Working Wednesdays: Selling Ice Cream in Bournemouth

Selling ice cream goes down as one of my favourite jobs. I spent 4 summers doing this as one of my jobs. It did seem at one point I would actually prolong my stay in the English seaside town of Bournemouth as I was constantly working and enjoying life there. But one day it all changed – I jetted off to Taiwan and well that was almost four years ago. However, realistically my job selling ice cream in Bournemouth played a major part in why I now travel the world…

I started selling ice cream in May 2004. I had just recovered from a broken arm and was working in the local Tesco supermarket while studying a degree in Public Relations at Bournemouth University. One day I walked past the ice cream booth in Bournemouth and just asked have you got any jobs going? The sun was shining and it seemed like a good idea. The answer was yes and I started the next day.

That day my life changed. I worked with 6 people – one from Germany, one from Guinea (in Africa), one from Colombia, one from New Zealand, one from Poland and a token English guy. I suddenly had covered four continents of culture in one work place. It got better – over the next few months as the place became busy, I worked with Canadians, Spanish, Brazilians, Latvians, Chinese, Japanese, French and even an Albanian. I enjoyed days selling ice cream with them and nights partying. It was all a big dream. The job was paid higher than minimum wage and we worked long hours. But it was all fun.

I returned to the same job in April the following year for the summer stint and managed to keep the job on as part-time through the winter too. I had friends from all over the world now, just from selling ice cream. In 2005 I visited Poland and Germany for the first time. By the time summer 2006 came round I was ready for more global adventures, while still working hard selling ice cream. Then I got a job doing PR for Apple in London, so I moved. That was June 2006, and 3 summers had been fun (though I wasn’t able to complete my third summer).

In 2007 I met 6 of the friends I had made from the ice cream job when I travelled round the world. That’s when I started my first travel blog on blogger.

In 2009 I gave selling ice cream one final fling before booking said flight to Taiwan, moving to Australia and the rest…

In terms of the actual job itself, I broke the local record for the largest ice cream as well as the most sales of ice cream in one single action (8 Mr. Softees on my right hand and 8 Mr. Softees on my left hand – 16 ice creams held simultaneously!). There’s a few videos of this at the bottom of the post!

I have my photos, my pay slips and my memories. BUT most importantly this job gave me wonderful friends from around the world. If you worked with me at Best Break, Mobile 2, Mobile 3, Mobile 4, the Crazy Golf course, West Beach, East Cliff, the Trailer or the Trolley then thanks for the memories. I loved it and it gave me inspiration to see the world. Here’s a few other related posts:

– Meeting Julio in Colombia (I sold ice cream with him)

– Meeting Rene in Germany (I sold ice cream with him)

– Meeting Rafal and Artur in Poland (I sold ice cream with them)

My Videos, which you can subscribe to:

Jonny Blair’s YouTube Channel

A VIDEO OF ME CREATING A RECORD OF 9 SOFTEES IN ONE HAND (Think my final figure served to a customer in one go was 16 – 8 in each hand):

A VIDEO OF ME CREATING A RECORD OF 14 CONES IN ONE HAND, WHILE SELLING ICE CREAM IN BOURNEMOUTH:

I WAS GIVEN A RECEIPT BY MY WORKMATE OLI TO TAKE ROUND THE WORLD WITH ME, WHILE SELLING ICE CREAM IN BEST BREAK IN BOURNEMOUTH:

Working Wednesdays is a regular feature on Don’t Stop Living – a lifestyle of travel – something which I’m condemned to and trying to make you live your dreams too!