Successful Weekend Behind Us

So as you all know Morningbru booked up two events this past weekend, the kite festival and our regular O.C lan party. Wow what an intense weekend , If I could sum it up in one word it would have to be CRAZY.

The crazy all started on Friday after work, we had to pack michelles car for the O.C and I had to get through to Muizenberg. Now Michelle drives a cute little yellow Golf and the packing space was pretty limited. Fortunately I was and still am a professional Tetris player so the minimal packing space wasn't a big problem. I mean I'm sure we could have still fit a medium to large dog in there somewhere :)

Ok, so Michelle was packed and ready, she left and I made a mission to drop off the trailer at the spot in Muizenberg. Got there at around 5 pm did my setup and got all the paperwork I needed to do done, I was feeling positive about the weekend and it was too late to turn back now, we were at the top of the rollercoaster and all we could do now was go with it.

Saturday morning 5 am I got up, ready for this, ready to go flip pancakes. I met Chantelle at 8 am, most of the setup was done and all we needed to do now was mix the batter. Well when I say we, I mean Chantelle..... hahaha. So as the day moved on we had made a few sales but weren't as busy as I'd hoped. I phoned Michelle every 3 hours or so to see how things were going. The few times she could answer her phone I could tell she was really busy. Well, I thought,  at least one of us is making it happen.

Saturday at the kite festival was alright and I wont complain, I managed to pay off the vendor fee and Chantelle's wage, leaving me with a little cash left for some odds and ends we needed for the following day.


 Michelle on the other hand was cooking at the O.C I decided to stop in to say hi before I went home for the night. I got to the O.C and went straight to the stall only to find it still pumping. Michelle was overs, I forced her to go sleep and I took over for a while. I left around 10 pm and asked Isandre not to wake Michelle for at least another hour..........

.............So thankfully Nic turned up on Saturday night to relieve me of my duties because I was on the edge of burnout!

Myself and Isandre arrived at the Velodrome on Friday afternoon for the big set up.  OC, for those that don’t know it, stands for Organised Chaos and Chaos it was!!! As soon as we set up we put the first pot of coffee on to brew. After about a minute the coffee machine just STOPPED WORKING. I mean, for no apparent reason, it just DIED!! To say I started to panic just a little would be an understatement. Can you imagine...a coffee shop unable to serve coffee! Thankfully Isandre was there to calm my nerves and help formulate a plan until we could get it seen to. She arranged for a few coffee plungers that we could use as a last resort. Fortunately my knight in shining armour (Nic) arrived to save the day and got everything working again J

As a few of you might know, this OC consisted of many firsts for me: It was the first time working without Nic beside me, it was the first time working at the OC without the trailer and it was the first time selling pancakes at the OC. The trailer was missed and the lack thereof commented on by many, a question I heard often was “where are we going to write now??” I also missed the security of four walls and felt very exposed with everyone watching my every move. Another first at this OC was a bunch of cyclists practicing in the Velodrome for about 3 hours during the LAN, um WTF? And there were a bunch of LANners playing rugby inside the arena the whole weekend, even at 4 in the morning. LOLWUT?!!

At about 5 ‘o clock on Friday we started serving our first hungry customers and it just DIDN’T STOP! Isandre and I filled up on vodka and red bull and pushed on until about 4 am when we closed until 6 to rest our weary legs. When we got up there were already people waiting for their morning dose of caffeine and the chaos continued once again with very little break until early hours of Sunday morning. We met some awesome people and there was always someone popping by to say hello or lend a hand.

Now we’ve always known how much those LANners love their coffee, but I was not expecting how crazy they’d be over our pancakes! We had some pretty awesome flavours including melted marshmallow and double chocolate brownie pancakes. Nom nom nom! We also got some really good comments from the OC website’s feedback forum where people give their pros and cons from the latest event:  “Cheering on the pancake ladies at morning brew. Coolest people EVAR.”  - M05HP1T,  “Pancakes! Nom nom nom.” -  CourageD,  ”And, THE PANCAKES!! They were amazing. Slightly pricey, but I didn't mind, because it was like romance explosion in my mouth. ” -  Kitsu  (Er, a romance explosion??) THANKS Kitsu !! :) I even heard someone calling our pancakes “beautiful” J

So there you have it, all the aching limbs and sleep deprivation paid off in the end. It was a super fun and super successful event and we can’t wait to do it all again next month!!

