Was it worth it?
Good morning
That's the Royal Norfolk show done for another year. Thank you to everyone who came to see us, we still have new people come up and to say hello for the first time and tell us how they followed us through the lockdowns etc. We had some chats and laughs about the quizzes etc and its lovely to hear these peoples stories about that time and that they have not forgotten. So thank you.
These big shows are good but my word they are stressful and very long days, arriving at 6am on Wednesday to set up to find someone has set up in our allocated location and then having several heated discussions about where they were going to move us and the why it happened etc is not the start you need, especially when you then have to work until 8pm! It turned out it was a simple error and the other stand apologised for the mistake, shook hands and then all was good. Mistakes happen, that is not a problem, its how you handle it that matters..
Yesterday started very differently, it was pouring with rain, but that didn’t stop people coming out and as we were in the food hall it meant the hall was very busy, busy doesn’t always mean good though, especially in the morning, people are keeping out the rain so you end up doing plenty of samples and not much selling. Experience tells us this is ok, we would rather it be this way than no one about. You end up chatting to lots of people, some who would not normally stop and talk so that's a good thing. Then in the afternoon the sun came out and the hall felt empty, but people from the morning started coming back and purchasing, which turned into another pretty good day.
Then it is pack up time, this is another stressful time at any show, but at these massive ones its a nightmare. Our vans were in a locked compound about 100m from our stand, the show ended at 6pm but you can’t move your van until at least 7pm so out comes the trolley and you walk everything off, its a workout in itself. By 6.30pm the van was fully loaded but you still can’t move it to actually get off site, so you just have to sit and wait.
Eventually at 7pm you can move, but every other van has the same idea, that's when being kind tends to go out the window, its dog eat dog just trying to get out the gate. Eventually we go out and then disaster…the A47 was closed. Gridlock, after following the sat nav through tiny windy roads and severy road closed signs later home for 9.15pm.
Up again this morning to start again, guess what..Flat tyre on the van, so that was the start to today..Change tyre and then get to work
So overall was it a good show, yes it was, would we do it again next year, probably, however it will take a few days to get over it, not that we have that, more shows this weekend, but its all good, its good to be busy…
Off to a meeting, with loads of coffee today..
Catch you later!