Dinting Station Car Boot (Just For a Change !!)

Slightly Better Than Last Time - Sunday 27th August

Due to such a disappointing time the week before last it was with a little apprehension that I decided to go ahead and do my final car boot before going on leave for a month. Despite being August and supposedly still summer a cloudy grey sky did not bode well at all. With fingers crossed I hoped that the rain could hold off just until lunchtime. I managed to get set up and despite bracing winds quite a few people ventured out to take a look. Mid morning my dad came out to see how things were going and kept me company. The extra pair of hands were very welcome when trying to rig up plastic sheeting that refused to stop billowing when the quick showers finally came. Despite the chilly day there was a continual stream of people who came over and we were kept quite busy. Combined with the few pounds from the13th, the grand total came to £60 so we were more than pleased with our morning's efforts.

The Really Wet One - Sunday 13th August

Once again the weather had been changeable all week and the forecast was not particularly good for the weekend. But as the saying goes "every penny counts" so I thought I really should make the effort and try my luck at "Dinting Station" . Unfortunately it absolutely poured down from start to finish and with hindsight it was probably better not to have gone at all as despite trying to keep everything covered with large plastic sheeting quite a bit of stuff (books and packaging) got totally ruined and had to be thrown away. Due to the amount of things that had got spoilt it really was disappointing. A handful of people braved the weather to come and take a look first thing in the morning but by about 9.30 the sky was so dark there was no way it was going to let up at before 12 so what few of us there were, we had to just call it a day and head for home.

Despite the poor forecast a few optimists set up !

Where is everybody?

Anne, a friend of the family and fellow optimist keeps smiling despite the rain!

"I'm a Wet Customer Get Me Out of Here"

Now we really know nobody else is coming .. aww

&

A total washout ...
time for even the diehards to pack up and go home

Corporate Sponsorship

I wrote to quite a lot of companies asking if there was any way they could help with my fund raising. I know they get bombarded with continual requests day in day out and often they have already "adopted a charity" which they regularly support and as a result don't tend to support individuals. So despite the poor odds I thought I might as well give it a go along with all the others planning to do a challenge at some point in the year. I received quite a few nice replies back even when they couldn't help.

I was thrilled to bits to get phone calls within a week or so of each other from "Boots" in Manchester and from "Costco" Trafford Park offering help.

Boots kindly donated 3 huge bags of samples some of the soft toys were used in gift baskets at the Carnivals and as raffle prizes whilst the smaller samples were given out to the "unlucky ones" who'd not won a Tombola prize.

One of the gift baskets - soft toy donated by Boots

---ooOoo---

Costco donated a lovely Stainless Steel Kettle / Toaster gift set to be used as a prize.

What a fantastic prize; it was won by a husband and wife who were as thrilled to get it as I was when I first got the calls, unfortunately in all the excitement I forgot to take their photo (it was early days and I've learned a lot since then).

Dinting Station Car Boot - 16th July

The sunglasses are on and hoping for a nice sunny day !

My other half ready to do his bit !!

Nice to see a blue sky for a change

A few early birds looking for bargains

Turning out to be a nice and hot T shirt/Shorts day after all

A marvellous day, beautiful sunshine, plenty of smiley faces and we managed to raise the grand total of £68 to boot !

Charlesworth & Chisworth Carnival

This Saturday it was Charlesworth & Chisworth's turn to hold their annual carnival. We arrived at 8 am to allow plenty of time to get set up, although we're a dab hand now at putting up the gazebo - it was up in about 5 minutes flat! Ken Dee the organiser kept calling me 'Zebra' and my dad was subsequently christened 'Mr Zebra' when his help was enlisted along with that of my OH to set up other first timer's gazebos.

As usual the sky was not looking too promising, after being glorious all week it certainly was due for another downpour. And pour down it did - fortunately it was fairly early on in the morning and the carnival wasn't due to start until lunchtime. So there we sat cocooned in our little green shell, draped in plastic sheeting and waited it out. By lunchtime it was as if it had never happened, the sun came out and it went on to be such a gorgeous day. Ken Dee and the other organisers worked tirelessly throughout the day which certainly paid off as there was a great atmosphere and everyone had a marvellous time.

For a little place we get some fine looking customers!

When is it my turn ?

Needing a bit of help

This little 'bee' has flown back
for just one more go

And a few moments later ....

one happy customer with her prize !!!

Glossop Carnival Weekend 1st & 2nd July

It's been carnival time in Glossop and I spent the whole of the weekend with my family in 'Manor Park' running a small craft stall and Tombola. On Saturday my dad just came to help put up the gazebo with my OH and ended up, despite it being the day of the England match, staying all afternoon until it was time to pack up and go home. So that was really nice, having such support without having to ask, cajole or bribe !!!

We were very lucky with the weather - what a scorcher. It was so hot that during the Punch & Judy shows there were more people behind our table shading from the sun that we actually had in front of it!!

My dad helping out even though England were playing

Behind the scenes - one hot dog

We did extremely well with the Tombola stall having had lots of lovely prizes donated from colleagues and neighbours. Costco kindly donated a superb Phillips Kettle and Toaster set as a raffle prize which I thought would be put to best use at the Carnival, particularly as it was a 2 day event. Without these lovely prizes I don't think I would have collected anywhere near the amount we raised over the weekend. Although I couldn't believe the first four people to draw tickets on Sunday morning all won prizes one straight after another (and good ones at that !) I thought I wouldn't last half an hour at that rate. Fortunately the wins slowed down to much more respectable intervals and it was only in the last hour that I had a pretty empty looking table with only about 6 items left.

Of all the Tombola prizes it was this little chappie

that all the ladies wanted to win

It's a serious business choosing a ticket

The Morris dancers in their finery. I meant to go and watch them but we had a bit of a 'busy spell' and unfortunately I missed their 'turn'.

Picture Perfect - the Carnival Queen & Rose Queen Attendants.

Much later in the afternoon when I'd not got a trace of make up on, my hair had not seen a comb since 7 am and I had goodness knows what spilt down the front of my Appeal T shirt, this was the time the reporter from the Glossop Advertiser turned up to take my photograph (thanks a bunch). So this is one article that definitely won't be flashed around the office!!

At the end of the day I think we managed to pack up in record time and were thoroughly exhausted by the time we got home. We'd had a super weekend and managed to raise 253 pounds for the Appeal.