.............. Sunday at the kite festival was mad. I met Chantelle at 8 am again and we started doing the usual setup, she mixed the batter while I sorted out the trailer and signs. The morning was quite until about lunch, people just started pouring in through the gates. Madness ensued and suddenly we were extremely busy.

There was no time to panic and all I could do was flip those pancakes one after the other. I have never made so many pancakes in my LIFE! It felt like it was never going to end, we would mix one batch of batter and it would be gone in no time, orders were flying in and the pressure to keep everyone happy mounted.

So there we were spinning like crazy people in a metallic pancake making cage. Time flew by and before we knew it the day was done and we were very close to selling all our stock. We made it and managed to sell out over 75 liters of batter. Sunday at the Cape Town International Kite Festival was a success and surely made up for the previous day's dwindling sales.

So there you have it, two events waxed, experience gained and some more insight into running a small business. 

Check out the videos I made for both events and you will see the contrast between the two. 

Until the next post, stay well

Morningbru

2 Events 2 People -- One Weekend -- Dun-Dun-Duuuu!

The Situation: We booked two events for this weekend and we have to split up to be able to do them both. Michelle will be doing the O.C - our regular monthly event and I will be doing the Kite festival, a totally new event for us-uncharted territory. I will be using the trailer for the kite Festival and Michelle will be Trailer-less, relying on good old fashioned tables and stuff.

We both roped in some help for these events, Chantal will be helping me and Isandre will be with Michelle, Thanks girls :) At this very moment we are still in Stikland I am typing this from inside the trailer while michelle is doing the last of the checking and listing. Lists...... For The Win!

OCTO KITE !!!

Angry looking kite bird

We have both been a little stressed this week partly because it's the first time that we have double booked and well, we are a bit nervous. In the end when it's time to get things done we manage to make it happen, so I know that we will do fantastically. I will make a short video clip of the Kite Festival so that you guys can also check it out. The Kites they fly there are amazing and some of the pics I have seen make you wonder how the hell a kite in the shape of Cartmen can fly?

Quote From Their Page

"The Cape Town International Kite Festival brings together people from around the world in a celebration of kiting and creativity, to generate funds for Cape Mental Health Society, raises awareness of the importance of mental health and highlights the link between physical and mental well-being."

It is all for a good cause come join in 

You can check out the Kite Festival page, just click on THIS


So if you are going to be at Africa's biggest kite festival 22 & 23 Oct 2011, come have a pancake mmmm-nom nom nom nom.... For more details about the festival go check out their page here or on top at this :)

OK, this is all I have time for today, be safe readers and most of all have fun this weekend :)

Morningbru

Village The Gathering

Johan burger showing
how its done, with a
hoop.

This weekend we found ourselves at the Village, it was a nice change of pace from standing in Stikland and we were ready for a good party. We planned to leave early the Friday afternoon and we actually did :) After a drive that felt like forever, taking a wrong turn and nearly overshooting the farm....., we arrived. It was around 4pm and I met Philip who showed us where we had to stand.

Our stall at night.

After a chat and a brief chill Michelle and I started with the setup. It took us about an hour or so, beer soon followed and many minutes of relaxing. Friday night was chilled, we found ourselves relaxing hard on our lumo bean bags and before we knew it we had some groovy company, that's what our chill out area is for :)

Michelle doing some kind of disco
inspired move ;)

We got to bed early and slept well after a hard days work. Saterday morning was slow and relaxed, people were starting to arrive now and the party atmosphere was gaining steady momentum. We were set up opposite the camping area so most of the day we just watched other people set up their chill sections and tents. Many new friends were made and some solid connections formed, that's what I love so much about the outdoor trance scene......people are friendly and willing to stop for a chat.

