I don’t know what my US friends call them, but over here we have boot fairs.  We get up extra early in the morning and head off to a designated field to sell our wares from paste tables or fold up picnic tables, making sure we’ve loaded all our tat in the boot the night before.

Sam and I did just that today.  We set the alarm for 05:45 and by the time we’d arrived at the Sunday boot fair, hundreds of other people were already there, so goodness knows what time they got up!  We were one of the last to arrive, but the vultures had seen us.  Before we’d even turned off the car’s engine they were flocking round, flapping their black wings and asking us what we had in the back.  Sam replied drily that it was a load of old tat from our loft, but nevertheless, the vultures would not go away until they’d seen it in person.

First out was our Fortnum and Mason wicker basket.  Somebody had bought it for us years before full of Christmas food, and the basket had been used as a toy box until the last grandchild had outgrown all the toys.  Now the vultures were falling over themselves to buy it.  Sam said £10 which put some of them off, but one brave soul baited us down to £8 and walked off clutching his prize.

As I was laying out Dot’s cardigans and jackets, female vultures were flocking, turning them over, and asking how much I wanted for them.  I said 3 for £1, which went down rather well.  Sam sold his spare set of speakers, and all we were left with were some books, a few of Dot’s blouses, and a blow-up airbed.

Nothing was shifting after 10.30, and the crowds were thinning out.  We decided to pack up and go home.  As we sat back in the car and started the engine…nothing.  The battery was as flat as a pancake.  There we were in the middle of a field surrounded by tat on all sides, and we were going nowhere.  Sam ended up phoning the AA, who arrived after an hour or so and provided us with a new battery for £140 (Sam had been meaning to get one and hadn’t got around to it) so we could go on our merry way.

Moral of the story: Always carry a mobile phone, and always change a car’s battery if it starts to fail.  Our one had let us down a couple of times before, and had now let us down for good!  Thankfully the sun was shining, the sausage roll van was doing a roaring trade, and there were three festibogs on site just in case.  We were seriously out of pocket, but were pleased to make it home again just in time for lunch.

No blog tomorrow as I’ll be at work.  See you again on Tuesday!