Dorris Brooks says she is glad to have survived the past ten months ? after her Southside store Double Dip Express was hit by a series of disasters, including flooding from Hurricane Fabian.

Now the worst is over for the ice cream queen and she is looking forward to a bright future as she gets ready to open up an ice cream factory on site in her store.

"It has driven me to tears at times," said Ms Brooks. "And sometimes I thought we would not make it. It is not so much a success story as a struggle story. But we are on the home stretch now and we will win this."

Ten months ago Ms Brooks decided to go it alone and separated from her business partner with whom she ran Double Dip Too and the ABC Co. Factory in Flatts.

Her idea was to open her own factory at the Southside site, expanding the ice cream parlour and its parking at the same time.

So she went to Bank of Butterfield, took out a loan, and got in the builders. They said it would take three months ? but ten months on the project is still not finished.

And in the middle of it all, Hurricane Fabian hit, wiping out the work that had been done and sweeping floodwaters through the store. "At first they said three months ? that has turned into ten. And the cost of the project has doubled," she said. "At first I was very, very eager when the project was started, but we have had many, many set backs. But I can now talk about septic tanks and bore holes and know what it all means."

Now the final touches are being made to the extended premises and Ms Brooks can see and end in sight after the hard graft of trying to expand the building and put in a small factory.

Soon customers will be able to watch ice cream being made and ice cream cakes being constructed in the factory through a glass wall in the shop.

She hopes the factory part will be given final Government approval this week and she will either start making her own ice cream on site just before or just after Easter.

Ms Brooks has been working with ice cream for the past 17 years, with her first store Geletos in the Phoenix Store.

She opened the Double Dip Express in Southside four years ago, which was her fifth venture in the ice cream world.

Amazingly enough, Ms Brooks said she does not eat much ice cream herself, preferring only to taste samples for her work. "When anyone starts here, the first two weeks they can't get enough ice cream," she said. "Then you sicken yourself on it, and you stop."

Ms Brooks said she is happy to be expanding her store in Southside and said she loves the location at the old front gates of the base.

"We have had a few big events here over the past few years, the circus and the tonka trucks, where we have been very busy," she said. But being in a partnership she said she felt she did not have the freedom to take advantage of the events on her doorstep like she would have liked. She said: "I miss having someone else to take the decision, but being on your own makes you more responsible for the business, and all aspects of it. "I do enjoy it more on my own. I like the flexibility and ability to change quickly."

The store has between four and 16 staff, depending on the seasons, with Sundays the busiest days and summer the busiest season.

Despite not being in a town, Ms Brooks said that they get plenty of trade, with bowlers and cinema goers popping in on their way to and from their activities in the former base.