A catwalk of cakes

It has been a very quiet year so far. Most weeks, a couple of people contact me to order some Tupperware, but I have not been asked to do a party for ages. Then all of a sudden, two come at once. I could say it never rains but it pours, but it is a glorious weekend, a bleak London sun glinting on my fine kitchenware.

First of all, I take the Northern Line to Highgate to meet Sylvia and her friends. Sylvia and her most enthusiastic guests hail from Germany originally, and it really does seem to be true that German folk adore their Tupperware. Anya doesn't even have a house to put it in at the moment, but she stocks up for her new kitchen, ready to equip it later in the summer when she moves in.

Sylvia is having a bit of a kaffee und kuchen afternoon, and has fashioned a sort of catwalk for her ravishing cakes, using cans of tomatoes and some MDF. It is a lot more elegant than it sounds. A rhubarb cake, a marble cake, and a cake jewelled with fat plums all strike a pose, surrounded by key pieces of Tupperware. Sylvia herself gets well into the retro swing by sporting a fabulous 70's red floral maxi-dress from her mum's collection. Tall, and with long dark hair, Sylvia in her period frock reminds me of the very poised and chic German women who used to fascinate me on our family package holidays to the Franco-era Costa Brava in the early 70s.

I love the way the friendly guests don't take themselves (or me) too seriously, but take their Tupperware buying very seriously indeed. I am dispatched at the end of the party with a sheaf of orders in one hand, and an Oyster full of cakes in the other [right].

I run stalls at fetes now and again, when I feel like it. Over the years I have been rained on, shat on by birds, and made to hide my Tupperchef knife for fear of arrest. But it's nearly always a fun day, and generally I get a couple of parties out of every fete. This Sunday I have agreed to run a stall just a few hundred yards from my house, at Trinity Church Square in the Borough area of London. It is the Open Gardens Square weekend, during which well-tended little private squares all over London are opened up for the day to pleasure seekers and nosey parkers. There are often special one-off events taking place in the squares, like today's fete, which has a few stalls, some kids making 99s, a jazz band and a beer tent. I man my stall from 11 till 6, and it's a leisurely day. I am more interested in putting the word out about parties than in actually shifting any products, but for once I do sell quite a bit. My neighbour in the square is the Chickenbus stall, where Eleanor and her husband sell fair trade crafts and decorative items from Latin America. We while away the afternoon planning ways of building our little businesses.

Maureen from Johannesburg is already there as I arrive to set up my stall. She has previously stumbled across my blog, and is thrilled that Central London's only Tupperware consultant is her neighbour. Maureen and her husband are in London for a year, staying in a company flat over by Tower Bridge. I gather their kitchen storage leaves quite a lot to be desired, and I am happy to help Maureen upgrade.

Some very enthusiastic browsers get quite beside themselves at the sight of so much Tupperware in one place, and I am hoping to be running some local parties before too long.

Journalist Zoe Williams reviews a book in The Guardian this week called The Kitchen Revolution which is all about making the most of seasonal produce, cooking ahead and leftovers. She comments that

We have quite a bit of this left over (even though I've halved the measurements to cater for two), and for about the sixth time in the week, which makes it the sixth time in my entire life, I find myself thinking how much I'd like some quality Tupperware.

Needless to say, a catalogue is on its way to Zoe via The Guardian.

Famous Belgians

My friend Caspar is just back from visiting his parents in Antwerp, Belgium, where he came across this Tupperware shop and took photos for me (above and below left). I had no idea there was such a thing as a Tupperware shop. According to Caspar, the shopkeeper told him that the products cost slightly more in the shop than you would pay at a party.

I receive an email from Kevin, who is producing a play set in the 1960s. And boy, is he keen to get the details right:

"The play is set in London in 1962, and one of the props is a plastic, see-through biscuit tin. I was wondering if you could offer me any advice on this. I immediately thought of a Tupperware tub for this, but having done more research it seems Tupperware didn't reach this country until 1960, so would this mean in 1962 it would still not have been a common household item? Similarly I am after any information you can give me on what the Tupperware pots would have looked like at this period, and whether you think that one would have been used in this situation."

I explain that the Space Savers (right) look approximately the same as they always have, and would probably fit the bill. I refer the producer to his local consultant in Cardiff, but I do also offer to supply him with some props if the show transfers to the West End.

I take food writer Tom Moggach to task over his article about leftovers for The London Paper. He writes that "Investing in good tupperware also helps. Lock and Lock is easily the best brand, available from John Lewis". Now I don't have anything against Lock and Lock but, as I asked Tom, doesn't the fact that he uses the brand name Tupperware to generically describe storage containers mean that Tupperware must therefore be the best? He emails back with a sweet apology and a request for a catalogue.

