So, here is our small offering with the first present already placed ready for playing with
the tree has a very interesting history
and is part of a confession, worthy of Radio 2, Simon Mayo
Back in November 1988, my OH and I were swapping a small damp rented flat for our own proper 3 bed home. As we'd always made do with a 3ft sparse silver tree, we decided to push the boat out a bit on a new tree for the new house. We made a trip to B&Q about 20 miles from home and saw this beauty on display. It's 6ft tall with individual branches locked into a central core, just the job, we thought. A bit expensive at £80 - don't forget it was 1988 - but what the heck! We then wandered around for a while buying decorations to cover such a magnificent tree, the total bill was expected to be over £100.
As B&Q was so far from our home and the tree being so large and potentially difficult to fit in the car, we were going to ask about delivery, we were in no rush, it could go direct to the new house, safe us the bother.
We got to the checkout, quite a queue, young lad on the till. It came to our turn, all the decorations went through without problem. Then the tree, no bar code on the box or inside!! No-one answered his call for help, he was starting to panic a bit.
Then he spotted it, a scrappy piece of paper stuck next to his till. Christmas trees, it said and a hand written bar code. He sighed with relief, punched in the code. "£4.99", he declared "is that ok?" Well, we looked at each other, shrugged, said it sounded ok, paid up and legged it out of B&Q as quickly as we could. The journey home was a bit uncomfortable, the tree was jammed into the car, there was no way we were going to chance having it delivered after that.
So, our £4.99 tree has taken pride of place for 27 years now, I think we've had our moneys worth
and after renovating two houses, I think B&Q have had a fair amount from us over the years too.
We now have two other trees in the house as well and we always go to B&Q for the decorations !!
