As it is Sunday and technically a day off I don’t feel like writing much but knowing me once I start I carry on so let’s see what happens.

To the Cheddar car boot market which is a motley collection of people selling unwanted items, children’s clothes that have been growing out of, old DVDs,  bric a bac items of all descriptions, power tools, pink children’s toys, almost anything you can think of and something that you couldn’t think of.

It must have been about six months since we paid one of our ritual visits, paid our £2 entry fee, and strolled around to see what ever took our fancy.

A stock photo. Normally there are 20-30 people having around waiting for offers.

I noticed that prices have gone up. The amazing butcher that sells meat from the very large converted lorry, was selling various selections of meat for about £100 a go. A lot of people from restaurants go there to stock up for the week. As the day progresses he gets rid of the bits and pieces by offering selections at £20 or even £10.

We used to be able to buy three types of cheese – mix and match – for £5  but now we were offered two larger pieces of cheese for £10. Coffee comes in at the cafe at £3.50 for a latte but can be obtained in a little stall outside for £2.95.

There is an old lady who has been coming for generations who sells her own homemade jam. We try to support her when we can. This time I bought some marmalade and some lemon curd.and a homemade banana cake.

My sole purchase apart from that was some long plastic ties for using the garden. Overall I felt the whole show was a bit tatty or maybe we don’t need to go to this type of show anymore. There is a lot of cheap food, mostly tickle your fancy sweet food, with far too much sugar which I do not feel to be healthy The queues for the big cafe are very long and you have to wait 20 minutes or so to be served and it’s becoming less and less fun as we go on. Everyone should go at least once for the experience. .

To the nearby Garden Centre to find a fountain for our little pond. Most examples are made in China or Germany and they are not cheap, one fairly powerful pond fountain was about £130 and we didn’t feel like spending that amount of money. We had a full price latte and an undercooked cheese scone.

To the Cider Barn where the serving of odd varieties of local cider is at another level. The larger than life host, Jason, was not there as he was preparing himself for a musical event taking place that evening

From then we traveled to Wells and the newly opened Lidl which I can highly recommend. It is clean and all we would expect of a Lidl branch.

Off to Shepton Mallet and the local Dobbies and it was there that disaster struck. I could not find my wallet. I always tuck my wallet carefully into my pocket. After much searching both in the car and on my person, nothing was to be found.

The loss of my wallet

I hate that sinking feeling when you calculate the cost of losing a wallet. You need to call and report the loss, or call your particular Bank via the app or if you think you have been scammed you call 159. Here is what  I would have to do on the loss of my wallet.

Retrace my steps and ask if anyone has had a wallet handed in. In this unlikely event I  would have to stop my cards at the manner described but in addition to that I would have to replace everything that is in the card which in my case was as follows.

1. £120 pounds cash, difficult to prove so that will be a write off
2. Two bank cards which I would have to call and block  as soon as possible
3. I would have to apply for a duplicate driving license
4. I would have to apply for a duplicate 2 for 1 British Rail travel card
5. A replacement for my local Discovery card
6. My Freedom pass for busses etc.
7. The Somerset rural life Museum Annual Pass

However if I had a choice between losing my wallet or losing my phone I think I would choose the former because I have so much information on my mobile phone including all the numbers I need. Replacing this will be a task at a half.  Sometime I must look into how you can copy information from one phone to another or access  the backup which I think is on Google Drive.  There are apps that you can use, for a price.

Is just a question of getting around to it but this event served as a reminder to be more conscientious I’m sure it happens hundreds of times a week so I really must get round to discovering the protocol for lost anything on my phone wallet or glasses not to mention passports.

Anyway we retraced our steps to the Wells Lidl and I asked to speak to the manager and he said nothing had been handed in, but meanwhile Francoise triumphantly walked in to Lidl with the  missing wallet in her hand.

The problem is that the black of my wallet exactly matches the color of the leather in my car and in addition it was placed under something else so black against black is not visible. I had searched the boot and the front of the car three times but I still did not see it.

A real lesson for me to always put my wallet in the same place like I do with my phone and my keys and get into a routine where I can always check on things before I go anywhere.

Next time I will get a coloured wallet probably on my next trip to Bath.