A couple of friends and I have a small venture going on. I say small because we only do it once a year and in fact have only done it once, last year. However, I have to say we were quite successful so made a collective decision to do it again this year.
What could it be? I hear you say. Well, we are doing a small stall of cakes, sweets, juices and face painting at the Leeds West Indian Carnival over the bank holiday. And this year we’re doing both days.
*Leaves slight pause for you to be impressed*
As always with these small ventures there is planning and pontification that goes into it way before the event draws nigh, which we have duly done, convincing ourselves that whatever the weather may hold, we will have a ball.
Now that we are less than a week away, the buying and baking is looming over us. So today saw myself, the wee boy, and Charlotte taking the brave step to Costco.
For those of you who don’t know, Costco is a huge expanse of space dedicated to the largest array of things to buy in bulk. A little like a French Hypermarket, although to be honest, I am unsure as to it’s title as we always refer to it as Costco. Within these walls lies the largest array of stuff you never realised you may be impressed by, making it extremely easy to get completely sucked in to the ‘buy in bulk’ philosophy.
This time though, we resist and instead just collect the large portions of things we will need to made humongously large amounts of chocolate items.
Having decided our trolley has everything in it we require, we diligently follow the herd to the checkout and watch as things are beeped through.
Now this is the thing with bulk buying at a cost effective building; it is very easy to be in almost total denial about the overall cost, as your focus is on the cost effectiveness of one. Therefore, when the total amount presented to us by the smiling, if not slightly weary looking cashier, came up, Charlotte and I both swayed momentarily, trying to keep upright and unflustered whilst trembling under the enormity of it all.
We very quickly regained our composure and paid for our goods. The wonderful thing about being part of a new venture with others is that you can very quickly smooth the lines of panic, reminding yourselves that it is an investment. Which is lucky, as, had I been on my own I think I may have had an apoplectic fit.
Moving on, we had a couple more errands to achieve over the next few hours. Which we have accomplished.
Meanwhile the wee boy’s raison d’etre today was to buy a fly swatter. We can now tick that off the list as well.
All we need to do now is bake. And bake. And bake.
If you need me at all over the next few days, I’ll be in the kitchen…