The International Astronomy Show - an incredible weekend!

Linda and I are giving serious consideration to retiring from full-time dealing next year, so this weekend's IAS might well be our last... We've attended every show since the start and, thanks to our good friends the organisers Graham and Martin, we've had plenty of laughs and put a few bob in the kitty!

This weekend the event was held in a new, more intimate venue and was thoroughly rewarding in every way. To our surprise, the IAS team (having discovered that this week is Linda and my silver wedding anniversary) decorated our pitch with balloons and banners! What's more, they'd had a beautiful cake made for us, which was presented at the traditional buffet at the end of the first day's trading: many, many thanks to everyone for their good wishes!

Since it was a special weekend, Linda and I stayed at a beautiful hotel nearby: the Mill. As the name implies, the hotel is a converted watermill, and the continuing floods had brought the river levels perilously close to the building!

Old friend Paul came down from Derby to visit, and we had a lovely day of 'catch up' with him: he enjoyed the opportunity to hold the UK's largest lunar meteorite (worth a six-figure sum!) courtesy of Graham Ensor, its owner. The vintage car was Sir Patrick Moore's lifelong ride, which was on display in Rother Valley's large trading area...