Grandma P's Ramblings Through Life

At about quarter to eight I was wondering if I should have persuaded Bill to get up a bit earlier this morning.
We were at Ford and almost at the back of the queue of cars waiting to drive in to the boot sale site to set up stalls.
Once in there was the usual rush and chaos - do we unload more from the car or talk to people already buying?
It is a real adrenalin rush and the buying was quite frantic for a while.
There were no photos until it was almost time to be thinking about packing up.





























The table looks full - but much has been spread out.
We put most of what you see into a box for the hospice shop.
The cutlery set and a few other bits will fight another day in the shop or on EBay.
I found that other people also have a passion for table cloths and bed spreads - almost all those things cleared out of our airing cupboard recently are already in new homes.






























Of course I wandered off to see what I could buy.
The boot sale was huge - almost as busy as the busiest Saturday.
But I do find it hard to be both a seller and a buyer.....as I rushed round the stalls, I was constantly thinking I should be back at our stall.
I had a quick look at the clothes hanging up at the next stall - but bought nothing there.
I did buy a Laura Ashley dress and a Monsoon blouse/jacket for a pound each. Even if I find they don't suit me, I know I could sell these very easily on EBay.


Whilst I scurried round the stalls, Bill found a bit of time for cloud watching.

We packed up the tables and our remaining unsold items and made our way to the river in Littlehampton for some lunch.






























This was the view from our table through the open door.

We walked a little by the beach and then came home to sort out the takings and for me to cross off items of stock which are now gone. That took ages - as I watched the second of the women's semi final tennis matches from Wimbledon.
We took less money than last time - but then we had less stuff.
We were very happy to put £220 back in our coffers.

Tonight I am itching like mad - have taken an antihistamine.
There is a strange coincidence itch too.
Yesterday morning Bill mentioned a sore spot on his leg which both hurt and itched.
By the evening I had one too - in almost the exact same spot and also on the right leg.
I don't know what attacked us - but it was not just a mosquito. The area is more than just tender - it is painful and Bill's is sort of seeping down his leg under the skin.
Nasty little insect!

Bill had an appointment with Dr O and I had an appointment with Rob, my hairdresser.
The doctor suggested to Bill that his ear problems - noises within and a degree of deafness are caused by catarrh. That would seem to be the most logical explanation, but ears can be fragile.
My hair looks good after Rob set to work on it.
I caught up with how things are in his life. His partner has been really ill, declining health all the time. At last some decisions have been made - the colostomy that she already has is at fault, infected and badly damaged. Next week she will have surgery to create a new colostomy system.
Rob likes to talk with me about it, because he knows that I have "delicate" health issues.

The car is now loaded up with things we don't want anymore. We will spend a few hours tomorrow morning, hoping that other people might want our discarded items. We will be at the Ford car boot sale by half past seven. It will be hard work, but fun - and hopefully put some money back into our purses.

I mentioned Nicole, our great niece playing an important part in the Gala Day and I thought I would share with you a couple of photos.
A Gala Day in Scotland is unlike anything we have in the south of England.

























In this part of the ceremony Nicole had to remove the grand crown and robes from last year's queen. She then placed a simple crown on the outgoing queen's head.
The Queen is picked from amongst girls in their last year of primary school, each school taking turn.
Nicole's mother was told by the headmaster of her school that if he had been picking Queen this year, it would have been Nicole - but she was picked for the next best part in the pageant and ceremony.

There were masses of other things going on. There is an extensive website about the Loanhead Gala Day.

Labels: family

The big question of the day was "When would the big thunderstorm arrive?"
The morning stayed clear.
This gave Bill time to mow lawns and to tidy up some small parts of Frieda's garden.
I enjoyed a walk to the post office.
The storm arrived at about 2 o'clock.
There was not a lot of rain in Crawley - but a lot of storm.
The control tower at Gatwick was hit by lightening and so was a house in Maidenbower.
The house belongs to a friend of a friend.....almost a personal loss then!!!
There was more rain at Wimbledon - only 30 miles away.
The Centre Court now has a roof - and how the rain did beat upon it.

There has been more train chaos today - and this time I understand the reasons.
A train was hit by lightning leaving the train behind it, stranded in Balcombe tunnel for 2 hours.

This afternoon I described some books and listed them on EBay.

This evening I have sat on my familiar chair on the timekeeper's stand.
This meeting was in the series of Sussex Under 13s League.
It is a lovely meeting - full of great enthusiasm, support and good competition.
The rain stayed away - though the atmosphere was slightly eerie, a misty dampness hang over the track and the air was very still.
For a while it seemed like Bill and I might have been in charge of the timekeeping between us - but fortunately we were joined by "Alf Garnett".
The small number gave me more opportunity to get to know Worthing David.
He is an exceedingly good timekeeper, but is not the sort to want to take exams and climb the timekeeping ladder; his time in education taught him to avoid such things.
He is a bit anti education, wondering how it benefits people..
I think I can say all this safely because he has no computer - and is proud of being completely technophobic.
Like Alf Garnett he has fixed political views - of the right leaning kind.
I thought of him as Alf when he spoke of his step daughter who he has fallen out with..... because her partner holds left wing views.
Reminded me of Alf G and the spats he had with his son in law in Til Death us Do Part.
At another point we were mentioning food - curry; he wouldn't eat it because its foreign. I bet he does have a wide variety of things imported from abroad passing through his lips, but the idea of eating foreign food was not to be considered.
I wonder what he thinks of me!
But conversation and banter on the timekeeping steps stays very lighthearted and friendly, despite the many differing backgrounds we all come from.