Happiness

Dance floor 

Trading was slow, very slow at a stage I thought we weren't even going to break even and then, we whipped out the smokes. Initially we weren't planning on selling cigarettes but as it turned out we had a couple of boxes in stock because we left straight from our spot in Stikland on Friday afternoon. We started out selling them at R30 a box and slowly pushed it up to R40, I know, thats ridiculous right. Surprisingly nobody really complained and I guess if I were in their position I wouldn't of either, if you want smokes you want smokes and you will pay anything for them.


I jokingly told a women that it was R70 for a box and she started counting her coins...... I kind of felt guilty about it for a little while but I knew that if it wasn't for the profit we were making on the smokes we would of made a huge loss this weekend. So cigarettes saved Morningbru at the Village and I thank all you smokers who were willing to part with your forties for a box.

The village - very awesome!

Truly a lot of hard work went into making this one of the most beautiful setups I have seen, thanks village crew. 

Gernot you FUNNY owe! lol

Tjad  a loyal Morningbru supporter, we found your blanket
dude ;)

Sunday was lekker hot with a light breeze bringing the coolness, by 11: am we were sold out of smokes. I guess I should of gone and bought more because we had about 3 people an hour asking for ciggies the whole of Sunday. So this weekend I learnt that we should stock up hard on smokes because it seems that no one really remembers to bring enough to a party.

Village was great and once again a learning curve, we made it out ok and managed to get enough rest before    work on Monday. Today was the first week of our second month on the new spot and it feels good to know that we have been so consistent with our business venture. More posts to follow on our progress and adventures here at Morningbru. I will leave you with a little experiment I produced at the party, a four minute time lapse video of the view from our stall and some of the amazing people we met at the party...

Week 4 on It's way out - The Village This Weekend!

Week 4 on our new spot --- WORST WEEK EVAR!!!

 So it has been slow here in Stikland and we are sure it must be because its the middle of the month or something. Monday was like a graveyard, then Tuesday picked up a little, Wednesday we were back to normal and today, well, I dunno, lets just say there's still time  :) 

MorningCAT!

On the bright side we are still doing OK. I suppose when you start doing well in your business you kind of set a bar for yourself and you naturally expect to keep doing well so that you can stay above that bar.

Then reality slaps you around a bit and you realize that things cant always go up and up, you need to fluctuate and give as much as you receive.


On a much MUCH more positive note we will be trading at The Village this weekend. Michelle and I are super keen and we cant wait to get there........... C'mon weekend!

We are still in prepping phase and hope to have tied up most of the loose ends by tonight so that we can get an early start on Friday. We don't want another Organik mission on our hands when we only get there at like 9 pm and have to stumble around in the dark. So prep plan prep plan! that's the way  to do it. The last Village we traded at was epic and we really enjoyed.

Our tent is going into the operating theater today as well, stitching up the damage caused by the ferocious wind at the Heart 104.9 Fm Soccer Day. It's going to be a quick fix her up with some plain old thread and needle. Will be using some of our Village profit to send it to a proper "Tent Person" for some decent patch and repair work. We wouldn't want to see our beloved stretchy go to wreck and ruin.

Good news - Morningbru will have some new signage next week :) Vega Graphics here in Stikland have given us some great prices on a few correx sign boards that we will be using for our events and the side of the road.

I was just busy designing the PANCAKE sign when my version of Photoshop decided to totally flip out..... busy re-installing it as I type. As soon as I am done I will post up the signs to the blog.

Have a groovy day!
Morningbru

Week 3 Done - Heading Into Week 4

Oh yeah! It feels like we have been here on our new spot for ages but in fact it has only been three weeks and what an exciting three weeks it has been, despite the dismal view, constant noise coupled with never ending wind, we have prevailed. 

