Farmers' market

[strange_complex]

I spent lunch-time wandering around the farmers' market in Gloucester Green with dyddgu. We were beset by delicious smells on all sides, and satisfied our appetites by munching heartily on roast-pork-and-stuffing (or crackling) rolls. I bought:

• Two venison burgers
• Goats cheese with coriander and chive.
• Honey and mustard dressing
• Balsamic vinegar dressing
• Honey and ginger marinade

(The lady on the dressings and marinades stall was very friendly, and expert at tempting me into trying more and more of her delicious concoctions).

After dyddgu had dashed off to get back to her job in the History Faculty library, I wandered around a little more, taking in the antiques / craft part of the market, and then, all of a sudden on a 'Retro Design' stall, saw the telephone that I have been waiting for all my life. For years, you see, I've wanted a plain black dial phone, just like my parents had until only about 10 years ago. They're the ones everyone had in the 60s and 70s, which looked like this, and I now know are technically referred to as the '700 series'. Until recently, though, I haven't been able to justify the expense for something which is really just a fashion statement. So it had remained a pipe dream, and I'd got along perfectly happily with my £9.99 silver touch-tone phone.

The phone I saw today, though, brought my long-thwarted desire flooding back ten-fold. This phone wasn't just the design I liked - it was also sitting there in two-tone bright purple and black! I hadn't even known such phones existed. Which is lucky, because I'm not sure I could have survived this long without owning one. However, it was £65, and besides not having that kind of cash on me, it also occurred to me on the basis of previous experience of the Gloucester Green antiques market that I might well be able to get it cheaper on Ebay. I came home, did a quick search, and guess what? I could. And the thoughtful sellers have even offered a complete explanation of how it is that such phones ever came to be.

Much happiness now ensues. And I return to preparing tomorrow's lectures.

Comments

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Ooh, yes - that is definitely a very classy phone!

And hoorah for your parents. I was pretty impressed by the way mine had persisted with theirs until the mid-90s. But once my Dad decided it was time to modernise, he chucked out all three of their 700 series phones, which I felt was a bit OTT. They did still have the old-style plugs on them though, to be fair, which, since he got the telephone sockets in the house modernised at the same time, meant he would have had to adapt them to continue using them.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

My parents just can't be bothered, I'm afraid. They complained for years that the kitchen phone wasn't working; eventually I bought them a £9.99 one for Christmas.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Well, what kind of sockets do they have then? I thought the 700 series ones had all had the old-style ones, which were like a prong, rather than the new ones with copper wires in grooves and a clip which holds them into the wall? So how have they got both functioning simultaneously in the same house if their approach has basically been to sit back and try to ignore modern technology?

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Good question. I think my dad rewired the kitchen and dining-room sockets back in the day but the bedroom just got left. (He alternates between frenzied DIY action and leaving things to rot for decades.)

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Ah, right - I thought it had to be an all-encompassing operation, but I suppose there's no real reason why, if you still have phones that work in the old sockets.