Well what can say? The car boot sale actually happened, Christine did indeed get up at six in the morning along with Alex and the kids and of course myself, and we had our table set up just after 7.00 at Bridlington. Fortunately there was no rain and it was a reasonably warm day so it could have been worse.


This was our first attempt at bar booting, and the last if I have my way, the people there selling stuff the same as us I am sure come from an alternative universe. As soon as we arrive on site and open our boot, they are upon us, vultures wouldn’t have got a look in. “Have you any jewellery”, “any computer games”, “any antiques” we are bombarded with questions, they don’t realise that Christine doesn’t speak before eight thirty and there’s still an hour and a half to go, no use talking to me I am only the driver and only here under protest, this is not one of the ‘I’ days I was looking forward to when I retired.


Before we can get them on the table we have sold the brass knobs and knockers, the porcelain handles and the dolls house not to mention the box set of North & South videos or the complete set of Faulty Towers videos. It took Alex a long time to pack the car carefully using every available nook and cranny to fit everything in but these guys are dragging things out more quickly than we can deal with it. Christine hasn't even got the table cloth on the table yet never mind arranged the flowers.


As yet the public haven’t started arriving and we have already serious depleted our stock so it’s going well.


People start arriving at around nine o –clock and all I can say is it’s beyond belief what some people will buy. It’s even harder to believe that anyone can be bothered to argue over the price of something for sale at 20p but they do. “Will you take 10p?". Will I take 10p, it’s only 20p to begin with, I can’t be bothered to argue and take the 10p. Alex and the kids think I am a soft touch and tell me not to get involved in selling things, I have to leave it to them.


As I can’t do the selling I take a walk around the other stalls only to spot my porcelain handles on sale at twice the price the guy paid me when he was rummaging through our car boot, the brass knobs and knockers have finished up on the same stall at more than double what I got for them. On the specialist video stall there was Faulty Towers and North & South all at a healthy profit over what they paid me, I begin to understand what it must feel like to be mugged. But seeing as the main reason for doing the car boot sale was to get rid of unwanted stuff I decided we had done OK.


Christine has brought pack up for breakfast, flask of wall paper paste and some bananas but fortunately Joe decides he wants a hot dog so it’s off to stall with him and as I’m there I find it hard not to have one myself, which certainly beats the pack up back at the car. Twenty minutes later Amber decides she now wants a hot dog so it’s down to the stall again and once again the smell is too much to resist and my second hot dog of the day although not needed goes down very well.


The people keep coming and we keep selling ‘junk’ and the 50p and £1s keep adding up but we are still stuck with the TV and the video recorder. These are two large items that we definitely don’t want to be taking home with us so I decide it’s time we put them together as a package, £5 for them both. £5 for a TV and video that can’t be bad can it? Except the only person who has looked at them all morning wants them both for £4 and even then I have to carry them to her car. Now being aware that I have been accused by Alex and the kids of letting things go too cheap I consider telling her to take her £4 elsewhere but at the last minute I change my mind and snatch the £4. I drive a hard bargain!


At the end of the sale we had achieved our main objective of getting rid of most of the stuff we brought having only had a few items to bring home which finish up in the tip. We also make £60 after paying for our pitch which then has to be shared five ways as the kids seemed to think they are entitled to a full share.


The kids decide to save their dosh towards a computer game, Christine is going to buy plants and Alex is getting a lipstick. Me, well having spent over eight pounds on hot dogs and over fifteen pounds on fish and chips on the way home I need to do another car boot sale just to cover the cost of the last one. But all in all it we did have a good laugh and we did get rid of a lot of junk.