Londinium, Londinium, Lon…um…done.

Right, where was i?

Did forget my entertaining trip into town on Thursday night, which took place during Fran and Maddys double Rainbows/Brownies stay. I had 75 minutes to get the kids a wedding outfit each, plus myself and do sundry other odds and sods. I walked into town to discover that Pumpkin Patch without me knowing, so dashed straight in there and set about choosing 4 outfits. Got some help digging bits out from a nice sales assistant, chatted with the girl at the till and after congratulating myself on getting 4 sets of pretties for £51, asked her to put them into separate little bags so the girls could be handed one each.

At which point i realised i had completely forgotten to buy anything for Amelie, 😳 doing my failed mother neurosis about her no good at all 🙁 Quickly rectified it though and got her pretty tights to make up for it. Still spent less than £70 and it is all casual smart, so will do plenty of wearing.

Dashed to M&S and got myself gorgeous undies and a skirt for the Apres-Melrose-Party 😉 plus some sensible but (please do not adjust your set) not black sandals, shoes. Then realised i had only 20 minutes to get to F&M so hurried off again.

Needed to stop for change to get out of the carpark, so went to the bank, only to have every single card refused; some just said they weren’t authorised, some said there was a fault 😯 Either way, the minutes were ticking, Brown Owl doesn’t have a mobile and i was stuck in town with my car effectively impounded. PANIC 😯

Luckily i had a brainwave, rushed into M&S, bought some sweeties with my card, which still worked in shops, and got cashback then positively whirlwinded (as much as a girl of my vstature can) back to the car, reaching Brownies just 1 minute late.

Was consequently grumpy and cross, but am blaming it on PMT as have put on 6lbs overnight. 😕 😥 So be nicely to me next week you lot, as i may still be grumpy and intolerant, especially as i can’t speak on the Melrose Yahoo group, which is utterly ignoring all my attempts 🙁

Friday was also grumpy, but we eventually got to A World and the girls had a good rush about; laughed to see the bigger ones all holed up in a corner den like bit just chatting. Still can’t get used to having the big kids 🙂 Then on to dancing, but i won’t moan about the show-related pressure being put on my children because we booked 2 weeks away before the dates were even announced 🙄

Today i made a fairly snap decision to go to the Toy Fair after all and i’m really glad i did. For one i completely recovered from the stress levels that London induced in me last year (when i definitely think i was suffering some PTSD symptoms) and the Tube didn’t bother me, though i was quite glad my mum didn’t mention that when she came through Kings Cross yesterday it was closed due to a fire! But also, i was much more sure of myself when talking to exhibitors, i knew why i was there and i had my aims and goals in what i wanted. All of which i achieved.

I spent 2 hours with the MD and Sales Manager of my main supplier, talking over doing some PR together, my thoughts on moving products forward and so on; i took on a new line with them, which is massively different and i’m possibly mad, but £350 isn’t such a massive outlay anymore and if it fails i’ll just have a lot of presents for kids for a while. Was very nice to have them acknowledging that my sales and success have been a significant contribution to their achievement of being leading craft kit supplier in the UK. 🙂

Also found several other suppliers of crafty/novelty/toy type stuff, some of which i ordered today and some which i’ll order other days and got a good mooch in the small business section, whichi hugely enjoyed. Great to be among my compatriots, as it were. Sarah, remember the Bedlam Puzzle bloke? he had a BIIIIIG stand this year!

Coup of the day was finding a novel twist on the Hama idea, which i’ll be getting in very soon 😉

Home to tea, parcels (Lucy is working next week but i needed to do some for Monday so she didn’t get overwhelmed), a pleasantly busy day on the site and now… um… really must do my tax return…. I need my :wall: emoticon back – where’d it go? Jax… an excellent opportunity for procrastination for you, can you find it? 😉

Expect me late and harrassed tomorrow 😉 😆