It was a tale of two antique dealers on Saturday at the NEC's Antiques for Everyone. It's a wonderful fair and it live up to its name with antiques on display ranging from a couple of pounds to hundreds of thousands. Marion and I were not planning on buying anything and were just wanting to browse. We didn't take a cheque book with us. Everyone accepts cards now don't they? Well the answer to that question is 'no' when it comes to the antiques trade. So when we spotted this very nice little Liberty pewter carriage clock that would look good in our newly decorated lounge (we needed a clock as we bought a similar new one from John Lewis but sent it back because it was really shoddy)and went on to ask about payment methods it was "cash or cheque". As we had no cheques and insufficient cash I had to hobble across to the other side of the NEC to find a cash machine (which charged £1.99 for the privilege of giving me some of my own money). I'm not complaining. I couldn't expect a dealer to give a complete stranger credit at a huge and busy fair.
Or could I? Later in the day we found this lovely Venetian Murano glass bowl that was just the right colour for said lounge colour scheme. I raised the question."Do you accept cards?" The answer?"No." I resigned myself to another trek to the ATM but the dealer said that it was OK if I had no money. I could take the bowl home and send him a cheque next week. Now that is extremely impressive and trusting. OK it's not priceless but it is a nice bowl and I couldn't see John Lewis or M&S adopting the same policy. So hat's off to Barclay Antiques of Edinburgh. And yes, the cheque is in the post.
Although, when you think about it, Barclay Antiques' policy is not that different to ours at Instanta. Here we send out boilers all over the country and tell the customers to send us the money. And no, the cheque is very rarely in the post the following day.
I enjoyed Magic Numbers on Saturday night. The show included a segment where Alistair McGowan did nine impressions for a studio contestant and she had to say who they were in order to win a prize. I thought his mimicry was quite brilliant and even if the lady answering didn't know the voices there were plenty of clues in the content. She guessed a grand total of three correctly and ended up with poor Alistair visibly deflated. Don't worry Mr McGowan, me and Marion managed eight each. It was a pity that the winner of the phone in competition once again managed to go home (or stay home) empty handed. Mind you,now that TV shows are all squeaky clean and winners are chosen at random so there is no chance of contestants being weeded out for lack of personality, never could a contestant be more deserving of going unrewarded. "So what will you do with the money if you win?" asked Stephen Mulhern."Don't know", the flat response. "Is there nothing that you would like?" the host continued, oblivious to the fact that he was flogging a dead horse,"Not really". The woman was two minutes away from the chance of winning £300k but sounded as if she was on her way to a funeral and ITV's phone call was an inconvenient interruption. Watch next week. It's a very colourful, light and feel good show.
I'll leave you with a warning on The Homosexual Menace. Take care.
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