Friday 10 August 2012

What a week!

Wow that week went quickly!

Last Saturday saw us embark on our first ever day of trading. We learnt a lot in a very short amount of time and had a really good day. The bike coped very well with the road, and only required a little bit of extra help going up hill. We have thanked him quite a lot already, but its not enough, we have to thank Dan Kouriah once again for being a vegan iron-man and pushing the velo into the city for us. Such a champion! Dan is a bicycle courier in Adelaide, (has been for something like 20 years!), is the International skid champion (seriously), has competed in the international courier championships in Japan, and is generally an amazing guy. We asked him if he wouldn’t mind pushing the vintage cargo bike in for us and after riding it about 20m he said he wanted more of a challenge. So on the veggie velo he went and didn’t give up until we got there.

 The bike is a pretty impressive sight. The looks on peoples’ faces as we rode by was pretty cool. Lots of people pointing, a lot of attention - Awesome! Saturday was so good and left us with a huge feeling of gratitude to everyone for their support and patience. We also found out how the weather is going to impact a lot on our business. It was fairly windy, not extremely, but just enough to blow the burgers along the chopping board if we didn’t hold them down. Outdoor dining is going to provide us with a few little challenges in the future we think. Over all an awesome day with family, friends and passers-by enjoying veggie burgers off the bike for the first time.
We want to make mention of the awesome support from Dan & Danni, Amber, Jess, Steven and the Watts/Simpson/Davis crew who hung around all day keeping us going, and for Nicole for being our very first paying customer. Thank you!!
Then on Sunday, we were happily off to Semaphore to work with Stuart at Sarah’s Sustainable CafĂ©. This was great! After getting a beating from the wind on Saturday, we had some shelter under the verandah at Sarah’s and had a much better time making burgers. The grill was hot, the music was on, the customers were cruisey and chilled and we had fun. As animal lovers, we were also pleased with the constant stream of dogs walking by with their companion humans. So great.
Thanks to Mel who brought her Mum and her dog to meet us. Both were a treat! We are super happy with the response we are getting from people, loving the burgers, and lots of interest in the bike.

We notice people see the food, chat to us, and then a few moments later realise all of the kitchen is on a bike “Woah, did you ride that here?”. It’s pretty great. (We didn’t actually ride it to Semaphore, we got a lift, but one day, maybe.) Stuart had also organised for some of his bicycle loving friends to be there. Bruce was one character in particular who really inspired us. Bruce had hand built his long style bicycle and trailer himself in the 80’s. He had with him some photos of the building process and of his friends with their custom bicycles, really great. Can you see how long that load is?

Brilliant!

We see and meet riders all the time who inspire us and remind us that with pedal power a lot can be achieved. So this week brings new adventures for the Veggie Velo. Tomorrow we are trading on North Terrace for the first time. We are obliged by the council to have a certain amount of space around us when we trade, and this being a nice wide boulevard, it should be perfect. Then on Saturday we are back in Hindmarsh square. Maybe a slightly different position, but Im sure you will find us. So a big thank you for the incredible support from everyone so far, and wish us luck on our second week of trading. The weather so far looks great. And come and buy a burger and say hello! We want to see your happy faces! Love your veg!

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