A Family Book Selling Affair

It was my last book selling event of the season today (unless I get anymore bookings) and this time Mr. Lacer and the kids came with me. Unfortunately for all concerned we’d envisioned the event I was selling at to be a bit bigger than it actually turned out to be, so I sold less books than I hoped and it was difficult to find stuff to keep the kids entertained for four hours, although Boy Lacer was a good boy and happy to sit on the grass and watch everyone or just lay in the sun. Girl Lacer got lots of free gos on the bouncy castle whilst I was setting up and ate lots of cakes. Both kids also got a book from my remaining stock pile as a thank you, although Girl Lacer said she charged £2, she also got one of my puppets as it’d been in my stock box for a while and was beginning to look a little ropey. Mr. Lacer joked that I should have perhaps have given Boy Lacer his book at the beginning of the event, as that would have encouraged people, as he sat on the grass in front of the stall enthusiastically turning the pages and pointing at all the vehicles (it was a vehicle book) and making their noises. As a bibliophile though, it is always a bit depressing when I go to events like that and realise that not everyone is like me and some people can happily pass up a book and go and buy something else instead. The books I sell, in the majority, are lovely (and no I’m not biased), I wouldn’t be selling them (at an overall loss most of the time) if I didn’t think they were, so I’m pretty sure it’s not the books themselves except maybe for their lack of Noddy, Barbie et al. Although of course the credit crunch is not helping, even as a family of self-confessed biblioholics (well . . .  me and the kids are, Mr. Lacer just reads Terry Pratchett and Chris Moyles, although I’m trying to get him onto Neil Gaiman), I can’t remember the last time I actually brought the kids books after the need for greater budgetary constraint.

So, back home now and shattered. Unfortunately with book selling all day, even the minimal household chores that even I do everyday (laundry, dishwasher) have not been done and the kitchen is a disaster zone and I need to make a birthday cake tonight. Ok, I don’t need to, it’s for Mr. Lacer and he can survive without birthday cake but Girl Lacer would definitely be questioning where it was and it doesn’t seem right not having a birthday cake. But honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact of Boy Lacer’s cows milk intolerance I’d have been down the corner shop buying a ready made corner shop cake. So, as it is I have to conjure a cake out of what I’ve got in my kitchen. Mr. Lacer has quite tentatively said he’d like sponge (as I never make sponge) but I don’t think I could pull it off as I don’t have the right tins and probably not enough eggs. So then I thought about blueberry muffins but then I realised I didn’t have any goats or plain soya yogurt, so then I thought about my default birthday cake, a buttermilk one and then realised I needed goats or soya yoghurt for that to. So who knows what it’ll be . . .