A Photo an Hour – 24th June 2018

All the way back in 2016 I did a photo an hour on the 23rd June. Then, in 2017, I did the same thing.

This year on the 23rd June I completely forgot, but I can tell you how it went. It went – walk dogs, work, work, work, roller derby, roller derby roller derby, eat, walk dogs, tv, tv bed.

So, instead, I did Sunday 24th June this year. It was a busy day, and because of that I opted to use just my phone to get photos, not my big camera. A fact that will become abundantly clear to you very rapidly.

Sunday was one of those slightly messy, bits and bobs days, and I think the photos reflect that! Who knows what June 2019 will bring?

6am

This is far from a normal time for me to be awake, especially on a Sunday, but today we have decided to do a Boot Fair. Summer is a slow time, and funds are a bit tight, so we figure selling things will both make room, and give us some money to spend on beer and crisps while watching football.

At 6am my alarm goes off and we let the Pugs upstairs to sit on the bed with us while we drink our morning coffee. I have had a terrible nights sleep as my hayfever kept me awake most of the night. My Fitbit Versa informs me I had 4 hours and 19 minutes. I aim for 7. This is not good.

7am

At 7am I feed the dogs and take them out for a walk while Mr LLL loads the car up with a huge chunk of our worldly goods.

They are little gits on their walk. Apparently there is something that smells really good in a hole in the ground at the park and Peppa will not come back when I whistle and I feel bad standing in a residential area angrily shouting at 7am on a Sunday. Waldo hears someone having a conversation around a corner and refuses to move until he has checked out who it is. They also roll in something smelly.

I express my disappointment in their behaviour and they look at me like this, so I give them a treat anyway.

8am

The website says strictly no sellers before 8am, so naturally we arrive at 7:45 and find the place half full.

We set up our stall, which is largely full of mugs (why do we have so many?) and my old jewellery. Other sellers walk around checking out the stalls and I explain to many of them that we have no silver or gold. I sell a few rings and feel very pleased about having made £1.50, until I find out the pitch costs £8. This seems expensive, is it?

9am

The website also says strictly no buyers before 10am, so obviously this photo taken at 9:07 is a figment of my imagination.

I get irrationally annoyed when rules are not followed.

10am

We see lots of people with dogs and by 10am it is already very warm, so we put a bowl of water out.

This serves several purposes. It keeps doggies hydrated, attracts people over to our stall where we hope they will buy stuff (they don’t), and gives us a chance to pet peoples dogs and talk about dogs a lot.

We have sold a few things, mostly for 50p, and I am already very annoyed with the few people who think £3 is too much to pay for some of the nicer things we have.

11am

It starts to quieten off after 11am, so about 11:30 we start packing up.

The stall next to us selling flowers packs up and tries to leave, but their van won’t start.

We have jump leads and try and help them, but they are too short to reach. Someone comes back with more, and then we discover that the jump leads won’t fit in the connection holes on the weird cover over our battery. We can’t work out how to get this off, so we have to leave someone else to be the hero and we just drive over to Tesco for supplies.

I forgot to take photos of any of this drama, so instead here’s a selfie I took while we were packing up.

12pm

We get home and I realise that I didn’t put any sunscreen on, because I am stupid. So I now not only have slightly burned shoulders (they’ll go brown quick, they always do), but I also have a weird white square where the tie of my halter neck dress was.

Goodie.

1pm

The second England World Cup group game against Panama kicks off at 1pm. So I settle down with a beer. We bought Budweiser because it was on offer, but also because it is the official World Cup beer.

2pm

Well, this is going a lot better than England games normally go. England are 5-0 up at halftime, so Mr LLL goes to the corner shop to buy some celebratory crisps.

I am getting very irritated at all the grabbing and punching and grown-ups hurling themselves to the floor in tears because someone went a bit close to them and then miraculously being fine 2 seconds later.

I know it’s an ongoing joke about football players, but it seems worse than I have seen before.

3pm

Shortly after 3pm our friends arrive to play Dungeons & Dragons. We are supposed to start a new mission today.

4pm

Nearly an hour in, we’re doing very well, having located a castle door.

5pm

Still playing. We’ve moved on a bit now. There are lots of dice.

6pm

The Pugs need walking and I am too tired from my early start to focus on pretending to be an elf, so we head up to a nearby park.

This particular park has this weird tree that I have never had time to investigate properly before. I check it out and realise that the random milk bottles are filled with water, and the metal trays screwed to the bottom are meant for dogs to drink out of. They are a little high for the Pugs, but they manage a few sips.

I wonder who did this as it’s very thoughtful.

7pm

Mr LLL makes us all naan pizzas. This is a recipe we got from a Nigella book and adapted a bit. It’s basically a naan bread, topped with tomato puree, mozarella, and any other things from our fridge that look like they belong on pizza. On this occasion it is sweetcorn, olives, gherkins, onions and sundried tomatoes.

It is tasty. We also eat cornettos, or the Co Op own brand version of them.

8pm

Our friends head home. Within 10 minutes I am wearing Harry Potter pyjamas and snuggling sleepy Pugs.

9pm

At 9pm we decide to catch up on this weeks Drag Race.

I am very excited about next weeks final and make plans to bring out the Drag Race drinking game to celebrate.

10pm

Tomorrow morning will mark 2 mornings in a row that I have to set my alarm for 6am, as I have an MRI, that I’m frankly very nervous about, scheduled for 7:30am and I need to be at the hospital for 7am.

This means that at 10pm I am tucked up in bed with a hot chocolate and my kindle on which I am re reading Terry Pratchett books for the gazillionth time.

And that was how June 24th looked in 2018.