The O.C is going to be huge this month with 1000 lanners that have already booked. They are expecting a full house this weekend and we will be there to help 'em all stay awake.
We are excited and a little nervous, working the O.C is different from other events in the sense that you don't get much sleep. You are indoors for the weekend and with a 1000 - 1400 people you spin your arse off. We both decided to hire some extra hands for this one so we will be able to cope with the masses. Pressure is on to get the job done and Morningbru will provide a great service this weekend.
If any of you are going to the Lan this weekend come support us at the stall. We have everything you need for a weekend of gaming. You know, excessive SUGAR AND CAFFEINE !
New to the menu
Espresso
Cappuccino
Chococcino
Pancakes (assorted flavors)
Lammingtons
I am going to do a video on this one to let you guys see how busy it can get .........................mmmmm, I'm thinking time lapse again :) I do love myself a good time lapse.
After the O.C we are doing Noisy Radicals, but more on that next week. have a great weekend !
So its week 7 on the new spot and its been really chilled because we have no major events coming up. I must say it has been refreshing. Not much stress or planning and prepping involved :) This weekend will also be one of pure nothingness while we relax and wait patiently for week 8. Things on the new spot are still going well and we are managing to maintain our daily averages.
We are still waiting to hear back from Groovy Troopers, but I doubt we are going to as the party is next weekend. We were both looking forward to stalling at that one but we might just be Troopers and pull in for a party anyway.
In other news we hooked a little freezer for an idea I have for a new tasty treat to serve up on hot day's. It's a small display freezer for a new product we want to try, it's delicious, nutritious and we haven't seen anyone else doing them soooo, we want to give it a shot.
New Signs :)
November and December O.C's are coming up and we are uber keen to make it happen like only Morningbru can --- November O.C has a Vampires and Zombies theme so that should be very interesting. We will have pics and video of it all so stay tuned. Yes Yes YES!!!!! we scored a brand new D.V handy cam :) :) :) so we will be filming in style, no more shaky, blury Cellphone camera work.......
Ok so that will conclude this weeks post...... looking forward to the weekend and hoping you all have a groovy one aswell.
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.
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 onTHIS
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 :)
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.
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
Hey all, last post was a while ago but were back to get you up to speed with what is happening. The Morningbru trailer is done and we are proud to announce that the Village (event) was a huge success. We were feeling the good vibes and love all weekend from start to finish, thank you to everybody who made it out to buy a coffee and muffin from us on the weekend. To all the guys that helped us set up and down a beeeeeg thanks from the Morningbru team.
To the left is the legendary trailer decorated and tagged by our customers with whiteboard markers. The "buy something to write something" campaign added an extra dose of personality, great work people we loved reading them all when we got home on Sunday evening. We have started a facebook "like" page as well so feel free to go "like" us. If you were in any of the pics please tag yourselves to help spread the word.
To the right are happy coffee slurpers enjoying our fresh bru, Coffee goodness all round. We had loads of fun at this event and know that we will be doing this kind of thing as much as possible in the future. If you guys happen to know of an event please feel free to contact us, we will be more than happy for any information regarding an event.
Everybody loves Coffee
Indeed.
In other news we are trying to secure a monthly spot at the O.C LAN parties which are held once a month in bellville having a solid event every month will set Morningbru up, Wunce ! > > wish us luck!! Soon we will also be incorporating the trailer at our usual morning spot offering our R15.00 Coffee Muffin deal to the thirsty traffic.
Week two on our new spot and it is going really well, pancakes are taking off man, we have a few regulars and many new faces rocking up everyday. People are digging the stall vibe and we are making new connections by the minute. We have really kicked our turnover up by 100% and we are grateful beyond.
I am pritty tired as i type this so excuuse any spellingk mistkes and stuff, we have been working straight from 5 am this morning until now, 10 pm and we are still busy, eish! I guess that is what it means to run your own business in this kind of industry but hey I'm not complaining, it's great!
Heart radio booked us on short notice for a soccer event tomorrow so we barely had time to prep up, which means we are still busy, busy, busy. Michelle is in the kitchen mixing up pancake batter like a beast and I have taken a break to blog for a minute. The bakkie is packed up and reasonably ready for tomorrow. I can see Red bulls in our near future, at least 4 each. We are super keen to serve all the attendees hot coffee and pancakes, lets hope we have a successful and most of all groovy day at the event.
Anyway I better get back to work before I get an egg or a wooden spoon to the back of my head.
Our first outdoor for the season was Organik Gaian Dreams, we planned, prepped and double checked, it was an absolute awesome party, the vibe was great and we both felt that it was what a party should be --- Connected, vibey and energetic!
The setup.
We arrived the Friday night after a long and slightly stressful drive, the trailer, man, it jumps around on the road and looks like it wants to tip over a lot. Every time I looked in the review mirror my heart skipped a beat, eventually I just kept it at 60 kay's an hour and stopped looking.
