Thursday 25th February 2016

I craved Hastings and dashed down for one night last week. I was going to put up at the Old Glass Walking Stick but Angus Willis, doyenne and master of Hastings, kindly offered to overnight me in one of his properties. He’d been at an auction. We spent the evening looking at lots on-line to see what they’d gone for. The Victorian stuffed birds in glass domes Angus failed to get but there was plenty of good furniture ex-American Embassy in London going for nothing. Do buy brown furniture now. It’s even been so cheap. Angus outbid the furious competition for two military chests; he also gained some old-fashioned weighing scales and a two pairs of riding boots. Otherwise we looked at Clarice Cliff and Susie Cooper on the computer. The Gay Mother had a dread that she would be given a Susie Cooper tea set as a wedding present. And she was. I used to play with it in the garden until it all got broken. But now Susie is huge and Clarice even huger. Angus has been collecting for years and knows all the patterns and how rare. Prices have rocketed in some cases and Angus’s investments have paid off. How happy we were looking at wares for sale on-line even though Clarice and Susie .. well, let’s put it this way, I can see the point but I’m not going to buy. It’s just that buying, as an activity, if only in the abstract, has such a buoyant upward lift. The next day I was so frothy I impulse bought the Wedgewood black basalt ware tea service Angus had in his Home Store. I really must improve my home. There’s so much to be done. I want to switch the light switches and sockets to vintage and I’ve grown ashamed of my white goods on display in the kitchen.

Next morning Genevieve Suzy was having a celebrity breakfast at 10.30 a.m. in her house. Cohorts of well-known people and their dogs had rallied to support her and her up-do in her role as Head of Dainty Lady TV. Her daughter, aged 7, pulled on Prada bootees given by someone huge at the Mail. Even Genevieve’s sausages were from rare pigs owned by a former pop star – I can’t remember which one. I don’t think it was George Michael.

After that I had to return to the Capital. No time for the antique shops of Rye.

Angus Willis Home Store: Ex-Officers’ Mess Silver Plate for Sale. Award-winning Display in one of England’s Greatest Shops

Angus Willis Home Store: Prep School Boy Mannekins

Here’s a Story: I bought this in the Co-op for £1.99. I’ve Never Bought a DVD Before. But I Couldn’t Resist New Diana Material of Any Kind. Only When I got it Home I Realised it is the Fictitious Film Account I saw in the Cinema when it Came Out