KINLOCH MARKET!

 

GOOD MORNING!

We are waking up in Kinloch, bright and early so we can get down to the market site, and set up.

Our set up 'time' is 6.30 - 7 am, so we don't have to set off too early.  Best thing ever being here already, instead of having to travel down at 3 am this morning!

Not sure how the weather is going to pan out, but no matter what it is like, we have everything we need for a wet or dry market.

IF you are coming to the market, we are at site # 20:

ABOVE:  We will be fairly easy to find!  Luckily we are right at the start of the market.  And very close to all the facilities like Cash Out, Information, Loos... and Lost Children!   Hopefully no one actually does lose a child, as this market is very close to the lake and marina.

That scenario would be very frightening.  

We lost Steven at the Picton Wharfe when he was about 4.  Thankfully, he was such an intelligent small child, he just took himself back to our car and stood there till we found him!!!

I was petrified we had lost him forever!

I have NO IDEA how it happened either, cos I was and still am, massively over protective of me littlies.  

But anyway... I'm now waffling, when I should be getting a move on!

Catch ya later, and wish us luck for a good day, without too much rain.

...

It rained all night, torrential rain.

Up this morning and it seems to have cleared. Thank God.

BUT....

we now have this...

ABOVE: DIABOLICAL MUD! Its a bloody quagmire everywhere.  Well not quite everywhere, some people are lucky and don't have as much as us.

ABOVE: Some of the men have spent ages spreading hay in the worst places. Now we know WHY there was hay all over the place!

Lots of people have had to be moved to other spots as there just too much water.

We are SEMI OK where we are  but its NOT ideal.

At least its not raining or blowing a gale.

Small mercies.

ABOVE: 8.30 And we are all set up and can finally sit down. And wait to see how this day pans out.

ABOVE: Its the first time we have hung stuff from our 'rafters'... works just fine.

Stew has now gone for a wander. This is a HUGE market, he will probably be gone for a while. I have ZERO interest in checking it all out. I'm bloody tired. 

11.15 am, and while there's  good flow of people here,  sales are blah. 

We had a visit from a lady who lives here who reads my blog. Emma it was lovely to meet you, and thank you so much for the knitted cardigan and hat for Lily.

7.34 pm.

We are home.

Thank God, cos we are damn tired as.

The market?

An 'average' turnover, but nothing like we expected.

Our position at the market was utter crap, because of the area we were in.

About 1/3rd of the market was inundated with rainwater overnight, and the ground just couldn't soak it up, so we had to endure mud all day long.

As a consequence, a hell of a lot of people took one look at the mud and said 'Hell no way are we going down there', and they walked away!

So the foot traffic was NOTHING LIKE IT WAS in the drier area of the market

.

It was horrible looking up the road at all the people flocking to THAT part of the market, and leaving us alone.

The worst thing was, the market organisers KNEW that our 'area' would flood in the event of rain, and seemingly did nothing about it.

And NONE of the organisers came over during the day to talk to us, or offer us any solution, or apologie for the sorry state of the ground.  That really pissed me off.

Some stall holders got a couple of trailer loads of sand delivered to lay in front out their stalls, but that didn't really help much at all.

Thank God we had taken our big rubber mats!  Not that many people actually walked into our stall!

I was so unhappy all day.

The only shining light on my day was Emma visiting, and then one of my oldest friends, Raewyn. 

Raewyn lives in Kinloch, and she came down with her partner and visited us.  It was so lovely to see her (and him), we hadn't seen each other in many years.

ABOVE: They came down in their golf buggy, so cool.  Thank You so much for visiting us you two.

So back to right now... we have unpacked our overnight stuff ... and are relaxing till bedtime.  Which will be EARLY, as tomorrow we do it all again in Cambridge.

Here's hoping for fine weather, and lots of people with the desire to spend some money!

Catch ya tomorrow.