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Monday, April 02, 2012

It's Ladies Day at Ascot Racecourse!

Ladies Day
Or possibly Car Boot Day at Brighton Racecourse. The two look so similar. But the transit vans in the background, and the general lack of horses, would suggest the latter.

Anyhoo, it's a well known fact that if you want to get Amelie out of the house on a Sunday afternoon, you need to promise her lizards. So in an effort to make the most of the sunshine, I offered to take her for a walk yesterday afternoon to the garden centre on the Race Hill. She'd been pestering me all morning to drive her back to Pets at Home, but I was reluctant to use the petrol in case I'm forced into a panic-buying punch-up on the forecourt next time I need to fill up. Frankly if I have to fight anyone for fuel at the local garage, I'll be lucky to come away with a bag of charcoal briquettes.

So in the end we compromised, and walked to the garden centre instead. Like all good garden supply stores, they sell reptiles, hamsters and guinea pigs, plus some mice you can feed to your snakes. So Amelie was in her element. She was particularly taken with the plastic trays of live crickets, which she took to be a trendy new pet, and asked me to buy for her. I said no, and tried to distract her with the baby tortoises instead. A move I regretted when she loved them, and I saw they were £139.99 each.

Fortunately we made it out of there without maxing out the credit card, and headed next door to the race course, where they were holding their weekly car boot sale. It turned out to be the perfect cheap toddler entertainment. Amelie assumed we were in a car park with people who don't tidy their stuff away. She had no idea it was all for sale. We walked right the way around, and she didn't ask me to buy a thing until she saw an ice cream van. We had a lovely afternoon out, and it only cost me £1.50. I've told her we can go back next week.

8 comments:

A Passer-by said...

How about a ceramic tortoise?   You can buy one for under a fiver!

Phil's Dad said...

There are lots of ceramic tortoises on ebay!

Phil's Mum said...

A LIVE tortoise would make a good indoor pet.  Shimmy could chase it, slowly, around the flat without hurting it.  Perhaps you could take all your junk to the car boot sale next week and sell it for £139.99.  Then go to the garden centre and buy a tortoise.

Phil said...

I resent the suggestion that we own £140 worth of junk. Our junk's worth nowhere near that much.

John Cheshire said...

You need to be careful that your new tortoise doesn't get stuck to the selotaped furniture and stop it hibernating. Obviously should it become attached you could just not hoover for about 6 months.
Don't know if you have ever sold at a car boot sale but I will guarantee there will be a weeks worth of blogs in it.

Phil's Dad said...

I'm sure you do own £140 worth of junk - most of it is in our loft!!

Phil's Dad said...

Whether your junk is worth £140, I don't know - but most of it is in our loft!!

Phil's Mum said...

We have done many a car boot sale with Phil's possessions, Jon, and had some interesting experiences.