SHERINGHAM DIARY 71 - Shrug My Shoulders & Chuckle.

Ta Da!

November 16th
So far this week the shop takings have shown a small improvement, with the emphasis on small. Yesterday's trade all happened in the space of an hour or two midday, with a whole lot of nothing either side. I got a definite impression that this was Thursford influenced, because the coaches stop over here for lunch break before heading on to Thursford for the matinee performance at 2pm.

November 17th
Its in the nature of our business, that it's obvious from the outside what sort of shop we are. With nice fabrics and hand crafted goods, soaps, candles and jewellery, etc, if that's not your bag you walk on by.  Also, if you were the sort of male who finds seeing a man knitting or using a sewing machine too challenging, you'd avoid us like the plague. Seeking refuge in the stereotypically male concern of bottled beers in the off license next door. We don't normally get abusive customers. Mid 20th century fabrics, you'd never think of them as an effective deterrent, but they are.

However, the off licence and cafe do get abuse on a regular basis from some of their customers  Yesterday the young chap who runs the cafe had to endure angry words and finger pointing by a customer whose card was declined three times. Nothing was wrong with the card machine, as it worked for customer's both before and after this guy. But regardless of this the guy blamed the cafe owner for 'not wanting his business'.

It was one of the Zeitgeists of the pandemic that people bought dogs for company. Not everyone knows how to control their dog, or take responsibility for its behaviour. Dogs peeing up walls and outside shop displays in the shop courtyard have become quite frequent occurrences. Last week, a customer in the cafe had two largish dogs who went absolutely berserk as someone else passed by with a smaller dog. The table they were sat at was upturned,and a calamitous amount of noise accompanied all the crockery, food and liquids on it crashing to the floor and shattering. The dog owners, rather than apologising or offering to pay for the damage their dogs had caused, they simply walked off.

November 18th

'Economic forecasting is there to make astrology look good' 

So J K Galbraith once said. And so yesterday the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, plans tax rises and an austerity agenda in order to plug a so called 'fiscal black hole' in the countries finances. Any economic policy is framed around parameters imposed upon the government by itself. They are the means within which it wishes to live, a choice it has chosen to make. This time in the hope that it pleases the markets.  For a government ideologically committed to creating a smaller state and welfare sector, this also performs an auxiliary function of reducing the public sectors ability to provide a range of services by stealth, under the guise of a supposed economic necessity.

November 19th
What we don't need at the moment is atrociously wet cold weather. However, that is what we are getting, torrential rain for hours, day and night. So yesterday's shop take was, shall we say, very thin.

November 20th
Next year, should we're decide to carry on, we intend to start doing more makers markets. The difficulty with that as an endeavour is that its virtually impossible, without going to one, to ascertain from their publicity quite what sort of level of craft making any fair is pitched towards. To some extent we can ask some of our suppliers for advice. What is really needed is a coding system. Similar to a health and safety scoring for cafes. One being pathetic and five too top notch for us. So here is a provisional outline :-

1 Star - Flea Markets
I mean for f...s sake what are they? All sorts of tat masquerading as vintage, mixed up with someone's boot sale leftover's, handmade cards assembled out of cut out bits of old cards, that utilise the word decoupage more as a euphemism, and then there's someone's Aunt Sally who makes doilies coarsely crocheted in lurid acrylic yarn.

2 Star - Church, Charity or Community Hall Craft Markets
Usually minus tat, vintage and boot sale. Its amateur hour for the 'home spun' craft maker. The sort of stuff congregation members make for the Christmas fundraising bazzar. Synthetic yarns rule, so the overall level of static is high. Aestheticly hovering between sugary pastels and the eye wateringly bright. An eclectic range of stock, whatever the craft maker fancied making that day. Mostly following a cliche with little creative imagination applied. Rainbows until you're ears bleed. You get the picture.

3 Star - 'Creative' Craft Markets
One step up. The craft makers behave more professionally. Items are coherently ranged and generally are more focused version of the things you see in a 2 Star craft market. You do start to see wood turners, amateur potters, felt sculpture, soap makers, stained glass and the ubiquitous fabric bunting! The overall skill level edges beyond competent. Aesthetically the majority are more shambolic folksy than artisan. You might get a glimpse of your first sculpture of gambolling hares, which will be.. .exciting

4 Star - Artisan Makers Markets
Covers a wide range of artizan making, from bread and confectionery to ceramicists who make whole dinner sets, not just mugs. Beautifully crafted candles, print and card makers, bookbinders, wicker furniture, individually styled pottery and glass making etc. Aesthetically it has a pronounced style to it, artfully rusticated, refined or form lead. Most of the craft makers will have had some form of art or craft training, and it shows. This is more where we'd most likely place ourselves.

5 Star - Stately Home Country Fair
At some point Artisan hits the Country Fair.  You pay hundreds of pounds for your stall and have to have enough back up stock to survive three whole days trading in a field. Items are more prone to be ridiculously over priced. What was a small craft based business, out of necessity, turns into production line manufacture. Its also the juncture where craft starts to morph into arty designer craft, where everything is edged in gold leaf , made from antlers or deconstructed cutlery.

November 22nd
A good friend of ours Vidyasiddhi died over the weekend. He'd had a terminal cancer diagnosis not more than a month ago. During the last week he was taken into a hospice and died on Sunday evening. Both of us worked with Vidyasiddhi during our time at Windhorse:evolution. An extraordinarily capable man who could put his mind, ingenuity and energy  into many things, but could usually dress it up with a lot of garralous fun. 

I worked with him in the kitchen at Windhorse. He was having quite a difficult time, a lot of questioning of himself, institutions and Buddhism was in process. Arriving at work you might be met by very probing interrogations of the fundamentals of Buddhism, or a light hearted mischievous imp, theatrically sending himself or a situation up. Flipping from really furious, to mock furious, to flippant in a trice. 

This was very much Vidyassidhi, this mix of the light hearted and serious enquiry, each facet of him embraced to the full whenever it arose. Always a stimulating and delightful person to spend time with. Jnanasalin besides working in the Retail Team with him, was also ordained with Vidyasiddhi, so the bond between them was strong. We are both going to miss him and are feeling his loss strongly at present.

November 24th
This month has really been the absolute pits in the shop. The bloody rain has not helped the general feeling of a depressed nation. We've taken over the last three days what we would normaly take in one day, at this time of year. Comparable to February when we were closed for two weeks.  Gone beyond being disheartened. Gone beyond despair, I just have to shrug my shoulders and chuckle over the sheer ludicrous situation we and our country are now in.