I reckoned it was pointless stressing out about it and if it was going to tip it was going to tip. We managed to get there in one piece and were thankful that we found the venue quite easily and that the trailer was still with us.
Our plan was to get there the Friday afternoon set up and relax but as it turned out we got there after dark and well, its not easy to set up a stretch tent at night. We got the trailer in position pulled out the stretchy offloaded the bakkie made some mojitos and decided to call it a night. The cold was intense but luckily we had plenty warm clothes, blankets, a mattress and each other to keep warm. We slept in the trailer the first night ---- it was surprisingly comfortable.
Saturday morning 7 A.M we got up and started sorting out the setup, by now the Sun was out and we were soaking up the heat ray's with much appreciation. I sorted out the stretch tent while Michelle handled the coffee machine and made more mojitos.
Making use of the chill out area.
Our mission with our setup was to provide a groovy chill out section next to our stall so that we could offer something more to our peers than just coffee, hot chocolate and crepes (pancakes).
Our chill zone was a great success. We had a good mix of interesting and beautiful people coming and going at all hours and parking off on our beanbags and beetle seat to rest their weary legs, take a break from the sun and, eventually, get shelter from the rain.
We had mojitos for breakfast and beer for brunch, alcohol is useful when you are working at an outdoor event or any event where you know you won't be sleeping much, it helps to keep your energy levels up. By the time the beats started we were ready to trade and knew that we were going to have a great time.
Nightfall came and with it the cold, oh it was cold! Every hour that passed it just got colder and colder. Of course with it being so cold our hot drinks were selling and we were more than happy to serve it up to the happy trancers. Business was slow but it was ticking nicely. By 3 a.m though we weren't selling much at all and the weather was taking it's toll on us.
Service
I decided to make a B-Line for the jumbo sized green bean bag we got for the party and wrapped myself in a sleeping bag. Michelle joined me soon after and we started generating some much needed heat.
We decided to close up for a while and slowly drifted off into dream land. It was a warm trance induced coma that felt like an eternity of phat fluffy bass. 3 hours later I woke up with the energy of at least one racehorse and I was ready for Sunday, especially the sun part.
Our party affirmation.
I got Michelle up and made her something hot to drink. We could see light now and knew it wouldn't be long before the sun was out in full force, ready to warm up the party again. I cracked a beer for breakfast and started brewing a new pot of coffee goodness, it wasn't long before we had our first coffee lovers at our hatch. A small rush ensued and coffees were flying out of the trailer. Happiness is a cup of hot caffeine in your cold blue hands.
The toilets had eaten enough crap for one weekend. :)
The first half of the day was warm and sunny and then - - - It started raining, nay, pouring. We packed up at about 4pm and hung around till 5, by this time the music had stopped and most of the party people had already driven off. We hitched up the trailer, tied down the poles and drove off silently into the farmlands. The drive home was tiresome and long but we made it home safely. The party was great and although we didn't make much cash it was well worth all the effort.
We made some great connections, met lots of beautiful people and left with residual feelings of warmth and connectedness that we hope will continue to affect our daily dealings with our customers.
Organik - Gaian Dreams was definitely one for the books!!!
We took some video --- I put together a little movie for you guys to watch, enjoy.
Wow it has been an intense week of organizing and prepping for our event this weekend. Organik is going to rock and we are going to be there serving hot coffee and delicious pancakes. Our pancakes have been tried and tested by us of course, many pancakes have been eaten this week.
The final four are Banana Caramel, Strawberries and Cream, Cinnamon Sugar and Hummus, Cheddar and Spinach. If you are coming this weekend be sure to stop by for a tasty pancake ala Morningbru.
This week on the strip has also been great and we have sold a total of 35 cups. That is a six cup improvement on last week bringing our average cup per day to 7. Eventually we want to be at around 30 - 40 cups a day and if we keep on improving at this rate we will get there sooner than later.
Anyway I really had to squeeze this post in today, we are sooo busy running around tying up loose ends for this weekend. Wish us luck and have a awesome weekend.
Monday has come and gone - 6 cups sold, 5 new customers and one comeback. Good signs. Pancake man didn't show up today, this is strange as he is always there, like everyday besides Sunday. What can you say the man loves making them pancakes ;)
We were soul alone on the strip and it kinda felt weird, almost scary. A tazer is now on the priority list in case, you know, someone tries to jack our stash when we are alone on the strip. Hoping the pancake man will be back tomorrow, I need my breakfast :)
I will service your coffee needs
Happy customers at the top and me serving some more on the left. Thank you for the support :) good times. These pics are a bit fuzzy - using a blackberry curve o.O --- My camera got broken _*sadface....
