to have the quintessential food experience. You would love my coaching.
10 You’ve found the best fish and chip shop (or similar comfort food) in the whole wide world (for now). You’ve invited your friends to join you. Do you:
A Think of the most exquisite place you can eat them alfresco, off the paper, with 5 different condiments on the side but actually eat half them on the way to your destination straight out of the packet, content in the knowledge that your friends will totally understand and forgive you so long as you’ve left them some
3
B Find the nearest place to sit down and eat them out of the packet, my friends don’t care where we eat
2
C Take them home and eat them off a plate. Why would my friends want to eat fish and chips with me?
1
Mostly B’s and between 10 – 20 Mostly C’s and Below 10 You enjoy eating out and the pleasures Sorry you just don’t cut it as a foodie, of food but may not yet be a devotee, you’ll need to find a different coach. we will still get on just fine. Sign up for To sign up for my online E-Zine go to my newsletter so you can hone your foodie skills and learn more.
www.margaretgill.biz
© Margaret Gill 2003
Margz Featured Establishment Contact Details
Margaret Gill www.margaretgill.biz Phone Mob: 0407 377 173 Home: 5348 2552 Int code +61 3
margaretgill@bigpond.com Postal Address PO Box 574 Daylesford VIC 3460 Australia
Call NOW to secure a one hour complimentary, obligation free coaching session. 03 5348 2552
level of warm ambience to the given the Hill End twist during The Hill End Café and Gallery is a little place with a surroundings. As in all things the festival. big heart. It serves food made with love and offers a constantly changing gallery of local art on the walls to go with the sensational fresh food on the plates. Susan the owner is a grand example of someone who is following her passion, hers being cooking great food and surrounding herself with gorgeous people, beautiful art and great music. Cookies are the reason for the café being in existence. Evolved by accident, the café was originally going to be the home of Susan's cookie factory. Having lived in the USA, Susan developed many rec ipes for home-made cookies and friends constantly told her to make them professionally. Taking the good advise to heart she took over the empty café, only to find the oven allowed just one tray at a time, hardly conducive to pumping out commercial quantities, thus Hill End evolved, with the cookies still being a feature. The latest cookie on her list is the Gold Digger Cookie, developed for the World's Longest Lunch. It has a chocolate mocha base with honeycomb and granache. YUM!
the café does, excellence is what they strive for and the music always reflects that goal.
Returning back to its roots, the area the café was named after for its artistic signif icance, comes an exhibition The breakfasts are my favour- called Hill End to Hill End, ite. Susan's years in America featuring six artists: Kevin have influenced the brekkie Free, Mel Robinson, Julie menu, with lots of pancakes Kent, Carolyn Thomas, and sides on the menu, along Graeme Bertuch and Roslyn with some wic ked chocolate Millstteed, each offering a drinks. I can never decide different interpretation of the between the fresh blueberry landscapes of Hill End NSW. pancakes or the other tasty From the 29th of April, printfare devised from the wonder- maker Maria Athanalia's work fully fresh offerings of the will be on show. Maria has district. Many times people done a Masters of Printmakhave sent the eggs back to ing and the current exhibit the kitchen because they titled You & I will feature her were "a funny colour". Many work along with small sculptimes they have been retures. Susan has an arts deturned to the table with the gree herself, and always likes message that the eggs are to give emerging artists a go. "fresh", they only recently Consequently many young came out of the chook and at artists have been supported, that stage eggs are bright often exhibiting with Susan for yellow, they fade with time to the first time. the insipid pale yellow verHill End Café & Gallery is sions you get off the superlicensed and offers a wide market shelf. range of local wines, some of which are available by the Heidi Muller, who trained in glass. Susan's husband is a Sydney, is the other half of wine buff and delights in feathe cooking team. A conturing Victorian boutique stantly changing dinner menu wines chosen for their exceland plans afoot to do more lence and special characteristhemed nights keeps Heidi tics. cranking out the ideas along Hill End Café & Gallery is The café has a great feel with with the great food. For the Swiss Italian Festa here in the open from 9 to 5 for breakfast lovely staff and great music. They often play blues music, first weekend in May they will and lunch Thursday to Monbe serving Swiss/Italian Rus- day and for dinner on Friday which delights this blues tica food -- traditional peasant and Saturday nights. 1/123 head, but mostly jazz when food like gnocchi, insalata, Vincent Street Daylesford. Ginger is loading the CD zuppa and antipasta will be Phone 5348 4946. stacker, which adds another
Frequently Asked Questions About Coaching What is a Life Coach?
Why do people hire a Coach?
A life coach encourages people to live their dreams and reach full potential in all areas of life, accepting all the abu ndance and beauty life has to offer.
People hire a life coach for much the same reasons a sportsperson hires an athletic coach:
A life coach gets personal satisfaction from assisting others to achieve a life they love. Often having been down similar paths to the ones their clients choose, a life coach travels beside the client, encouraging, ide ntifying goals, giving different perspectives, and offering regular accountability to ensure goals and dreams don’t become derailed by outside influences.
Please visit my website www.margaretgill.biz for further information about coaching
• to achiev e their desires • to reach their goals • to make positive growth in their life • to WIN!
Life is too complex and competitive to manage all its pressures ALONE. A coach’s commitment to you is to be nonjudgmental, completely honest in all situations, and not to have any hidden agendas. Friends often tell you what you want to hear. The coach will tell you what you need to hear.
Having a coach gets you there faster
© Margaret Gill 2003