I wonder who will be in my team next time - Saturday afternoon.

Is that it then?
The dreaded heatwave is past.
The effects are not yet completely past though - it seems that 24 hours of heat have brought much of the London train system to a halt this evening.
Crazy!
Does this happen in Bangkok? I think not.

I guess I have hardly noticed the heatwave - sadly.
I was in the shop all day - a place that people entered and commented on the cool temperature.
But sadly, this afternoon not very many people entered the shop.
I blame Andy Murray!
He was playing tennis at Wimbledon - and won convincingly.
Or maybe people were sunbathing or relaxing in cool homes.
There was not one sale today after about midday.
That's not exactly true because Emma came in towards the end of the day and bought a pair of my 1950s curtains, which I took in this morning.
Thank you Emma - I hope you do well with them.

Bill was not in the shop all day. He took my parcels to the post office this morning.
And he went out to lunch.
Monika had needed to change days this week and Stephen came in - an excuse for a boy's lunch at the pub, with a pint of beer.

This evening I am at the computer with tennis from Wimbledon on at the same time - I am enjoying the match bewteen Nadal and Del Potro.
A hard fought game - rather like chess for very fit people who can run around and hit balls very hard.
But at 9 o'clock in the evening - the last game could be about to begin.
The wondrous Nadal should be the victor.

Today has felt like many little days all rolled into one long day.

I was up at 6 o'clock - peered through the curtains.......what was this? Fog????
Bill decided to stay coccooned under the duvet, so I went to Pease Pottage on my own.
No car boot sale is a complete waste of time - there are always little treasures to be found, but Pease Pottage is not really the best one for me.
At Ford I tend to grumble a little about some of the prices charged by some of the dealers - but at least I see some interesting stuff.
At Pease Pottage, there are so many people trying to sell last year's must have items that had no value or merit in the first place, although it looks clean and bright.
The price doesn't matter to me - I wouldn't part with 5p for much that I see.
I spent £23 on some things which I hope will make some profit.

Despite the fog, it was warm and I met up with Jo and we strolled the aisles together for a while.

At home I got myself some breakfast and then set to work preparing a meal for Roger and Sue.
I always like to have everything done before guests arrive, where possible.
It was a tasty meal - a chicken and sausage casserole in honey and mustard.

By lunch time the fog had long dispersed and the promised heat wave had arrived.
It would be lovely if it could be a real heatwave - but it looks like high temperatures will be with us for only about 36 hours!
It hardly seems worth going to the trouble of opening up a health advice line on how to cope in the heat!
I know how to cope anyway - enjoy it and relax!
It feels so good now - a proper summer's evening, like we have not really enjoyed yet this year.
Still light of course until about 10 o'clock and warm enough to have the doors and windows open.

Roger and Sue had to get back home this afternoon, leaving me time to deal with ebay sales  - I sat and wrapped for quite a while. There were no amazing sales today really - unless you count over £9 for a small 50 year old booklet about Ryde on the Isle of Wight.

Most of my little task have been completed - though I have not yet written up any of this weekend's purchases. They are not strewn all over the dining room table, though. We needed that for our lunch today.
I will pack up some of the things and take them to the shop in the morning and deal with them there.

Tomorrow - the heatwave will continue. Wonder what that will do to potential customers. Be aware, customers, the shop is like a cave and feels cool, even in the summer.

Yes, we went to Ford and bought things.
But that was a small part of our day out.

We spent the rest of the day in Littlehampton - a very different Littlehampton than we are accustomed to.
It has been Armed Forces Day and Littlehampton put on a show.
I still have such ambivalent feelings about the armed forces. I was brought up to think that anything coming close to appreciation of the services was akin to the glorification of war.
I still would hate to be associated with anything that glorifies war.
I fear that the Help the Heroes charity is a way of manipulating our emotions into feeling positive about the war in Afghanistan. But there is no doubt that people who have served there often do need extra help.
My contact with service personnel leads me to believe they are much less judgemental than maybe the politicians and the media. I admire them for their even handedness in situations that most of us don't ever really conme to terms with.
Having said all that, I was was just wanting to enjoy my day in Littlehampton and to experience being involved in the world of other people for a short while.

An old soldier reflects.

I must point out that the big Union Jack flags which appear in some of the photos fly all the time over the Littlehampton fun fair, but they were useful photographic props.












The day began with a drum head service of remembrance - the last post, minutes silence, prayers and hymns and "They shall not grow old as we grow old....."