My first party for ages is coming up this Saturday for Sylvia and her friends in Highgate. And on Sunday I have a stall at the Open Garden Square weekend event in Trinity Church Square, round the corner from where I live. More grandly, I am hoping to be running a stall at the Garden Fete at Lambeth Palace later this month for the Archbishop of Canterbury himself.

Another corny old advert

Another vintage US Tupperware television ad has appeared on YouTube. This one is for the Serving Center:

Targeting the Germans

Germany is Tupperware's biggest market in the world. German folk really love their Tupperware. The products seem to combine some typical (and stereotypical) German enthusiasms: modern design, baking, organisation, not wasting resources and money, and fresh foods that need to be stored properly, like cooked meat, cheese, cream cakes and salads.

Now and again, I have made a few attempts to let German Londoners know that they can get their beloved Tupperware from me. I offered a stall or fundraiser to the German church, who memorably emailed me back saying "Hallo Andrew. We are not interested." And I offered a Tupperware party to the German Information Centre, who gave a hollow laugh and offered to display a pile of catalogues.

Meanwhile, I am contacted by a new free newspaper for German-speaking Londoners, The German Link. Do I want to advertise with them, and perhaps reach that precious London German market? I do, I really do, but given my non-existent promotion budget, not to mention the Tupperware company's aversion to advertising in general, I decide it would not be a good idea.

Anyway this weekend I stumble on the first issue of the paper. There is a pile of German Links just inside the window at the new German Deli at Borough Market, home of sensational sausages, German groceries and German-style cheesecakes. I ask the fräulein if I can leave a pile of my postcards by the newspapers, and to my delight she says "Ja, natürlich, mein lieber Herr". If you study the above photo very closely, between the Borough market types going about their business you can see where my friend Young, a marketing professional who was pottering round the market with me, has cheekily stood a card up in the window [right] on our way out.

Alan needs a jelly mould -- now!

You may imagine me strolling the aisles of an echoing Tupperware warehouse. In fact, I work from home and I only keep a very small stock of Tupperware products here, generally the most popular items. Most of the time, I will need to order products from my distributor, and it takes around a week or so.

With this in mind, a call comes out of the blue from a researcher on ITV1's Alan, Alan Titchmarsh's afternoon show. Can I supply them with a old-style jelly mould? Apparently, Alan has suddenly decided he needs one for the show. Tupperware has two different fantastic traditional jelly moulds, I explain, and I could have one for you in a week. "Well, we really need it for 2pm" the researcher trills. I glanced at my kitchen clock, and it was 12:30pm. If I had a spare one in stock, I would certainly have taken it over to them, because I don't live far from where the show is recorded. And it would have been a good story for the blog. But I don't.

I don't drive, so I don't know what possessed me to order this huge Tupperware car-magnet from America via Ebay [above]. Blame the cheap dollar. It is two feet by one foot, and the only large surface it fits is the door of my freezer. If anyone fancies slapping it onto their car door and doing some advertising for me, let me know. I can pay you in Tupperware.

Orders are trickling in, but nothing special. It's almost time for the catalogue to change over to Spring/Summer, and I have plenty of the Autumn/Winter edition left over. So I heave them into an Aldi bag, and take the bus over to Wimbledon, London's South African enclave, where I have a small order to deliver to Fiona. Around Wimbledon and Raynes Park train stations there are branches of The Savanna, a South African grocery chain, where staff are always happy to display catalogues. At the Raynes Park shop, my catalogues form a sensational South African installation [right] with the ostrich biltong.

I understand that there is another male Tupperware consultant in the UK now, name of Daniel. Looking forward to meeting him.

Tup-loading

If you search for "Tupperware" on YouTube, you get dozens of deeply tedious videos uploaded by doting parents showing American toddlers on the kitchen floor playing with Tupperware products. Please no more. Meanwhile there are some gems too, some of them uploaded by the Tupperware company itself.

This is a fantastic 1970s US ad for Tupperware's Ultra 21, now supercede by UltraPlus:



Some Mexican guests getting excited by Mini-Maxes:



And a Mini-Max commercial:



What really happens at a Tupperware party:

Consultant to the stars

It occurs to me that I am the Tupperware Man for anyone who lives in Central London, so sometimes when I hear or read that a well-known Londoner has praised Tupperware, directly or indirectly, I send them a catalogue and introduce myself.

They usually don't reply, but recently an embossed heavy cream correspondence card from Mayfair resident Nigella Lawson drops into my post box. Her assistant Zoe thanks me for the catalogue and says they will let me know if Nigella needs anything.

She is classy.

The Comeback Kid

Hello and Happy New Year. I have been lying low for a couple of months. Rumours of my Tupper-demise are unfounded. And despite threatening here a few times to kick over the tower of Mini-Maxes and sweep off, apron a-swish behind me, I am still pushing the plastic. I have often been frustrated because I can only sell Tupperware through parties, and can only date parties through word of mouth. This just wasn't working in the context of my home city of London. People do want Tupperware, but sadly they don't really want to host a party for it. I have had some free and frank exchanges of views with the Tupperware top brass about this and some other matters which I won't trouble you with, gentle reader.

