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!