Woody,
Spot on with one exception.
Bollocks to the tent. lifes too short to live in a supermarket bag. I spend about 40% of my life in a transit panel van that has a loo, shower, hot water, cooker, heater, TV, and no wife, hoover or furniture polish. Pitch fees at fairs of all types are going up as the wonderful government has had another spark of absolute inspirational brilliance and the numbskulls that they are have decided to charge VAT on pitch fees. Oh great, that'll really put the mockers on the craft/game and country fair part of our culture. Muppets. cretins,and imbeciles, the whole lot, couldn't manage a nursery let alone a country.
On the issue of life in a transit panel van, which I hasten to add is not a white van man type of thing, The income derived from driving around the country like a mad man might not put me in line for the Sunday Times Rich list but I stand a chance of outliving most. I haven't been near the M25 in 6 months, havent paid the congestion charge, seen a Boris bike, or had a text message on a Sunday from a tosser of a sales manager wanting a weekly sales forecast and my blood pressure is down and I dont argue with the wife. My income might be down but my quality of life is up.
Well it was, until this afternoon when I was manning my stall and I was approached by a moron disguised as a poor attempt for human who looked at my stand, scanned it from side to side, and then asked me "Do you sell anything else?" I cordially asked him what he had in mind, and resisted the temptation to add, "What do you have in mind Sir? A full wedgewood tea service or a Mk 2 Cortina perhaps?" He said that he wanted to buy some blotting paper. At that point I did lose the will to live and told him that I would just check with Goods In and see if I had any on the stand. He didn't get that and duly disappeared.
Just got back from the weekend away, a very successful one and have two days to recoup and rebuild stocks before the biggest fair of the year.