Trailer---Shiny
So as you can see we have changed the way we position the trailer, it's at more of an angle and closer to the Pancake man, we will post more pics so that you can see the full effect.
It creates a more sociable vibe because the people that come and buy pancakes can glance right over into our trailer. It is also better because it is further away from the road and less noisy.
Michelle and trailer
Before we were kind of cut off and all people could see was our backdoor, not good for business I say.
Notice the sign, it says ----FILTER COFFEE / HOT CHOCOLATE --- straight forward and simple. We think it has been working for us, gaining new customers everyday.
setup
Me enjoying my first cup
Working stuff out
The new spot is also very shaded which will help heaps on those hot day's. Cant wait for summer to kick in so that we can try selling Ice cold Juice, Lemonade and Water.
K - that's it for the post, hope to see some of you at Morningbru sometime soon.
Eagerly looking forward to this coming week to see how many cups we get sold on the strip. Last week stands at 29 cups sold, let's see if we can better that in the next couple of day's.
Michelle and I had a totally productive weekend preparing for Organik. Stretch tent is fixed and gas appliances are ready for work. Oh yeah.
I'm sipping on some of our coffee right now, it inspired me to post something on the blog. Well done to the Springboks for their victory today. I trust you all enjoyed the match. :)
Sold a total of 29 cups of liquid heaven this week on the strip, meaning we are averaging 5.8 cups a day at the moment. It has been an interesting and productive couple of day's and we are looking forward to Monday so that we can do it all over again.
Hopefully cigarettes will be on the menu in the near future, still trying to get wholesale prices so that we can offer packs cheap! cheap! We want feet at our stall, what better way to get it than with a highly addictive drug o.O
Going to be a hectic week as we are preparing for Organik (Outdoor Trance Party) - We have some yummy treats for all the happy stompers :) Super awesome Hot Chocolate (with marshmallows), strong Filter Coffee, sweet treats and a chill out area under our stretch tent. If you going to be at Organik I hope you drop by and come say hi.
Looking forward guys, have a safe and groovy weekend.
Welcome back winter :) - weather served us well today. With the cold comes the need for hot drinks, sold twelve cups today and we are hoping to better it tomorrow. Feels great to have the permit and to be legal on the strip, where are the coppers now?
Morningbru bounced back after two days of only two cups a day :( --- rocking some new signage outside the trailer that are letting people know what we are doing on the side of the road.
We are not looking half bad for our fourth day back on the strip. Thank you all for the support and positive feedback.
New menu items to look forward to in the coming weeks
Cigarettes (not the healthiest option but hey, people want em!)
Mineral water (Ice Cold for those hot days)
Juice (various flavors)
Thinking of fresh lemonade, once we gather a following.
Slowly we are getting back into a steady routine and I am sooooo happy, damn it feels good to get up early, squeezing the most out of the day.
I hope all of you are having a great week so far and if you aren't, well, come have a cup of coffee we are always smiling even when the sales aren't there. Amandel Rylaan Next to the pancake man (Eddie) DO IT!!!
It was a hectic and busy day yesterday, lots of driving - a little road rage!(TAXI) and a permit acquired.
Yes people, you read that correctly, we are now fully legal to trade on the strip. Shirley Alexander was very helpful in the end and wished us well with the business.
Thank you Shirley, at times I wanted to come and blow up your offices out of frustration but patience has paid off and things are back on track.
The Vending Licence!
Apparently Shirley had a meeting with all the vendors on the strip to decide our fate and they had only good things to say, hence us getting approved for the permit.
So much politics o.O ---- but hey I'm not complaining anymore. Woohooo!
So if you don't know, that is what a vending licence looks like. I like the yellow edges. hehehe
The Elusive Permit
This is the permit.. It is only valid for six months before we have to renew it. But hey, at least we finally have it now. Good Lord we were losing hope. So there it is guys we are sorted and ready.
Stay tuned for our August O.C post!
Sadly the September O.C has been cancelled
:( BEEEEG SAD MOUTH!
Gives us a month off to change our strategy a little I guess.
The O.C will be back in October and we will be there ready for business.
Tomorrow at 11 O'clock we will be going to see Shirley Alexander, hopefully all our things are in order and we can get our permit on the spot. Very excited, if all goes well we will be back on the strip this coming Monday. A post will be up after our meeting, we might even sneak in a few pics of the process.
Permit happy face!
So much are in the works for Morningbru and we are feeling uber positive about the business. If you happen to be in the area please come by and support us by buying a fresh cuppa, we make good coffee ;)
Waiting and waiting for the permit we need.... beh !! Starting to feel really frustrated with this whole situation. I suppose the key here is just to be patient. Anyway as soon as we get it we will be BACK!!!
Oh, and as a added surprise, Morningbru will be serving 350ml cups as well. So you will have a choice of a 250 ml or a 350 ml.
