Oh my! What a day (and night!). I was awake from 1050 pm last night even though I had until 0230! So one hour's sleep when we got up to head for London. First we had to quietly leave the campsite; no vehicular departures before 7 am so we cycled our bikes out and around to my parents to collect my Dad's car. One slight flaw in my plan was 'forgetting' it would be dark at 3 am here in the south of England so I hadn't put bike lights on. We do keep a lantern torch in Elly though so we had that hooked to a handle bar! What a hoot.
Driving with a satnav (sound off I hasten to add, and not programmed to tell us where to go) makes one totally paranoid about speeding. It constantly flashed up every speed camera along with speed limits, speed being travelled etc, etc. And boy are there lots of speed traps and constantly changing speed zones. Very little on the road at that time and we made a fairly painless journey to the market arriving at 4 am.
Setting up and some trading was already in full swing, although some 'shops' didn't open up until a little later on. It wasn't quite as huge as I'd thought but still a very large area to cover. And was fairly quiet, but that may be the particular day we went, or the fact that Chelsea flower show is in 'session'. I also think it was because it was so early! The market shuts at 10 am each day and did appear to be getting busier as we left around 5:30. It was good for me as a novice wholesale purchaser as I didn't have battle through lots of other buyers.
At first it seemed really daunting. At each vendor you're not sure whether to buy straight away or keep looking and come back (provided you can find it again)! So much choice, although some of the choices on my list have just gone out of season so, as I expected, although I had a comprehensive list of possibles, I also bought some things I hadn't listed. There doesn't appear to be any carting system for collecting up your purchases as you go so Mr Grok very obligingly made multiple runs to the car to load up purchase by purchase. The only drawback with this was having to carry what I'd already bought in my head in terms of shade/shape/quantity etc.
By 5:30 we had divested ourselves of £230 and filled the car with more than 200 stems and foliage, a good morning's (night's?) work - that is just awesome value. And another adventure ticked off my wishlist.
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| 0400 After months of anticipation - New Covent Garden Flower Market! |
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| Dressed warmly despite the summer weather as the market is kept about 12 degrees - felt like the Tropics when we stepped outside to leave! |
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| Quite a selection! |
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| Job done - 0530! |
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| 0630 conditioning all the purchases |
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| 0745 back at base with all the purchases safely stowed in buckets ready for tomorrow and GFP Phase III |
And for my next trick ...
We returned to Elly around 0800 and I did my standing qigong meditation then climbed back into bed and slept for an hour. Mr Grok was out for the count so I headed off by myself to find a more suitable container for the major church display and to fulfil a request my Mum had made to trim her hair. This was somewhat nerve-racking, not having cut her hair before, but she seems very pleased with the result, and I very relieved.
Not bad on 2 hours sleep in 38 hours! An early night tonight after our nightly episode of the West Wing, although I think we may have earned a treat today, and 2 episodes LOL!
Phase III commences tomorrow. Hopefully the really enjoyable bit.
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