This year was probably not what Frank had in mind, but this song has been floating around my head since I started thinking about this post, and a lot of it seems apt, at the very least. Our last event of 2012 approaches, and our last event serving food is already behind us. We are getting ready to pack up for the rest of the winter and let the Beast gracefully sink a little further into the drive over the next few months, without troubling him.
Our next booked event is not until May, because food vans don’t really venture out over winter, and I’m not sure how well ours, determined as he is not to start at the best of times, would cope with anything colder than the present climate. So we have not booked anything else for the rest of December, and will be trying for some rest and relaxation before 2013. It means that all those jobs I have been meaning to get done when I have a chance, like posting the remaining thank you cards I was talking about three weeks ago, or updating the pictures on the website, or editing my novel (just dropped that one in on the sly) will actually plan to happen. Soon.
December won’t be a final curtain for the Jabberwocky, Frank was wrong about that, it’s just the end of the hectic, explosive and incredibly brief 2012, and a pause to gasp for breath before we launch into a year that will hopefully be even bigger.
I have strangely mixed emotions about this. It will be nice to have multiple, regular days off. I’m also looking forward to conversations that do not revolve around the van and his health and welfare. I’m going to miss it though, the cold, the toasties, the random conversations and the unbelievably rewarding feeling of directly converting hard work into money by way of a business you have created from nothing. There really should be a word for that. I bet there is in German. It’s probably very long. Selbstständigkeitvergütungswohlgefühl. I made that up.
The Off-Season, which runs from now until whenever we can start the van again, will be spent on all those jobs that keep a food truck happy in the summer: Festival applications, deep cleans, refurbishing, drilling holes in stuff and general man-work, website modifications and product development. Last night we were working on the perfect cheese toastie. I’d recommend Gruyère, mozzarella, a solid cheddar and a sprinkle of Parmesan, but like most things it is significantly improved with fried onions. Unfortunately onions are one of those foods that some people simply won’t try, and if this toastie is ever going to become the cheesy signature we hope it could be, we can’t be scaring people with food they won’t try. Some times you have to accept that the customer is right. Sometimes you have to gently explain why they are wrong. Sometimes you have to sing Frank Sinatra loudly in the living room while gesturing expansively and wearing a blanket.
replace “sometimes” in the last sentence with “always”. <3 you three!
“Unfortunately onions are one of those foods that some people simply won’t try” – I didn’t realise there were enough people out there who disliked onions so much to make them a factor in business decisions; or is it just that generally people don’t put onions with toasties?
Have a nice Winter break, look forward to seeing you, and eating more tasty toasties, at Digbeth Dining Club next year 🙂