2011 - last day trading

Things were not looking good for my last day of trading - all week, the weather forecast had been predicting heavy rain and wind which sounded ominous. I also tried to chat to the market manager last week because deep down, I just wanted to get a clear answer on why I was dumped out of the farmer's market a few weeks ago, as well as wanting to enquire on the possibility of going back perhaps in the New Year. He had promised that we could chat about it on the last day and even suggested that we stay trading for later since he said that he would be bringing outdoor lights so it would be possible to stay out in the dark. Because of this, I turned up to set up around lunchtime - when I asked about the light situation, he just fobbed me off with the fact that he only had enough lights for his own stall (which wasn't the tone the previous week when he mentioned that I could share). 

No matter, I figured......the weather was looking pretty grim so it might just be better to have a shorter trading day. As I feared, it was a quiet day, partly because it was a Friday as opposed to a Saturday and most folk were still at work. Having said that, there were a few highlights including "banana bread" man who popped along and bought my large Christmas cake from me. I have to say that he is not my favourite customer because he is always trying to get a bargain off me and I'm pretty shit at not backing down. As you guessed, he bought the cake at a cheaper price than I intended but seeing as it was Christmas, I figured why not? Aside from this minor gripe, he is a nice guy and always pops along with his bike and pet dog. We always have a little chat and I found out this time that he's a bus driver and doesn't get a huge break over Chrimbo. The funny thing was he had a slice of cake from my sample Xmas cake only after he had bought the large one AND after telling me that he didn't like marzipan, a bit of a problem since my Christmas cake is covered with toasted almond paste, aka. marzipan (albeit homemade with a dash of whiskey)!! Despite all this, he loved the cake after tasting it (toasted home-made whiskey spiked almond paste is guaranteed to convert those who hate commercial marzipan!!) and was genuinely happy that he had bagged the large one :)

The couple who had come back to get a large chocolate salt caramel pecan tart from a few weeks back wandered past and the guy ended up buying another one! I am confident that my product looks and tastes good but it's still a nice (no, it's actually a great) feeling to see folk coming back and buying your cakes again :)

Despite a few rain showers during the course of the day, I felt pretty lucky that the prospect of heavy rain and high winds didn't surface.......well, I spoke too soon cos the weather turned into a shitstorm come around 4pm. I guess I was lucky that I had already started to pack up but that still didn't prevent me from getting generally soaked and battered! The stall next to me only held for a bit longer than me - there were 2 of them and they were literally clinging on to the tent for dear life in case, the whole thing decided to blow away!! 

I never did manage to pin down the market manager for the chat I wanted and was promised. It's just become increasingly clear that he is not good at making decisions and more importantly, dealing with uncomfortable situations head on. I did wish him a Happy Christmas and said that I would try and chat to him in the New Year but hand on heart, this is unlikely to happen. A bit of a duff end to the year but as JD keeps telling me, it's all experience. I'm looking forward to heading home and seeing family and friends and putting the ol feet up for a while :)

Looking grim!

 Nothing like a bit of sparkly stuff to get in the mood for Chrimbo!!