A bit of a snuffle

Well, if I thought the previous week was busy I was in for a shock last week. I edited the same amount of reports in five days as I did in the previous three weeks collectively. I limped over the finish line last Friday evening, absolutely shattered. Holidays are over, kids are back at school and those lazy hazy days of summer are over. Everyone who had end of month targets woke up last week and realised they were not going to achieve them. Cue mass panic and last minute submissions, of which I was positioned downwind of and had to deal with. 

Anyway, it's done now. Month over. Breathe.

Despite being knackered and wanting to crawl back under the duvet, I presented at the gates of East of England Showground at 9am on Saturday morning for the second Festival of Antiques of the year. Martin and I have been looking forward to this since our first visit back in March. It's a massive antiques fair, the biggest in Europe, and heaving with every kind of vintage item in every genre. For a £5 entrance fee on Saturday it's a bargain day out, especially if you take your own food. 

So, what did we find? I think I was very restrained. Two vintage stone 'tonic' pots, a leather cuff box (to add to the two collar boxes I have) and the butler tray in the first picture. 

I do like a good food or health-related jar and, in this case, the Virol bone marrow and Numol body builder jars. Originally made by The Bovril Company in the early 1900s, Virol contained bone marrow, whole eggs with the shells, malt extract and lemon syrup, and was recommended for children and invalids. Numol contained lecithin, malted carbohydrates, proteins and phosphites, even more powerful than cod liver oil according to this old ad in the BMJ!

Anyway, we crawled back out of the gates at 4pm after covering everything inside and out but the main arena, which is full of the super expensive antiques anyway and we don't tend to bother looking at. Although it went on until 5pm we couldn't have carried on any longer, we were punch drunk, and only just narrowly avoided tripping over the red Bargain Hunt team and Eric Knowles doing a feature on Toby jugs on our way out. They'd positioned him on a picnic bench in front of the marquee tents - in the full blazing sun. Poor Mr Knowles looked quite sunburnt. I've told my parents to keep an eye out for the Bargain Hunt project in about 18 weeks and tell me if they've photoshopped out his red forehead!

By the way, Blogger is being a bit buggy at the moment. First, I have my comments set up so I get an email to tell me when one is pending moderation but for some reason it is a very hit and miss affair. I've only just seen there is a comment waiting for me that was left the same day I did my last post and yet nothing has arrived in my inbox to tell me it was there.

Second, Brisbane Susan is having an issue viewing comments, which I haven't come across before. I can see comments using both Mac and Windows on all my devices and so can DH so I've no idea why Sue can't. Has anyone come across that problem before and know how to solve it?