From day one we knew we were better off here and now we can confidently say that it is fact. Our daily averages have only risen since we started in Stikland and the future is looking brighter by the day. Morningbru is quickly turning into a sandwich style Deli and the Stikland population are loving it. At the moment we stock: Tuna Salad R14, Egg Mayo R12, Cheese Tomato R12 and our latest edition Brie peppadew cucumber R14. All our sandwiches are made freshly in the morning with Duens health seed loaf, wich is prety damn tasty. Can ya say, OM nOMnOMnOm!

If any of you, our readers, have any more ideas for health sandwiches please feel free to leave your recipes in the comments section. J We want to add at least one new sandwich a week to see how they are received by our customers here. Any suggestions would be groovy.

Events we have planned for next weekend and beyond so far are as follows, The Village, Kite Festival, O.C Lan Party, Groovy Troopers (pending) and Noisy Radicals. We are trying to secure one or two more but we will have to see, I don’t want to die in the pursuit of work here hahaha Nah ! it’s not that bad. 

So we are amped and excited for this next two months and we plan to bring our grooviness to an event near you Soon! Be sure to look out for us and drop by for a chat.

In other news I am finally getting my HTC phone fixed so we will be able to take better quality pics and video for a while, sorry Michelle I know the blackberry was doing it for now but let’s face it, it’s camera really SUX! Anyway just a quick post to keep you in the loop.

Enjoy your week!

Morningbru

Successful Event Behind Us And Week 3 On Our New Spot

Soccer Stars In The Making

Last weekend we were contracted by Heart 104.9 FM for a soccer day event. We weren’t expecting it at all, they surprised us both by calling last minute – we didn’t hesitate and snatched up the opportunity. It all went very smoothly and we were received very well by all who attended, coffees were flying and so were our fresh pancakes, banana caramel was a winner with the sweet toothed crowd and we were flipping pancakes as fast as they could eat them. We didn’t really know what we were in for and weren’t expecting much from this one but it all turned out to be a fun filled soccer fest of a day.

Celebrities of all sorts were there too, like soccer players from Santos and other clubs, some foreign soccer players, T.V personalities and idols people. Don’t ask me to name them because I really, really  have no clue as to who they were. We were serving celebrities and we didn’t even know it hahaha. Michelle had a fat chat with the guy from Top Billing and only found out afterward it was a shleb lol. Anyhow, it was a good event and we did well.

The only negative thing about the event was the wind. Damn! It blew hard, it actually blew our stretch tent poles right through our tent L leaving two gaping holes in it. Cups and coffee pots also found themselves doing involuntary flips off of the table and not to mention the sugar tubes and stirrers going awol with every gust. If you were to look at us from a distance it would have been a mixture of serving people, flipping pancakes and catching things J 

Some Soccer Celeb's (Santos)

I suppose every war has its casualties and in this case it was our beloved blue stretchy. No worries, nothing a needle, patches and thread won’t fix.  Heart FM wants to use us again J so we will be doing the 17’th annual kite festival in Muizenberg on the 22 Oct to the 23 Oct which is great news because that specific event pulls between 20 000 to 25 000 people annually over two days, we will only be doing pancakes because one of their main sponsors do all hot drink related products. This is fine with Morningbru ..... 

Pancake Station

Week 3 in our new spot and we are doing great; our regular base is growing by the day. Coffee though, is not as popular as we would like it to be but the pancakes and sandwiches are doing very well. I am sure once we get an espresso machine and start doing proper cappuccinos and lattes we will gain more popularity with the offices in the area. 

Our Setup, Struggling Against The Vicious Wind

We are thinking of a little slogan to add to the Morningbru brand and so far it looks like we will be going with “making coffee personal again” or just “making coffee personal”  We think it is great because you don’t often get personal coffee in industrial areas, it is always a garage with a vending machine or something. It is impersonal ---- put in money, get your drink, no time for talking or anything just give and get. I guess with the fast paced lives we are living convenience and speed of delivery is everything and I know many people might prefer this way but I myself would much rather opt in for something a little more personal...... A machine can give no love, yet. J

Have a great evening people

Morningbru