Went to Cambridge yesterday to meet up with good friend Jan Jones and lunch at La Galleria restaurant which is rapidly becoming one of my favourite places to eat, but this time the little balconies on the side overlooking the Backs were not yet open despite the fact that it was a simply glorious day, so we had to sit inside instead. We had agreed to rendezvous outside the Haunted Bookshop which is a place we both like to visit, but instead as I came very carefully down the steep staircase from the gloriously crowded second floor which is full of the works of Sutcliff, Alcott, Blyton, Montgomery, etc etc it was to find Jan was already in the shop herself. I spent some money there, including a Richmal Crompton, on which I did a deal as this was one of the books that had been loitering on their shelves for osme four years. I know as I check it out each time I visit.
While her adult books are out of print, scarce and difficult to get hold of, and while I spend a lot of money on books, I did baulk somewhat at paying £55 for this particular title. So, I took the bull by the horns and offered £35 and pointed out that they would never sell it at the price it was marked. After consultation with the owner on the phone, yes it was agreed, and I got it for the price I wanted. Now there is another one there marked at £70 which has also been there for over four years and I said I would be back in a month or two and make another offer on that one. If you don't ask, you don't get. Here is a pic of me with the book (dire photograph I know, no wedding day make up on this time) and I am pretty sure that Simon on Stuck in a Book will be interested in this. Mark you, if he writes and tells me he picked up a copy somewhere for a fiver, there will be trouble.....
After lunch Jan and I made a foray into Lakeland, that wondrous shop full of the most incredibly useless things outside of the Innovations catalog which used to be found in the pages of magazine and brought about gales of mirth with its Heath Robinson contents. At only £1.99, special offer, there was a packet of four 'fitted sheet grippers', a timer which you put in your pocket and went off to warn you that your parking 
time was nearly up (what is wrong with your watch I ask myself), and a 'pebble effect' lining for your sink which stopped you from breaking your glasses when you washed them up and, what is more, could be cut to fit 'any size sink'. We left in the end because we were getting funny looks from customers who were obviously taking it all frightfully seriously and I don't wish to diss lakeland as they have some very useful stuff there, albeit a tad expensive, but the exhibit of the day was these pictured on the right:
After all this excitement Jan headed off for home and I did a fairly useless trawl of Marks & Spencer, finding very little I wanted, or could wear. I read an article last week in a magazine announcing that this summer 'The smock is Dead'. Perhaps somebody ought to tell the buyers at M&S.....
Then realising I was later than I thought I headed for the Park and Ride bus and found a horrendous queue. Managed to get on the bus after a 20minute wait, traffic was bad and it had got stuck, and then started the trip back to collect my car. Normally takes about 15 mins or so but on this occasion was incredibly slow and just when I was heaving a sight of relief that we were only a mile away there was an ominous clang - the bus had gone into the back of a car in front. No real damage done but another 20 minutes while addresses were exchanged, both drivers walked round the car and the bus stroking their respective chins and going 'hmmm' at regular intervals, then finally shook hands and off we went. By the time I left the sun was going down and it was getting dark and I hate driving in the dark and was not looking forward to tootling along the M11. However, as I know this route pretty well, it wasn't too bad. Stopped off to pick up pint of milk and lottery ticket (well you never know) I finally made it home.
And then came the perfect end to the day. Opened my chest of drawers to put away ear-rings and watch taken off and the jerk of the drawer being opened toppled a vase of daffodils on top of the chest. Water started dripping into the drawer below and as I grabbed the vase and slammed the drawer shut all and in one movement, my extremely large and heavy 1930's mirror which has been balances on the top of drawers for some five years with no problems, suddenly tipped forward and hit me slap bang on my head and knocked me out. I think I was only out for a few minutes and when I came to was flat on my back in my bedroom, with mirror on top of me strewn with daffodils. Thought crossed my mind that I must have looked like a model for the Death of Ophelia by Millais sans the long red hair of course. Oh dear.
Sat up, sat very still while the pain in my head subsided and then spent the rest of the evening on the sofa. Took myself off to bed quite early as I felt exhausted and my head was aching, so knocked back the painkillers, and finally fell asleep only to wake up in the middle of the night in a muck sweat with my head pounding and the realisation that as we had left Lakeland we had been informed that the shop was closed for the next two weeks owing to refurbishment. What was I going to do if I suddenly needed those fitted sheet grippers? I knew I should have bought them.....
