Week and politics

Well week four in the big brother house is drawing to a close and the housemates are getting restless. In the  big house in London by the river, the occupants are now fair game,  targets for everything and anything that could go wrong. That hindsight talent which many press reporters seem to have in spades is certainly coming in useful. Would they like the job of managing the Country out of this? No way. Would the Labour party, Lib Dems or Nosher from Up North want the job? Definitely not. Lets accept we are in a bit of a pickle, look around us and see most of Europe is too, and try to pull together to get through it. Nobody is handling the crisis perfectly and the whole World all need the things we need so baton down the hatches and try to think of some interesting questions the Government spokesperson can answer instead of coming out with the same old rhetoric every night.

So that's the politics bit dealt with, now how has the week been? Sadly one of the ex-captain's of the golf club, Eric Roberts,  died a while ago and his funeral was on Thursday. He was my first sponsor for captaincy nomination so I am saddened that we will not be around to see me in action. We gave him as good a send off as we were able as he was applauded on his route to the cemetery, hopefully there will be the opportunity to toast his passing once we are able to socially connect again.

I am close to exhausting my outdoor job list and have just finished repointing the patio and realigning a few boundary bricks. I think it looks pretty good. I have managed to fix the electrical fault in the kitchen so normal service has resumed there, and I have orders out for spare parts for the shower, the vacuum cleaner and the bedside light. That has once more meant I have been trawling through e-bay to procure most of it.

Regular readers will be aware that I have no will power where random spending is concerned. I used to do most of it at auctions but they have dried up on the Wirral with the best two closing down. The ones which still exist are not able to trade at the moment so I am once more weakening and spending speculatively on-line. This week though has taken a bad turn. I am now starting to buy unseen job lots, be they returned goods, bulk purchases of various Chinese imports, or potentially fake t-shirts or sunglasses. The first consignment is on its way to me so I shall report back on whether I have made a killing, or, probably, not, later in the week.

It would be more sensible for me to just have a declutter and sell my stuff on e-bay, but I just can't decide which of my 32 polo shirts I don't need any more, or the seven weatherproof jackets, or four pairs of waterproof trousers. Ah, talking of which I have just purchased another two pairs of cotton slacks which I am convinced I need for golf!! I really should utilise the one in,  one out principal or else get a bigger closet!  This lockdown is a strange bedfellow,  I  just get so excited when the door bell goes these days. Now why did I not buy shares in Paypal!

Going, going, gone....

The auction season started again yesterday. I could have made a New Years resolution not to buy so much rubbish this year, as 2015 was definitely the year of the dross. I have been lucky with some items i have purchased, and made a reasonable profit, but quite a bit of it remains downstairs ready to be utilised at the car boot sales when they start in March.

I would like to think my luck has been hard earned as I do have an eye for what will sell, I just occasionally pay too much for it!!

Yesterday I purchased a golf flight travel bag for £5 which retails for about £60 so I  will keep that for my own use, as it purports to carry two sets of clubs, so saving air freight charges with EasyJet et al.

I missed out on two rather nice piano stools which went for £45 each which I think was all the money. I did get a pile of pictures though, in which I thought there were a couple of hidden gems. They are on e-bay at the moment so we will see how they fair. It's commission which does the damage though. You pay it on what you buy in the auction, plus occasionally VAT. You then pay commission on e-bay and a handling fee if your payment option is paypal.
Apparently it costs £20 to submit an item into the auction to sell and there is sellers commission as well as that of the buyer. I know they have to make their margin somewhere but it all needs to be considered when trying to make a few bob on whatever you buy.

I have fishing bits ( but not your type of stuff,  Dick) Pepper Pig xylophones, modelling tool kits, a few artifacts and a good range of pictures so far in the car boot box, I might have a clearance sale just to get rid as its all spent money so anything I make will be straight into the beer kitty.