Page 18
QF Focus Magazine
Pat focuses on the faces behind our Local Businesses Diane Akenhead - La Plaza Benijofar
Diane is a 'newbie' to Spain, having only lived here since January of this year. Originally from the Seaham area of Durham and having lived there all her life, she decided her life needed a big change and you can't get much bigger than packing up and moving to another country!
After her family holiday in Spain last year she decided to look around for a holiday home, but when she came back in January of this year she started looking for a business to open and straight away found La Plaza was for sale in the lovely village of Benijofar. You couldn't pick a nicer setting if you tried, it faces the village square with its fountain and is near the beautiful church. On the other side you have views overlooking the campo across to the river.
Although she bought the business in January, it didn't open until March after Diane put her personal touches to it. Diane is doing all the cooking with food ranging from pies, sausage rolls, pasties right through to cakes and biscuits. There is also a wonderful range of flavoured ice creams to cool you down. Along with full breakfasts, lunch time snacks are a favourite with jacket potatoes, toasties, curries and sandwiches all being served, and their speciality afternoon teas are proving to be popular.
Diane had various jobs in the UK ranging from bar work, where she did a lot of the cooking, to her last job as a doctor's receptionist, which although she enjoyed, she found she was getting more and more grief from patients which made it less enjoyable as time went on. Her husband of 26 years owns a scrap metal business in the UK so he travels between the two countries at the moment. They have 1 son, 2 daughters and 5 grandchildren ranging from 5 years to 14 years old.
Diane is hoping that once the family see how nice it is here and how the business is going, that they may want to join her! Although her mother thought she was mad when she told her she was going to live in Spain, she is glad she did it.
Even though we are just starting to feel the heat of the summer, Diane is already planning ahead and thinking about pre-Christmas lunches and events for the winter. The fact that they have a 9 seater minibus with driver for hire could come in very handy when the Christmas party season starts!!
To contact Diane for bookings call 602 530 913 or to hire the minibus 698 210 118.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36