A Day in the Life ... A Mixed Bag ... and My Soapbox

Just look at this! Yesterday when I set off along the A303 to Dairy House I drove through this mini flood. This morning we were greeted with this amazing sight (which didn't photograph particularly well from a moving vehicle). We had a thick frost overnight and the stretch of hedgerow beside the flooding was totally coated in ice. The traffic splashing the water up onto the verge and into the hedge in the freezing conditions created something I've never seen before and probably never will again. Do click on the photos as hopefully you'll be able to see the ice more clearly.

You'll see that beyond the standing water the verges are just mildly frost-covered in comparison. Unfortunately there was nowhere to pull in and we had a line of traffic behind us. I don't think they were particularly impressed that I'd slowed down to 35-40 mph on a stretch of road with a 50 limit. Pauley wound down the window and clicked as best he could. The photos are actually better than I expected, but not as good as I would have liked!

A couple of weeks ago I purchased this bank of 25 drawers from one of the other dealers. I'm in the process of labelling each drawer and filling them with packs of lace, fabric bundles, individual lace pieces, buttons, bonnets, beads, threads, braid etc. The grand plan is that I'll be able to finally clear the sitting room floor, partly empty the studio/shed and hopefully begin to know where everything is!! To this end I've just purchased its matching partner, and now have a total of 50 drawers to fill. Somehow I don't think it will take me too long!

In between customers and keeping warm by the woodburner I took a few photos of DH stock today. Three gorgeous Welsh wool blankets, recently acquired, each priced at £50 and all in excellent condition.

This gorgeous passementerie in gold and rich burgundy (camera flash distortion of colour)

and some similar in blue and gold

And have you ever seen anything so lovely as this? Probably, as it's not to everyone's taste, but this massive Victorian mahogany compactum wardrobe just oozes quality. The hanging robes are lined in fabric down to, and including, the bases. Incredible! The two centre doors open to reveal linen press drawers, with a 5-drawer chest below. I reckon it stands about 8ft high I just love it, and wish we still lived in a house large enough to accommodate it, but am probably relieved that we don't as I can't afford the £2,800 price tag this week!

And what about these baubles. You'll need a large tree from which to hang these as they are at least 6" in diameter. The second photo gives you a better idea of the proportions.

I love this room at DH. Sally has such flair and is also very lucky that she has the only room with 3 windows!

She finds some great items, predominantly French, and as you can imagine has a good following.

Pauley and I eventually left DH about 4.15 and as we drove towards Bath the sky was rapidly changing colour. Again traffic behind us meant I couldn't stop to take the photo I really wanted which is just to the left of what Pauley managed to take while I was driving.

I was going faster when he took this one. All I can say is that it did warrant a photo, even if this one isn't enough to convince you!!

And finally, this is where we parked the car when we arrived in Bath towards 5.30 this evening, for my second attempt to get through the doors of CK.

Before leaving Dairy House I telephoned the store to double check what time they closed, having been told when I phoned Head Office that they were closing at 7.00 pm this Sunday. Why was I not surprised when the person I spoke to this afternoon said they were closing at 6.00 pm? But that's not the best of it. I got to the door just after 5.30 to find boxes of rubbish outside, the door locked and the girls inside tidying up and hoovering.

I knocked (or rather hammered) on the glass door only to be told they were closed. Like a thing demented I said "Oh no you're not! I telephoned!" and gesticulated, pointed to my watch and waited for them to open up. The manageress opened the door, I announced that I'd driven for an hour to get there and wasn't going home without the item I'd come to buy. She asked what I wanted and that she'd get it for me ... but guess what ... OUT OF STOCK. NO SPOTTY GREEN SATCHEL BAGS AND NO SPOTTY RED BAGS (the two options Han had suggested she'd like). Not only was the Bath store out of stock, but there were none in the warehouse and they had no idea when they'd get any. Red rag ... bull ... etc etc ... not a pretty sight. I'm afraid I was on the attack and the poor girl was on the defensive, but things changed when I said I'd driven in especially on Friday morning (well over an hour) only to find them closed and that I was not impressed and would probably never set foot inside the store again. She was so apologetic and a long conversation ensued about the shortage of items and all sorts of other interesting subjects.

