The aftermath

   A fair wind blew us all the way to the Puckshipton asparagus party early Saturday morning; resulting in significant fuel savings and a feeling of general good times to come. After pilfering some wood fuel from the Noble estate our new lady helper proved we could set up and prepare the dough for the evenings asparagus party in ample time; giving us time to pontificate about the onslaught to come- and lash down the tent against the 60 m.p.h gusts shimmying the tent left right and center.

   With everybody suitably fashionably late; the young age units were the first to drip the trendy buffet style pizza provided by us all over our table and their persons- one such item described our oven as 'magic' as the pizza went in uncooked and came out finished; we agree. Adults as well were suitably over awed by the magic, so much so that they liked to stand in front of our oven and feel affronted when they are asked to move- by the end of the night I had managed to not upset or bash anyone along with surviving flighty winds and lashings of rain. To bed at 1:00 a.m. having made 130 od pizzas and packed up ready to leave for Haye at 6:30 a.m.
 
   Picking up a hungover helper unit on the way to the place of books we were soon set up in the shadow of Hay castle and before we knew what was happening had an onslaught of people demanding pizza and asking how we could prove it was wood fired. Pretty soon there was chaos amongst the various clowns, circus types and live music circulating the stall translating in to chaos in the pizza arena; pizzas sticking and burnt, orders muddled and finally dough running low. Fortunately lady Caroline had rode her trusty steed all the way from the Harrods PR department; arrived, exercised her steely feminine strong will to inform punters that we were shutting down the operation to take stock/ re-stock and re organise for an hour. This we did and under a watchful eye we progressed seamlessly from there on- chucking out pizzas till the cows came home. At about 7.00 ish.

   With hospitality provided by the Shepard's Ice Cream (super lush and healthy) empire we were to bed and out cold suitably early having sold just under 200 pizzas! The next day we rolled in at 10:00 a.m. to find it lashing with rain and miserable- you're never dry in Hay-on-Wye; feeling pretty gloomy, people coming in dribs and drabs,  we thought we would sell nothing; with the Shepards shop opposite doing a roaring trade as usual. People emerged however and by one we had a large cue as per the day before; without our PR guru we had her prodigy Liv who with her crash course training (and refreshed self) oiled the front of house machine that kept the cogs turning beautifully; inspiring comments that we were all far to 'calming and angelic like'. Finishing the day with a similar turnover we packed up exhausted and ready to go home at 8:00 p.m. and decided to head home once Ed has taken his pills of the 'man up' variety.

   All in all a very successful weekend with lessons to be learnt and heart to be taken! We thank a heroic effort from Jessica for showing Ed how to do his job, a front of house masterclass from Caroline, Liv for handling the second day effortlessly by herslef and making everyones jobs a breeze, and Juliet and the Shepard's crew for being a rock of support.

    On to the Petersfield food festival on Saturday; we're featured in the Petersfield post! Keep the good times coming!


Quote of the weekend

Punter: 'Bonjourno'
Liv: 'Errrr. It's not French actually. It's Italian' (said in a west country teenage don't you know way).