MARKET DAY RUSH

Today was a 5 o’clock start as we began our final preparations for today. We first made sure that all our gazebos were inline with each other and that they were firmly tied down because the last thing we wanted today was a gazebo kite. The rest of our team members all arrived around 6 o’clock where we were united once again. Today was the first day that we as a team would really work together while there is real pressure to deliver. Our first combo that we were selling was coffee or tea and a muffin, which was R10. This was controlled by two team members and this worked our perfectly as this gave us time to collect some final items for the day, get the slush puppy machines cold and do our final preparations for the day. With our matching shirts, magnificent looking stand, combos to feed an army, and high spirits we were now ready for anything that was thrown at us. Boerewors rolls were going to be sold at 10:30 so our next task was to make sure that our boerewors was all the correct size so that we could put it straight into the rolls off the braai.

Once the first boerewors roll was sold the rest was pretty much a blur as we managed to all work together like a well-oiled machine. There was no clear job delegation before the day but everyone played to their strengths and we got into a unbeatable rhythm, which kept our customers hunger at bay and their taste buds satisfied. One challenge I experienced was that two of us were putting the boerewors into the rolls and then collection drinks for our customers, which proved to make our production line somewhat slow. This did not take long to resolve however as we made a quick change and from there we raced off. We had long queues all day, which meant the tempo was high.

One thing I will be bringing for next cake day is a mask of some kind because from standing in front of the fire all day it looked as if I was crying. Before we knew it the day was nearly over and while other groups were starting to pack up, we were still selling. In no time we had run out of rolls because we could not keep up with demand but this was no problem as we shot down to the shops and bought 70 more rolls in order to keep things going. Although we had all been on our feet all day today we still all had big smiles all round because today had been a huge success. Once we had closed up shop it was now the hard part. Cleaning up all the mess. We were absolutely exhausted.

One thing at a time we started to clear everything until there was nothing. At about 21:30 we were all cleaned up and the day was done, well at UCT at least. We now had the task of counting our money for the day, which was exciting. Once we had tallied our shillings it was now time to hit the sack after a long and tiring day.