Catch 22!

Before I go into detail about this week's title, I want to continue with my unintentional theme of the joys of travelling on public transport.  I have two stories to tell you that have happened in the last seven days.  The first was the young woman on the bus who decided that we all needed to hear her music.  It was bad enough that the music wasn't to my taste, but then she kept skipping through the tracks and then after ten minutes, she found a track that she liked and so began to sing along (badly).  Then as if she could read my thoughts, she turned up the volume to drown out her (now really bad) singing.  I couldn't take it, I couldn't just sit there and not say anything.  So, I did say something.  I said "Excuse me.", she turned slowly and fixed me with a glare and a smirk.  I said  "Could you please turn your music off."  I'll condense what followed next.  She basically said no, she would turn it down, she asked why "I had to be the hero, no-one else was complaining."  She told that she was high and that she wanted to listen to her music on the bus.  I told her that most people including myself, used headphones when they wanted to listen to music, after all, it is a public bus.  She told me that she would turn it down.  Now, she did turn it down, but only by about 0.0000001 decibels.  I decided to try and ignore her and her music.  A few minutes later, my partner laughed about something we were discussing, which had absolutely nothing to do with this woman.  However, this sociopath, obviously thought that we were laughing at her.  So she started to rant.  She was blatantly "off her head" and I didn't pay her any heed until she said to her friend, "Watch me and her get off this bus together and then I'll stab her up!"  Hold on just one minute, how did we get from me asking her to turn her music off, to her telling her friend that she would stab me, in broad daylight, on a busy street?  Now, of course, she didn't stab me, as I'm here writing this entry and in fact, in the end she got off the bus before me, leaving me with one word as her farewell, bi**h. 

A few days later, with the previous incident still very much fresh in my mind, I got onto another bus to find three young adults having an argument.  I groaned inwardly.  It quickly became apparent that the girls were sisters and the guy was in a relationship with one of them.  However, the guy had been in contact with his ex, in fact he had "linked her", I still don't know what that means.  The sisters screamed at each other, the girl screamed at her boyfriend, he screamed back.  In a ten minute bus ride, I heard the f-word about 100 times and I learned that they had in fact, both been unfaithful to each other, more than once and that the sister thought that they should still stay together, that was of course, all in between all the "shut up" "no you shut up, you ...." 

Ok, now about the business.  Well, I feel like I'm hitting my head against a brick wall at the moment as I don't have any working capital!!!!  I need more business cards, I need to get more pictures framed, so that I can sell them, there are then, rather than taking an order, I need more mounts, I need to go out and take more photos around London, which in turn leads to me needing to order more prints, I could do with getting someone to look at my PR and marketing, I need, I need....  Which brings me to the title of today's blog.  I can't get the money I need, unless I sell my display stock, but then I'll have no display stock to be able to sell more!  Frustrating!

This entry is quite long now, so I'll save story of the pretentious pr**k at the market who can't handle a little competition and the story of the £50 fine for putting my cigarette on the ground, in order to go and talk to a potential customer (I was going to pick it up!!) until next time.  Take care.

PS thanks to my (2) followers, though your number is small, you are appreciated.

Late again!

Okay, I know, I'm rubbish at keeping this blog updated.  Anyway, this week is half term and I can't tell you how wonderful it was to wake up this morning at 10am!!!  Pure unadulterated bliss and as I write this entry, I'm still in my pyjamas!!!  However, this is just a quick update as I want to go and see the Street Photography exhibition at the Museum of London today.  EleBoo is just great at the moment, I'm constantly grateful for all the wonderful comments I get regarding my photos and the sales are still (slowly) trickling in (I am, like the rest of the market traders, praying for an economic turnaround soon, especially as the stall rent is increasing soon!).  If anyone out there knows how I can get my hands on a business start-up grant, I would be grateful, I've spent hours looking to no avail!!  So, before I sign off, I just want to ask the question as to why people think that it's acceptable to tell a whole bus-full of people all about their life intracacies.  I mean in the space of a week, I've listened to a guy on his way home from court, talking about all the unsavoury things that he done and how he'd "gotten away" with a five-year suspended sentence, then there was the guy speaking to his wife, who then decided to put her on speakerphone so that he didn't have to hold the phone anymore!!  However, the most incredible was the guy on the 69 bus the other night, who wanted to tell the person he was speaking to that he was running late.  He started by saying that he was at Leyton station and asked how long it would take from there to get to his destination.  The person either didn't hear him or became instantly unable to understand the English language, as he then proceeded to repeat his location over and over again.  Ley-ton station, I'm at Leyton, I'm at LEYTON station, I kid you not, he said it about 20 times, everyone on the top deck, was laughing by this point, he then said "Can't you hear me?"  To which I said, "Obviously not!!!"  The guy then realised that everyone was laughing at the ridiculous conversation he was having and then he said "I'll send you a text".  Why he didn't just do that in the first place, is anyone's guess!!!  See you soon x

Okay! I'm getting a bit lazy, or am I just busy again!

My aim to write a new blog entry every week has gone up in smoke, but I'm here now!!  So, in those two weeks that have passed, I've gotten myself into a school and they want to keep me and will even allow for the time off to go to Central America.  Am I happy?  I'm ecstatic!  The kids are manageable and the science dept. have been really welcoming, so all good there.  As a result though, I'll have to knock Fridays at the market on the head for the foreseeable future, but don't worry, I'll still be at Greenwich every Sunday and the every other Saturday too.  In fact it's so great to be back in the classroom, that the fact that I'm still waiting for solicitors, courts, the old school to respond correctly (or at all) to my requests, has failed to register higher than a 2 on my 'blip radar'.


