It seems that ‘that time of year‘ has come around all too soon.  Where did the year go?

I had always planned to visit The Festive Gift Fair again this year, the tickets from a colleague were a bonus surprise   I took the opportunity to visit with my Mum.

Once again the trains there and back were painless, but the show seemed to be a bit more commercialised and many of the stalls sold the same sort of things, most notably scarves, jewellery and charities etc

The stalls that used to house unique and individual crafts and craftsmanship seem to have vanished in favour of more standard items.

Maybe I need to search them out on line…

PS:  At this time of year I have  many fond memories of my Dad

The journey there and back was painless and the trains were on time and there were plenty of places to sit.  I had forgotten what a long trek it is from the Birmingham International to the NEC, I certainly got my exercise for the day.  The last time we went to the show in 2008 it was rather disappointing because a lot of our old favourites had pulled out and there was not very much that interested us.  I am glad to say it had picked up again this year and although some of our old favourites were still absent there were new things to interest us.

We were also lucky that I had got my dates muddled up and left it too late to order tickets in advance.  Some very generous people helped us out on the way in, meaning we saved money on the entry fee.

We came away with a naughty pie for tea, which I can confirm was absolutely delicious.  Don’t forget that I did a lot of walking so I earned it