Stickers are also in the pipelines --- just a simple oval sticker with the Morningbru logo on it.. I wanted printed cups but unfortunately it is very expensive unless you are buying like 100 000 cups... In the future perhaps but not at this stage.
Anyway this was just a quick update on the frustration that is the permit ....
Wow it feels alien to be sitting in front of my keyboard again, after these last few weeks of filming and not being able to blog or sell coffee... I am glad to be back and grate full for my experience with the film industry this last month, it was a real eye opener and a huge learning curve that left me with a feeling of accomplishment. Thanks Cuan and old Fanie for all the laughs and bitching and laughs and lets not forget the laughs...... :) hope to do it again guys.
JUNE O.C here's the low down on our little adventure --- it was insane, hectic, tiring, depressing, inspiring, emotional and an all out new experience for the both of us. The place was filled with lanners, leechers, magic players and spectators of all ages, colours and creeds. I had dropped Michelle off at the venue in the morning leaving her alone to cope with the initial setup.
Fortunately Michelle met the food vendor "Harry". He is a hardened veteran of the O.C events and has been vending there for some time now. He helped Michelle with a bit of set up and gracefully gave us some tips and tricks on how to handle our first Organised Chaos Event. Thanks Harry we look forward to seeing you for July O.C. ( your breakfast rolls were the business bru )
I got there at about 9:00 pm after I had knocked off from work. It was raining and really cold as well - I didn't plan on going through right after work so I hadn't packed in any warm gear. Anyway, after dealing with the fact that I was going to be getting cold all night I went in search of the elusive Morningbru Coffee trailer. AAAAH there it was in all its metallic glory standing ready to spew out it's coffee magic-hahaha. I was ready to become one with the caffeine.
We got insanely busy on the first night, really, really busy. It started picking up at around 11 with thirsty customers coming in bursts of four or five at a time. They just kept coming and coming in wave after wave. Luckily, Michelle and I managed to keep them all happy by serving them as quickly as possible...... this kept going on well into the early hours of the morning.... Hot chocolate was a great seller as well and, of course, the incredible brownies were going faster than we could unpack them. After 24 Hours on the job things started getting quiet and the rush was over.. .. .. . .
It felt like a lifetime of serving coffee and hot chocolate, and by the time it had become quiet we were both tired beyond. We took it in turns to try and nap but it didn't really help much :/ The chaos continued well into Saturday evening.
Saturday night felt like the longest night ever! It had become very quiet and we were doing a minimum of about 4 cups an hour. We had both decided to stay open right through the night, but eventually decided we should lie down for an hour or two. We closed shop at 4:00 am and opened up again at 7:00 am. We stayed open for 4 hours of business before we raised the old white flag and called it quits on the chaos that is the O.C
The total count on cups sold --- 750 :) this is the most the trailer has done in it's lifetime and we are hoping it wont be its last. To all the new friends we made and to everyone who supported Morningbru at the O.C we say a big thanks.... Hope to see you all at the next one.
Day 10 and everything was moving along awesomely ..... until the cops arrived, again, I mean really now, do cops not like quality coffee?? There were two of the biggest S.A.P.D okes I have ever seen and the way they looked at us, I could tell they meant business.
I was about ready to run when I saw the seriousness on their faces.They asked for my papers and tuned me I was missing my permit to stand there :/ Honestly, I didn't know we needed one at all. I had just assumed it was all sorted in the vending licence etc. I offered them some coffee and they said NO! --- Really, no to free coffee? Maybe they thought we were trying to bribe them with coffee goodness or something :) Apparently our sign was too close to the road. According to them if a car had to break down it would have nowhere to pull over : p C'mon now really...... I could just move it.
All in all they were just plain rude and had a very bullying vibe about them. Too serious if you ask me! There are drugs and murderers on the streets, but they will hunt down vendors trying to earn a buck... weird. I'm sure that the beggars (bless them) that hassle people on the side of the road don't have permits to be there. Why not concentrate on things that actually have a negative impact on our society ???
Our permit is on the way but here's the bad news: it might take up to three months to get to us... That sucks so hard :'( I am going to do everything in my power to speed up the process so that we can be back on the strip to keep building our reputation as Morningbru Coffee...
Ok enough of that ..... we were officially shut down at 09:30 am, but before we had to go we sold six cups of coffee. Thats a good start to any day.
First customer.
We have started promoting the stand as a drive thru coffee.... It is just the right height and it makes for speedy service and quick get-aways.
Happiness
Peter Smuts getting his fix ;)
These pictures were NOT staged ( no posing ) ....
....... Except for this one ;) Thanks Bru !!
Condensation = Happy
So yeah that's a wrap for today. I hope you all have a safe and awesome weekend!
The O.C is going to be huge this month with 1000 lanners that have already booked. They are expecting a full house this weekend and we will be there to help 'em all stay awake.