But two strange thingss have happened since last we spoke. Firstly, and despite my sluggish autumn, I have just heard today from the UK distributor some interesting news.

I was the top-selling consultant in the whole country for 2007!

What's more, say it loud, say it proud:

You can now buy Tupperware without going to a Tupperware party!

Yes, Tupperware UK now allows sales through "virtual parties". These are not the online parties that consultants run in the US, sadly. It simply means that you can order direct from a consultant, from the catalogue. You don't need to hoover, clean, cater, invite your friends over, or indeed have any friends to invite over. And of course, this new development also means you can now become a Tupperware consultant without having to shlep a kit-bag across your city. You can just distribute catalogues around your friends and neighbours and wait for the orders to flood in. OK, maybe "flood" is pushing it a bit, but if you want to know about being a Virtual Consultant, do let me know.

Oh, and to update my last post, I have now lost a stone through Slimming World.

Having said that I have virtually retreated, I do still run parties and other in-person events and fundraisers when I am asked. I am just not often asked. But I never say never, and when Maria, a friend of my friend Laura who was my first ever hostess way way back in May 2006, asks me to run her baby shower back in October, I am delighted to oblige.

Here's a round-up of my other Tupper news from the last couple of months:


There was another Church Fayre organised by the House of Homosexual Culture at St John's Waterloo. Last year's event was an Autumn Fayre, this time it is a Christmas Fayre. I am given the spot right next to the pulpit. There are hundreds of visitors, and I sell plenty. I also manage to press catalogues on author Sarah Waters and lead singer of the Feeling slash M&S model Dan Gillespie-Sells, but no parties have come out of it yet. We'll see.

A second Christmas Fayre, this one a weekday evening event organised by the KPMG company as a Christmas shopping evening for their staff. It's a bit of a disaster. I am experiencing terrible (although expected and normal) flu-like symptoms from recent diptheria and yellow-fever vaccinations (I am going to Uganda over Christmas). I can barely stand up, let alone smile and sell Tupperware. I don't sell so much as a Universal Peeler or Silicone Spatula. My neighbouring stall Kazu the Japanese Florist also sells nothing, and we both rather feel we have been sold a pup. Far from racking up sales to the cash-rich, time-poor city types we had been expecting, all the customers are PAs and secretaries looking for token secret Santa gifts. My state-of-the-art kitchenware and Kazu's exquisite wreaths are ignored in favour of pound-shop pashminas. The champagne is nice, but the event is a right dud for me.

My most intriguing delivery is to an actress currently appearing in the West End show Avenue Q. I drop off her order at the Stage Door between rehearsal and the evening performance.

I troop over to London's Science Museum to see their Plasticity exhibition. I faux-casually insert some catalogues into their leaflet rack. They have on display one of the original Tupperware injection moulding machines for making a Mix-N-Stor (right).

I bid on and win a very cool snow globe on Ebay (see main photo) which appears to be a consultant reward or gift from Tupperware in the US. It features some key Tupperware pieces caught in a snow storm.

Margaret "Benny" Hone, my grandmother, customer, and source of all gossip and mischief, dies peacefully at home, aged 92, in the early hours of 3rd January. She fell ill just a few days before, fairly sound of body and very sound of mind until the last. Here she is talking Tupperware with my cousin Emma at my sister Lois's Tupperware party in August 2006.

The Man with Two Lunches

I wouldn't bother selling Tupperware if I didn't like it and use it myself. And my own Tupperware is getting a particularly good work-out right now because I have decided I need to lose some weight. I have joined my local Slimming World class, and I want to lose about 20 pounds. I know from previous experience that the weekly weigh-in, the food diary, and not least the money I have to pay, are good for concentrating my mind on shedding a stone and a half.

So my fridge is rammed with vegetables in FridgeSmarts, and healthy leftovers in Stuffables. And I haul my healthy lunch to work in Mini-Maxes most days. Today I have an especially impressive stack (see photo) of five separate containers. I am not Mr Two Lunches though -- half of it is my dinner for later: I am going straight from work to see When the Levees Broke, Spike Lee's 4-hour documentary about Hurricane Katrina, and I will definitely need a good feed during the interval.

Those titchy little containers on top of the pile are fantastic. "Midgets" they are called. Not very politically correct, and unfortunately they are not in the current UK catalogue either. I snap them up on eBay whenever I see them. They are great for little gifts and prizes at parties, but right now I am using them myself to take salad dressing for my lunches, and my 28g grated cheese allowance. They are also perfect for measuring out 28g of porridge oats for my breakfast. A customer last Spring wanted some to store the reeds for her bassoon.

