North Yorkshire Show

The most recent show i sold my oil at was the North Yorkshire show in Northallerton. It was quite a large show and i managed to sell enough things to make me happy. I had just bought 2 large banners and a traditional looking Catalonia table cloth so my stand looked the part. At this rate, i may even be able to afford to do a bit more travelling before going to uni.

I managed to get a good spot at the show and the stand opposite me was a local brewer from Northallerton, they brewed some good beers and gave me a discounted rate, so i wasn't complaining. This is also one of the perks of doing agricultural shows, i can have pint and a bacon sandwich while i work.

When i'm not doing the shows, i'm attempting to arrange meetings with deli's and farmshops who will hopefully start stocking the oil. My sales patter is starting to sound pretty good.
I've still got no more plans to travel this year but hopefully i might be able to afford a few weeks in Europe before i have to go to uni.

Thorncliffe Farm Shop

Yesterday i spent the day selling olive oil at one of the local farm shops i live near. I had planned to sell my products outside the door, so knowing what the weather in England is like, i though i better buy a gazebo for a bit of shelter. I arrive at the farm shop half an hour early so i could set up, this all went well until the minute i set up when a big gust of wind blew, which lifted up my gazebo and smashed it into the farm shop, wrecking it in the process. To add insult to injury, a jar of honey was knocked off the table and smashed on the floor which lead to me cutting my finger when clearing up the mess! It's safe to say it was not a good start to my day.

After causing a scene outside the shop, the owner asked me if i wanted to stand inside the shop instead  which i graciously accepted. It was a steady day but i managed to sell a few products and promote Prima Oliva, i also saw Christa (our local evening news reader) which was one for the book.

I don't have any photos from the day, i took my camera but realised that i'd forgotten the memory card for it. You live and learn!

Kenilworth Show

Yesterday i did my first show of the summer, Kenilworth show, selling my olive oil and other Spanish products. Despite the French stopping the lorry carrying our latest order, meaning it didn't arrive in time for the show, we had a great day and sold plenty of oil. 

At the show, we were located in the food hall. The people next to us in there were a Mediterranean business selling nuts and olives (which we also sell as well as the olive oil), this hindered the sales a little but the majority of people who tried our Arbequina Olives bought them and by lunchtime i had my sales patter down to a tee! 

We handed out plenty of business cards at the show which will hopefully drive some traffic to our website in the future (www.prima-oliva.co.uk).

Next week, i'll be going around the local farm shops and Delicatessens trying to get my oil stocked. Hopefully i'll sell lots more oil in the next week!

My New Ride!

I bought my first van last week, a Citroen Berlingo! This now makes me a white van man, some may say the scum of society, i'd say it makes me a legitimate business man!

I've got no more plans to travel abroad this year due to a lack a money, however i'll be touring the UK in my van, going to various agricultural shows. The purpose of buying a van is so i can transport my olive oil (my business venture) to the shows around the UK and with a bit of luck make a load of money. My business is called 'Prima Oliva', a web based business selling olive oil, olives, almonds and honey. I'm doing the agricultural shows to try and get my business established and hopefully drive some traffic to the website.

This Saturday i will selling at the Kenilworth show so if anyone's going to be there, come and pay me a visit and i'll persuade you to buy something!

Eight Elephants Hostel Taipei!

I've just arrived home from spending a month in Taipei in Taiwan. I'd planned to try and see a lot more in Taiwan than just Taipei but after a few days i realised that Taipei is huge and i would need most of the month to see everything there. 

In Taipei i stayed in a hostel called Eight Elephants hostel, this is probably the best hostel i've stayed in in the last 8 months of travelling. Everything about the hostel was awesome, especially the staff and people staying there. The hostel had a great atmosphere and i spent many days and nights just chilling there having a few beers with whoever was there at the time.

Even though i was staying in Taipei by myself, i rarely went sightseeing or on nights out by myself. On the first night for example, i was the only person in the hostel but when the staff working finished there shift they took me out to a karaoke bar with some of there friends. The only problem with this was that, on a good day i am a terrible singer, and after a 14 hour flight i was even worse; they on the other had were all awesome at singing.

As well as being amazing at singing, the staff at the hostel we also really friendly and outgoing. When i arrived in Taipei, they helped me to find some Chinese lessons, suggested places i could go and see and always let me in when i forgot my key (this happened quite often, sorry guys!). If you ever needed an address they'd always help you find it, even if you wanted a pizza ordering to the hostel they'd do it for you. It was as though they were also guests at the hostel, they'd always be down it the lounge with us and were easy to get along with and would even come with us on the occasional night out.

Anyone going to Taipei has to stay here, you'll regret it if you don't! 

The last night at the hostel was one of the best nights i had in Taipei, after a few beers at the hostel we decided to go to karaoke again. I had to leave for the airport at about 6am and didn't want to go to sleep that night because i knew i wouldn't be able to wake up in the morning. Everyone was awesome and stayed up with me, we stayed at karaoke for about 5 hours and got a train back to the hostel at about 6.30am (a little later than expected but i still made it to the airport on time). Once again my singing was awful but i came to the conclusion that it got better with the more beers i drank! It was a night to remember.

Thanks to everyone who worked, stayed at Eight Elephants and came out with us, you made my trip awesome!

I'll be back for sure! 

Siaoyoukang & Yehlie Geopark, Taiwan

It's been raining in Taipei constantly for the last 3 days, and the day i went to Siaoyoukang was no different, in fact i think it rained the more that day than the last 2 combined. Siaoyoukang is a national park about an hour north of Taipei. Apparently there are large areas of hot springs due to the volcanic activity below. Unfortunaley i wasn't able to see much of it due to the thick fog that only allowed you to see a few feet in front of you. The picture below is what we went to see, the second is us standing about 5 metres in front of it... 

Even though we didn't see the main feature of the area, we still saw some small hot springs bubbling away. I was even able to warm my hand us on some of the surrounding rocks.

After attempting to see the springs, we headed further north and went to the Yehlie Geopark. This a beach full of weirdly shaped rock formations, supposedly one shaped like the queens head. Its an iconic symbol in Taiwan. We spent a fair amount of time walking around the area before going to a restaurant to try some of the famous sea food. 

The Queens Head

The Princesses head, when the Queen neck errodes/ collapses, the princess will be the new Queen to keep the tourism going! 

When we had refuelled and dried slightly, we ventured back out into the pouring rain and down the cost to an old gold mining area that used to be run by the Japanese. We we able to go in some old restored Japanese houses and i even touched a bar of gold worth over 3 hundred million Taiwanese dollars. 

When we'd finished drooling over the gold bar, we headed back to Taipei for a steak, i hadn't had a steak in over a month so it went down a treat!

The waterfall above flowed over an old gold mining area, where the river met the sea you could the colour difference between sea water and the fresh water due to the yellow sediment from the hills.