The
first of the big antiques fairs for this trip was in London, and what a foggy
old start it was in old London Town. You
have to be at this fair by 6am if you want any chance of a car park – many of
you will be aware of how hard parking can be in London – but the gates don’t
open until 6.30am. So I collected a cup
of tea and Doug had a bacon butty and we milled about with the always sizeable
crowd until opening time. The fog was
thick and low so visibility at the outdoor stands was poor, but we groped our
way through and came away with some really excellent purchases.
Maybe
once in every four trips I find a beautiful typewriter with some serious age to
it, and this was the trip for a good typewriter find. I had seen a beautiful old typewriter at the
Porte de Vanves markets in Paris, but at 1000 Euros it had to stay behind. But here before me in London was another
beautiful find, one I could afford, so I snapped it up. Doug, who had to lug it back to the van,
assures me that it weighs every bit of 10kg, so there will be no accidentally knocking
this piece off the table.
Around 10am and still very foggy in London. You can just see the top of a very large blue enamel lidded pot that I bought. |
I also
found yet more lovely French enamelware, great glass, cool 1950s Midwinter Red
Domino cups and saucers (so retro, and these days so hard to find), a very
large and beautiful wooden chopping board – not one of the really giant Jamie
Oliver boards I’m looking for, but fabulous enough to be scooped up by me. I also found a good set of iron game hooks,
which are just right for hanging copper saucepans, dried herbs, and various
kitchen things on. We have two sets of
game hooks of our own, which will be set up in the larder in due course, and
now we just have to decide which ones we’ll keep and which ones we’ll flog - always
a nice position to be in.
I
totally indulged myself at this fair, and bought the best ever French Art Deco
outdoor metal table. I plan to paint it
black and use it as an indoor table, even though there is a hole in the table
top for an umbrella. I reckon it’s way
too cool and stylish to be left outside.
It cost a lot, and the charming French dealer knew exactly what he had
so he wasn’t very negotiable, but too bad because I had to have it. Even as stock for the shop it would have been
too expensive, let alone as stock for an antiques Fair in Nambour, but when you
are buying for yourself you can set aside the usual
it-won’t-remotely-make-a-profit concerns.
Then it
was time to leave London and head up to Scotland, so we could take a trip on
the Hogwarts Express (also known as The Jacobite steam train) on my
birthday. As we crossed the Scottish
border I la-la-la-ed at the top of my lungs to the tune of Scotland the Brave in celebration of entering the country. My sister and I have a tradition of la-la-la-ing
the opening lines of Scotland the Brave
whenever we recall our visit to Edinburgh together some years ago. We walked arm-in-arm down the Royal Mile, la-la-la-ing
to this tune, and passing Scottish strangers smiled at us but Doug was
mortified and refused to walk with us.
Mind you, maybe the smiles from those passing Scottish strangers were of
the be-polite-to-the-crazy-ladies type.
Anyway,
I digress. Six hours after leaving
London we arrived in Dumbarton, just north of Glasgow and right on Loch
Lomond. I must say Glasgow was a bit of
a surprise, with street after street of lovely stone Georgian buildings with
enormously high ceilings and beautiful casement windows. Very elegant.
Loch Lomond is huge and it’s hard to describe just how beautiful it
is. Our visit has reacquainted us with
just how drop dead GOR-geous Scotland is and we’ve decided we need to find more
excuses to come so far away from our normal buying routes. Scotland is not good for antiques buying – way
too expensive – but we should be able to come up with other reasons to visit.
Take off 'The Jacobite' and add 'Hogwart's Express' and you've got yourself a genuine movie prop. |
After
overnighting near Loch Lomond we headed up to Fort William early the next
morning. What a stunning drive it was – I
think one of the most beautiful drives we’ve ever taken. Every turn revealed yet another breathtaking
view, with impossibly steep hills in layer upon layer upon layer, often with
wildly tumbling brooks and waterfalls cascading down them. You gained the distinct impression that this
was an area rich in glaciers back in the day (like, back in the Ice Age). And the colour palate was so beautiful and
easy on the eye. A soft grey filter
highlights other colours nicely, and the overcast Scottish skies guaranteed a flattering
grey filter. Every conceivable shade of
green was in sight, with russets, greys and ochres suddenly highlighted with
unexpected splashes of purple heather, or deep pink flowering somethings, or
even patches of orange foliage and stands of red rosehips and berries. It all worked beautifully, and with the cold
nip in the air it was invigorating and refreshing.
Our view over lunch - Isle of Eigg on the left, and the tip of Muck on the right. |
The harbour at Mallaig, on the west coast of Scotland. |
We had
a delicious lunch of freshly caught langoustines at Mallaig, at a hotel overlooking
the Inner Hebridian islands just offshore.
You know how Bonnie Prince Charles fled “over the sea to Skye”? Let me tell you, Skye isn’t very far to
flee. The pursuing English could have
chucked rocks and practically hit him.
Okay not quite, but Skye is surprisingly close to the mainland and I
probably wouldn’t recommend it for fugitives who want to go into hiding these
days.
Multiple
muggles again waylaid the train and waved at us on the way back to Fort
William. Some people even waved at us
from their lounge rooms! Yes, the train
track is very close to some
homes. You can train spot from your
couch, if you live in the right spot.
“Right spot” being a relative term, of course.
The viaduct on the Fort William to Mallaig steam train route. This viaduct features in Harry Potter's trip to school adventures. |
Next
Blog: Walking along Hadrian’s Wall and considering
how to fight off Scottish Barbarians while wearing only a skirt.
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