Growing up, Letters Live and a Black Friday Warning.

Well, the week before last I took one more step toward becoming a proper “adult” parent, when two of my three children moved out and went off to rent a flat together. So, when I say I took a step, that’s speak for I didn’t put obstacles in their way when they said that they were going, tempted though a part of me was, to keep them, I gave them my blessing, magnanimous fellow that I am.

In case you’re not up to speed on my domestic circumstances, Babette, my wife, died just over two years ago and our three children had, either never left home (in the case of one), or had returned home at that point, and they have been living with me ever since. As you can probably imagine, having them around for the last two and a bit years has been marvellous and made the transition into widower-hood a much easier one that it would otherwise have been, had I been left to my own devices. 

So, it left me feeling, and thinking, that I’m actually two thirds of the way towards being a real adult, capable of living by myself, something that I’ve not done since my mid 30’s, before I got married.

However, before you start feeling too sorry for me, luckily, I still have Jeanne living with me..... for the moment.
 

Black Friday
OK, I’m sorry to mention it, but if I didn’t, it would be ridiculous, as every other retailer in the land is, and my team here would string me up, as a part of their role is to sell you something (although the most important part of that of, course, is to discover what you really need).

So yes, it’s that Black Friday time of year again, and in the course of the next week or so you’ll get emails from us (mostly not written by me, in my defence) on Monday (Riedel and Jeray Offers) Wednesday (Le Creuset and Cole & Mason Offers) Friday (Electrical Offers (KitchenAid, Cuisinart, Magimix)) and my usual Saturday morning one.

So if it’s all too much for you, you can, of course, unsubscribe, or just ignore them (but not the Saturday morning one, that’s mandatory) or reply with a derisory and pithy thought or two….along the lines of “I thought you were better than that / more imaginative, than that/ wouldn’t subject me such a  trauma, as that”,  etc. etc.

Well, so now you know, I can be just as mercilessly commercial, as Jeff Bezos.

Le Cresuet Ocean
So I’ll kick it off this morning with what my chums at Le Cresuet have come up with. It’s a slightly unusual offer for BF this year, and that is a broad range of products all in a colour that is outside their normal palette, and normally only exists in mugs.

The colour is called Ocean, and is barely that (a colour), I’ll explain.

It’s a slightly miserable grey, green with a hint of blue….depressing…?  

If you were to imagine a film noir, shot in Sweden’s drabbest of winters, a Kenneth Branagh Wallander-esq sort of depressing mist lying everywhere, then you’ll get the picture.

I shall now attempt to redeem my woeful selling skills by saying that in contrast, this colour is actually one of my favourites. At home, it’s the colour of my mug of choice and its strength is its neutrality.
 

These are the Cast Iron pieces in the range.

So, if you’re not feeling too down as a result of my master class in how not to sell and still in the mood to spend money (I’d be surprised, but to each his own) then we do have some very, very good prices on the range, and here are some examples.

And as a non colour its ability to go with other colours is really quite chameleon like.   

As well as the items here, there are Dinner Plates, Side Plates, Pasta Bowls, Cereal Bowls, Snack Bowls and 350ml Mugs, all avilable with between 27% and 30% Off.

Shop Black Friday Offers

Well until Monday that's all from me. I’ll just finish by saying that on Thursday night this week I trundled up to London, got on the tube to South Ken and then wandered up Exhibition Road, past Imperial College, to the Royal Albert Hall to see “Letters Live”.

This, (Letters Live), was mentioned, in passing to me, by Marion (a customer) when I’d been talking about Rory Stewart, the other day (on the occasion she’d seen it, he had been one of the readers) and when I went to look up the website, I thought "this sounds rather good".

Described as a series of live events celebrating the enduring power of literary correspondence, may not be the sexiest of titles. However, I only needed to watch archive footage of Benedict Cumberbatch reading out an apology letter to a hotel, by a guest who inadvertently encouraged a flock of seagulls to trash his room 18 years before, to be convinced of its merit.

I don’t know when the next event is on, but if you see it advertised, I’d say it will almost certainly be an entertaining and thought provoking experience.

Well worth the investment of time and money.

I hope you have a pleasant and peaceful weekend.

Kind regards

Andrew

Andrew Bluett-Duncan

Director