I run a party at the weekend for a sweet ex-pat Kiwi family. If I relied on UK customers, I would sell nothing. Daughter Jessica (right), 8, steals the show, and she is a girl not afraid to mix her looks. Today she is working a flamenco dress, jewelled tiara and sparkly Princess heels.

US Tupperware has just launched Tupper Tube, where consultants can upload videos of themselves demonstrating Tupperware products, with the best one every week winning $1000. This week it is Modular Mates, or what we call Space Savers in the UK, and next week's the food preperation range. Aunt Barbara (see last post) has duly uploaded her videos. I will probably borrow her observation that the no-slip rubber base of the Mix N Stor is great for stopping it from sliding around on her hostesses' faux-granite kitchen counters.

Don't mess with my Tupperware

Here's a couple of funny videos that have appeared on YouTube recently. First of all, Aunt Barbara, who is a real Tupperware consultant in Long Island, New York, demonstrates Modular Mates, which are what they call Space Savers in the US:



And don't go messing with someone's Tupperware -- you might end up on Judge Judy:

All the world under one Tupperware

I am just back from lunch with my friend Peter at the Oriental City in North West London. "All Asia under one roof", they say, and the whole place is in the style of shopping malls you see in the Far East. The Food Court has food stalls selling Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Malaysian and Indian food. Most of the customers are London-based folk from these countries.

There is a Japanese pound-shop type place with a whole wall of food storage containers, which Peter points out to me with an eyebrow raised, saying "The competition!". I ignore him and add a stack of Tupperware catalogues to the mall's free newspaper area, but I don't leave one in the pound shop, that would be cheeky. I think the catalogues were the only thing in English. You never know, I may have to recruit some people to run bilingual Tupperware parties for me.

Next month New Piccadilly cafe in the West End of London closes its doors for the last time. This place is a museum of 1950s cafe style, with a menu to match ("tunny fish"), and it has been threatened with closure for as long as I have lived in London, which is nearly 20 years. I go to the New Piccadilly this week for one last time with my friend Paul, and leave a few catalogues by a pot plant, under a Sound of Music poster.

The British do seem curiously resistant to taking Tupperware back into their hearts, and it's orders from ex-pats that are keeping me in business at the moment, especially Antipodeans. Steph's Mum is visiting from Australia and orders her some key Tupperware pieces for her London flat. I deliver them to an intriguing Mayfair mansion block round the back of Park Lane. I am dying to see what it's like inside, but sadly I don't get past the doorman because Steph has taken the baby for a walk, and is not home to take delivery.

Another hostess, Michelle, is a Kiwi who works right next to St Paul's Cathedral, and since all her guests were colleagues, I can deliver all the orders straight to the office. It's a lovely London day, and now St Paul's has had a facelift, it's a magnificent setting for a delivery. Another regular customer, Ivana, who is originally from the Czech Republic, has ordered a couple of items that I hand-deliver to her new office in Holborn rather that post to her as usual, so I get to meet her in person for the first time. Finally, this weekend I will also need to drop off a few items to the Shell Centre on London's South Bank, where Collette works. She misses her Quick Shakes from back home in South Africa.

I offer the organiser of the 2007 British Cheese Awards a CheeseSmart so she can see how good they are. She says yes she would love one. A few days later I pack it in a box with the contents of my shredder to protect it, and give her a quick call to confirm its on its way. The person I speak with puts me straight through, but the organiser herself then tells me off for bothering her when I could have spoken to her PA. She is so shirty with me that I unpack the CheeseSmart and decide she can whistle for it. Politeness costs nothing, but rudeness has cost her a CheeseSmart.

Still no parties in the diary, but at least I am not the only one having a lean time. White trash diva Dixie Longate (say it out loud) posted this message on her MySpace page:

"Hey Hookers, it’s Me, Dixie Longate. I’m in a mess of a pickle. As many of you know, I have been doing my show, “Dixie’s Tupperware Party” off-Broadway. It has been great, but the New Yorkers don’t seem to be buying the Tupperware like they should, so I have fallen from my position as #1 Personal Seller of Tupperware in the U.S.A. With the end of the fiscal year for Tupperware being this Friday, July 29th, I need your help desperately. If everyone I know just buys one piece of Tupperware, then I may be able to wrap this thing up. I am currently $17,288 behind the #1 Seller. Well, that is only 910 BBQ Specials or 494 FridgeSmart Specials! So, go to my site and place your orders now. Tell your friends; and make sure they tell their friends! Please help a sister out. You know I would do it for you. And I probably have! XOXO Dixie."

