The Good News, The Bad News, The Good News!

First good news... the branding has been done, and the van looks very smart indeed (well we think so!)

Now the very very bad news.

We had a slight issues with the fryers sooting up, which the previous owner said was because they needed a clean. Being cautious, we got a gas engineer to come to take a look. After several long intakes of breath he wrote out a notice telling us the van was dangerous and must not be used. Lots and lots of money required to put this right he said. Cue lots of gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair (obviously not everyone present could do that!). We did have a 'valid' gas certificate, which it appears is not worth the paper it is written on. Several phonecalls later we had a plan of action and were feeling slightly better. The original gas engineer has been reported as he was not registered to work on commercial gas installations at all.

Now the good news (ish). The gas engineer told us about a chap in Lampeter who builds catering wagons (henceforth known as the Lovely Van Doctor). We took the van up today and he thinks that it's not all quite as bad as it could be, all fixable with an injection of cash, and we can make some modifications to the kit-out at the same time. Sighs of relief all round, and probably a blessing in disguise.

And I nearly turned to dognapping. Meet Denzil, LVD's 12 week old Jack Russell puppy .

At last - the van designs arrive!

I don't know why it has taken so long, but finally we have the mock-up of the van. We think they look great but we need input, people - so tell us what you think by leaving a comment!

First outing for 'The Beast'

We took the van out for it's first proper drive today, to Haverfordwest and back. Why 'The Beast'? - because it is a big bu**ger! It was quite nice being able to see over the hedges into the fields, but negotiating the car park in town was interesting, it does not fit into a standard car space! It was also a bit unnerving hearing all sorts of bangs and clanks coming from the back of the van - we must remember to batten everything down before we drive anywhere!

We went into town to see the nice man who is going to make the van look smart by wrapping it in plastic . We are hoping that by making it stand out from the crowd will give us a competative edge and people will remember us.

After that we went to the Cash & Carry - now for someone not used to such placces it is like being given the keys to the sweetie shop - all those things to buy, but in BIG boxes!

Welcome to our office

When we are not out selling fish & chips this is where we keep the van - not a bad view, eh? It certainly made the day we spent scrubbing out the van more bearable. The geese are fascinated by the van, they keep marching up to it and peering in the door.

On our own!

Sunday 28th - The previous owner of the van having gone back to North Wales, we were on our own! We managed to set up with no problems (once we had remembered all the instructions!) and got off to a flying start - as soon as we opened up we were inundated with customers. It all got a bit hairy at one point as orders were being fired in from all directions. But order was restored, and we learnt some good lessons about how to manage a busy session. Quite early on it became apparent that we were woefully under-stocked and we were going to run out of chips before the concert ended. Mark had to make several dashes back home to get more stock from the freezer, but in the end we had to admit defeat - we had sold every chip, sausage and fillet of fish that we had. It was a really fun night, we were really happy about how we had managed, and we were able to give a very healthy donation of our profits to the Sea Cadets. We could not have asked for a better start to our new careers!

Our First Customers

So here we are on our first night running the van. These are our first ever customers! The evening was not too busy, which was good, it gave us time to learn what to do. We got lots of good feedback about our food. It was a great night!