Saturday Night Freeze

OK, I meant to post a pudding last night but the grandchildren arrived and my laptop got hijacked for the grandson to play World of Warcraft. Ah well, at least it keeps him quiet! I did try to get him drawing but he soon got fed up.

So here I am on Saturday night having had a strange kind of day. I went to look around my local market that used to be a thriving second hand market on a Saturday. People used to clear out their loft/garage/cupboards and take it all down there and sell it for a bit of extra cash. In fact my Mum and Dad used to have a stall for many years. They used to go around the boot sales and pick up things for 50p and sell them for a quid. They never made a fortune but loved the social aspect and they were both well respected in the community for their 'bargains'. They ran that stall for about 15 years until they were both in their 70s, when the open air got a bit too cold. The market itself has since moved to a new site and although it's all modern and new it just isn't attracting the sellers and sadly hardly any stalls were taken up and none were just locals selling up their odds and sods. I was discussing this with my daughter and we decided it must be that people sell all their bits on ebay now, thus leaving all these stalls empty. Well that and the fact that the council charge through the nose for a stall. I'll never see the point in charging so much for a stall and having so few takers. Surely it would be more business like to charge much less and get more stalls occupied? That way the whole community would benefit and the council wouldn't lose anything at all, after all their costs are not going to be any greater no matter how many stalls are taken. If I were in charge I'd give the stalls free for a few weeks to get the traders in, then charge enough to cover costs and maybe make a profit without being extortionate (as it is now). I'm sure the town as a whole would benefit by this as the more people who come into the town the more that is spent in the town. Even the council would make more money from the parking charges!

Ah well that's one rant over. After the market we went to our local charity shop, we love to have a browse and spot a bargain (I get it off my Mum, my daughter gets it off me). I got a lovely cream chenille throw for £3.50 which I have over my legs as I type. I need it too as my thermometer is showing 57 degrees so it's quite cold in here and that's with my little oil filled radiator on full blast! I think I'll be getting my scarf and another jumper on next. I hear it's going to be -10 tonight!

Well I was going to have a rant about how busy Asda was today but I think I've waffled enough for this pudding. Tomorrow I'll tell you all about helping son make a cake...

Flo