The things one buys on spec!

The major part of the day for me was spent at the Lions flea market we prepared yesterday. I was working on "Indoor Furniture" which included clocks. As we prepared for the opening someone said; "We haven't sold a clock in 5 years. No one uses clocks anymore." They were rapidly proved wrong as I sold four clocks. Admittedly three of them were bought for "projects", rather than as clocks.
At this point Jan appeared and pointed out a clock that was upside down in a corner. She noticed it because there was a painted glass picture taking up up the lower part of the wall clock.  I got it out and opened it up to see the text; "Waterbury Clock Company" and the delightful brass mechanism. It didn't seem to be working but I let one of my colleagues sell it to me. He suggested 100 kr (about £8) and I happily paid it.
Once home we found the clock's mechanism was driven by weights; one for the chimes and one for the clock. The weights hung from wires but the wires were tangled with the mechanism. Probably something to do with the clock being found upside down. We sorted the wires, adjusted the pendulum bar a little and carefully wound the weights up. The clock went into action with that original tick-tock pendulum noise. First it only worked for a few minutes but then it worked for 30 minutes, and now it has worked for the last five hours. The fun of working on the clock gave us our money's worth, and ending up with a working clock was a real bonus.
This positive result was needed to counteract the later negative event as I backed the camper van along our drive a little too confidently, and dropped one front wheel into the shallow ditch. I spent a lot of time trying to get it out in various ways but in the end I gave up. Our snow-clearing neighbour Rikard can probably tow/pull me out using his tractor. It's a little embarrassing to have ask him but that's the price of over-confidence.
Despite this end of the day problem it's been a very good day for me!