The Night Mail

[polybear]

56 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

This morning our friend who is with us and to whose house in Spain we are going tomorrow realised that she had left her iphone at her son and DiL's place where we were yesterday evening and is about an hour's drive from here, as well as leaving the keys to the Spanish house at her place in Oakham - roughly a 2hr 15min drive from here in the opposite direction. I breathed a sigh and was trying to ready myself to a nearly five hour drive to Oakham and back while Jill did a two hour drive in the opposite direction, when she (the friend with whom we are going to Spain) remembered that her daughter, who was staying at the house where we were yesterday, also has a set of keys to the Spanish place (do try to keep up at the back there) . That daughter's house is about an hour and a half away but in roughly the same direction as the house where she left her phone so after contacting said daughter plan B was for me to drive to son and DiL's place, pick up the iphone then follow daughter to her house to get the Spanish keys. Still with me? Well done. So off I went and achieved the first bit of plan B but as I was about to carry on towards the location of the Spanish keys there was a phone call to say that our friend had remembered that she had left a set of keys with a couple in Spain who had been doing some work at the house. The only snag there was that the phone number she had for them didn't work. Fortunately one of the many people by then involved (at this stage I was losing track of who was doing what, where) had the phone number of some other acquaintances in Spain near to the people with the keys so a call was made to them and they then contacted the people who had the keys, who will now leave the keys in a hiding place at our friend's house. I then drove back home with the iphone and went to lie down in a darkened room for a while.    

 

I now need a holiday. Anywhere but Spain will do.

 

Dave

 

Now what's that saying again?  Oh yes......

 

"A friend in need is .....a pain in the ar5e"

[Dave Hunt]

I'm getting grief now from the domestic authorities about getting my act together so I must go and pack as we are leaving for Manchester ground airport at 0445. Some people do panic about these things don't they?

 

Dave

[Tony_S]

20 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

I'm getting grief now from the domestic authorities about getting my act together so I must go and pack as we are leaving for Manchester ground airport at 0445. Some people do panic about these things don't they?

 

Dave

I would leave about now in that case. 
 

 

It will give you time to return home for any forgotten items…

Edited October 8, 2023 by Tony_S

[SM42]

We are back home again, full of bright pink  Peppa Pig  themed cake. 

 

A nice cup of tea ( as opposed to a bad one) is being brewed to try and dilute the sugar. 

 

Meanwhile, earlier today I managed to pick up a few old style Parkside kits. Much better than the modern equivalent with its brittle plastic. 

 

At least with these there is a chance to shape the brake levers without snapping them, or get the wagon sides off the sprue undamaged.

 

The wheels might even fit between and  turn in the bearings too. 

 

Andy

Edited October 8, 2023 by SM42

[Northmoor]

Did a car boot sale today; my son has been keen to do one for months (my daughter helped last time) and since the weather was so good here this weekend, it seemed too good a Sunday to miss.  He's home this weekend (as is our daughter, both mostly to see the previously mentioned cat with the terminal diagnosis) so came along to help.

 

Arrived at a suitable time (not too late), took plenty of good stuff left over from the last sale and much from the sorted-out loft from earlier in the year, plenty of people walking around thanks to the good weather, asking no more than a quid for most things, but total profit after five hours was ......£12.  Which became £7 after my son said he was hungry and wanted a burger.  This is the first time I have ever had zero interest shown in children's clothes, they are normally a banker.  So back home again with the car still nearly full, sort out the good stuff for the charity shops and the rest to go in the clothing recycling.  I hate sending things to landfill but there will be no alternative for some.

 

As always, the car boot sale people-watching experience is an eye-opener.  You get to see and meet a lot of people clearly scraping a living on the edges of society and a very different existence from my comfortable middle-class one.  

[PupCam]

On 07/10/2023 at 07:38, Oldddudders said:

They walk among us....

 

 

 

Yes but was he the Happy one?

 

On 07/10/2023 at 11:08, Dave Hunt said:

That’s me told off then!

 

Dave

 

Go to the back of the Geography class at once!

 

1 minute ago, Northmoor said:

Did a car boot sale today; my son has been keen to do one for months (my daughter helped last time) and since the weather was so good here this weekend, it seemed too good a Sunday to miss.  He's home this weekend (as is our daughter, both mostly to see the previously mentioned cat with the terminal diagnosis) so came along to help.

