Blog 2: 8th November 2006 - Still no van

Ok... I'm just gonna use this blog as a list of things I've done (relatively little) and things I need to do (relatively loads). Maybe it'll help straighten up my twisted little cranium.

First, little update of what i've been doing:

Workwise I've been fairly busy. Got a couple of temp jobs through www.charitypeople.com. They're a really good agency who take you in for an interview first to check that you're alright and tend to google your name while you do a word processing and excel test. For most people this'd be alright.. if your name's Simon Luard, it's a bit more embarrassing.

Anyway, they get you fairly interesting work at not-for-profit organisations which is cool if your stuck for something to do for a while. Had a great day down the fostering network the other day. There was a 15 year old girl working down there.. think she had some attention difficulties. She'd jump in my seat any time I left it and when I made her get out of it she'd cover my screen in post it notes; "You're Evul", "I'm going to haunt you" "Are you in your 20s" etc... I thought that if i made her do work it might bore her into annoying someone else. I had to sort through loads of returned mail and log the reason it was returned so I made her read the reasons out. Most of the time it was "addressee has gone away". So she read 'em out.. "gone away", "gone away"... after about 5 "gone aways" in a row she stopped and said " You've got ghonorria!" really loudly. So everyone could hear. I pissed myself!

Also had my first day with the chocolate fountain company, setting up chocolate fountains at weddings/parties etc. The sweet thing about this job is that they put me through a food hygene course which I need to serve food. Cheers!

And that's it! Getting paid just enough to get by on while waiting for my van to arrive and get turned into kitchen del luardo.

So, setting up a mobile Latin American kitchen:

1. Been doing a lot of cooking. Lots of tasting evenings where mates come round and eat food. Some stuff's been pretty bad, some good and some amazing. Been learning a lot about the food from South and Central America and I absolutely love it! Hella tasty. I really need to do a lot more cooking, probably do a brief cooking course, and then decide on a few dishes that I think will work. Then source the ingredients.

A strange thing... found a cookbook in the library the other day called "The Latin American Kitchen". It's by my aunt! Elisabeth Luard. We hadn't had much contact for years but I called her up the other day to chat and she was wicked, really helpful and ready with advice. Am sure I'll be running stuff by her in the future.

2. Business account almost opened. It's fairly straightforward really. I went with Natwest cause I'm already with them and they have free banking for the first 18 months. If you're already with them it's just a case of filling out a simple form. Trouble is they ask for your trading name and...

3. I can't decide on a name! I emailed all my mates and got some outstanding suggestions such as:

Jalapedo
Gangster Wraps
Jigga Van!
The Hot Cock (?)
Si's Salmonella!

I'm a big fan of all these.

My (actual) top 3 at the moment are (in no particular order):

The Whole Enchilada
Tomatillo
The Salsa Bar

Would love to hear what people think of the names.

4. I really need a quality van conversion company to turn my empty van into a mobile kitchen... but I cant afford to pay them too much. Tricky. Just this second spoke to someone called Mark Haynes in Chepstow who can do it for 3,300 quid not including equiptment.. shit! That's alot.

5. Marketing stuff is going pretty well. I'm in the process of putting together a scrapbook of photos and images that I like which relate to my business, from which my friend Toby is gonna make a "design profile". Ouch. Friends are really sorting me out in terms of marketing actually. My mate from Uni, Mat, is starting up a web design company and offered to do my website for free so that he could use it as an example of his work. Another good mate, Insa, is set to paint the van once it's ready which I'm pretty excited about. Think he is as well.

6. Legalities - am gonna become a sole trader so it's fairly straightforward. I have to register with HMRC within three months of trading and i'm good to go. Just got a couple other legal issues to do with the interior of the van (health and safety requirements) and the registration of the van into the UK (it's a french van).

Then there's all sort of other random stuff.. looking for decorations, odd people to call, researching equipment (I never knew there was something called a chargrill - forget the business, I want one anyway!). The more you look and ask, the more questions come up.. it's quality! And I havnt even started yet.

Jesus! that's the longest blog ever. Sorry. Adios.