The first sign that we were not going to have another run of good luck at this year,s carnival happened when a month before the carnival ,I began to ring Anne,s number.Anne is the name we will call the lady,from whose front porch we sold food at last year,s carnival .The phone rang on each occasion but was not answered. I am a natural worrier so I began to panic.My Butcher likes to know in advance if there will be a dramatic increase in the quantity of meat and poultry that I order because he has to debone the goat and broiler Chicken which is no mean feat.When I told the boyfriend ,his answer as always and with everything is to pre-determine a fight with Anne."Oh no she better not Chicken out " He said venom in his voice. "She did promise that we could use her porch again this year" he continued not listening to himself speak."She did not promise not to give the space to a higher bidder this year and what we had was not exactly a cast iron legal /binding agreement" I reminded him."Seriously she had better not mess us up" he continued dimly.The boyfriend has the most one track mind of anyone I know and in the world according to him,no one should ever ever break a promise made to him no matter how flimsy "I think there is only one way to find out if we have got the space this year .Lets, go visit the woman ." I suggested.
"Thank God you are still in the country " I said as she let us into her home."You are not returning our calls,have we still got a deal?" "You bet you have" She replied.And so off we went to begin preparations in earnest.
Last year,we paid at the end of trading each day so we assumed the same arrangement this time but got a rude awakening the day before the carnival when I saw 6 missed calls from Anne in under 20 minutes. Thinking she,s had a change of heart and getting a sense of déjà vu , I steadied my nerves as I put a call through to her."You lot need to pay me for the two days trade tomorrow morning or the deal is off". My heart sank.My normal reaction would have been to tell her where to go and insist on only making payments after each day's trading but I know when I,ve been had. I am my father,s daughter .Bless his soul.He always said tread cautiously when you hold neither the knife nor the Yam .Anne held both the knife and yam. Only a fool would begin to argue with her now.! Like good school children,we presented her with the money the next morning and went about trying to sell to revellers who were already forming a queue.And it was indeed a very busy day for us.Back at the unit,An aunt of mine and Waheeda (see previous blogs)did a good job of doing all the preps for me .Jollof rice sauce was ready and all the poultry and meat seasoned.My Aunt even surpassed herself by peeling 80 kg of Maris piper potatoes.The unit was clean too.Exactly how I like my kitchen when I have loads of cooking to do.
Fast forward Bank holiday morning and despite, willing the weather prediction to improve, it didn,t I had gone ahead and prepared more food.The boyfriend and my nephew held the fort at the stall whilst I took more freshly cooked food along at 2pm.
To say that business was bad will be a massive understatement .Let me give you an idea of how very bad things were.The street where we were was alive and buzzing the day before with revellers spilling out of a trendy pub next door to us and though the DJ played from inside the pub ,you could feel the vibe streets away and it was good music too. A mix of Reggae,Soul,Calypso,House and the like.Today there was no live DJ and as I approached the pub , a stall holder held out 2 pieces of Corn on the Cob and shouted."just a pound now for them 2" Oh dear I thought .Business must be really awful today if I am being offered corn that would normally sell for £2 a cob that cheap.I did not have to wonder for too long for as I raised my eyes towards our stall my boyfriend,s demeanour told me everything I needed to know.Two youths were haggling with him over the price of 2 pieces of Buffallo wings." You lot are expensive bruv . You get me .Like this should cost no more than 50p a piece .I mean it's raining bruv . You get me .You should be thanking me for standing here in the rain and trying to buy some food off you." The boyfriend just glared at him whilst my nephew fiddled with his apron.It was not an encouraging sight. Mountains of food that revellers couldn't get enough of the day before stood before me liability written in stark letters all over it.Whats a girl to do now.I had only broken even. It hurt to think that we would be chucking all that rice 8 coolers of hours of sleep deprived slaving in the bin.Moreso,my own family back in Africa may not have had much to eat for dinner that night and here I am wasting food.I took the youths grand gesture £2.68 in all and gave them two full plates of food. Before long ,I had about 15 of them offering me various denominations of money for a full plate of food that we retailed for an average of £10 the previous day.When they were done and the rain cleared .We began to gather our equipments -gas burners, gazebos , paper plates,gigantic paella pans ,Bain Marie and of course tons of food .As we drove home, we could see in crevice like corridors ,sprouting stalls doing brilliant business that late in the night whilst I carried my trade home. My heart felt a pang of envy and my heart also knew that it's brief love affair with the Notting Hill Carnival has come to an expensive abrupt end.