As for EleBoo, that's great too!  I seem to have attracted lots of elephant-lovers to the stall in a last few weeks, so there's now a page on the website just for their viewing pleasure.  Also, I took a bit of a gamble on having a picture enlarged to 30" x 20" and then mounted on Diasec®, it cost a fair bit too, compared to normal framing, but, oh my gosh, I sold it less than 24 hours after collecting it!  Big thanks to Kay Mounting for an amazing job and of course to "R" for buying #1 of 25.  Lastly, I just want to say how great it is to meet such a mix of wonderful people at the market, the day passes much faster when I spend most of it chatting!!  Oh, now this really is the last thing for this entry.  “He who heeds the word wisely will find good, and whoever trusts in the Lord, happy is he.” (Proverbs 16:20)

Where does the time go?

Is it really two weeks since New Year's Eve??  I mean I know it is, but is it really???  Now, I don't want to jinx myself, but in the last few days, things seem to be falling into place.  I've sold a couple of big pictures, which is absolutely fabulous and I know my framer was happy to see me coming back to place a new order!  I had a really good photo shoot for a birthday party and some of the photos are simply stunning, I'm booked in for a seminar on Thursday week about raising finance for the business, I've found a supplier for some acrylic work, I finally saw the physio, so that hopefully soon I'll stop feeling like I have the back of a 93 year old and lo and behold, my CRB check has been completed after 12 weeks of waiting!!!!  The Metropolitan Police really need to pull their finger out on that onerous process.  Okay, I'm still waiting for court expenses, a job, salary, bla bla bla, however, I feel more positive now than I have done for months.

The end of 2010

So today is the last day of 2010 and for me I can't wait to turn my back on the events of this previous year.  Well actually, I'm only referring to the awful parts of the year, it's just that those bad moments are always the ones that are in the forefront of my mind.  I'm trying to teach myself to hang onto the good times and not let the bad ones cloud my mind. 

There is a lot of symbolism in the beginning of a new year and I'm looking forward to this one and all the opportunities it will bring (Mexico here we come!).  I will regain my confidence, I will find a new job (maybe in teaching), EleBoo Photography will continue to grow and life will go back to normal.  It's still hard to compare my situation now with my situation 12 months ago, but I do believe that everything happens for a reason, maybe the events that started on March 17 2010 happened to teach me something, I just don't know yet fully what that was.

I'm not naive enough to believe that everything in 2011 will be good, I mean that would be boring, but the difference now is that I will take everything in my stride and know that there is always a solution and always a light at the end of the tunnel, however long that tunnel may be.  So, in 2011, I will find a new solicitor and I will begin the process of seeking compensation, I can't say that I'm relishing that process, but it's not right that nothing should happen.  After all, it's not just me that's been through hell, my friends and family have been through the mill too.  It's thanks to them, that I'm still here and still sane.  Most of all, there's my Bushbaby, constant, loving, strength-giving, laugh-making and full of positivity.  Thank you from the bottom of my soppy heart.

Some of the waiting is over!

Well, I finally got the debit card terminal!  However, I should have expected in advance, that it wouldn't work when first switched on!  Two phonecalls to Customer Care, a clean of the SIM card and a bit of swearing later, it works!  Oh and thank you to the terminal company employee who put the paper roll in backwards!  It doesn't take much to confuse me at times.  Now wouldn't it have been lovely to have had the opportunity to use the darn thing today!  Yes, I will remind myself, again, that a business takes a while to become established!  So, with the wait for the terminal terminated, my mind wanders to the other things I'm waiting for.  Letters, letters, solicitors, good fortune, a salary that I can live from, the end of 2010 and more letters.  I will not bore you with the details, but I will just say, "Why does everything have to take so long?"

The emotional rollercoaster of being a market trader

So, tomorrow will mark 12 weeks of trading at Greenwich market and it has to be said that the good days haven't been as numerous as the bad days.  Now, don't get me wrong, I don't expect to become a millionaire from the market (well not yet anyway :-)), it's just that it's so flipping hard on those days when I look like the Michelin man from all the layers of clothes, the cold is so extreme that I've lost all sensation in my extremities and to add to the misery, I haven't sold a single picture.  On the flip side, there is the incredible feeling I get when someone buys one of my photographs.  I'm grateful for every single customer and even some of those who don't buy, have come with interesting tales to tell and the compliments are always flowing, so it's not all bad!  My best mate says it's all about the power of positive thought and she is right.  There will always be bad days and I'm lucky to have a partner who knows how to lift my spirits after a particularly bad one.  The trick is to remember those good days and the fantastic people who pass through the market and stop to chat.  I will persevere, I mean the business isn't even three months old yet, but if I had a pound for every time a person said to me, "I'll be back..." or "I'm just going to the cash machine..." (still waiting for the terminal!)... I would be a millionaire by now!

Welcome to EleBoo's blog

Sometimes, life throws you a rotten egg with a fragile shell, the test is to see whether or not you can wash the mess from your mind as easily as you can from your clothes.