A challenging day

 There is something about setting an alarm clock which automatically sets your brain on sleep alert.  If you wake up in the night (guaranteed at my age) then your brain won't rest after that for fear of missing the alarm.  I woke at 1.30 a.m. and that was IT for the night.  My mind kept going over a YouTube post of Neil Oliver's I'd watched the previous night, and then a Facebook post about a concrete factory in Derbyshire having a pipeline taken crosscountry to the sea near Liverpool, where work was being carried out to store the CO2 it produced in an underground bunker.  (Compulsory purchase orders of farmland all the way . . .) W.T.F???

My stand yesterday, which included some of the attic pieces.  The big teal vase on the left has been on my windowsill for about 3 years now, but I decided I could live without it . . .  The Art Deco bowl to its right attracted everyone - if I'd had £1 from each person who touched and admired it, I'd have done really well!  I have small stools etcc on my list for tomorrow, to try and get things on different levels.    I have display stands but they don't have "the look" that other stands (with a lot less pieces to display, I might add) have . . .

To say it was busy yesterday was an understatement.  There were rarely fewer than 15 or 20 people upstairs all day long!  Apparently 720 visitors were throgh the door, which has only been surpassed on the first Fair after Lockdown, when there were 800.  So much for me worrying that the price of fuel etc was going to put people off.  They wanted to buy yesterday.  

I was very weary - around lunchtime I could have easily laid down on the floor for some kip! - but no chance of that.  Everyone did well apart from a friend who had bought no smalls, and it was smalls that were selling yesterday.  A favourite customer who has bought from me since the pre-Covid days when we met up at the Botanic Gardens Fair, finally bought herself the Swedish Inger Person dish she had been in love with the last few times we'd met.  I gave her a good deal on it and when she came back up the 4th or 5th time, I knew it would go home with her :)  I was SO pleased when she bought it, as it had definitely gone to the right home.  

It took me 15 minutes to pack up and then another 15 mins to fetch the car and for the lads who help out, to pack it for me.  Makes a big difference to have help, especially at this end of the day, but not having to carry big boxes upstairs at the start is a bonus too.

The wind was just getting up as I drove home, and it was a pretty gusty night.  I had my tea, but had to have a sofa nap just to last me through until bedtime.  I was bone weary, and not much better today.  I have to set the alarm tonight of course, and will need to be up at 4.45 a.m. in the morning as the first hour of the journey will be in darkness, so a slower drive.  I need to make some breadrolls today for my chicken with stuffing slices for breakfast (eaten around 9.30 at Malvern - I just grab a cuppa and a chocolate bar before I leave, as no time for a proper breakfast.)

I am meeting up with Tam and Rosie at the Elan valley for a walk later on.  I have to unload the car in a little while though.  This afternoon will be resting up.

I hope you are all having a nice Easter.