Thursday 18 December 2014
Monday 1 September 2014
CARNIVAL TALES 1
"Dance with me come on" My boyfriend implored for the second time last Monday night,and though I felt more like Screaming out loud at the soul - dampening London weather,than dancing,I, lifted my very very tired body off the chair and clung unto him as he swayed and rocked my bulk to and fro out of sync with the music soothingly playing on the radio.A great dancer he is not. It had rained from the moment I yawned "good morning " to him at 4am that morning to the time he requested the dance at about 11pm that night.We had a miserable rain sodden ,wet day at the carnival unlike the day before..Furthermore,we hardly had any space in which to tango.We had piles of containers of curry goat,jollof rice,buffalo wings,buns and crates of canned drinks surrounding us .All through the days before the carnival, I had scoured weather forecast centres looking for a positive prediction for the bank holiday Monday but didn't find any.It was going to rain cats and dogs yet somehow I,d swam against the tide and gone ahead and hired the same number of staff,Prepared the same quantity of food and bought even more drinks.I had figured that so long as there was a sound system positioned near our set up, we would mint it.Oh how are the desperate disappointed!There were warning signs that could have served to warn me of the impending catastrophe that was this year,s Nottinghill Carnival but as always when I am desperate , I choose not to follow my instincts.
I have been a food street trader for more than 12 years and have catered at festivals but have never found it appealing to cater at the carnival .That position would still have sufficed but for the fact that I started a new family in the past 3 years brooding 2 babies .Something had to give as I began to find it increasingly difficulit to leave my babies at the strike of dawn to go hustle in the markets.Also I lost my premium spot at Greenwich market during that site,s management,s pretend restructuring(more of which in future blogs)The further loss of even more premium spots at lucrative lunch time market spots like Canary wharf and St Katherine,s dock (as my boyfriend ,s constant squabbles with the wife of the organizer the genteel Mr Shephered got us kicked out) Actually,it wasn't,entirely the boyfriends fault that we got kicked out. It didn't help matters that I also began to organise my own markets and tried poaching traders from Shephereds markets. I hadn't reckoned on the sheepish sense of loyalty some of the traders I approached owed to them. Anyhow,it became necessary for me to take on high risk but higher returns venture like the carnival.So,when last year I was approached by a friend of a friend to pay £1,000 to share a spot from which to sell hot food at the carnival,I got interested.I went with the boyfriend to peruse the site. He grew up in Lad broke grove so knew where the usual trouble spots were and as it so happened,the spot I was being offered was a well known trouble spot so we turned it down. The boyfriend then became obsessed with finding us a suitable site .It was partly his fault that my earning power has seriously diminished. He fought with Mrs Shephereds after all and we have very hungry mouths to feed and expensive baby paraphernalia to buy.He found one 3 days to the carnival.A private arrangement.We are to set up stall in front of this old eccentric,s house and pay him a commission of 5% on all our takings. I didn't like the sound of that and told him so when I met him. I,d rather he named a price to be paid before we started so that we can have autonomy over our takings and not have to declare our takings to someone we hardly knew.He refused to budge so we caved in.Come carnival morning , the boyfriend arrived at his building to set up and alas! there was another stall already set up on the same spot.He told the boyfriend that he had double booked. He was sorry! When the boyfriend rang to tell me I screamed at him to better make sure he found another spot or else he had better prepare both to feast on the tonnes of food myself and two staff were busy preparing and to pay the invoices as well. A while later he rang to I say that the Man,s neighbour had agreed for us to use her front porch.Incidentally,that spot was flanked on either side by two well known disc jockeys. On the one side was the legendary Norman J and on the other side,Pasha Sanchez.Suffice it to say that it was one of the most successful gamble we ever took as we had a snaking queue from the moment we were set up untill closing time. I was very happy indeed and curried favour with the woman who was also very happy to have earned a handsome fee and good food for her and 10 family members for the two day period.We arranged to use the same spot again in 2014.
