Saturday, January 22, 2011
Mostly the ups of life.
Up before dawn.
Wandering amongst the stalls at Ford seems an age ago now. My, it felt cold in the sharp north wind.
We bought things of course.
But after a couple of hours the cold was causing us to lose enthusiasm and concentration.
So, off to the warm of our breakfast home in Littlehampton.
We chatted with another regular couple this week - everybody has a life to tell of.
We did a quick trip round the charity shops and I have come home with a thick top from M&S and a stylish thinner one from Next and Bill has a shirt.
We had brought some stale bread from the bin at home and strolled round to the river to feed the swans.
Swans are big and their beaks can seem very big and snappy, but I don't feel too alarmed by them. Young Mr Baddy was a bit scary though - so pushy and grabby!
This is Mr Baddy - as you see he is a cygnet (now almost full grown). The wings were up a little all the time we were there and he was very demanding. Whilst I had bread his beak was up close to me and he wasn't going to allow me to give any to the other birds. And he would remind me by tugging on the end of my scarf if I tried to ignore him. Bill didn't have the bread - but he didn't escape the demands of Mr Baddy either.
And having said all that, we have to admit that our fierce swan might equally have Miss Baddy.
We saw activity in the river today that we have not seen before.
The Adurni was back and forth across the width of the river with a big scoop on the back. It obviously wasn't actually dredging.
We surmised that it might just be levelling out the bottom of the river, moving sediment where it had built up.
Later we found a web site reporting of how well this boat had done the levelling of the floor of Chichester Harbour during last year.
We also learned that Adurni Portus was the old name for Shoreham, the home port of this hard working boat.
Once home my energy subsided.
In fact energy just vanished and I started to feel a bit rough.
I might have to accept that Thai noodles in Wetherspoons yesterday was a mistake. Noodles served in this country are of course wheat noodles - not rice noodles.
My head was aching, my stomach bloated and fragile and I felt a bit nauseous. Oh Paula - no good setting rules and then breaking them! But the noodles were very tasty!
Eventually I had to get going because I had some more items finishing on EBay.
Today I sold a plastic carrier bag for £2! It was advertising the girls comic, Bunty. It might have been a free gift once with the comic.
I have parcels ready to post on Monday.
I was pleased this afternoon to be able to chat with another great niece - one of the Scottish family. Katlyn is the grandaughter of Bill's youngest brother, Ian.
She is another lovely young one - seems to be a book fanatic.
I love the young ones to be really keen on things.
We have also seen clips of our great nephew Ryan (in Peterborough) demonstrating Tai Kwando in a shopping mall.
For all its potential faults, facebook provides us with contact and a small share in the lives of these young ones (and others) that I am sure we would not have without it.
Now for a few pictures of this morning's purchases. I should have taken one of Bill's items - a child's colourful tin typewriter.
A couple of very 1950's items.
I fell in love with the French poodle.
1950s cruet set.
Traditional shopping basket.
There were some other things and a pile of books too.
I want an early night and hopefully my digestion will start to feel more settled.
I don't think we will get up early tomorrow.
Dorking boot sale was a waste of time last week.
We will be out in the afternoon, timekeeping for a sports hall athletics meeting.
