Thursday August 31, 2006
GuestBook Just Added
And I just hope I installed it all correctly!
Any volunteer out there to add the first entry? Sorry, no prizes on offer, just a "Number One" spot and a "Thank You" from me :o)
The GuestBook should be here. (Hopefully!)
Posted by Andrew @ 12:05am
Friday August 25, 2006
Blog For Redback!!!
I see Sarah has now started her blog for her bottle opener, Redback - why not take a look and surprise her by leaving a comment!
Also, check out the more detailed descriptions of the glass pieces up for a trade
Posted by Andrew @ 11:30am
Thursday August 24, 2006
What's In A Name?
Just caught up with Sarah last evening, which is no mean feat - she's always on the go!
She's starting a blog all about Redback the bottle opener, would you believe? Yes, she has given it a name now - I knew I had a cheek naming it myself! - and she does wants to keep it very much alive. Anyway, it's coming soon, looking like next week - I'll keep you posted here, of course.
And she even gave my green vase a new name too, GreenPiece - Thanks Sarah!
So let's see, I've now traded absolutely nothing for Redback, and then traded Redback for Fishy Fishy and GreenPiece... yes it's all starting to make some sense now! But I must think of a name for absolutely nothing...
I left Fishy Fishy and GreenPiece with Sarah, wrapped up in my beach towel. (The glass pieces that is - not Sarah!). Hopefully she will get a chance to engrave them with a special commemorative message and her signature very soon - she really does not do that very often - so they will soon become even more extra special and dare I say...historic!
OK, maybe not quite as special as the Red Rose Award pieces made by Sarah that cricket legend Andrew Flintoff and football legend Sir Tom Finney have received. But not that far behind...
Posted by Andrew @ 6:14am
Sunday August 20, 2006
A Very Important Bottle Opener (Trade 2)
Speeding along a Lancashire country road (and not exceeding the speed limit of course!), I was thinking about the craziness of this dash to a trade. In the boot of my trusty rusty old car was a bottle opener which, if you saw it in a car boot sale, well it wouldn't exactly strike you as being a "must have!" object (I'm sure previous owner Spiros would concur). But now someone, who I hadn't yet even met, had a strong desire to be the next owner.
It occurred to me that my bottle opener must in fact be very important, and I just laughed at the absurdity of it all as I approached the small northern city of Preston.
Over the preceeding week or so, I had received a variety of good offers for the bottle opener: a table and chairs, executive office shooters (?!!!), mobile phones (lots of them), a stress reliever squidgy thing, badges, a skateboard...
But I hadn't been tempted, I had been content holding out for, hopefully, something, well, "different"...
Then I received an email which put a big smile on my face: "I shall trade you a piece of walmsley cool-liquid glass for your bottle opener", wrote the sender, Sarah Walmsley, who had taken a look at this website. She liked the idea, and was curious to see where her piece would go.
I knew straight away that this was the trade I wanted (and a little research into Sarah's work just re-inforced this belief), and so without hesitation I responded to accept the offer, even though I didn't know exactly what piece I was going receive in exchange for my bottle opener. I just knew a piece - any piece - of Walmsley Cool-Liquid glass would be a desirable item.
That was last Sunday. Fast forward to Tuesday, and our lunch time rendez-vous...
I entered the room we had agreed to meet in, and there was Sarah already sat down with not just one, but six of her pieces on display (I had said to Sarah, "just surprise me" when she asked me what kind of piece I had in mind...). Each one was very individual and very interesting, and choosing one was going to be tough...
"You can take two", Sarah then informed me with a smile, explaining that she knew I wanted to branch out into a tree of trades.
WOW!!!
(I had written in my response to Sarah: "Make it more than one piece if you like - I see you make all sorts of designs - then I can trade them separately and start a tree..." quickly followed by "Don't get me wrong, I'd be delighted with one piece!...").
Needless to say, I was gob-smacked by this generous and thoughtful gesture :o) and eventually settled on the two pieces I would take away.
At this point I remembered the bottle opener was missing from the proceedings, so I produced it and handed it over for inspection to a clearly thrilled Sarah, who then told me she had thought it was brown! (it is in fact quite red)
So we were both now feeling delighted with our about-to-be newly acquired possessions, and we made the trade...
Aww look at the proud new owners!...
We then had time left for a quick drink before heading back to our work places.
To me this was more than just a trade, it was a vote of confidence from a "real deal" young and successful entrepreneur who commands loads of respect - she believes in my new project, and wanted to be part of it!
Sarah explained to me she enjoyed reading the blog entry about my trade for a bottle opener, the way I gave the object some "life" (not surprising, as she draws inspiration from life in her work). And she talked about keeping the bottle opener alive in the future somehow (I'll be very interested to follow that) and maybe starting her own blog - I'll keep you posted here folks on all that.
It does now seem to me appropriate that all the items so far traded should have names.
I thought I'd call the bottle opener Vibo (from very important bottle opener) - a bit cheeky maybe, since it's no longer mine!
And the blue glass piece I will call Fishy Fishy, after the Fishy Fishy Cafe (which I do recommend) in Kinsale (County Cork, Ireland) - a town I visit frequently, and in fact where I am as I write this!
As for the green leaves vase, well, I am still a bit stuck on that one... any ideas anyone? How about Ozfall? Maybe not...
