Derby Affordable Vintage Fair

After what seemed an eternity.....two hours and fifteen minutes to be precise....we finally arrived at The Venue for Derby's Affordable Vintage Fair - with only a few wrong turns and one minor mishap where stress levels shot sky high when the car decided it had 35 miles of petrol left and then suddenly went to zero! (well before the allotted 35 miles had been used). However disaster and more importantly, having to push the car were averted, and the car was gratefully refueled courteousy of Sainsbury's (boy were we glad to see the petrol station).

It is never easy when you first arrive, as there is the usually feeling that all eyes are on you, and you have to locate your space, and then unload the vast bags of vintage clothing and all the rails, poles and baskets before you can begin to set up.  This is time consuming and there is the edge of worry that your pitch doesn't look as good as anyone else's and also the concern that no one has yet spoken to you (actually this is just paranoia kicking in as all the other traders are also busy setting up and probably feeling the same way - not - of course - that I have asked them....duh!).

Finally everything is in place, the doors open and the hoards of vintage loving buyers come in. This is the fun part. You get to sell your lovely vintage goodies to people who have a love and appreciation of them, you get to people watch and view the amazing vintage outfits some of these buyers come in, and of course now talk to the other traders, who prove to be both human and friendly.  The downside is five hours standing on your feet (note to self....Do Not wear boots with a heel next time!), the constant desire to eat due to the relative inactivity of the situation and dehydration as you can't drink the usual twenty cups of tea that your body seems to have become dependent on!  But it was a lovely day, met some really lovely people, made some money and collected some lovely memories and stories to tell in the future.

The drive home - another two and a half hours was not quite so amusing...as at one point we had gone round this large roundabout three times and seemed to have little chance of getting off (such huge roundabouts with odd lane requirements etc!) but obviously finally did, only to have the consul lights in the car go out completely and this meant the heater, the cd player and speedometer were now invisible and in darkness.....which was just about ok but made driving more difficult and temperature and volume control a hazardous occupation. Still we arrived home safe, sound and grateful and ready to do it all again next week in Nottingham.