And what is it with drag queen Tupperware ladies? Pam Teflon is now snapping at Dixie's (high) heels:

Dutch courage

A party this week for the staff at the Royal Netherlands Embassy near Hyde Park, and I am thinking of it as my last party for a while. On the outside, 38 Hyde Park Gate is your standard posh Kensington building, but on the inside it is a little piece of Holland: relaxed, airy and full of signs in Dutch, all lower case and Helvetica font. The hostesses are Daphne (the Cultural Attache) and Diana, both with impeccable English, wry humour and a tall blonde understated European glamour. There are Warhol-ish prints of the King and Queen on the walls, which perfectly capture the mix of laid-back and formal that you would expect from a Dutch Embassy.

The party takes place in the staff kitchen and is great fun, although I am hoarse by the end from talking over the chatting guests. The end of the working day is more of a chance for Embassy staff to chat over wine and nibbles than to listen to some bloke babbling on about Tupperware. But the orders come flying in. One lady confides hilariously that her ex-husband nabbed all the Tupperware during their recent divorce, and she has come along to restock. She gets the full range of Space Savers for cupboard storage. The FridgeSmarts (for salads) and CheeseSmarts (for cheese) are very popular, as my friend Caspar had predicted of his countrywomen when I rang him last week and asked for tips on which products to showcase at a Dutch party.

You never know who will be a fan of Tupperware. This week I had a message via my MySpace page from singer Elkie Brooks.

My friends Laura and Claire set off for their 6-month world trip this week. I took a similar trip 5 years ago, and wrote about it for The Guardian, so I gave them some things I wish I had taken with me: clothes pegs, soup cubes, business cards and a few chocolates to hide in your backpack then suddenly remember and enjoy when times are hard. I packed it all into handy Tupperware oysters, and I am hoping they might send me a few photos of the oysters in action, for me to include here on my blog.

I was in hospital last week for an arthroscopy on my left knee. I am all strapped up, and stuck at home for a little while. I can sort of get around, but slowly and awkwardly. Even so, because the Dutch Embassy is pretty much door-to-door on the 360 bus, I decide to do the delivery myself, knee permitting, rather than asking my nice neighbour Math to do it for me. I am glad I went back myself, because the security guard has been waiting to talk to me ever since he heard there was a Tupperware party, and he asks for six catalogues for his wife and her friends. As I wait for the bus back to Elephant and Castle from Hyde Park, I notice that the house opposite has a blue plaque saying Benny Hill lived there from 1960 to 1986. I shove a few catalogues through the door.

Not sure what the future holds for me Tupper-wise. Without my website I get very few enquiries now, and those referrals I do get via Head Office tend to be people who just want a catalogue or a couple of specific items. As I said in an email to previous customers this week, I am happy to take orders and run parties for them, but given that my main source of new leads has been shut down, and since I have decided to work full-time for the next months, I think that will be the extent of my business for the time being.

But who knows. I will keep my options open.

It's raining, it's pouring

I am always interested to see Tupperware's regional variations. When I deliver Lena's order this week, she shows me her Lebanese Tupperware olive keeper. It is a sort of reverse-cafetiere, with a plunger that lifts the olives out of the brine that they are stored in. There is also a little pair of tongs built in, with which to select your olive once you have raised the plunger. I know there is a similar product in New Zealand for storing the pickled beetroot so beloved in that country, because Kiwi Londoners have asked me if I can get one for them (I can't). Anyway, Lena says she is moving this summer and wants to convene some of her expat Lebanese friends for a Tupperware party when she does. Meanwhile she is feeding her habit with occasional one-off orders.

The Heavens open moments after I step off the bus on my way to Glenn's Tupperware BBQ in North London. I have to shelter under a tree round the corner from his house, a river of rainwater coursing down the road towards Chalk Farm station. The rain became torrential and I practically climb inside someone's privet in my effort to keep myself and the kitbag dry.

The Cool Cubes is the big hit of the party. Glenn and his friends buy six of Tupperware's design-award winning ice tray, which you can read about here. What's more, when I get home there is a plaintive email from Paul, a design-conscious New Yorker, who asks if I can send him some Cool Cubes by Air Mail, since it is "only available is Europe. This is just not right." The Tupperware Politburo forbids me from selling outside the UK and from fielding enquiries by email -- yawn -- but the deal-breaker is really the exchange rate: the weak dollar and strong pound will make the Cool Cubes a deeply unCool $20 apiece.

Last summer I left my kitbag behind on a bus luggage rack in my post-party exhaustion. I do still sometimes put it in the rack, as you can see, but I now keep a beady eye on it at all times. I can just imagine my whole demonstration kit being detonated as a suspicious package.

A nice email arrives this week from Jonathan Guthrie at the Financial Times, who has that noticed my "entertaining website" has gone offline. He says he is sorry to see it go. Not as sorry as I am. I have not been able to generate any new customers without my website, and only have one more party scheduled -- at the Royal Netherlands Embassy if you please. Then that's it. Tupperware and I will be on a break.

