The Clatter Of Bottles

Anyone over a certain age will remember the milkman. That early morning delivery of fresh milk, just in time for breakfast and the first cuppa of the day.

And of course milko was environmentally friendly, with their electric floats and recycling the glass bottles; the empties. Seeing this old toy milk float in a local junk shop brought back the memories of hearing the whirl of the motor, and the clanking of the milk bottles.

But sadly those days are done, as everyone seems to get their milk from the supermarket nowadays, in either plastic bottles or cardboard packs. Not so green. And also the farmers that supply the milk are not getting such a good deal as they used to. In fact I read somewhere that they actually lose money on each tanker full they supply.

So I wasn't surprised to see on the news a load of Somerset farmers protesting about this in an unusual way. Firstly they led a cow into a supermarket and then they bought every carton of milk in the store and went on to hand it out to people in the street once they had paid for it all. It was quite amusing to see them all load up their trollies. It's a serious matter of course, and there is a public campaign underway to get farmers a better deal, by just raising the price of a pint of milk by a couple of pennies.

Baby You Can Drive My Car

You never know what you may come across in a junk shop.

Looking in the window of my local one, I saw this old and rather battered model car. Clearly a Mercedes from the logo on the front, but have no idea of what model number it is.

It is probably made by Dinky Toys during the late 1950s. The shop was closed, so I couldn't pop in and see it, and dare to ask how much they wanted for it.

Allo, Allo

I popped into out local junk shop yesterday. Well, when I popped in, I meant that I had a rummage through the boxes that the owner had placed outside his shop.

Looking through a box of old telephones, I came across this French Bakelite model, which is dated 14 May 1954. So presumably that would be the date of manufacture. It looked in quite good condition and has this extra earpiece, so that someone can listen in without being heard.

I decided to buy it, as I thought it would make a good prop for a possible photoshoot. I can imagine the scene of two men, obviously spies, sitting and listening to some coded message from their leader.

I wonder where the phone came from. Translating some of the words, it may have been a hotel, as there is 'information', 'fire', 'police' and possibly 'disturbances'.