I'm now looking forward to see where we go next.
Posted by Andrew @ 12:42am
To see what I traded the blue glassware piece for, click here
To see what I traded the green glassware piece for, click here
To see the previous trade to get the bottle opener, click here
Friday August 18, 2006
A Very Short Post
OK I just updated the "Up For A Trade" page... and did anyone notice a subtle change to the logo?
Apologies for not having the report on the second trade posted yet, its coming soon I promise!!!
Posted by Andrew @ 12:57am
Saturday August 12, 2006
A Train , A Rocket And A Target
I just went for a walk and had to wait at a barrier for a train to pass. Imagine my surprise when a steam train appeared, pulling I think three carriages full of people. I thought they had all been taken out of service decades ago! I remembered its name - Agecroft No.2 (another pic).
Oh and I added an animation on the right there. Just a bit of fun. I'll keep it there for as long as I have the bottle opener.
And last but not least... I decided I need a target for this thing, and I settled on the modest amount of 100,000 British Pounds! Please see FAQ for more on that.
Posted by Andrew @ 5:52pm
Thursday August 10, 2006
Is It Raining Mobile Phones Somewhere?
That's cell phones in America. And in prisons, which I think Americans also like to call jails. And penitentiaries. Oh, and correction centres. I mean centers I think - am I right? Please don't send me to one of them if I am wrong.
Where was I? Oh yeah...
I must be averaging one offer of a mobile phone a day now. I have had four offers to date, five if you count Spiros's first offer, which I don't count because I think he might have been kidding. Hate to think he was being serious...
No, a mobile phone is not quite what I have in mind. Unless I suppose it's the very-latest must-have 5G phone/camera/mp3 player/satellite tv version, then I might trade my bottle opener for it.
A pointer could be helpful here... I am thinking something(s) likely "different", as in rare/unique/odd/unusual, not something that almost everyone has already. Don't get me wrong, something common but obviously much bigger/better than a well-used bottle opener would do very nicely too of course, and who knows, maybe someone out there would be delighted to be party to such a swap.
It's all relative. Worthless clutter to one person can be priceless treasure to another.
Of course, I much appreciate all the offers made - did I mention a land phone was offered too? - but I will take as long as it takes before I do the next trade.
Please keep the offers coming. I'll consider all of them - yes, even mobile phones - and I hope the next trade happens sooner rather than later.
Posted by Andrew @ 10:34pm
Tuesday August 8, 2006
Greece Is The Word (Trade 1)
Yes you've guessed right, I was in Greece, on the Ionian Island of Zakinthos (also know as Zante, courtesy of the Venetians) where the temperature hit high 30's every day.
But enough about the weather, I have now traded absolutely nothing for something!
That wasn't the plan when I set off over a week ago, I was going on a family holiday to do strictly holiday stuff. But as the week neared its end, I thought it would be a pity if I didn't bring something back from Greece to trade, rather than nothing. It was just a matter of who from and what.
We stayed in the village of Alykes. Apart from the beginning - 6 hour delay, sat in departure lounge all night :o( - and the end - they made us move to another room just for the last day for crying out loud... - the holiday was excellent, spent mostly chilling out by the hotel pool or on the beach by day, and eating and responsibly drinking :oD out by night. The beach was perfect, the hotel just the job (with the added entertainment of a nearby rooster cock-a-doodle-dooing in the middle of the night), and there was so much choice in places to consume food and drink...
Whenever walking to/from the hotel to the village/beach, a regular stop was the Market Levante grocery/souvenir/beach accessory family-run shop. The son, Spiros, spoke very good English. I decided to explain to him my new project, and to ask him if he would like to trade me something for absolutely nothing. His response was instant and positive - he liked what I was doing!
Then, after much consideration as to what he could offer me ("not for sale in the shop" and "worth nothing to you" I volunteered, after he had enquired "you want my mobile phone?!" because his private possessions were almost all in his home, an offer I carelessly declined!), he reached down under the till and presented...
... a bottle opener!
He then explained that the bottle opener was worth nothing to him - Perfect! I thought, because it surely must be worth something to someone somewhere - and that he had used it whilst working "day and night" as a bartender ("a lot of sweat") from 2002 to 2004 at the Dionisis Restaurant in the very-near-by village of Alykanas.
So we did the trade...
Just to clarify: Spiros is the one who looks super cool, and I am the one splattered with sun screen and sweating buckets.
That was on the last day of my holiday, just after we had moved all our stuff to another room. But enough about that, I think I'll get over it...
Anyway, after such a much-appreciated and distinguished service, I felt my bottle opener deserved a little rest and recreation. So I took it along with us to our last visit to the beach, where it hung out on the pier rocks taking in the scenery...
I also wanted to see the bottle opener in action for myself, so later on I ordered a large bottle of beer in the hotel's Blues Bar. I asked Miri the bartender to open the bottle with my opener, but would you believe it he insisted on using his teeth...
Of course that was a hopeless plan, and eventually Miri accepted the inevitable and finished the job with our hero...
and before I could say "how do you pronounce Zakinthos?" Miri had downed the whole of my large bottle of beer...
and so I headed to the airport sober.
Posted by Andrew @ 11:33pm
To see what I traded the bottle opener for, click here
To see where absolutely nothing came from (well, sort of, you know...), click here
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