Travels and troubles

My customer and neighbour Richard Reynolds has his fingers in many pies, and such green fingers: his Guerilla Gardening project is wonderful enterprise that brings plants and flowers in the dead of night to bleak spots in London.

Richard took a trip around Europe this summer, and took this lovely photo of his picnic on a French train, showcasing his collapsible Mini-Max bowls. His Flickr photo essay of the whole trip called Travels with My Tupperware really made me smile.

It's a few weeks now since Tupperware UK made me close my website, stop all
advertising and promotion of my business on other websites and in all media, and stop taking enquiries from new customers by email.

As explained to me by the Managing Director, I have been breaking three major rules of Tupperware:

* I infringed the company's trademark copyright by using the word Tupperware in my domain name, misleading customers by suggesting I am the Tupperware company itself, rather than an independent consultant.
* I used my own website to advertise my parties. With or without "Tupperware" in the domain name, this is not allowed.
* I promoted my business in other media and on community websites without permission from the Tupperware company to use their name.

Three strikes and I am out? Maybe... I accept that these are the rules (although I think thy are daft), but I really wish they had been clarified and enforced from the beginning, rather than a year into my enterprise when I have invested time, money and energy into bringing new-style Tupperware parties to London. I am the only consultant working in Central London, a huge potential market, and I have been consistently in the national Top 10 sellers since I started this enterprise last summer. Although interestingly, I have never been able to recruit a single new consultant to work with me, and have always had a lot of enquries from people who want to order from me direct, not by hosting a party, and these are also Tupper-no-no's. But mostly I think this says something about London, that it is a slightly different market to the rest of the country, for lots of reasons.

There did seem to me to be so many missed opportunities and so much unfulfilled potential for selling Tupperware to Londoners, and I felt I knew how to reach a London audience, particularly by promoting my parties and events through my own website and by marketing myself as the London Tupperware Man. I know now that was a big gaffe and has caused me trouble -- and apparently some bad feeling and bitching among other consultants. Though no-one has said anything to me directly, of course.

Anyway since my website and email were closed down, no surprise that I have booked no parties and have had no new customers. Thankfully, some people who contacted me before the website closed have been putting in direct orders, which I will be delivering this weekend. In future I can only stick strictly to the Tupperware party plan, and organise parties for people I have met at previous parties, or who approach Tupperware UK directly. In fact, this is how I should have been doing things all along. I don't think this will work for me, or for London, and this feels like a good time to start winding down.

I do have one long-booked party coming up in a few weeks at quite a posh London venue, which I am excited about, and will report back to you here about that soon.

Clearance sale to follow!

Hot and wet

My website wings may have been clipped, but business carries on. Well, I say business. There are very few parties at the moment, and business mainly involves me swanning through various London parks in a long apron.

I have taken part in the annual Walk for Life for many years now, raising funds for HIV and Aids charities, and in recent years I have always walked with the team from The Food Chain. This year I decide to do it in Tupperware mode, and a few kind customers have sponsored me to do it. I raised just over £400 and our team altogether raised over £4000, which is quite an achievement. I didn't book any parties or sell any Tupperware, but it was fun and a fantastic cause. And my fellow walkers humoured me through an impromptu Tupperware demo during a rest stop (see main photo).

Global warming has a lot to answer for. Twice this summer I have slept out on my terrace, only to find the next night that not only did I need to sleep inside, but I needed an extra blanket. And at the Myatts Fields Park Fair in Camberwell this weekend I manage to get badly sunburned and soaked over the course of a few hours. The forecast was for heavy rain, and I equip myself for this, but I did not apply any sunscreen. Big mistake. Three times over four hours the heavens opened and drenched my display table, only for the blazing sun to come out and dry it off each time. Next morning my neck is as red as a Microplus pitcher. Here you can see the sun glinting prettily on my damp salad spinner.

Thunder and lightning did kick in later in the day, but I was back home by then. And at least it is better than being shit on by birds, like in Manchester last month.

The event had a French theme, partly because the park was laid out by Huegenots, and also because there is a large Francophone African community in this part of South East London. I am kept amused with Toulouse sausages, Ardennes pate, Senegalese singing and non-alcoholic coktails provided by the drugs awareness group at the stall next to me. I even sell some Tupperware and get a few definite Yesses for parties later in the summer.

Apparently WeightWatchers magazine features four key pieces of Tupperware in its July/August issue, in an article about packed lunches. I have not yet tried to work the weight-loss crowd, and I understand from other consultants that WeightWatchers are a bit funny about allowing third parties into their meetings. I will see if I can get away with leaving a few catalogues at my local group, which is literally across the road in the church attached to the Heygate Estate. Mind you, I have now gained back one-and-a-half of the two stones I shed at Slimming World five years ago, so maybe I will not be a third party after all.

Bad news Friday

Two phone calls this morning, both with disappointing news.