I have been a food street trader for more than 12 years and have catered at festivals but have never found it appealing to cater at the carnival .That position would still have sufficed but for the fact that I started a new family in the past 3 years brooding 2 babies .Something had to give as I began to find it increasingly difficulit to leave my babies at the strike of dawn to go hustle in the markets.Also I lost my premium spot at Greenwich market during that site,s management,s pretend restructuring(more of which in future blogs)The further loss of even more premium spots at lucrative lunch time market spots like Canary wharf and St Katherine,s dock (as my boyfriend ,s constant squabbles with the wife of the organizer the genteel Mr Shephered got us kicked out) Actually,it wasn't,entirely the boyfriends fault that we got kicked out. It didn't help matters that I also began to organise my own markets and tried poaching traders from Shephereds markets. I hadn't reckoned on the sheepish sense of loyalty some of the traders I approached owed to them. Anyhow,it became necessary for me to take on high risk but higher returns venture like the carnival.So,when last year I was approached by a friend of a friend to pay £1,000 to share a spot from which to sell hot food at the carnival,I got interested.I went with the boyfriend to peruse the site. He grew up in Lad broke grove so knew where the usual trouble spots were and as it so happened,the spot I was being offered was a well known trouble spot so we turned it down. The boyfriend then became obsessed with finding us a suitable site .It was partly his fault that my earning power has seriously diminished. He fought with Mrs Shephereds after all and we have very hungry mouths to feed and expensive baby paraphernalia to buy.He found one 3 days to the carnival.A private arrangement.We are to set up stall in front of this old eccentric,s house and pay him a commission of 5% on all our takings. I didn't like the sound of that and told him so when I met him. I,d rather he named a price to be paid before we started so that we can have autonomy over our takings and not have to declare our takings to someone we hardly knew.He refused to budge so we caved in.Come carnival morning , the boyfriend arrived at his building to set up and alas! there was another stall already set up on the same spot.He told the boyfriend that he had double booked. He was sorry! When the boyfriend rang to tell me I screamed at him to better make sure he found another spot or else he had better prepare both to feast on the tonnes of food myself and two staff were busy preparing and to pay the invoices as well. A while later he rang to I say that the Man,s neighbour had agreed for us to use her front porch.Incidentally,that spot was flanked on either side by two well known disc jockeys. On the one side was the legendary Norman J and on the other side,Pasha Sanchez.Suffice it to say that it was one of the most successful gamble we ever took as we had a snaking queue from the moment we were set up untill closing time. I was very happy indeed and curried favour with the woman who was also very happy to have earned a handsome fee and good food for her and 10 family members for the two day period.We arranged to use the same spot again in 2014.
Saturday 28 June 2014
WHAT YOU,VE MISSED SO FAR.
I apologise for being incommunicado since the year.I tell you It has been a fiery roller coaster of a year so far.Pretty unprecedented.First the rainy season deluge we had at the beginning of the year,took its toll on my two toddlers .The 3 year old would go to Nursery where he will of course play with the other kids in the garden in the cold without his coat, (I think it is silly to allow kids to play outside when it is raining even the slightest drizzle but don't tell the policy makers of pre-school children,s education I said that)He would come back home with a sniffle .My two year old would promptly catch it ,and from then on it would be a race as to whose develops into an almighty viral infection .Like most parents, though I am aware that the GP would re-prescribe Calpol, and advise against the futility of administering antibiotics,I want my kids to at least get a decent night rest without bouts of excruciating coughs .I sometimes insisted on antibiotics being prescribed and that of course meant they got a bit better briefly only to fall ill again within a few days.So it happened that for the first quarter of this year, I visited the children,s urgent care centre more often than not most nights.And being one of those unfortunate people who must get at least 8 hours sleep before they can function , I just couldn't function and didn't know whether I was coming or going most days.The lovely Sue, the nurse at our Surgery took pity on me after I had dragged the kids to her room for the 3rd time in one week and said"flu jab next year unfailingly and for God,s sake get some Haliborange for the 3 year old" This piece of information became an epiphany for me because prior to becoming aware of it I had been so blinded by my determination not to introduce my kids to sweets that I did not realise how beneficial this particular Softies were. I went through the mineral and vitamin composition of the brand I was giving the kids hitherto to now and found that though it may be adequate for my 2 year old who eats any and everything you put on her plate ,and therefore,gets enough nutrients from her meals to boost her immune system ,my fussy mummy -give-me-more-milk 3year old boy required a more tailored help to boost his immune system as he did not eat much. For the record, I do not work for the makers of Haliborange but I must say that it worked for my boy.But catching up on work in order to pay outstanding bills then took precedence as the kids and of course the weather returned to normality.
