APRIL IN ABJAT SUR BANDIAT

Well we set off nice and early and ready for our April event. I had booked a bed and breakfast with one of our exhibitors but kept it a secret from Melanie. It was driving her mad guessing who it could be.

As we entered into a zone of beautiful countryside with scattered wooded area's Melanie kept asking for clues eventually she guessed it was John and Sue Sidwell. It took her long enough!!.
Sue greeted us at her beautiful home and showed us to our fantastic room with double doors leading to a Romeo and Juliet style balcony.
Wow what a paradise for hard working Angels like us.
We contacted Rose who had helped us so much to publicise the event if she new of a good place to eat.
Well she gave us a huge list and with that we got ready to go out. Just as we were leaving John and Sue invited us for an aperitif and invited us to stay for a Curry on Saturday night. Gosh we were being spoilt.
We went to a cosy little Tavern opposite a chateau owned by what we were told a very strange man. The people who rented the Tavern were Italian and very friendly they couldn't do enough help and the service was excellent. We were both too tired to wait for the Jazz band to start playing so we headed back for a early night.
Saturday morning
We thought we would hand out our leaflets at the local market in Nontron. Of course nothing was that simple. When looking for a parking space the police were there telling us to move over. We wondered what was going on and then within a flash we were in the middle of a protest for saving the local school. We couldn't move people were giving us their protest leaflets through the window and even the Mayor said hello.

Finally when the protest had moved on we found a parking space and began to work. We had a very successful time and then went to the supermarket to put more leaflets on cars. We bought some lunch and returned to our B&B. At 4pm we went to the venue to set up and to put the sign panels up. We finished about 6pm and headed back as we had a curry being cooked for us.
We had a fantastic time and look for to the fair tomorrow.

ABJAT - APRIL EVENT

Well it has been a year that Angel Traders begun and what a year we have both had. It was great to find this sum what small restaurant from the outside but massive on the inside to make our April fair in.

The hall was set up perfectly and Shaun the owner had found a nice red tablecloth for our welcome desk.
We had seen a few new faces which had come to exhibit which was wonderful and many faces  we had seen before.
Shaun had started to make the Bacon Butties nice and early and the morning went so fast with lots of visitors passing through the doors.

It was like a hot summers day. Lots of people ordered beer batter fish and chips and sat on the terrace outside.
We welcomed more than 240 visitors and were totally exhausted.
As a rule we normally stay the night of the fair but on the occasion we decided to drive home straight after the event.
A few people had stayed behind and Shaun and Natasha (Landlord and Landlady) offered us a drink for the road. We really did have a wonderful day and would recommend this great restaurant.
Tired as we were we set off for our three and a half journey home using Melanie Sat Nav. Why o why do we use it!!!.
We started heading down this country lane which I felt was the wrong direction when we see what seemed a herd of cattle in the road. Melanie Say's " don't worry drive past them slowly" I replied are you joking they could charge the car" She said "don't be silly they are cows with their babies". With those words of wisdom  Melanie and I both in bright red shirts one of the so called cows turned just inches from my car with two extra body parts which weren't udders and gave us the GLARE.
Penny dropped they were some bloody bulls mixed in with the mother and babies staring directly at our red shirts. This wasn't the time to become a Matador!!.
My car was swiftly put into reverse for at least half a KM and we got the bloody Sat Nav to take us another way home.

Road trip to Souillac Golf and Country Club

We had booked a beautiful chalet at the Golf and Country Club and started our travels on Thursday. We seemed to be travelling for hours and we arrived at about 6pm totally worn out. We went to the reception to collect our keys when Ludovic the manager said that the club was having a little champagne reception and would we like to go.
Now come on when would an Angel refuse Champagne?. We did look a mess but went and joined in the fun.
We met the staff and the bar man were very good at topping us up and feeding us nibbles. What a great start to the event.
We managed to find our perfectly equipped forest home and decided to have an early night ready for Souillac market on Friday morning.
The Market was full of life and wonderful people taking the leaflets out of our hands. Their wasn't a car insight without a florecent leaflet placed upon it.

After the market we thought we would take a trip to Sarlat. We had never been there before and were excited to see a new part of France.
What a beautiful place and we found a great shoe shop too.
We had a great lunch explored for a bit and headed back to put the road signs up ready for Saturday and also we were expecting a very special person for tea!!.

This time we didn't just bring our slow cooker but also my fat fryer as I Amanda am an expert of making beer batter fish and chips. Amanda Kiff from the Franco British Chamber of Commerce and Industry was our special guest on this night and we had promised her a taster of my famous fish and chips.
A few drinks later and lots of laughter we headed for bed so that we were up and ready for our March event.

