Rolling Rolling Rolling...
So we did Trade 20 yesterday.
No, I didn't get a Bentley, which is too bad.
But yes, I did get a Rolls, which is not too bad!!!!!!!
More soon!
Oh and my rusty old Honda Civic is in for repairs right now - never mind!
Posted by Andrew @ 11:21pm
How Much Suspense Can You Handle?
Way back in April I told a newspaper reporter I thought I could trade up to my target Rolls Royce or Bentley car in about twenty trades.
Well, the next trade will be Trade 20, and it's looking good to happen this Monday...
But will Trade 20 be the trade?
What are the chances?
Find out soon right here! Or up the page a bit more likely.
Posted by Andrew @ 9:21pm
Teddy Bears Going Nowhere
Teddy Bears On Tour didn't get going as I had hoped, which I for one am more than a little disappointed about. So I need to find another accomplice...
Never the less, could be several trades happening soon, so...
Oh! and I even stopped by at Aardman Animation (Wallace and Gromit etc.) yesterday, hoping they would be interested in a swap. A long shot for sure, but don't ask don't get, still waiting for the call...
Posted by Andrew @ 10:43pm
What, No Fava Beans?! (Trade 19)
Just a few photographs in this post.
Jody flew all the way over from Arizona to Amsterdam, which she figured was both a cool place and local enough for me to get to, just so we could take a photo to make Trade 14 official.
Hard to believe, I know.
She even allowed herself six days of hard shopping and other stuff with her good friend and travelling companion Niki, before we met to take the pic, just to make sure she got over the jet lag so she would be at her best.
I got up last Thursday at 4am, somehow, and set off to Liverpool John Lennon Airport. The nice check-in lady just had to ask me about the orange gorilla on my back - that's right I brought Gordon the Orange Gorilla along with me!
I'd had grand visions of me trading him for a pair of dutch clogs, or a windmill or some Edam cheese or something, and I thought, well even if I don't trade him, he won't do any harm!
Or I hoped he wouldn't - you never can tell with excitable primates.
But I didn't expect all the attention Gordon drew - lot's of smiles and confused looks - and I didn't even make it as far as the plane before someone asked to take a photo with the pair of us.
On arriving at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, where I think the pilot got lost in the fog because it seemed like 20 minutes to taxi in, I made my way to the rendez-vous point in the city centre. And on the way I was thinking Gordon would probably feel right at home in Holland, being liberal-minded and orange and all.
We all found eachother, somehow, and said our hellos, and before you could say "Vincent van Gogh couldn't wear glasses, correct me if I'm wrong" Gordon became very attached to Jody...
We all headed off on a Canal Bus. Niki and Jody's new friend Duncan came along too...
Jody looked fresh and ready for the Trade 14 photoshoot after six days of hard shopping and other stuff...
Much of the day was spent trying to reach a consensus on how we would spend the rest of the day...
Finding Nemo in Amsterdam turned out to be a sinch, much to everybody's relief...
Jody and Niki checked out some of Amsterdam's more reasonably priced accommodation...
At some point in the day everybody got hungry, and, quite incredibly, we made a unanimous decision without any arguing - we would all go and eat somewhere!
So we sauntered around...
(Photo by Duncan Aitken!)
...scanning the old streets until we eventually settled on an Italian restaurant called Peppino...
Tony, the head waiter, asked if we would like to hang our coats up, and I asked Tony if I could hang Gordon up...
Note the Edwin van der Sar Ajax goalkeeper shirt on the wall, which I offered to trade Gordon for - but the waiters turned me down.
Ah well, can't win 'em all!
We all enjoyed our superb pasta meals - just the job! - and Jody produced her Richard & Judy Show replica 1870 London Metropolitan Police whistle, which I had sent to her months ago...
My, I hope I'm not overdoing things with too many photos here, and I'm nowhere near done yet... hang on in there!
Whilst eating I told the waiters about this here crazy trading up adventure, and invited them to trade me something for Gordon. And credit where credit's due - Jody chipped in, expertly adding important details such as "been on TV" and "in lots of newspapers".
Well, all the waiters were mad keen on Gordon - they wanted him to become a permanent fixture in the restaurant! They sat down at a table and conducted quite a lengthly conference in Italian, to figure out what the Peppino Restaurant could offer me.
Tony then approached me with the offer of...
A bottle of fine 2006 Chianti!
I quickly leaned toward wanting this trade to happen, because clearly Gordon would have a fantastic home in this restaurant, and, as Jody pointed out, there was the potential for a lot of fun - customers could have themselves photographed with Gordon and I could post some of these in tradingnothing.com if they wanted!
But there was still room for a deal sweetener. Jody, who had quickly earned my respect as an skillful haggler in addition to being a fine singer-songwriter recording artist and a full-time lifecaster and even an interviewer, wanted me to negotiate a round of shots into the deal.
So I put it to the Tony: Gordon the Orange Gorilla in exchange for one bottle of 2006 Chianti plus a round of shots.
And we had a deal!...
(Photo by Jody Gnant!)
That's Tony holding the deal sweetener, and Fabris shaking my hand.
We all gathered for a group photo, to commemorate the unusual special occasion.
I mean come on, how many times has an orange gorilla been traded for a fine bottle of Chianti and a deal sweetener in a fine Italian restaurant in Amsterdam?
Not many times, wouldn't you think?...
That was a trade I don't think could have not happened once Gordon started hanging out inside the restaurant. (Feel free to read that line again if you need to! Actually I'm not sure it makes sense now.)
Now I really think we should hold a caption competition for this one...
(Photo by Duncan Aitken!)
"I hope you like Italian food Gordon"...