 

Arrived at a suitable time (not too late), took plenty of good stuff left over from the last sale and much from the sorted-out loft from earlier in the year, plenty of people walking around thanks to the good weather, asking no more than a quid for most things, but total profit after five hours was ......£12.  Which became £7 after my son said he was hungry and wanted a burger.  This is the first time I have ever had zero interest shown in children's clothes, they are normally a banker.  So back home again with the car still nearly full, sort out the good stuff for the charity shops and the rest to go in the clothing recycling.  I hate sending things to landfill but there will be no alternative for some.

 

As always, the car boot sale people-watching experience is an eye-opener.  You get to see and meet a lot of people clearly scraping a living on the edges of society and a very different existence from my comfortable middle-class one.  

 

We did one once, never again.      Before the car wheels had stopped turning the "bargain hunters" had got the tail gate open and were rummaging and we hadn't even got the Pasting Table out!   

 

Request for them to "Go forth and multiply" while we set up shop fell on deaf ears.    Still, I think we made a few quid so all was not lost.

 

Alan

[Tony_S]

There are people who say they haven’t read a Harry Potter book or seen Star Wars. I haven’t been to a boot sale.

[Oldddudders]

5 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

There are people who say they haven’t read a Harry Potter book or seen Star Wars. I haven’t been to a boot sale.

I have done neither of the first two, but have once had a table at a boot sale. Exactly as PupCam says, the vultures descend on anyone new, and we did indeed sell not the table but the large faux chest we had brought some of the crap in. This was the early '90s and we made at least £50.

[Happy Hippo]

8 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

There are people who say they haven’t read a Harry Potter book or seen Star Wars. I haven’t been to a boot sale.

You haven't missed much.  I came to the conclusion that most who are attending are 'professionals', who buy cheap and then sell on for a bigger profit either on their own stands or later elsewhere.

[figworthy]

4 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

I now need a holiday. Anywhere but Spain will do.

 

Dave

 

I've heard that Bognor is popular.

 

Adrian

[PupCam]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

There are people who say they haven’t read a Harry Potter book or seen Star Wars. I haven’t been to a boot sale.

 

I haven't read any Harry Potter books or seen any of the multitude of Star War films.    I've only been to one Boot Sale ....

[SM42]

51 minutes ago, figworthy said:

 

I've heard that Bognor is popular.

 

Adrian

 

Looe is quite popular too. 

 

Lots of people have a day off there

 

Andy 

[AndyID]

4 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

I'm getting grief now from the domestic authorities about getting my act together so I must go and pack as we are leaving for Manchester ground airport at 0445. Some people do panic about these things don't they?

 

Dave

 

How long is it going to take to pack your swimming trunks and a toothbrush?

[Winslow Boy]

38 minutes ago, PupCam said:

 

I haven't read any Harry Potter books or seen any of the multitude of Star War films.    I've only been to one Boot Sale ....

Me too. But do I get a bonus point if I also admit to not reading any of the Harry Potter books.

[SteveyDee68]

On 07/10/2023 at 17:00, Tony_S said:

Birmingham is twinned with lots of other cities but the only one I was aware of was Milan, because I think both are considered to be the “second city”

That’s right, Birmingham is the second city in the U.K., after Manchester!

 

😉

 

Steve S

[PupCam]

7 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

Me too. But do I get a bonus point if I also admit to not reading any of the Harry Potter books.

 

What about Star War films?  Come on, we need to know!

[Winslow Boy]

2 minutes ago, PupCam said:

 

What about Star War films?  Come on, we need to know!

Pass.

[PhilJ W]

9 hours ago, Tony_S said:

When I worked in Havering the boys only schools were Campion, the RC school and Royal Liberty, a boys comprehensive. Girls schools were Frances Bardsley comprehensive and Sacred Heart RC. I think Hylands School may have become the Harrow Lodge campus of the Technical College. Possibly a housing estate now. Frances Bardsley was on two sites, upper and lower school. Later I worked at the Borough sixth form college which was primarily for students whose schools could not support a viable sixth form. We were not supposed to poach students from schools with active sixth forms but were able to offer places if they applied. I was once given a tutor group that was made up of students from such schools and a few from out of Borough. The college principal seemed to get much satisfaction poaching from the established schools so those of us with those tutor groups  were supposed to ask about what it was had made them choose the college. Two of the girls from Sacred Heart answered “boys”. 