Finally I asked to check the opening times which I'd peered at on Friday, just to see whether I had totally lost the plot. Once again there were profuse apologies for the fact that the CK Head Office had sent out a ridiculous poster for the Christmas opening which did, as I was sure I had read, only show the times of opening for 3 days last week and 3 days this coming week, followed by all the days from next weekend up until Christmas. There was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the normal opening times for the other days. How utterly ludicrous is that. Apparently they have had endless phone calls asking if they're only open 3 days a week. Quite honestly, my view is that the company needs to look carefully at its marketing and PR. It's made a complete hash of things as far as the Bath store is concerned and has seemingly totally miscalculated with regard to stock control and anticipated sales.

After all the frustrations and mileage involved in trying to purchase Han's Christmas present it would seem that she will now be getting said bag sometime in 2009 if she's lucky. Perhaps they'll have restocked in time for her birthday in May. Meanwhile I have no idea what to get her for Christmas!! But I have to say, all credit to the lovely manageress at CK who was finally so understanding, helpful and generous. I'd love to say more, but can't really, but as I told her when we hugged, she has restored my faith in human nature, bless her!

So, the CK saga is over for the time being and we'll now look forward to the next excitement, whatever that may be.

For Ruth's benefit (she gets tired just reading my posts), tomorrow we have to go to the storage unit (only a mile away) to pay the rent and search for something lost; go to the woodburner shop (about 10 miles) to buy a clever fan thing which stands atop a woodburner and distributes the heat further into the room. I'm hoping this will spread the heat a little further at DH, which is currently VERY chilly indeed anywhere further than 6 feet away from the heat source. I also need to pack and weigh a couple of parcels and place an ad in the Blackmore Vale magazine to notify the Shaftesbury (and beyond) populous that we shall be holding a Pre-Christmas late shopping night (making sure I include the normal opening times of course) on Thursday 18 December. All welcome by the way, should you be anywhere nearby. We'll be open until 8.00 pm. When we've done all that we need to go to Sainsbury's (7 miles in the opposite direction) as the cupboard is bare. And then ... now that Pauley has emulsioned the sitting room wall we stripped in September after the woodburner was fitted ... we can empty the sideboard/dresser base of the excessive amount of heavy Denby Arabesque dinner service, shift the sideboard back into its proper place and refill it. There'll be some more tidying and reorganising of the sitting room to do after that, but it'll need to be done tomorrow as Hannah's coming for supper on Tuesday and we'll need to get to the dining table!!

On Tuesday, before thinking about cooking a meal in the evening, I need to empty the car (my mobile store), remove any remaining stock from the sitting room, sort the shed and begin to refill the car with goodies for Shepton Giant Flea next Sunday. Wednesday and Thursday should be relatively peaceful (2 days at DH), haircut Thursday evening and then on Friday I'll need to finish packing the car for the Flea and take Mum to collect her new specs. Now ... have I forgotten anything? Did someone mention Christmas? Not too sure when, but I'm hoping to write Christmas cards sometime before 25 December, get and decorate a tree for DH and ditto for home, get inspiration for Mum's prezzie (some hope) and generally get into Christmas mode.

Have a jolly week one and all. I'll pop over to see you for a little relaxation and maybe leave a comment if I have time!!

Update! Can you believe it? I'd forgotten that on Friday I'm also out for lunch. Pauley and I are lunching in the relatively new Bistro in Somerton with Liz (my DH ally) and her husband Edward. Our excuse (as if we needed one) is that we're calling it our 'office lunch'. We did the same last year (different venue) when we knew DH was going to happen, but it was still some way off. Any excuse!