Fourteenth day at the Ideal Home

Day 14 Thursday is the long one, which is not great because I’m already yawning at about 11.00. However, the footfall is good and the time passes quickly.

I just got a message from the organisers that due to expected heavy demand they want us to open at 9.30 Saturday and Sunday due to expected heavy demand, so we lose another half hour's sleep. This we receive at the end of an 11 hour day - and to add insult to injury they remind us that the clocks go forwards on Saturday night, losing us another hour's sleep!

Today has been much more positive than the past two days. It seems that people are actively interested as opposed to idly browsing as they have been for the earlier part of the week: a totally different attitude which has kept me much busier explaining the benefits of the dryline, and how to measure it. However, by 7.00 it is getting quiet and I haven’t spoken to anyone for about half an hour. The last two hours will drag.

Still, despite the lack of sleep Jane's looking after me really well so I've no cause to complain. She said there would be roast chicken and roast vegetables to eat tonight, after which I'll go straight to sleep. 

The Thirteenth Day

Day 13 Wednesday dawned and I felt quite rested when I woke. The day was chill but bright as I walked to the tube and I got a couple of phone calls while walking, which cheered me up. I mused on the tube. In the carriage there are so many personal worlds: books, magazines, newspapers, kindle e-books, smart phones, i-pads (watching Star Trek!), headphones listening to music, podcasts, downloads. Probably no two people doing the same thing, all to separate themselves from their cramped companions, and to drown the whine of the motors and the scream of the wheels; a Velvet Underground.

The show started slowly but by midday was quite busy. We are open today until 7.00 to welcome Prince Charles. I hope he passes me by as I can ask if he has used the airer and Dryline that I sent him for Kate and William’s boy. Sean came again to discuss some more points of business and left at about 3.00 to catch the plane back to Dublin. I left him to do some selling but I don’t think he was really very comfortable doing it; it makes me think perhaps he’s not the man for the job.

Prince Charles actually did arrive after 6 and was still talking to various people when I left at 7.00, but he never toured our area and the throng was cordoned off in front of his show houses, made from traditional green ecological materials to higher than Regulation standards. He was also front page news today about the housing shortage in the country, and London in particular, talking about the same housing stock – but there was no mention of the Ideal Home Show. The PR department must have been asleep on the job.

Day 11 at the Ideal Home Show

Day 11, Monday started very bright and sunny; a pleasure to walk to the tube. However, I feel that my batteries are getting low, and my resistance is getting lower, while the voltage is increasing and my capacitance is decreasing. I started without having any backup except my wife at weekends, wondering how I would cope with such an extended Show. I had arranged for other help if I needed it, but so far it hasn’t been necessary. This morning I find myself wondering if I will last out the course. After the hurly burly of the weekend when thousands of people attended, today seems very quiet, and the lack of response makes me feel dispirited. However, each time someone complements me on the product it lifts my spirits again.

It is weird to have so many people pass by you in a day. You start to realize the uniqueness of every individual; the very word individual – something that can’t be divided – underlines the point. Hundreds of thousands of people have passed by, but each person has been unique and special. Sullee, one of the Romford lads, keeps nipping out to have a cigarette and I end up taking the cash for him. The things sell themselves, even though they’re not all that useful unless you’re always drinking from a can. Maybe I should give up my invention and sell something cheap and novel too. Like a chocolate teapot…

Second weekend at the Ideal Home Show

Days 9 and 10 melded into one long stint during which we stood in turns to bark out our offer. We gave out a lot of leaflets, so now we have to hope that the interest turns into sales. On Saturday evening we went to see our daughter who lives in Islington, and who is not well at present. She is nearly recovered, and we went to get a takeaway Turkish meal from a lovely café called Gallipoli on Upper Street. It was delicious after a long hard day, but after a walk to the tube and from the tube at the other end our feet were killing us, as if on fire, and we fell asleep in minutes. Sunday was much the same, and after 6 we ate in Wagamama; again delicious, before Fran got the train back home and I got the tube to Jane’s. We had hoped to meet Nigel, an old friend who we all love, but he had a stomach bug and so couldn’t invite us to his boat. In retrospect, it probably would have been too much for us to do. I got back to Jane’s to find her children Charlie and Josh having a shouting match so I retired to my room, read for a while and fell fast asleep.

Day 8 at the Ideal HomeShow

Day 8, Friday. After the rain last night it was a bright clean sunny day as I walked to the tube this morning, and when the train arrived the carriages were unexpectedly vacant, with seats available in most carriages so I was able to listen to Leonard Cohen comfortably seated all the way to Earls Court. The Show also started gently, with little footfall before 10.30; quite different to previous days, giving almost a holiday feel to the day. Perhaps a lot of people take a long weekend and so lighten the load on public transport.

After a few hours it became apparent that I shouldn’t have had the second glass of wine last night, and I was not on top form. I’ll have to sleep well tonight to meet the weekend onslaught. Bad weather is forecast so there’s no disincentive to attend, as there was last weekend with the lovely hot weather. By the time the end came and I had to go to Paddington station to meet my wife, who was coming to help me each weekend, I was feeling totally exhausted. I had to wait half an hour for her delayed train so I headed straight to the pub on the platform for a reviving pint. Then an early night was in order.

Ideal Home Show day 7

Day 7  Thursday. I woke up feeling really tired this morning although I had slept well. After an hour or so I was ready to get the tube to Earls Court, listening to Exile on Main Street by the Stones in a crowded carriage for nearly an hour. It seemed appropriate somehow. It was certainly enlivening, and I felt I would need to be lively. Thursday is the late night day at the Show so I’ll be at work until 9.00 tonight. It was a busier day as well, although a rep for the organizers told me that they had already had over 120,000 people through the doors since the start. So many people have told me "it’s a great idea" that it’s easy to let the impetus to sell go away, and rest on my laurels. But in a way I like the challenge of a long day and a busy crowd.

One chap came up to me and said “Go on, give me the spiel; explain what’s special about it.” So of course I did. Then he commented on the knickers we hang on the line to attract attention and said that if he was Jimmy Saville he would be laughing in his grave. “What it would be like to have lived such a bad life, then die before people discovered what a bastard you were.” He went on at some length, glad to find someone who would listen to him, I guess. “Imagine if I was the Sutcliffe, the Moors murderer but I never got found out.” After five to ten minutes I really wanted him to go away. Eventually he did; vanished while I talked to someone who was actually interested in the Dryline and not their own opinions.

Another guy, older and greying, said he was getting more rebellious in his old age – we had been talking about the tyranny of the computer – and we speculated about gangs of senile delinquents roaming the streets. “We have the power now, and evil only requires good people to stand and do nothing to flourish. Wedgewood-Benn and Bob Crowe; there’s two good men gone. Who’ll stand up for us now?” It got much quieter after 7.00, although the crowd had not diminished after 4.00 as it had previously; a new intake after work must have replaced the daytime crowd. Interestingly, they are not as receptive as earlier in the day. Perhaps they are as tired as I am and a re going through the motions rather than actively looking for new ideas.

Ideal Home Show day 6

Day 6 Wednesday. I find that I am spending all morning handling the office admin on a very slow mobile connection to my laptop, then selling all day and in the evening getting back to the admin again once I have eaten. When I say “selling” it isn’t strictly accurate because I can’t sell something that depends on being a correct fit for the customer’s airer. All I can do is explain the benefits as enthusiastically as possible. Most passers-by don’t see what the product is, or what the benefits are, until I announce them. Having just written that, an Asian man has just walked up to the leaflet stand, selected a leaflet and asked me if it had a solar effect so I could easily explain to him. If only it was always so simple.