Wandering mind. 

Last week i was looking forward to go on Saturday to the Swap meet on Mc. Leans island to look around for some treasures. On that morning i opened the curtains in my bedroom and looked outside and thought oh no not rain again. Rain rain where is the sun. Went out of bed, made us a lovely cup of coffee ( the real instant coffee), looked outside again and crawled straight back into the warm bed. Shall i go or shall i not go, shall i go or shall i not go, i decided not to go at nine o"clock in the morning, one minute later i was sitting in my old ute and was driving to the Swap meet in the rain.

Well equipped with rain jacket, woollen hat and umbrella ready to stroll around the stalls. People were looking at me, and i thought why, why, after half an hour i finally figured it out why, it was my dress code that was completely wrong. In the first place i didn't had a beard, no oilskin jacket and no lumberjack shirt. So next year i will be much better prepared and dress up for this special occasion

Nothing really catched my eye, finally i found a stall with old glass bottles. I collect wine bottles in all different sizes, colours, i have lots of them, i buy a full bottle of wine, drink it and have a free wine bottle for my collection. There were three wine bottles in a size what i didn't had yet, for this occasion i splashed out a few dollar, paid for it, and the lady said than she was very happy that she finally got rid of that ugly wine bottle. Ummm. I thought no one has such an ugly wine bottle only me, and was very happy with that ugly wine bottle.

I continued around the stalls and nothing else interesting there till i was nearly on my way home when i saw a stall with old car wheels and whatever and between these car wheels there was that massive cast iron bracket, a few hundred kg heavy, kind of triangle shape, with a beautiful leafy motif. I love that very old industrial look. I thought i do not mind that one, very impressive. The man from the stall told me it was from an old railway station downsouth around Invergargill. Asked for the price, he said to do an offer, than you think what is an fair offer, my mind was crunching, $100 maybe $200. I didn't do an offer, you tell me what is a fair price i asked, finally he gave me the price. My first reaction was, What, (yes, i am Dutch). That wakes you up,he said and my dream was over. Think about he said, and i have 10 of them and than i started to dream again. What can you do with 10 of them?. In my mind i started to design a modern house with a big veranda with all these old cast iron brackets as the roof support. In the mean time i look outside again and realise it is still raining . My mind was wandering of again and i looked at the beautiful antique furniture in the barn, and started to decorate my dreamhouse. After all,the rainy day turned out to be a very joyable day. 

Robbert van den Broeke, Halkett barn, Antiques and collectables