I was going to wait until the Lotus painting arrives at its destination, but I think now is the right time.
Trade 21 was agreed on, let's see... looks like April 23.
This is the first trading nothing Twitter trade. From me, Twitterer sarahmomma - that's American blues musician Sarah LeMieux - will be getting the Lotus painting - hopefully! - and from Sarah Twitterer trading nothing - yes, that's me!! - will be getting the chance for someone to sing on an original Sarah LeMieux blues recording (final version on CD).
I have a feeling this one will be traded on sooner rather than later, but I have been known to be wrong on occasion. (Allegedly).
That's all today folks!
Tomorrow I'll announce a deal with another twitterer.
"I regret to inform that Speedy has moved on... He had a run in with a parasitic worm and wasn't strong enough to win that battle.”
- by email from Speedy's owner Sean
So Speedy is no longer with us.
I never owned or even met Speedy the llama, but he was still a big part of this story, gave us a lot of fun, and the papers loved him too (see here, here, here and here) ...
I mailed off the Lotus painting today, to the Trade 21 (probably) recipient, who is somewhere in the state of Connecticut in the United States of America.
From the beginning, the intention was to do every trade in person, and for the first thirteen trades that's exactly how it went...
Then for Trade 14 I made an exception, because Jody's enthusiasm to be part of this, with the offer of a unique experience and her desire for the replica 1870 police whistle, was clear to me. And besides, I figured we would eventually meet and take a photo after the event, which did happen in Amsterdam.
And then, some months later, I agreed to trade on that said unique experience to a friend of Jody's with the chat room nickname Izzyrider, who wished to remain anonymous and lives in Portugal. Again, the enthusiasm for the trade really won the day, but the difference here was I knew I might never actually meet the trade recipient...
So we were in new territory - long distance trading territory, if you like.
The next trade will also almost certainly be long distance - I have agreed to send the Lotus painting in the post, in exchange for another unique experience. More on that in a few days I hope.
And there are several other long distance trades I think have a good chance to materialise in the near future...
Sure the trading in person aspect is important because this whole thing is about the traders - trading nothing would be literally nothing without the traders, after all! - but I've come to accept there are people too far away for me to feasibly trade with in person, who have so much enthusiasm to be part of this that I want to try to work out trades with them.
So the upshot is, I now regard long distance trades as perfectly acceptable and I think we'll be doing more of them.
In April last year Lancashire Evening Post journalist Melanie Wallwork asked me over the phone how many trades I thought it would take to trade up from nothing to my target luxury car.
Well I hadn't really entertained that question before, so I blurted out a random number: "oh, about twenty I think!"
Did I then trade up to a Rolls Royce or a Bentley car after twenty trades?
You bet I did!
I became the proud owner of a brand new custom-made gold Rolls Royce car in Trade 20. And unusually, this particular Rolls was built in Ireland.
The various stages of construction were recorded by its builder, so there may be enough clues here for anyone to have a go at building their own Rolls Royce.
Here are the simple steps (I could include detailed commentary, but you know...)...
Oh, and did I mention promising Irish rock group U2 are onboard this baby?...
Back in August I checked out Cara Turner's website, and I was sure this was someone I would like to trade with. So I sent an invitation-to-trade-with-me type of email off to Cara... and the response was positive! She wanted to take part, it was just a matter of when she could find the time.
Then, exactly eight months ago today actually, I put this to Cara:
How about a challenge: could you make a Rolls Royce car? maybe with the rock band U2 in it? Just an idea.
Cara agreed to have a go, but warned me that caricatures are a different area of work, not normally her thing, so she might end up putting fairies in the car if it didn't work out!
I decided I could live with that huge risk. And actually I thought a Rolls with fairies could still be interesting, certainly unusual...
One last detail Cara requested was an idea of what the car should look like. I trawled the web and thought circa 1960 Rolls Royces looked very rock & roll - Elvis and John Lennon owned models from around this period - and of course it just had to be an open top!