The Littlehampton Carnival princesses were taking part.
 









































Now that is a real boy's toy on the left. There were lots of remote controlled vehicles all manned with Action Men.
I called the picture on the right "Today we had naming of parts" - there is a very powerful poem of that name.

Now for some portraits......








I just love this picture!



























We spent a little while with the pipes and drums as they were warming up.
I was told that their tartan is Clan Ancient MacClean Jura.

We got talking with a group of young women dressed as WW2 WRAC girls.


The middle woman is the mother of the little girl in the beret.


































Then the pipes and drums entered the arena.


The VIPs had the best view......


It was only early afternoon - but we were tired.
We had been out since 7 o'clock this morning and on our feet for much of the time.
So we missed later events.

On our way back to the car, I suddenly demanded that Bill buy me some tombola tickets, because I wanted a box of fruit; not a tin of fruit, but a box!
Bill paid up - and I then had to carry my box of fruit.
I just knew that the fruit would be mine!

We came home and relaxed.
There was a great tennis match.
And Coldplay, live from Glastonbury are just superb.

Labels: Sussex

Modern technology – phew!

I am sitting writing my blog and also watching Andy Murray playing tennis at Wimbledon all on the same machine.
What a treasure chest of communication I have here at my finger tips.

The day has not provided many other phew” moments.
We went to Asda to get a bit of shopping before breakfast this morning. We were low on milk and Bill would need a fresh supply for his cereal bowl.
It is a good time to shop – very few other shoppers and a load of bargains in the “use by date” bay.
One of the things bought cheaply was a chicken joint which we enjoyed this evening.

This afternoon I watched tennis and did ironing at the same time.
Sometimes I can feel very weary whilst ironing – but maybe the tennis eased things for me.
Tennis is not stress free with Andy Murray playing – sublime for a while and then abysmal!
We British are used to this tension aren’t we?
It still looks like he ought to win.

I have had other sporting thoughts today. I had checked out the availability of Olympic tickets in this second offering.
I could have tried for athletics tickets still. There were tickets available at 6 o’clock this morning for a few of the morning sessions – just heats, not finals.
These are obviously cheaper than tickets for the 100 metres final – but still quite expensive for 3 hours watching a few races.
In the end I decided not to try and get any tickets. I wanted the main stadium and I didn’t really want any of the other available sports.
I will try again for Paralympic seats.

Providing the overnight rain has eased off (as promised) we will go to Ford once again in the morning.

…..It seems less certain that Murray will win now! Our tennis players sure know how to keep the public on the edge of their seats.!

.....Phew! Murray lives on to play tennis next week at Wimbledon!

Goodnight.

Today has been catch up day.
Sixteen more items have been listed on EBay.
The dining room table was cleared - until I dumped more on it!
The best bit of catching up though, has been with friends.
It was a sad day when 2 lovely people moved from Crawley to the south of France. We have been to see them there and we talk to ourselves, longingly, of doing so again.
But our lives are full and so, too are there's and gradually contact was decreasing to almost nothing.
Suddenly, out of the blue, facebook stepped in and prompted us into activity.
What a blessing facebook can be, when used wisely.
This afternoon I caught up with going through all the electric times from last night's athletics meeting.
I felt just a bit that I was not doing as well as normal.
But, happily I can see that I did well. My own times were never far from the absolute accurate - my average error was just over 3 hundredths of a second.
And I am very happy with my reading of the races - gaps between runners were as I saw things.
Bill has just gone through his times - again, just over 3 hundredths of a second and fractionally better than me.
And now I must catch up with photos of Shere.
If you ever want to visit, I would advise against a sunny summer Sunday afternoon  - a very popular pretty village.


 




We parked in the free car park near these cottages and walked into the village to find some lunch.


The White Horse is a Chef and Brewer pub - so prices are not over the top (like they were in the Shere tea shop).

The old character of the pub is retained.




I love the words over Bill's head! And look at me.....half a pint of beer and I look quite dopey!





And then it was time for a stroll with our cameras.





The church and the pub are at the heart of an English village.



All the tapestry hassocks had countryside themes .


I would take pictures of produce if in another country - so why not in Surrey?
The peaches on the right are known as mountain peaches - I only heard of them in the last week. They taste just lovely.

 


















Two views of the old prison house.

There is a stream flowing through the village.

A fire insurance token for 1710. This
The 1710 fire insurance token is on the old forge.











 The forge is now in another old building.
The blacksmiths are young men creating many ornamental and useful things.

You could order fine iron gates or statues.
On the table were baskets of coat hooks and handles of all kinds.
















There were also displays of other craft works in the forge, including some photography.
How I would have loved to own or, better still to have created myself, these 2 pictures, printed on aluminium.
Actually I have pictures very like the beach scene - taken at low tide at Littlehampton.
The photographer is Sue Roche.

I'll finish with a bit of fun - delphiniums and a scarecrow and a baby pig statue.

 

Next week maybe another village - who knows!

Labels: Places in England