Window dressing

Some years back, my parents opened a toy shop. Just as I went off to university. I think that could be considered mental cruelty.

However, many a happy holiday and weekend was spent demonstrating and selling everything from Pelham Puppets to the latest Hornby train, Spears board game to play furniture, Britains tractor to Sutcliffe tin clockwork submarine. The greatest fun was to be had dressing the windows to lure parents and children inside.

One year we stripped out the whole window, placed straw on the bottom, used black tape on the windows to create a cage, installed a "please don't feed the animals" sign and placed two large, wonderfully realistic and very, very expensive soft toy lions on display. We sold them within the hour! I wasn't pleased! It had taken all day to do, and they were so expensive, we had no back up. We were left with an empty cage, and bemused window-shoppers.

And the connection between this story and the blip? Well, I was reminded of the memory when I passed by and looked in this window, and moved on very, very quickly. Still, the reflection made for an interesting picture. And it cost me nothing.