As for the colour I suggested gold or silver (I mentioned too there is a U2 song Silver and Gold), or just use artistic license.
Oh, here is U2 performing Silver & Gold (after Freedom For My People), why not!...
Then it was just a matter of time - Cara would put the U2 Rolls together when she found a big enough window to work with. She could have pushed it through late last year, but we both agreed it was better to wait a while...
Roll on six months or so, and Cara finally found the time she wanted.
Right up until first seeing it the day we did the trade, I had no idea how the U2 Rock & Rolls would turn out. I didn't even know the colour, and was imagining all four band members looking cool but just sat in their seats...
On trade day - Monday March 24th, 2008 - Cara very kindly agreed to meet half way (she has an open-to-the-public workshop to take care of, you know, and if you're ever doing the Ring of Kerry, it'll be on your route!), in the town of Bandon, which just so happens to be in the neighbourhood of Trade 10 Mairi. So naturally I invited along Mairi and her daughter, who just so happens to have become good friends with my daughter.
We all met up around 11am, near the anchor, and pretty soon I first saw the U2 Rock & Rolls. Sooooo cool and ooooozing Rock & Roll! And gold! And silver! I thought Cara had really nailed it, and so I was one delighted customer - if you could call me that! (I mean, I was sort of giving her nothing for it...)
And from Cara I would be getting the U2 Rock & Rolls, plus she had mentioned some "little lads" she wanted to include... but with being so pre-occupied in packing the Rolls safely for the trip, Cara forgot to bring them along!
So with everything perfectly in place, we did the trade...
Thank you Cara for creating this super cool addition to my items up for a trade, and thanks also for the photos recording its construction!
And thanks also for these super smiley "Little People" which arrived this week...
Soon after the trade, Cara headed back to look after her workshop, and the rest of us headed over to Mairi's pad.
Mairi treated me to a brew and some excellent ham and cheese sandwiches. And we caught up, as you do.
Imagine our surprise when under our noses this monster big spider called Stan crawled over to check out the latest trading nothing item...
So I did it! I traded up from nothing to a Rolls Royce or a Bentley in twenty trades!!
"What now Andrew, now that you have acheived your goal?" I can almost hear you ask.
I need a new target.
Hmm.
Well OK, my new target to trade up to is...
An actual Rolls Royce or Bentley car.
Time for an obscure fact: I went to the same school as two of U2 (St Andrews in Malahide) - can you guess which two? Of course I am much younger than them, they had already left when I arrived, or I think they had...
I think I'm nearly up to date now with the site updates! Just gotta do the Trade 20 report now, and Trade 21 is coming very soon... note there is a new addition up for a trade (T20_2 Little People)
Trade 14 Jody's timing was impeccable - just as Chris Pirillo decided to swing over unannounced to show CNN viewers her livestream live, Jody was walking off!
Ya can't beat live TV, eh!
So here's the whole segment (Jody's there 2 minutes in)...
Oo, and I really must report on Trade 20 over the weekend... latest from Ireland is a package has arrived from Cara Turner for me, which contains something extra Cara wanted to include in Trade 20 - I'll let you know what when I find out myself!
I just agreed to do a trade tonight, which will be Trade 21 I imagine. It will be an experience type of trade, and without giving too much away, anyone who was interested in Trade 14 - and there were quite a few - should be interested in this one too.
Needless to say... I'm excited!
Oh, I'd really better start on the Trade 20 updates now...
Was in Amsterdam at the weekend meeting some friends and ended up
in Peppino's. Came back yesterday and was looking for some reviews
and somehow found your website, thought you might like to see the
attached !
Cheers
Mark"
And here is "the attached"...
Thanks Mark!
Oh, and my rusty old Honda Civic is now scrap. I replaced it with an old Volvo 440, which seems to be in incredibly good shape I must say, considering I got it for 250 quids.
From a dealer.
I know, must be a catch... well the MOT (roadworthiness test) is due in a few weeks, so I guess we'll find out soon enough!
