The Return Of The Toastie
It’s important that you read toastie in the title to rhyme with Jedi. Even if it makes you sound a little like an Essex native. That way I can justify any inadvertent Star Wars references later. He’s back! After 6 weeks we finally have the Beast back on our drive, and the road looks right again. I had no idea how wound up you could get about a rusty collection of nuts and bolts held together with paint, but it turns out that I’m really quite fond of him these days. Partly, of course, because he is the whole concept behind our business, but also because we’ve been through a lot now, and he has mostly kept on chugging. The Jabberwocky is now better off by one new second hand radiator, one clutch, a half set of spark plugs and a...
The Digbeth Dining Comeback
This Friday we will be heading back to Digbeth Dining Club, first of the New Year, finest street food in Birmingham and all round happy place. But. Last week I was hopeful, and panic-buying teapots more to calm the nerves than because I actually believed the Beast would not be back. And yet here we are, and here is willow pattern teapot with a gilt finish. The van is still not on our drive. He is up in Leicester, with his engine out on a rack and our hopes strewn messily around him. Without wishing to sound negative; it doesn’t look terribly promising. So because nothing short of actual zombies will stop us trading at Digbeth this weekend we have been working on a backup. While one of the Jabberwocky’s most characteristic features may well be a...
Worst Case Scenario
Last weekend we had more sunshine than for most of the previous summer, and took the opportunity to engage in outdoor activities. Initially this involved painting the fence, which is determined to turn green, but then we remembered one job that has been lurking in our hallway all winter, because we didn’t deal with it earlier. The seating and tables which, in our road, make us the household statistically most likely to win a game of musical chairs, have been loitering in the hallway since the last event that needed outdoor seating. Again, based on the weather, I expect that was probably back in July some time, but we Brits are pretty hardcore when it comes to sitting and eating, and really only one the two supposedly equally important criteria must be...
Surviving A Zombie Apocalypse In The Beast
As a naturally positive and realistic person I have come to the conclusion that with the van we would be well placed, should the need arise, to survive at least the first wave of a zombie apocalypse. It’s important to consider, because otherwise what if it comes up on a pitch application. An unprepared trader would not be able to give a satisfactory answer. When the attack is initially announced you take the opportunity to stock up the van with fuel and food. During the on-season we will have all this ready to go, so ideally we’d need an apocalyptic infection on a Friday, just before a long weekend. The trick is to not panic at this stage, because that’s what everyone else is doing. So we pack everything into the van, including the generator, the...
The One About Getting The Right Fuel In The Van
It started with a debate about a light on the dash board as we were driving to Sutton Coldfield for a Chritsmas market last weekend. A red light we never even knew existed awoke and began to glow. Dimly at first, when he roared into life. We topped up the radiator, checked the oil and decided that the Beast was probably just saying good morning. In a fairly creepy way, but perhaps he was just referencing Hal 9000 from Stanley Kubrick’s seminal 2001: Space Odyssey. We worried our way through Leamington as the light grew brighter (“Hello Dave”) flashed a little (“I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.”) grew darker (“I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.”) and started...
Subscribe
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.