Work is a little slack with so many colleagues on holiday at the moment, so yesterday I decided to take the day off and go shopping.
It’s been a while since I last visited Henley-on-Thames, so that was my main destination, but as it turned out this was just one of many places that I visited.
![Click to view on Flickr](https://i0.wp.com/blog.hayllamas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2019-08-20_17-54-27_IMG_0182_s.jpg?resize=138%2C446&ssl=1)
![It's At London](https://i0.wp.com/blog.hayllamas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/IMG_20190821_120255__01.jpg?resize=155%2C133&ssl=1)
My outfit for the day would be a cute dress by “It’s At London” that I recently bought from a charity shop, paired with my trusty black boots by DUO which are sadly starting to show their age which is hardly surprising considering how often I wear them.
After getting my makeup on, and getting myself ready, I got in the car, set the satnav for Henley-on-Thames, and set off.
The route took me through Wokingham and I realised I was very close to The Trading Post, so detoured there (the first of several detours for the day).
![Me in a hat](https://i0.wp.com/blog.hayllamas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/IMG_20190820_103043_er.jpg?resize=197%2C263&ssl=1)
There wasn’t anything there that caught my eye, although I couldn’t resist the temptation to try on a hat.
Back on the road, I resumed my journey to Henley-on-Thames, and parked up at a Pay & Display car park with a very reasonable charge of £1 for 2 hours, although finding a space was a bit of a nightmare. It was “dead man’s shoes” but I eventually found someone leaving and was able to get into their space the moment they had vacated it.
![Tudor House Antiques](https://i0.wp.com/blog.hayllamas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/IMG_20190820_120513__01.jpg?resize=233%2C221&ssl=1)
First stop was Tudor House Antiques, which is a shop I have visited before (although I don’t think I blogged about it).
I sneakily set up a small tripod for my camera phone and a small Bluetooth remote shutter release, with limited success.
![Inside Tudor House Antiques](https://i0.wp.com/blog.hayllamas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/IMG_20190820_121841.jpg?resize=225%2C300&ssl=1)
Although the place was crammed with interesting stuff, nothing caught my eye enough to make a purchase.
![In the shed at Tudor House Antiques](https://i0.wp.com/blog.hayllamas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2019-08-20_12-34-49_IMG_e-1.jpg?resize=227%2C300&ssl=1)
Next up were, in short order, The Vintage Look, The Ferret, Chiltern Antiques, and Vintage Vogue.
In one of those was a film prop of a Chinese sword, which I found myself telling the seller about as I have some knowledge of Japanese and Chinese swords, and was explaining the difference between them, and what attributes of it definitely made it Chinese. Just after that, a man came in and started saying it was Japanese. The seller and I just looked at each other, and I said no more. Always best not to get into a discussion with a man who knows he’s right, even when he’s wrong. 🙂
I also popped into several charity shops, but the prices were enormously higher than round my way. Plus I have been buying way too many clothes lately, and there was also nothing I really wanted in them.
My 2 hours parking was almost up, so I returned to the car and headed out.
![A bit of Fanny](https://i0.wp.com/blog.hayllamas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/IMG_20190820_133825__01.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1)
On the way back towards home, I decided to detour via Reading, and popped into Fanny’s Antiques. I find it’s always nice to get a bit of Fanny when you can. 😉
Whilst in there I found an interesting picture. It was of the silhouette of a nude lady, and was in 3D relief, making use of gravel as the medium. Or, at least, modelled to look like that.
The ticket price was £44, which was too much for me. But I asked the seller for the best price and after a little haggling, £37 was the lowest he could go to. Even at that price I was undecided, and almost left it, but in the end decided to buy it.
![Gravelly lady](https://i0.wp.com/blog.hayllamas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/IMG_20190820_1351_both.jpg?resize=640%2C562&ssl=1)
![Holy F*ck Car Park](https://i0.wp.com/blog.hayllamas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/IMG_20190820_141216.jpg?resize=169%2C300&ssl=1)
It was lunchtime now, so I decided to head into Reading itself for a visit to Yo Sushi. I parked in Holy Brook car park, although when I saw the parking tariff I thought it should have been called “Holy F*ck” instead. When you consider that I had paid £1 for 2 hours in Henley-on-Thames, four times as much for the same amount seemed rather a rip off to me.
I had a nice lunch in Yo Sushi, including tuna maki and tuna sashimi, which are no longer on the menu but they were happy to make for me anyway.
![Tuna maki and tuna sashimi](https://i0.wp.com/blog.hayllamas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/IMG_20190820_144314.jpg?resize=335%2C189&ssl=1)
I’d forgotten quite how expensive sushi can get, though, and the bill was rather eye-watering. Less said about that the better.
After lunch, I decided that I didn’t feel like traipsing round Reading, so decided to head out even though my 2 hours wasn’t up (mainly because I had erroneously thought I only had an hour, and that was almost elapsed).
I headed out in the direction of home, but on the way I realised I wasn’t too far from Eversley Barn Antiques.
Hilary has now retired, and a lovely couple called Judy and Steve have taken over. I have already met them on a previous visit, and instantly hit it off with them and find them very easy to chat to. When I went in, they greeted me by name and invited me to sit down for a natter, which was lovely. We ended up talking for ages, and then I had a wander round to look at the stock.
![Glass vase by Stuart Akroyd](https://i0.wp.com/blog.hayllamas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/IMG_20190820_204834.jpg?resize=189%2C336&ssl=1)
There was a cabinet from a new seller there, which mainly had glassware. I don’t usually buy glass, but I was drawn to a Studio Glass vase. The style was very much Scandinavian (in my opinion), but it was actually English by a designer called Stuart Akroyd, which is a name I’m not familiar with. It’s signed on the bottom, but was being sold “as found” which means there was damage to it. I found some chipping on the base, which can’t be easily seen, and also some imperfections in the glass. But it had a certain something that drew me to it. The ticket price was £28, but I asked if there was any movement there and Judy phoned the seller, and we managed to get it down to £23 and at that price it was worth taking a punt.
After chatting for a little longer, I didn’t want to overstay my welcome and made my goodbyes and left.
It was now very late afternoon, and usually that would have been enough for me. But there was a meet of my local car club that evening, starting in around 90 mins, and I thought that maybe it would be nice to go to that, so I fixed up my makeup, checked the fluids on my weekend car (which is the marque that the car club is for), and made my way up there.
I stayed for around 2 hours and I don’t think I stopped talking once. In fact, what with talking to Judy and Steve, and the car meet, I probably did more talking than I have in the whole month preceding, due to the fact that I work from home and interact with colleagues predominantly by email and IM.
Then it really was time to call it a day, so I returned home arriving just before 9pm. It had been a very long day.
Throughout the whole day, I wasn’t mis-gendered once and was in fact correctly gendered several times, usually by mums saying “watch out for the lady!” to their kids who weren’t looking where they were going. I also got complemented on my outfit by a lady in a charity shop. So that was all very nice.
This morning my feet, hips, and lower back are a little sore. But that’s not entirely unexpected.
You clearly had a fantastic day Joanne, I am always interested t hear other girls stories, I must give Henly a visit one day!