So ,I got my first invitation to apply for an opportunity to cater at the annual Boat race. But the organizer is asking for a whooping £750 .I visit their website hoping to glimpse happy smiley faces of afore years caterers doing brisk business but find none.Still scared from catering at "festivals"which turned out to be nothing but lunch time market last year, I was determined to proceed cautiously or wise still not commit at all if I had the tiniest doubt about its viability.I ask if I was going to be the only food trader at this event selling my genre of food but what I got was an unconvincing reply plus that usual phrase that induces reckless investment on new street traders ;"we are expecting 20 thousand visitors"but a new street trader I wasn't .In fact if there was ever an award for the grand dame of street trading I should win the award hands down .I decided it was too risky and declined the offer. Lambeth country show,s email soon followed .I rang up the council to find out the criteria to applying successfully as my bid was turned down last year and it is quite a form one has to fill out."Your bid is unlikely to be accepted if you do not live in the borough"a voice told me. You don't say!but my address clearly showed that I live nowhere near Lambeth. I said they could have saved me a lot of bother on last year,s application."Please send me no more soliciting emails about applying because I won't be making a bid ever again "Another one bites the dust. I thought.
And then there is Waheeda(from my December blog).She has lost all her hair and despite having had a fitted wig made for her, refuses to wear it.How are things with her boyfriend? I ask aware that she avoids discussing him each time I bring the subject up.She hasn,t seen him since the diagnosis."Why ever not?" I scolded her knowing from her tone that she instigated the separation . "I ain't seeing no man without my boobs" she replied matter of factly. "When I am done with my chemo and other treatments and have had my breast reconstructed, I will perhaps then think about seeing any man but for now I am perfectly fine on my own thank you very much" I just sat there looking at this enigma of a woman to whom so far ,Fate has dealt a more than average hard and cruel life and through it all she still keeps her smile .She went back to work just weeks after surgery to have her breasts removed.I have often wondered since her diagnosis ,how I would have reacted were it myself that was given that diagnosis a year after loosing my mum and a brother in law.And methinks it would have been a constant barrage of assaults on God,s ears and a non stop whinnying of why me again to any and everyone who will care enough to listen.
So ,I got my first invitation to apply for an opportunity to cater at the annual Boat race. But the organizer is asking for a whooping £750 .I visit their website hoping to glimpse happy smiley faces of afore years caterers doing brisk business but find none.Still scared from catering at "festivals"which turned out to be nothing but lunch time market last year, I was determined to proceed cautiously or wise still not commit at all if I had the tiniest doubt about its viability.I ask if I was going to be the only food trader at this event selling my genre of food but what I got was an unconvincing reply plus that usual phrase that induces reckless investment on new street traders ;"we are expecting 20 thousand visitors"but a new street trader I wasn't .In fact if there was ever an award for the grand dame of street trading I should win the award hands down .I decided it was too risky and declined the offer. Lambeth country show,s email soon followed .I rang up the council to find out the criteria to applying successfully as my bid was turned down last year and it is quite a form one has to fill out."Your bid is unlikely to be accepted if you do not live in the borough"a voice told me. You don't say!but my address clearly showed that I live nowhere near Lambeth. I said they could have saved me a lot of bother on last year,s application."Please send me no more soliciting emails about applying because I won't be making a bid ever again "Another one bites the dust. I thought.
And then there is Waheeda(from my December blog).She has lost all her hair and despite having had a fitted wig made for her, refuses to wear it.How are things with her boyfriend? I ask aware that she avoids discussing him each time I bring the subject up.She hasn,t seen him since the diagnosis."Why ever not?" I scolded her knowing from her tone that she instigated the separation . "I ain't seeing no man without my boobs" she replied matter of factly. "When I am done with my chemo and other treatments and have had my breast reconstructed, I will perhaps then think about seeing any man but for now I am perfectly fine on my own thank you very much" I just sat there looking at this enigma of a woman to whom so far ,Fate has dealt a more than average hard and cruel life and through it all she still keeps her smile .She went back to work just weeks after surgery to have her breasts removed.I have often wondered since her diagnosis ,how I would have reacted were it myself that was given that diagnosis a year after loosing my mum and a brother in law.And methinks it would have been a constant barrage of assaults on God,s ears and a non stop whinnying of why me again to any and everyone who will care enough to listen.
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