Watch Out Chapel Street, Here I Come!

This past weekend I worked at the Taste of Melbourne passing out Chocolate Box chocolates to any and every willing person who walked by our booth. The Taste was an exhibition of wine, food and house wares vendors passing out samples and flyers to advertise their company. Also set up were mini restaurant fronts of many of the best restaurants around Melbourne.

Talking with our customers and selling them bags of chocolates they sampled was entertaining and insightful of what our customer base is looking for in terms of consumption. (Towards the end of the evenings, especially on the last night of the event, I began just shoving chocolates into people’s shopping bags insisting that “this is the best chocolate EVER!” – hey, it is my job to market this stuff – might as well go big or go home!) I believe my favorite two customers of the entire weekend were:

1. The dad who over and over again used his young daughter to come ask me for samples. Apparently he didn’t think I would notice – so I finally made a comment: “Are you back again!?” (in a smiling, friendly way of course) – only to have the father reply, “No, this is her sister. She would like a sample as well.” Little did he know I could NOT be outsmarted. “Oh, do you have a twin?” I asked the little girl. Stuttering, the father turned beet red and rushed his daughter to the back of the crowd. I had to have a laugh because of the number of people just wanting freebies and never actually buying product or even simply seeming slightly interested in our company.

2. The angry hippie who could not beeeeliieve we were serving this “crap” (he used much colorful language) called milk chocolate to our customers. The only “real” chocolate in the world and that people should consume, especially women with all their “hormones and things” (his exact words) is pure 100% cacao (naturally, of course because of all the health benefits as well.) His tirade about health and obesity and the abhorrent act of the Chocolate Box serving milk chocolate, and how he has his own cacao crops and all his homes around the world and yak yak yak, went on for about 20 minutes before I finally had enough and walked away. My counterpart in crime, James graciously stepped in for me to blindside him with the questions of the evening, “So how much do you pay those illegal workers on this cacao farm of yours?” That shut the guy up real fast and we did not see his face again. Thank you James!

Not only did I eat my weight in chocolate, bread/olive oil samples and cheese throughout the course of the weekend, I just couldn’t let the many wine samples (that the vendors were so willing to share) go to waste! The weekend was deemed a great success in terms of the number of impressions we generated for The Chocolate Box brand (about 10,000 people walked through the door of the Royal Exhibition Building – where the event was taking place). We had comments made on Facebook and via email thanking us for the chocolate samples, and that they indeed would order some Christmas presents through our online store. Well-done team!

The rest of the week has turned into some time off (because I worked the whole weekend), which included: Nailing down an apartment (yay! Before and After Pictures to come), setting up utilities, appliances, signing documents, providing “100 points” of identification, background checks, you name it. Applying for and winning the bid for an apartment is like a high security CIA auction. I had dreams that we were denied and had a regret email sent to me with the closing line of, “that’s just Australia for ya.” Thankfully, my dream did not come true and this Friday, Rebecca and I will be holding the keys to a precious apartment off Caroline Street in South Yarra. About 5k from the CBD, just a jog away from the Botanical Gardens, the Yarra River and the TAM (a track around the gardens that’s great to run along) – we are in the middle of all the action, shopping, eateries and public transport. This weekend was exactly what I needed for the extra push of loving Melbourne even more! I had to say my goodbyes to my posse who have been so amazing to me over the past almost 2 months and that I have grown even more attached to. The kids asked if they would eveeerr see me again (I had to convince them that yes, I was not leaving Australia, just moving to a different part of town.) Had to tell Steph that we would still need to meet for runs and an occasional pedicure. Rebecca came to get me at 9:30pm on Tuesday and we were off to South Yarra. I felt like I was escaping in the middle of the night. That evening Rebecca and I decided, even though we have no fridge, no furniture and no washing machine, our first purchases (and this is a must) would be: 1. A beanbag for the living room that all our guests will have to sign when they come visit and 2. iPod speakers because everyone needs music in their lives. The second evening together we planned trips and activities out for almost every weekend to almost the end of the year (because naturally if you don’t plan a head, you will never go anywhere, duh.) And this is why we were destined to live together.

Not only will we have to move in, I have to work another fair this weekend (the Irresistible Gluten Free Show) – this time passing out our Gluten Free Fudge, Nougat and Lollipops. I am not a celiac, but I still plan on tasting some pretty fabulous food while I am there. I have given up eating any meat (besides fish) and have stuck to a fairly strict diet (ok, minus last weekend) of fruits and veg and sources of protein, i.e.: eggs, lentils, beans and tofu. I am hoping for great recipes from this weekend as well. Rebecca seems slightly nervous that for the next year living together all she will consume is vegetables and wine. Sounds good to me!

I am missing everyone from home, especially when I see comments about going to see the Dawgs play in Athens, or hear that GAC football is going well. I must say though, no matter how much I love it here, I do love and miss everyone back home – guess you all just have to come visit!

P.S.

Check out the amazing blog by the two creatively fabulous Greenway sisters: Something Old Something New Weddings

I did a guest post for them on best places to get married in Melbourne. (Not that I am anywhere close to the point of looking at wedding venues, but its fun to pretend!)