First, and irrelevant to Tupperware, my dear friend Bo (right) has not achieved the grade he needs in the Economics degree he finished this summer in London. He has a conditional job offer with Ernst and Young, which includes a Work Permit, but he has just missed fulfilling the conditional grade. What's worse, Bo is currently incommunicado in Korea doing his military training, and is oblivious to the bad news that he will not be returning to the UK as planned.

I have only just put down the phone to this disappointing news, when the phone rings again. It's the Managing Director of Tupperware UK. She instructs me that I have to close down my Tupperware Man website, which has been live since May 2006, or face legal action! I am told I may not use the "Tupperware" brand in my domain name, but that even with a change of name I still may not maintain a website with the purpose of promoting my Tupperware business. I cannot field customer enquiries by email, nor can I even publish on any website my phone number or address contact details for potential customers to contact me that way. Websites are the devil, it seems.

I personally think this is a short-sighted and draconian policy worthy of King Canute. But for the moment I have no choice in the matter. I have asked for full details of the policy that I am contravening, and proof that I am bound by it. Assuming I receive these details shortly, my website then will stay offline and I will point the TupperwareMan.co.uk domain name to this blog. For now, I have replaced my site with a rather bitter message (a copy of this blog entry, pretty much).

My website has been central to attracting customers and visitors from across the London area, and I have used London's community websites to put the word out that Tuppereware is back in London. But I must now rely purely on contacts made through my parties and events, and on referrals from Tupperware Head Office. I get a referral perhaps once every three months from Head Office, compared to around 10 a week from my own website, so the number of parties and events is likely to drop off dramatically. Neither does Tupperware UK undertake any advertising or formal PR, that is up to we independent consultants to date parties and promote our businesses in our local area. But like I say, it seems that doing so with a website, or via any established online community, is forbidden.

I am annoyed and discouraged. I have not yet decided whether it is feasible for me to continue as an independent Tupperware consultant without my website. But meanwhile I will honour all parties, events and orders booked to date.

More photos from the Manchester Village Fete

RealManchester.com has published a set of photos that Rachel Coulson took at the Village Fete in Manchester last month, including some of me and my stall. At one point I asked Miss Whiplash to watch my stall (very EastEnders) while I was taking a toilet break, and you can see her below demonstrating the Salad Spinner in my absence.

Miss Whiplash and Mr Tupperware

Queer Up North is an annual 3-week festival of films, theatre, comedy, visual arts and more, which takes place in Manchester's Gay Village. This year's festival ends today with a traditional Village Fete, complete with teas and cakes, bouncy castle, Test Your Strength, a coconut shy, a bake-off and, for one day only in the North West, yours truly running a Tupperware party.

I wouldn't normally go so far to run a party, or I would refer it on to my colleague Helen who is manager for the North West, but given the similarity to the Homo Homemakers event last autumn in London, and the fact that I haven't visited Manchester for years, I decide to go. The Festival has zero hospitality budget, and I am skint, so I travel up on the National Express coach (at £22 return, it's a quarter of the train fare) and stay in a backpackers' hostel (£18 a night). How the mighty have fallen.

It is raining and cold as mid-morning I haul the ailing trolley bag across the Canal Street cobbles into Sackville Gardens. The festival team are optimistically hanging bunting. They are also freaking out because the generator for the bouncy castle hasn't shown up -- it never does. With 2 full hours before the public can come in, I leave my bag with the team and slope off to Costa Coffee with my copy of The Observer. I am thrilled to see from the Observer Food Monthly that Hakkasan, the Chinese restaurant where I took my dear friend Bo for lunch yesterday before he went home to Korea for two years, has been named best one in the country.

The rain does ease off, and eventually stops, but there is still a fair wind, and back at Sackville Gardens I lash my tablecloth and banner to the trestle with strong tape and string before arranging my display. I snag a spot under biggest tree, in case the rain starts again, but I come to regret this choice of location when my display is regualrly augmented by bird droppings throughout the afternoon. One gets me square in the face, and another splatters on the poor Cheese Smart. We will both need a good soak when I get home.

Earlier in the Festival, a representative of Culture for Tolerance, the gay festival in Krakow, spoke about the awful hard time the gay community has been having in that city. As hosts of my Tupperware party, the Queer Up North organisers are donating their rewards to Culture for Tolerance. Sales are slow though, and sadly I can only make a £10 donation.

For the bake-off, two of Manchester's premier drag queens Bobbie Dazzler and Miss Whiplash dress down in twinset and pearls to judge the cakes (see main photo). My Tupperchef chef's knife is called on to slice the cakes, although I had earlier been told to keep it hidden in my bag, since it would be considered a weapon, and could get the event closed down. Bobbie Dazzler has her eye on my Salad Spinner too, which she says would be perfect for rinsing out her tights. Later in the evening, I run into the ladies again, now in post outside one of the Canal Street bars, and looking a lot saucier than earlier. "Ooh, it's the Tupperware Man!", Miss Whiplash coos after me.

