All in the name of charity

Last week I spotted a stall in aid of Parkinson's disease. I always take a closer look with these type of stalls as it combines a love of car booting with a donation to charity and so is a double win in my mind.

Two nice ladies were manning the stall and it was well organised with lots of interesting stuff. Nothing was priced up so I had a little look through the boxes on the floor and found a bit of stationery and some white labels. There were decorated pads of paper and some Basildon Bond amongst the stationery, a red letter folder with some postcards in and an old box with a draw below with more Basildon within.

I asked for a price and they asked for £2. Which was a bargain as there was a lot of stationery there. It was all perfect for my comping (entering competitions) hobby so I gave them a fiver and told them to keep the change.

When I got home and went through it properly there was a swimming certificate in the red letter folder amongst a couple of letters from 1980!

The Basildon Bond paper is beautiful quality, some white, some cream and some a light shade of green called 'Azure'. There's a lot there to get through!

I know not everyone gets so excited about stationery but I love it so when I find postcards and envelopes, cards and papers at the car boot I get palpitations and have to steady myself to get that essential nonchalent facial expression that says "I don't really want this but if you were selling and I was buying what would you want for it?"

When I bought this little lot the ladies said between themselves "We wondered who would buy these, they are useful but no one seems to write proper letters any more." So I told them what I'd be doing with it which led to the usual conversation about 'What's the best thing you have ever won?' It's hard to answer that question as I've been comping for 16 years now and have won some wonderful things.

Edited highlights:

• trip to Rome
• Year's supply of lager
• Year's supply of condoms
• Silentnight king size bed
• £750 cash prize
• DVD player
• My husband's suit hire at our wedding
• Various hampers from Christmas to Vegetables
• Games console
• Posh cutlery set
• Weekend(s) away
• Celebrity meet and greet - Dan Fairbrass (he used to be on Eastenders)
• Two pairs of Jeans
• £200 to spend in La Redoute catalogue

... and many many more weird and wonderful prizes! I keep trying but the last few months have been a bit quiet.

So to round off this post, thank you to all those people out there who raise money for charity. Getting up at the crack of dawn is never fun so to do it for someone else and remaining cheerful and chatty- you know who you are and you deserve a big pat on the back whoever the fundraising is for.