Mixed Lot

The weekly Saturday antique market along Portobello Road in London is a little overwhelming.  Not only do you have stalls either side of the road but also many shops and arcades that feed off like tributaries of the Amazon River along its length.  Enter through a small doorway and you will find a passage leading to a myriad of dealers, their pitches packed with everything from the world of antiques.  It's difficult to stop and look because for most of the time you are swept along in a tidal surge of bodies (mostly tourists) desperate to soak up the atmosphere of Portobello Road.  Along with antiques and collectables you have music and noise and food and life, all of life, in one place.

It's been a long time since I visited Portobello Road with its seaside-like houses and bustle and it has changed little.  I went along with a friend yesterday to buy and sell and make some contacts.  My pockets were full of little treasures to sell and sell I did (though not as much as I would have liked and not, unfortunately, the silver Aspreys letter opener in the form of a military officer's sword that was poking into my side all day).  I saw some familiar faces too and was quite surprised to discover how many knew of our recent burglary - news travels fast in the antiques world!  At the end of the day over the obligatory drink in the Earl of Lonsdale my colleague and I compared notes.  She had bought silver (it's what I love most of all) and I a packet of chocolate raisins.  I couldn't help thinking I could have put more effort in!
I did make some excellent contacts though and plan to visit Portobello on a regular basis to develop those.  It's a difficult balance though; talking to the stallholders.  They are there primarily to sell and it's important not to take up too much of their time.  We get that problem at The Cloisters Fair: sometimes visitors mistake the friendly welcome as an opportunity to tell us their life stories.  Stallholders cannot sell if they are listening to someone drone on and on and on and buy absolutely nothing! 
"We live in harsh economic times" - you'll recognise that saying if you watch The Apprentice on BBC1.  I watch very little television but that series is a must for me.  One piece of advice is to stand out from the crowd and I hope that we adopt that approach in everything we do.  Our service is bespoke, we know our customers personally, etc etc - but we are planning to really stand out in the New Year.  In the New Year we will be taking on a World Record attempt which will be beamed live across the world.  More of that in due course.
Back to reality this week - we're still managing the process of paying out to customers affected by the 18th October burglary.  We have our next auction on Thursday (please do support us with some good quality lots) and two antique fairs at St Andrew's Hall (Wednesday and Saturday).  It may take us a while to get completely back to normal (actually, that's not really desirable anyway - we only have a forward gear) but gradually we are.  Some things take time (like a house clearance that we viewed back in July that has only just been confirmed for the 18th November!)
Today is work work work play (in that order).  Most people are relaxing at 9am on a Sunday but not in our business - I have a valuation job at 9am and another at 11am.  Two cups of coffee are all I need.  Oh and to get my arse into gear about...now!