LAST month Julian was in the movies playing a Hari Krishna monk. Che is a five-(going on seven-)ball juggler. Jack quit the dole and computers, wound up in Thailand, and was about to head back to England when he thought ''why?'' and bought a ticket to Hong Kong instead. Germaine is a professional yachtsman fresh from Singapore. Claire was a resident artist before she got bitten by the travel bug.
But this week, all five are on the road in Hong Kong peddling sandwiches to the territory's desk-bound workers.
Collectively, these bright young people lugging their great panniers of white paper packages up lifts and down stairwells are known as Let's Do Lunch, a make-and-deliver service that has been on the road since last June and is now set to make a bigger splash in catering, bringing ''groovy, funky'' eating experiences to homes and offices across Hong Kong.
The enterprise is the brainchild of four partners - two sleeping and two coy - who started off with big plans and impressive cash-flow forecasts based on 960 sandwiches a day. The reality today, under the extremely competent management of Alison Wheatley, is 200 sandwiches a day, plus quiches and salads and cakes, brought to workers from Central to Taikoo by 10 deliverers, nearly all of whom are travellers stopping off in Hong Kong to top up wilting wallets.
Staff turnover is high: few last longer than five weeks, although Ms Wheatley recalls one ''career deliverer'' - a marine biologist by training - who stuck with his pannier for seven months.
The operation appears to run like clockwork, although the beginnings were modest to put it kindly. Around 50 loaves are picked up from Wellcome at 5.45am (finding good bread was a major headache, as evidenced by one supplier who explained his recipe for brown bread as ''white bread mix plus molasses'') and three people start making up the sandwiches 15 minutes later.