Sunday, June 07, 2009
Sunday - after the rain.
The weather has been pretty much as the forecasters suggested.
There obviously had been heavy rain over night - huge puddles. The rest of the day has been very fair.
I wondered if the rain had stopped for long enough to make a trip to a boot sale worthwhile.
I assumed, maybe wrongly, that the field ones might have to be called off.
So we went to Dorking. Unfortunately very few stall holders did the same.
But one large van had arrived and the people were slowly unloading the back. What they had seemed like the result of a house clearance - but they were not regulars. They had enough of interest to fill our bags.
I bought a tea set! In all my years of selling in shops I don't think I have bought a complete tea set before.
The one I have is 1930s and made by Shelley - always appreciated as a quality maker.
Though maybe these sellers didn't appreciate its worth.
They knew about some things - 2 Carltonware dishes we were told were very collectable and they wanted £20.
My tea set was £7.
It was once a 12 piece set and I can still get 8 good cups and saucers, 2 sizes of individual plates (8 sandwich and 8 cake?), 2 bread and butter plates, a tea pot and milk jug. The only thing I don't have is a sugar bowl. But then many people nowadays don't take sugar.
I bought a few other things from them.
Bill bought a portable record played - complete with the Design Centre Award label. It works very well.
So we were pleased we had made the effort.
Back home I made some breakfast - we had not even had a drink before leaving home. I cooked bacon and eggs, left over potatoes and vegetables, baked beans etc.
I haven't needed to cook again today.
I have wrapped books today - yes, the first items to sell on EBay since the end of April finished today. These were re-lists and somehow selling those is specially satisfying. If they had failed again (and some did of course) they would be destined for a charity shop. So I am pleased to have my money back and in some cases a bit more.
I had just finished wrapping when the door bell rang.
Now, who could that be?
I certainly wasn't expecting to see daughter in law Liz standing there - after all she lives 300 miles away.
Though, to be fair, I did know that she had been in London this weekend with friends to see a ballet.
One of the friends actually grew up in Crawley - which is quite a coincidence really. They all came to Crawley for Gemma to see her family and Liz called in on us.
It was lovely to see her.
Bill has watched the Turkish Grand Prix - another win for British, Jenson Button. It is quite strange how last year's supreme driver cannot seem to get anything right, whilst Mr Button, who has never shone before can now do no wrong. Obviously results depend more on the cars than the drivers. Is that really a human sport?
I have dozed on the sofa for a while - as I so often do, particularly on a Sunday evening.
Now I want to stay awake to see the final of The Apprentice.
This is made a little more interesting just because Sir Alan Sugar who will hire the winner has just himself taken on a new role within the government.
Can we trust his judgement?
Has he already failed to pick the right person for his company?
I am not sure that the 2 finalists are the right 2 people.
Later - as I sleep, different results will be announced. We will learn how the parties fared in the elections to the European Parliament.
We assume that Labour have done very badly - and I admit I didn't vote for them.
But who has done well..... there were many parties - some weird and some scary. Did they do well?
And does it really matter to us?
It might matter a lot to Gordon Brown.
Scroll down to explore Phuket City with us.
There obviously had been heavy rain over night - huge puddles. The rest of the day has been very fair.
I wondered if the rain had stopped for long enough to make a trip to a boot sale worthwhile.
I assumed, maybe wrongly, that the field ones might have to be called off.
So we went to Dorking. Unfortunately very few stall holders did the same.
But one large van had arrived and the people were slowly unloading the back. What they had seemed like the result of a house clearance - but they were not regulars. They had enough of interest to fill our bags.
I bought a tea set! In all my years of selling in shops I don't think I have bought a complete tea set before.
The one I have is 1930s and made by Shelley - always appreciated as a quality maker.
Though maybe these sellers didn't appreciate its worth.
They knew about some things - 2 Carltonware dishes we were told were very collectable and they wanted £20.
My tea set was £7.
It was once a 12 piece set and I can still get 8 good cups and saucers, 2 sizes of individual plates (8 sandwich and 8 cake?), 2 bread and butter plates, a tea pot and milk jug. The only thing I don't have is a sugar bowl. But then many people nowadays don't take sugar.
I bought a few other things from them.
Bill bought a portable record played - complete with the Design Centre Award label. It works very well.
So we were pleased we had made the effort.
Back home I made some breakfast - we had not even had a drink before leaving home. I cooked bacon and eggs, left over potatoes and vegetables, baked beans etc.
I haven't needed to cook again today.
I have wrapped books today - yes, the first items to sell on EBay since the end of April finished today. These were re-lists and somehow selling those is specially satisfying. If they had failed again (and some did of course) they would be destined for a charity shop. So I am pleased to have my money back and in some cases a bit more.
I had just finished wrapping when the door bell rang.
Now, who could that be?
I certainly wasn't expecting to see daughter in law Liz standing there - after all she lives 300 miles away.
Though, to be fair, I did know that she had been in London this weekend with friends to see a ballet.
One of the friends actually grew up in Crawley - which is quite a coincidence really. They all came to Crawley for Gemma to see her family and Liz called in on us.
It was lovely to see her.
Bill has watched the Turkish Grand Prix - another win for British, Jenson Button. It is quite strange how last year's supreme driver cannot seem to get anything right, whilst Mr Button, who has never shone before can now do no wrong. Obviously results depend more on the cars than the drivers. Is that really a human sport?
I have dozed on the sofa for a while - as I so often do, particularly on a Sunday evening.
Now I want to stay awake to see the final of The Apprentice.
This is made a little more interesting just because Sir Alan Sugar who will hire the winner has just himself taken on a new role within the government.
Can we trust his judgement?
Has he already failed to pick the right person for his company?
I am not sure that the 2 finalists are the right 2 people.
Later - as I sleep, different results will be announced. We will learn how the parties fared in the elections to the European Parliament.
We assume that Labour have done very badly - and I admit I didn't vote for them.
But who has done well..... there were many parties - some weird and some scary. Did they do well?
And does it really matter to us?
It might matter a lot to Gordon Brown.
Scroll down to explore Phuket City with us.
