Sales and Sandals

A trip to Cranleigh this morning to try out selling our books in the village hall there, which was full of stall-holders. My brave fellows from Goldenford (www.goldenford.co.uk) were up and away at 7.30 a.m., but my brain doesn’t surface that early in the morning, so I followed on later. Actually, I’m not a very intrepid driver, but I have used that route in the past, to my mother, when she was alive, in Hove, though only a very few times, and to my daughter, near Horsham, before she moved to Hereford. The extra little bit to Cranleigh was only about five miles. Then there was the great parking ordeal, and the mini miracle in which a parking space presented itself to me, when I thought the whole place was full up.

Despite all that excitement, we were in a cul de sac in the village hall, and no-one visited us – apart from the old lady who confided to us that it was her fifty fifth wedding anniversary and her husband had taken her for the first time ever, to an Indian restaurant. She didn’t buy a book, though. Not sure any of them would have been her cup of tea – or plate of curry.

On the way back, I decided to call into Guildford. Readers might remember that after the launch of The Gawain Quest, I dragged M to Clarks to buy some shoes and sandals in the sale. Now after the op, the sandals are the only thing he can wear, and he’s wearing them for jobs in unsuitable places. I spent half an hour on the phone the other day, finding out about buying an identical pair (not including rescuing the receipt from the recycle bin, where I’d filed it) and today, I collected the pair they’d reserved for me. In the interim, the price had dropped a further £3, so it was worth the journey. I was tempted to buy another six pairs, to save M the ordeal of shopping trips.

While in Guildford, I called into Waterstone’s and the one copy of A Bottle of Plonk they had last time I was there had vanished. They tell me it was sold in May. I asked them if they would order more copies and they said they would. You can’t always believe what you’re told, so I’ll check up on that. Still, that part of the day was a whole lot more productive than the rest of it.

The Range Rover is still with us. But for how much longer, I don’t know.