Never say never again!

Well, we've gone and done it! After promising ourselves that we will never weaken and do a trade show ever,ever, EVER again, we have just gone and booked one. Rubbish, aren't we?! The last one we attended was an absolute mare. We had decided to use the option of going down there the day before, to set up and stay on our pitch overnight. The weather went from appalling to downright inhospitable. Arctic really (Ben Fogle would have struggled, I'm telling you!) Still, there was this tiny sliver of hope, that the weather might suddenly play nice, so we set up the stand and battened down all our hard work tighter than a corset on Dita von Teese. That's when the fun started. Have you ever watched those P.O.W films where naughty prisoners are sent to a tin box in the middle of the compound for punishment? Where the temperature drops at night so severely below zero that you are too frightened to move your fingers for fear of them snapping clean off, and teeth go past that chattering stage straight into lockjaw? That was us, that was! In the back of an uninsulated, borrowed Renault Traffic Van, squashed between an oily wheel arch and the biggest built in tool box I have ever seen. Mike started to suffer from head freeze, being as bald as an american eagle, to the point of really hurting him. Desperate measures were called for, so he spent the rest of the night wearing my bra on his bonce- one cup neatly over his crown, the other cradling his chin! We were laughing hysterically to ourselves, but the laughs were coming out as little wheezes! When first light came we had to thaw out drinking unhealthy amounts of coffee (sheer nectar.) The weather got worse, the show organizers called the whole thing off, and then all hell broke loose because nobody could get off the site, as torrential downpours overnight had "glastonbury-ied" the showground! Hours it took to get rescued by a bleeding great tractor! So, 'never again' became our war cry......until today!
We thought it might be a good idea to do a little dress rehearsal before my exhibition- get me out practicing my nearly forgotten people skills. Well, just to get me out really! That's the trouble with working in a studio with the sum total of '2' in it. Yep, me and the hubby. I can go days sometimes without speaking to anyone else!! The other reason is I'm terribly nosy and I enjoy walking around just looking at other peoples works! It's also right on top of my 40th birthday- so what the hey! Let's all party down at Sherbourne Castle amongst the classic cars (Jul 20th)- we'll be there with our fibreglass topped van wearing bras on our heads. You can't miss us!