(Photo by Duncan Aitken!)
Our day wasn't done yet, we still had the Trade 14 photo to attend to, and some time later we did just that.
Jody wanted to hand me a piece of paper in exchange for the whistle, and, being Jody, she made it special for Izzyrider, extra special, going to great lengths to think out and write a special message, and using fire to "age" the paper before rolling it up into a scroll...
(Photo by Duncan Aitken!)
And then, beside a canal in Amsterdam, outside the Bulldog Coffeeshop, we finally got round to taking the, or rather some photos to finally make Trade 14 official!...
And even though I now had the uniform, which I can thank Jody for come to think of it, I couldn't for the life of me persuade Jody to part with her fine police whistle to help me carry out my important work...
I said "Fine, keep it, but you know if you are not fully trained up on police whistles you could easily get your fingers in a serious tangle in no time."
And sure enough...
All in all, a fantastic day out to Amsterdam!
I got to finally meet Trade 14 Jody Gnant in person and hang out with her and her two cool companions for the day - as good as it gets, as the snake might say.
And I even got to do Trade 19, my first truly spontaneous trade!
Special Thanks to Trade 16 Jim for including Gordon in the deal and in so doing giving us so much fun!
Finally, if you are in or are ever planning to visit Amsterdam, don't forget to eat at Peppino's - if only for the excellent food and service - and have a photo taken with Gordon, which you can send to me to be posted in Gordon's page if you want!
So now we have a bottle of Chianti added to the mix, and it is not accompanied by fava beans. If you want to offer me something "bigger/better" for this and/or any other item I have up for a trade, please go ahead! (give me a shout or fill the form)
ALL offers welcome...
Posted by Andrew @ 12:36am
To see how I got Gordon the Orange Gorilla, click here
Gordon In Peppino's Since The Trade...
"Hi,
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"...
Izzy Does It! (Trade 18)
"Ever since you put Jody's songwriting trade up I wanted to do this
trade: Jody is a friend, and someone that has a clear vision of music
and the music industry, and where the future is. And since this trade
was open to *anyone*, I thought 'why not?'. But it took me 4 months to
find a way into this trade. And what better way than allowing other
people to find their own way this way. I already had a GPS, but
someone gave me another as a present. Jody has a song that I was
listening to at the time I was to open the package
(http://www.jodygnant.com/music-12.html) and at some point, the lyrics
go "I know I will find my way". It was at that time that I knew the
connection was made and the GPS was THE way. The person that gave me
the item was more than happy of this outcome too. It's a valuable item
to trade, and something that can be used all over Europe, and you can
download more stuff from TomTom's site if needed. It's a good thing to
trade to anyone that got lost one too many
times. I hope the GPS also helps you find your way into that car
somehow, Andrew.
By the way, do Bentleys come with it included? :) "
- provided by Izzyrider
And there's more...
"A song is something with no expiry date, it's unbreakable, can be "used" anywhere, and any number of times, and most of all, can touch a whole lot of people if it's any good. So, this next trade had to have some sort of meaning behind it."
- provided by Izzyrider
Izzyrider - pronounced Easy Rider - is the nickname of a regular in Jody Gnant's livestream chatroom. He is in Portugal and...
... and that really is about all I know about him!
Because Izzyrider wishes to remain anomynous.
That's right, I traded away The Chance To Collaborate With Singer-Songwriter Jody Gnant with an anomynous person!
But agreeing to make this trade with Izzyrider was izzy for me, it really was. Because pretty well as soon as I put it up for a trade, Izzyrider came through loud and clear as someone who would love to have the said opportunity.
And I had the feeling trading the chance to Izzyrider would likely go down rather well with Jody too. The moment Izzyrider broke the news to her would be quite a special moment, I imagined.
Thankfully, Izzyrider respected my request, and chose his moment when I was present.
So here is Jody, patiently waiting to find out who she would be "working" with...
And here she is again, soon after getting the scoop...
Yep, agreeing to trade with Izzyrider was the right decision alright, if only just to see Jody jump up and down several times and squeal with excitement when she heard about it!
Two interesting facts about this trade:
Fact 1: Izzyrider made his offer in the evening of February 13th. Not quite on Valentine's Day then, right? Wrong! Because Valentine's Day had already begun in Australia and other far out places, and I figure Izzyrider was just too impatient to wait for it to arrive in Portugal!
Fact 2: The package Izzyrider sent me containing the GPS/satnav was marked "Value: 0.00 EUR" - well I am trading nothing, so this is of course correct!
We don't have a customary photo of Izzyrider and myself making the trade, of course, so this was the best we could do (that's Jody's chatroom on screen)...
The best part of this trade is yet to come, I think - a serious Jody/Izzyrider composition!
Jody said several times that she would make a "hit" out of this, explaining she meant not a chart hit, but a personal piece... I for one am looking forward BIG TIME to seeing what great work comes out of this trade.
And this is the perfect opportunity to thank Izzyrider BIG TIME for also encouraging me to check out and use twitter.com, which was great advice (my page is http://twitter.com/tradingnothing). My first "Twitter trade" happening soon is a real possibility too...
So now we have one brand new still-in-the-box TomTom ONE XL Europe portable GPS navigation system, a.k.a. satnav in some parts (e.g. UK/Ireland) added to the mix. If you want to offer me something "bigger/better" for this and/or any other item I have up for a trade, please go ahead! (give me a shout or fill the form)
I would like to receive one item for this item, to keep the one whistle chain intact, but as always - ALL offers welcome!...
Posted by Andrew @ 9:36pm
To see how I got chance to collaborate with Jody Gnant in a musical composition, click here
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