Sunday, April 19, 2009

Sunday's spotlight - A bargain is a bargain is a bargain (ad infinitum).....

By guest blogger Pete

For my wife and I it was back to England for Easter. Unfortunately, rather like Christmas, the religious connection with the festival is becoming lost in this country and we are making Easter into a celebration of the Blessed Chocolate. Even those who spend the greater part of the year avoiding any contact with this delectable yet fattening confectionery regard Easter as a compulsory time to indulge in the odd Easter egg or ten !..


The Monday after Easter is a bank holiday here. However, the Monday after Easter this year will not be eulogised and fondly remembered for luxurious balmy weather but with thankfulness for the fact that it was at least dry. This caused those unnumbered hordes of seaside worshippers to head for the coast; there to shiver in near freezing but dry weather conditions and congratulate each other because they are breathing in healthy, good, fresh, exhilarating and full of ozone fresh air which will keep them going until the first Monday in May, when they can experience it all again. After the congratulations and a quick walk along the sea front it's queuing for three quarters of an hour for a cup of luke warm tea in a damp overcrowded cafe. Oh, that's the life! Lincoln lies midway between the East Midlands and the Mecca of the East Midlands, Skegness. Therefore, only the hardiest or most foolish of Lincoln citizens venture beyond the local bypass on Bank holidays.

True to custom we paid the first visit of the year to a local car boot sale. This is another weekend phenomenon that has taken root in this country. Folk fill up their car boots (or "trunks", if you prefer) with all sorts of rubbish and then head for the local Car Boot Festival. Here they sell their rubbish and then promptly go out and buy another boot full of other peoples' rubbish, which they can then sell next weekend at the next Car Boot Sale.

Car Boot Sales, however, are a good source of cheap 2nd hand books, DVDs, CDs, Computer games and Videos. I got a bargain when I bought a brand new filing system, that I didn't need, for £1. Quite made my day. I'll keep it for a year and then pass it on to a charity shop, where a car booter will buy it to sell for £1 at the next Car Boot Sale he/she goes to. But, then, a bargain is a bargain is a bargain is a bargain....................

Spring has sprung and the garden begins to call. Already I've woken mine up from its winter slumbers and new life (amongst the weeds) is beginning to be seen. I've no photos of car boots or car trunks so I'll include a couple of floral photos for this blog.

Good bargain hunting where ever you are or where ever you go.

2 comments:

florcita said...

I love your definition of what a car boot is... I can not stop laughing! Better yet, the description of the one day tourists whom run to soak up sun so desperately... the same happens here in The Netherlands... add to that traffic jams ok hundreads of km when everybody decides to head home at the same time!

Thank goodness you got that filing system! File the weed!

Unknown said...

HI Florcita,

Glad you enjoyed the blog and comforting to know that not all the Bank Holiday martyrs are from England.

Just realised - why do I need a filing system when I have a computer? Must be my age.

Peter