A40 Farina Club

I do have a somewhat active and twisted sense of humour. I am also blessed with being capable of keeping a straight face as I'm spouting a load of absolute rubbish and make it believable. So, I enjoyed telling the youngster on the checkout at B&Q that it stood for Brooms and Quillets, and it had started trading in such hardware back in the fifteenth century. They totally swallowed it!!

Tut tut

Back in the distant mists of time I used to have a small artists' materials shop specialising in the best of all manufacturers, Windsor & Newton. They were the only company selling real sponges (used by water colour artists to blot excess paint in, say, a sky where light clouds were required - they'd lay a blue wash down and then blot areas out to reveal the white paper beneath and thus create the clouds).

One day a chap came in and spotted my sponges, asking what they were for (he thought they were just for soaking up spilled paint - not at that price they weren't).

You'd have been proud of me, Chris, as I solemnly informed him that, as real sponges, they had to be "fed" in salt water once a week to keep them alive. Far as I know, he's still doing it . . .

Made my day Chris!