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 :)
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
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