It’s on the horizon

Posted on November 5, 2016 by Virender Rose

2f97a256991a58fade902e20cc56047a     bitossi-b

This blog started off with every intention of being about ‘Lady Bay Vintage’ – the problem being, of course,  what on earth would I find to write about every month that would be interesting and new, and frankly that the reader might not know already through all of our other media pages? Well that’s how it sort of evolved in to the observational & personal blog, and I started to post about things like my memory of the Bradford samosa man  https://ladybayvintage.com/2016/09/07/the-marlborough-cinema/

There’s been nearly 900 reads of this blog since August, so I’m guessing some people would have googled us and read the posts and thought what on earth is all of this about. Where’s all the stuff about sideboards, chairs, & tables,  or anything about  art, fabric, & salvage. If you have googled us and that’s how you got here and now you want to know about sideboards and LB Vintage, then fear not, this post is for you.

So what’s new? The first thing to mention is that we have a fair in 5 weeks time. The second is that we’ve moved. We’d been toying with the idea of moving for a while, but we knew we had to get on with it after the last event, it was seeing all of the people squashing going on down the aisles. But where to? It had to stay in Lady Bay right?  Our friend Steve suggested the Rugby club, it’s just down the road, so we took a leisurely stroll down there one balmy Summers evening to take a look at their marquee. We could tell it was huge as we approached. Not just huge, but vast, cavernous. Even the boys thought it was ‘awesome’,  and there’s not  that much that impresses them. They ran about inside and tried a bit of  shouting to create echos. They played tag. And then ran about a bit more. We had to tell them off when they broke out in to full on wrestling….

We asked them what they thought about the place – that’s when we could get a word in and they said that they thought it was ‘really good’ . So we had to go for it of course after that firm affirmation. So readers what else is there to say?

We’ll be stuffed, full to the rafters with cool stuff on the day.  If it’s worth having it will be there – so we hope you’ll come and see us for this our most special of events so far. Do let us have your thoughts and opinions on the day if you find us.

We’ve sold out to exhibitors, but if you want to see whose going to be there then check out the Facebook event – I update it regularly https://www.facebook.com/Lady-Bay-Vintage-1524789447780429/

Saturday 10th December 2016, 11am – 4pm, at the Hospitality Marquee, Nottingham Rugby Club, 1 Holme Road, Lady Bay, West Bridgford, NG2 5AA. It has its own free parking directly outside

Virender and Paul

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The Marlborough Cinema

Posted on September 7, 2016 by Virender Rose

My Mum and Dad grew up on farms in India and had been wealthy landowners.They grew all sorts of crops including mangoes and you’ve already heard about my experiences with those. My grandfather, Mangal, was a civil engineer and travelled the world with his work, often leaving my poor grandmother behind to run the farm and bring up the brood, which included My Dad. My Dad took full advantage of his father being away, and associated himself  with ‘undesirables’, attempted to romance the ladies, wanted to be an actor, singer or at least a free spirit. My grandfather had had enough of my grandmothers’ complaints and  decided that the best thing to do for the so called free spirit was to marry him off – and that was how my Mum and Dad came to living in England and how my Dad had to learn to become a responsible citizen in a very short space of time.

My Dad worked long hours in all sorts of factories and I guess it can’t have been well paid as I don’t remember there being much spare money about, but when he felt a bit flush Dad would insist on taking us out. We’d all get dressed up.He’d put on his suit and tie and Mum would wear her special turquoise trouser suit that I think came from BHS. My brother and I would get an extra dosing of oil to our hair, there’d be a side parting too and sometimes kohl on our eyes.  Any type of excursion was an incredibly rare treat for us. It would be akin to Christmas  day, and where would be going ? To the Marlborough to watch some Bollywood of course!  It ran Hindi films exclusively. Rare even in this day and age.
marlborough
We’d walk in and the first thing Dad would do would be to get us an ice cold Coca Cola with a straw. It used to come in those glass waisted bottles with metal caps,  and the condensation would run down the sides and we’d make that Coke last for the whole film ! There’d even be some money for a spicy samosa.It wasn’t any old samosa, it was the best samosas that I ever had.  Complicated masala flavor, laced with chilli, but delicate fresh coriander with every little mouthful, piping hot, and I’d enjoy it whilst my eyes would be streaming and tongue tingling and nose running !
The samosas were dispensed from a man that sat in a rather  unassuming kiosk located directly under the big screen. He was known as the samosa man.
Odd for this day and age,  he kept his kiosk lights on, and served samosas throughout the entirety of the film. Often serving whilst a queue formed at any stage of the film, handing them out, arguing if the money wasn’t correct, popping caps off the bottles, making fragrant fennel tea. When the film wasn’t so great, or I got bored, I’d just sit and watch what the samosa man was up to.don

A Bollywood film will pretty much cover every topic under the sun. A far fetched fantastical tale, with beautiful heroines in distress wearing gorgeous sequined rainbow coloured dresses, evil step mothers, dastardly villains, martial arts fight scenes, magic, mystery, comedy, ill fitting wigs, handle bar moustaches at their best, flares, big collars, platform shoes, poisoned apples,  the supernatural, religion,  group synchronised dances,  and catchy tunes. Bollywood films have it all. They still do.
As soon as the songs came on that was it,  everyone was up and dancing  including  the sweaty samosa man. It must have been hot in that kiosk.
It all seems a distant memory. Sometimes I wonder if it really happened or if I imagned it.
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