The original Hylands was off of Park Lane in Hornchurch and was closed and demolished c. 1970*. The name was transferred to Bush Elms which had been a co-ed school. This is the premises that became the Harrow Lodge campus of the technical college. *The site is now a gated housing estate.

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, figworthy said:

 

I've heard that Bognor is popular.

 

A popular destination for people using British Rail have it Awayday tickets, or was that Brighton?

[SteveyDee68]

2 hours ago, Northmoor said:

As always, the car boot sale people-watching experience is an eye-opener.  You get to see and meet a lot of people clearly scraping a living on the edges of society and a very different existence from my comfortable middle-class one.  

Did several car boot sales back in 2013/2014 at a regular - and massive - event held regularly near Chorley.*
 

Absolutely agree with @Northmoor - we had a lot (a LOT**) of baby/toddler clothes to dispose of, and my other half shrink wrapped like-new M&S baby grows into packs of seven (one for each day of the week) selling them for £5 (which we thought a bargain). Several interested parties asked about paying £1 per pack if they took the lot off us… like @Happy Hippo has remarked, a bunch of “professionals” looking to sell on at a profit!

 

I do remember a young lady - possibly from Eastern Europe - coming once with her two very young children, and getting very excited about the baby grows, but only had £3 left on her; she asked if we would be back again, and would we mind keeping a couple of packs for her? I was about to let her take a pack for £3 when my wife*** surprised me completely by giving her two packs and saying pay us the next time she saw us. If I had done that, I would have had a right royal telling off about being gullible, but away went the young lady full of thanks etc.

 

Next time we were there, I waited for five hours for our young mum to turn up, but she was a no show. Of course, no way was I going to mention this to the other half … I valued my life!

 

However, next time we went, she turned up with her husband, who apologised and said he had been working and so she couldn’t get to the sale, thanked us for our kindness and paid us £10 as promised. Needless to say, when she was looking at a couple of packs of the next size up of clothes, I let them have three for the price of two.

 

On another occasion, a lovely as-new toddler’s party dress was for sale for £2 - it must have cost about £18 new - and a lady offered us 25p for it. My wife said no, and the offer was raised to 50p. My wife still said no. Our potential customer said we could either sell it to her for 50p or we’d have to take it home! My wife promptly packed it into the car and told her “It’s going home, then” at which point she offered £1 rapidly followed by the £2 original asking price. At which point my wife’s stubborn streak kicked in and she told her it was no longer for sale!

 

It was an interesting experience whilst it lasted - some days we could make £30-£50, other days barely scrape the cost of the pitch.

 

* I’ve not seen the car boot run since Covid … sign of the times, perhaps?

 

** My wife simply didn’t let go of baby/toddler clothes, despite them being long outgrown!

*** ex-wife as of 2017

 

Steve S

 

 

[Winslow Boy]

I regularly pass several sites where they were held prior to the Great Event and none have restarted.

[Winslow Boy]

42 minutes ago, SteveyDee68 said:

That’s right, Birmingham is the second city in the U.K., after Manchester!

 

😉

 

Steve S

Er Salford please Manchester just hangs off our coat-tails. 

[Winslow Boy]

8 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

A popular destination for people using British Rail have it Awayday tickets, or was that Brighton?

That would be the day at the seaside would it.

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

You haven't missed much.  I came to the conclusion that most who are attending are 'professionals', who buy cheap and then sell on for a bigger profit either on their own stands or later elsewhere.

The Big H sounds bitter and twisted from the experience.

[MrWolf]

I've done a few car boots with a friend of mine and always pull the same MO as with the autojumbles (which we have done more than I can recount) 

Get there early, get a decent pitch, have a wander around and a cup of coffee and don't open the van and set up until about fifteen minutes before Joe public is let in.

There's quite a few professional dealers, mostly scruffy pie eating middle aged blokes who will happily regale you at length about how much money they've made on house clearances etc, whether you want them to or not.... 

The hagglers are a strange lot though, most have no shame and judging by their shoes, watches, phones etc aren't on the breadline

You can tell who is and they're generally after practical items.