Flops' Friday mini blog

Today I went shopping at a nearby supermarket and on the way out noticed a large cardboard box covered in Christmas wrapping with a sign saying ‘Donate food and groceries for the needy’ which had a selection of goodies in it.

‘What a good idea’ I thought to myself and feeling I was needy plucked a few items from the box and placed them in my shopping bag.

The next thing I know I’m sitting on a chair in a small room at the back of the supermarket that has a dim lightbulb in the ceiling covered by a wire cage. Next to me is a big man wearing what looks to be a fancy dress outfit with a sign on it saying ‘Security’.

He says to me ‘Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t call the police and have you arrested for shoplifting’.
I replied ‘I wasn’t shoplifting, the sign said for the needy and I’m needy so I took a few things.
Security man ‘Why do you think you’re needy?’
Me: ‘Cos I’m skint’.
Security man ‘But you’d just bought some shopping’
Me: ‘I did, that’s why I’m skint’
Security man ‘But it doesn’t work like that, the items in the box go to organisations who then distribute them’
Me: ‘Well I just saved some time then, I cut out the middle man’

He then gave me a pained expression and I feared for his well-being as he was turning all kinds of funny shades. Next thing I know I am back out on the street clutching my shopping bag which is now minus those items for the needy.

This world is crazy I tell you.
 
Sorry to hear about your loss Flops. When my mum passed I decided that the best way forward for me was to think of all the good time we had had together. :cool:
 
During the week I had a flyer in my mailbox advertising a craft fair in one of the railway arches off of Deptford High Street today so I gave it a visit. Nothing on offer appealed to me so I left the gathering of students and ancient hippies (my peers, lol) and strolled to the high street.

By the Albany Empire (a Theatre) there is a Saturday market. I though I’d seen the low in markets when Lourda and William (my then Uncle & Aunt in-laws) showed me round Brick Lane where aging smelly gentlemen with beards were attempting to sell rusty razor blades and the like.

But this market at Deptford managed to reach an even more extreme nadir with the goods on offer, I’ve seen richer pickings on the council tip. Still, the characters attempting to sell their goods were colourful, as were the market traders in the high street, this is most definitely a cosmopolitan area, all human life is there. Definitely vibing and very much alive.

I bought some oranges from a market stall and strolled homewards and on my way came across a dead fox. It looked like a healthy fox apart from the amount of claret escaping all the orifices in it’s head. Probably squashed by a ten ton truck.

I wondered if foxes were edible and if a family who originated in different climes to these might view it as food and take it home. I’d imagine it would be a bit lean and stringy and then I wondered if all the various fleas and tics that inhabit a foxes fur would all jump ship when the fox ended up brown bread. If they didn’t imagine all that lot jumping all over the show when you started to skin Mr Fox ready for the pot.

And so home again, out for some ale this evening. Such an exciting life I lead these days.
 
Markets are funny places. We live in an old market town, and when we moved here the market was awful - just a collection of rubbish, mostly, but with a decent greengrocer, butcher and fishmonger. The rest was granny knickers, luggage, second hand fancy dress, and VHS tapes. The town centre was dead and there were so many empty units, some of which had been that way for years.

Fast forward a year and ownership of the market buildings changed hands - the market hall now houses a variety of different eateries with communal seating in the middle, and the adjacent covered market has all kinds of local businesses selling stuff that people actually want to buy. The greengrocer, butchers and fishmonger are still there and doing a roaring trade. It has been so popular and so successful that it has had a knock on effect on the rest of the town - it's a lot busier, and the market is so busy that all around it bars and restaurants are popping up to cater to the overspill. It has been brilliant!

Despite all that, there are still so many people who complain about the changes. It's like they can't see beyond their own desires for things to remain familiar, to see what a positive impact it has had on the entire town. Weird :rolleyes:

I imagine that fox would have tasted a bit gamey! Would have made a nice hat though :lol:
 
floppybootstomp said:
I wondered if foxes were edible
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Fox in your donkey meat

(Farmed) fox meat appears to be a delicacy in China. There are quite a number of fur farms in Finnish west cost, and the Chinese have expressed their interest in the meat. Just that although fur farming is legal (albeit controversial) in Finland, foxes can't be farmed for meat.

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I'll never view a foil tray of sweet and sour balls the same way again.

I returned to the scene today, y'all may have heard of deadmaus, this here is deadfox. All the blood had gone, are there vampires abroad in SE10?

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I have always felt sorry for foxes people hunt them down because they feed on chicken SECURE your bloody chickens then, also new born lambs do the same thing with your ewes & lambs. We have a lot of road kill of foxes here as they get mesmerized by the headlamps. Foxes also kill a lot of vermin like rats etc so they do some good. Foxes rotate betewn the town and the country side and certainly the dog fox travels many miles someone put a tracker on a dog fox in Brighton and it went from Brighton up across country to Crawley, Ashford then down to Rye & the Romney Marsh, Folkestone, around the back of Dover Guston area, then on to Deal and the Isle of Thanet. He then retraced his route and returned back to Brighton all done in a year.
 
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I posted these pix on a Facebook page themed around SE London so thought I'd share this memory here.
Have some pictures here of Blackheath in the summer of 1971. Myself and my mate Bob were driving through Tooting one Saturday morning when we chanced upon three girl hitchhikers. Being gentlemen of the road we gave them a lift although we only had a mini van and they had to squeeze in the back. They wanted to go to Blackheath so we took them there and that's where I took these pix. Despite Bob and mines best efforts to persuade them for a further liason that was the last we ever saw of them
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They told us they had just come from a house lived in by most of Hawkwind and thought they were going to be a successful band. They were right.

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Woke this morning to deep fog but it cleared to bright sunshine. Then around 3pm a deep blanket of the stuff covered the area. It didn't last long though and started to clear as the sun set. Here's a few snaps I rattled off from my living quarters.

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Yes it was freezing fog and frost me and the dogs had to put op with when we went out for our walk this morning.
 
I love your picture posts :bow:.

floppybootstomp said:
Myself and my mate Bob were driving through Tooting one Saturday morning when we chanced upon three girl hitchhikers. Being gentlemen of the road we gave them a lift although we only had a mini van and they had to squeeze in the back. They wanted to go to Blackheath so we took them there and that's where I took these pix. Despite Bob and mines best efforts to persuade them for a further liason that was the last we ever saw of them
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They told us they had just come from a house lived in by most of Hawkwind and thought they were going to be a successful band. They were right.
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Good effort Tony :lol: :D

Who was the band?
 
Ian said:
I love your picture posts :bow:.



Good effort Tony :lol: :D

Who was the band?
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Um - Hawkwind...

Most well known song 'Silver Machine' and oodles of LPs over the years.

Good effort, aye, I can remember thinking we were made up that day but no, fate decided to deal a different hand ;)
 
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