Back home in London, my trolley bag has really had it. One wheel is twisted round completely, so I am practically pulling the bag along the ground like a dead weight. I toss it into the big bin and order another.

Clapped out

This week I turn 43. But it's not me that's clapped out -- how very dare you? -- it's my poor Tupperware standard issue trolleybag. I think it's designed to be wheeled from the car to the front door, but mine takes a pounding as I haul it onto buses, off trains, across cobbles and kerbs and through potholes. My first one lasted six months, and my second one, as you can see above, is not in great shape and will need to be retired before long. I, on the other hand, am still boyish.

Because Tupperware is only a couple of years into re-building its sales force in the UK, there are still parts of the country without a local consultant. While this is the case, I am happy to take occasional orders by post, email or phone from far-flung customers who need their Tupperware, but who don't have anyone local to buy it from. Normally, this involves parcelling it up and sending it by post. But this week I get to deliver in person. The order came from Alison, who lives in the far north of Scotland, but is to be delivered to her son Tony, who is in London. She has been visiting Tony recently, and has decided that he needs Tupperware in his life, namely a CheeseSmart and Cheese Knife.

So I call in to son Tony's Soho Square office one morning this week to deliver. The receptionist calls him to the front desk, pronouncing "Tupperware" in a very odd way, like a female Russian spy in a film. Tony appears and I explain who I am, and to his bemusement I demonstrate his Cheese Smart right there in reception. Tony explains that his mum had been a bit horrified by his slovenly cheese storage, hence the gifts. The receptionist smirks throughout, and as lift doors close on me I hear Tony say "Don't tell anyone about this, OK?"


It's the season of summer fetes and fairs. Sadly I can't make it to my local one this year, the Merrick Square Summer Fete, because it is on the same day as the Walk for Life (please sponsor me). But the lovely Rachel, who I worked with on the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, has invited me to run a stall at the fair she is co-organising in Butterfield Green, Stoke Newington, a trendy middle-class part of North London.

It's a really lovely day, perfect weather to be outside all afternoon. I am a bit of a Nicole Kidman when it comes to exposing myself to direct sunlight, so I am pleased to snag a trestle table under the trees, with a panoramic view of the event. It's a very North London take on a summer fete: there are organic freebies, a stall with delicious Thai food, and a tug of war between the police, fire service and estate agents (with London house prices, they are practically an emergency service). I love the dog fashion show -- and only in Stoke Newington would the winning dog be dressed as Jean-Paul Gaultier. I could kick myself for not getting a photo taken with the Japanese swordsmen -- with their long ninja-style aprons, they were dressed exactly like me. But while they are wielding yard-long ceremonial swords, I have a Happy Chopper.

Happy birthday, unhappy German

This week Pauline invites me to run a lunchtime Tupperware stall at the Orpington offices of Southern Gas Networks. It's a bit of a shlep, but direct on the train from London Victoria, and I set up shop in their conference room. I commandeer a handy flip-chart to create this rather rinky-dink sign to bring the punters in. People drift in during their lunch hour, and I take enough orders to generate some decent rewards for Pauline.

I am always interested in what people use Tupperware products for, so I am intrigued when an email arrives this week from Sandra, a professional musician. She is trying to track down some small Tupperware containers. "They are absolutely perfect for soaking oboe or bassoon reeds. My mother bought me 2 dozen about 20 years ago, but over the years i've managed to leave them in nearly every concert hall in the North West and I am down to my last 2!" Tupperware Man has come to the rescue, and although the pots Sandra needs are not in the current catalogue, I have managed to source some for her.

On Sunday, there is a rare home party that I can walk to. Unfortunately it is pouring with rain, and my trolley bag has developed a dodgy wheel, so I have to get the bus anyway. Down the road in Bermondsey, Adam has invited me to run a party as a surprise birthday treat for his partner Chris, who is an avid baker and was thrilled to discover there is a Tupperware consultant in the heighbourhood. Chris is a serious baker. On the table there were home-made Oreo cookies. And he is a great sport when I make him act as my assistant, complete with garish pink patterned apron.

Adam and Chris's airy and immaculate flat is a great setting for a party, and their guests a charming bunch, who buy plenty of Tupperware. I agree to hold the party order open for a week, as they have a few friends who can't attend today, but who would like to order. The boys will end up with a nice set of rewards I think.

I am still doing my best to infiltrate ex-pat communities in London, and have been working on the Germans who are huge fans of Tupperware. I sent emails over the Bank Holiday weekend to several German churches in the region, offering to run a Tupperware party for them, or to hire a stall at any events they are running this summer. One reply arrives this week. It reads in full: "Hallo Andrew! We are not interested."