SOUILLAC GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB

Waking up bright and Breezy we decided to battle against the horrible weather and headed to the club house and to put our banners and signs up.

All that care and attention we had made to make ourselves look beautiful had now gone to pot. We were soaked to the bone.

The club house looked great and we had added little Easter eggs to each table as it was the week before Easter.
The bar for this event was in the middle of the room and the restaurant had prepared some fantastic food.
Despite the terrible weather we welcomed 220 visitors through the door and again business made.
At the end to each of our events Halo financial sponsor the cheese and wine get together.  All the exhibitors at the end of the fair packed away the tables and joined us for the get together.

Another successful day.

Hot Pot in the hotel room

Well we started our journey on Thursday but decided to call in on our venue booked for next Month in Souillac and take some measurements and to stay the night. We booked a hotel on line for the night.

Believe it or not we don't make heaps of money from the events so we try to save where we can.

Also for the month of March we were going to try and make a Speed dating evening for all of those lonely hearts out there.

After visiting the Golf club we found our hotel and did some shopping. We had taken our hotpot dish and planned to put the slow cooker on all night in the hotel.

We went to see Sandra and Brian who own the Chapeau Melon in Souillac they were very keen to host the speed dating evening so we sat in their lovely restaurant and had a few drinks and chatted about the evening.

We realised when leaving that we didn't have a cork screw to open the bottle of red wine for the hot pot so we asked Brian to open it for us.

We made our way back to the hotel got the meat out of the car together with the veggies and our opened bottled of wine.

The room was so small but did have a table and electric socket close by. We put our meat in together with the wine and then we realised that we didn't have a knife to cut the the Onion, Carrots and Garlic. Mel got the Garlic put it on the floor and stamped on it. " Their you go she said crushed garlic." I said what about the carrots with that she bit off both ends of the carrots through them away and put the centres in whole the onions she peeled the outer layer and put them in whole as well. The hot Pot went on and we went to sleep.

We both woke up at about 6am finding it hard to breath the smell of the slow cooking beef in red wine had dried our throats out. We got up pronto and loaded the car and left the room with a nasty smell in it.

We were only two hours from Toulouse so we headed off at about 8am hoping to Catch the Toulouse market and to see a bit of the city.

Toulouse

Arriving at about 10am we parked in the multi story car park and started explore this exciting city. The fresh fruit and vegetable market was just at the entrance to the car park.

It was a strange atmosphere you see us country girls really are not used the hustle and bustle of a big town or city.

We walked and walked and walked until we couldn't walk any more and handed our leaflets about the fair. We then drove to an area just outside of town where lots of expats reside and grabbed a bit of Quiche from the local supermarket. We put some more leaflets on the cars and went to find our hotel.

This hotel was a little bit special as this weekend was Mel's birthday so it was set out as an apartment and it also had a swimming pool and near the airport so Melanie could watch the aeroplanes land. Sad isn't she!!.

We arrived at the hotel and received a call from Matt from Halo Financial to say that due to air traffic control strikes his plane had been cancelled. We were gutted. We hadn't seen Matt in a while and we were looking forward to sharing our Hot Pot with him!!.

Melanie started to get stomach ache and needed to get to a pharmacy fast. It was the Quiche!!. She asked if I could ask for some medication for her problem with the Pharmacy full I whispered in French " Have you anything for Diarrhea?." The assistant then shouted in the loudest tone "Diarrhea" which I must tell you comes from Greece meaning " flowing through". Melanie died with embarrassment why I don't know as it looked like I had the problem not her!!.

We went to the venue and prepared the hall for tomorrow. We then went back to our hotel had a swim and a bowl of our Hot Pot.

All the fun of the fair in Toulouse

You will all be pleased to hear that Melanie's problem and stopped and we both felt that the show must go on.

The venue was fantastic and so were all of our exhibitors.

As I take a table on the entrance I can welcome people through the door but despite all of the advertising and leaflet dropping people were very few and far between. It didn't make sense.

People did arrive but not as many as we had hoped for and felt very upset for the exhibitors who were all very keen to meet the general public.

The atmosphere was electric and lots of networking was made on the day. We met many interesting people who said they would help us if we were to return to Toulouse next year. The outcome was very positive and one of our exhibitors who had travelled 7 hours to reach us got himself a huge job and was thrilled.

We had invited a professional photographer to the event and he took photo's all day and included Melanie and I in a couple of personal shots. After the event had finished we went back to the hotel to get ready for our birthday night out.

We had a lovely evening with Joy and Luis from LDO Construction and Kirsten from the Connexion and advertiser newspaper.