BIRTHDAY BLOG: THE JOY OF 6!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US, HAPPY BIIIIIIIRTHDAY TO UUUUSSSSS, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!

Yup, you guessed it ... it's Christmas!  Not really, sillies - it's OUR SIXTH BIRTHDAY!

We always get very excited when our birthday comes around, not only because it's an excuse to consume only sugar ALL DAY, but also because when we opened way back in 2006, we told ourselves we'd give it a year and see what happened, so (and you're probably sick of us saying the same every year) we never presume that we will reach the next birthday, and the next, and so 6 years old feels like we've really 'done it'.

:-)

Anyway, 6 also feels like a nice even number ... the kind of number that lends itself to a countdown, mate.

We've never done anything like this before, as we try to maintain an outlook akin to that of a kitten playing in a meadow on a sunny day, but here's our TOP 6 and WORST 6 moments of SHOP, over the past six years...

In no particular order....

*cues up Tops of the Pops theme tune (the 90s one (that was the best))*

BAD SIX

1.  PEOPLE

People are great, don't get us wrong, and people are at the very heart of what we do.  However, just very occasionally you can get a person that is a right stonking bumhole.

From the man who once posed (on crutches) as a neighbour's brother needing £20 to pay his taxi to the hospital (hence crutches - he was clever!), which we gave him out of our grocery money for the week, and then when enquiring with our neighbour how his brother was doing, were met with confused 'but, I'm brotherless' expressions.  To, the people who bustle in and aggressively try to sell a ragged old binbag 'of crap' (their words) and then get arsey when you (amazingly) aren't interested.  To our very own Advisory Board (which we ourselves set up - doh!) which turned out to be an awful, just AWFUL idea (buy us a pint one time and we'll tell you the real, full story).

So, very rarely, there are some days when you just wish there was a way of running a shop without any people in it.

GOOD SIX

1. PEOPLE

Yup - that's right, people are at the heart of what we do at SHOP and we wouldn't want it any other way! In addition to that, there have been so many people over the last 6 years who have added immeasurably to SHOP itself, and also to lifting our souls. Some people will never know just how much a beautiful compliment on a bad day has given us the will to go on, and others know just how much they mean to us and how grateful we have been, and continue to be, for their support. We would make a list, but we reckon you all know who you are :-)

BAD SIX

2.  BIBLICAL FLOODING

Above SHOP there lives a lady who likes to run herself baths .... and then forget about them so that they overflow and flood the shop.  We're not talking a few drips here and there, back in April 2011, this forgetful lady actually, literally FLOODED the shop FOUR TIMES!!!!  Sometimes, she had even left her flat with the bath running (we know, right?!) so there was no way of turning these spewing faucets off!!!

This led to a lot of nervousness, and loss of business, and damage to the shop, whilst her landlord fitted a sensor that switched off the taps automatically.  For a month back then, we would open the door tentatively each morning, waiting for a tsunami to hit us.

 

EPILOGUE: no-one would take any responsibility for it, so we were left with soggy walls, floors and rugs and no way to replace them.  Boo!

GOOD SIX

2. LLP to CIC

You down with LLP? Yeah you know ... we're not anymore! After three years as one of those out-moded 'profit-making' companies ;-) we swapped our shoes for sandals and threw out our deodorant to become a non-profit company! The long version goes like this, SHOP is: a Social Enterprise, Community Interest Company Limited by Guarantee (so we just say non-profit). Often, profit means putting money before people and we just couldn't get behind that, so found our true identity in a CIC and haven't looked back since!

This change in structure also changed our outlook, and eventually our horizons too, as we moved from the small shop (now the Arts Space), to the shop space we have now, but we didn't stop there - we eventually moved back into the small shop (it became the Arts Space) and even took over The Christmas Steps themselves with community events like the Artisan Market, Christmas Lights Festival and the bi-annual Night of the Year (outdoor cinema funtimes!).

BAD SIX

3.  DRUG OF THE NATION, NO MORE

Oh, television! How we used to love you!  How many happy, stupefied hours we spent in raptures with you.  How ecstatic we were when the very first 'telly-person' contacted us about filming part of a well known antiques programme in SHOP!

*Poof!*

That was the sound of the magic of telly disappearing, as soon as we realised ... none of it's real! (we know, right?! (again)).  Yup, sorry boys and girls, it's true - you now those bits when your favourite telly presenter is walking down a road and the voice over says, "Kate is looking for some jewellery," and Kate, wonderfully, magically! Finds a shop where they sell jewellery, just at that very moment. You know that bit? Well it's, fake!  All fake!

Okay, we probably all knew that one, but what about those buying and selling programmes?  All our telly  experiences have gone a bit like this: call from researcher asking if we want to be on telly (Us: YAY!), assuring us it will only take a little while and not be too disruptive (Us: YAY!).  Day of filming: enter rambunctious film CREW (that means lots of people), who ignore you entirely, bash your shop around and bully you into saying or buying something you don't want to, or can't afford, or won't be able to sell on (Us: erm, Yay?).

Okay, okay, we're being televisionist, they aren't all the same and there is one particular exception, a film company called Quattro Production, who were lovely in the extreme.

Ps.  This applies to other media, the written ones are the same, for example, they often only write about you if you advertise with them (so those opinions your reading aren't opinions at all, they're editorially compromised by being funded through commercial advertising, yeah that's right, you heard!) or rewrite what you've written about yourself to give you 'more personality' (thanks a lot!) and so make you sound, kinda, sorta, like an IDIOT!

GOOD SIX

3. SARTORIAL SPLENDOURS

At it's most fundamental level, what we do for a living at SHOP is basically, shopping. Which suits us, cus we love seeking out those vintage design classics. It also has another up-side - not only are we helping make the peeps of Bristol EVEN MORE attractively dressed, sometimes we find things for ourselves too!

We think you'll agree, this photo of Brett doing his best Howard Moon impression, demonstrates the above rather wonderfully:

Moreover, when we're out and about, seeing people wearing clothes or accessories they have bought from SHOP really, really makes us proud AND makes us feel like we're doing a teeny bit to redress the balance between the big bullies at places like Cabot Circus back towards the little people, like us.

BAD SIX

4.  THE ICE-AGE CAMETH

SHOP's home on The Christmas Steps is beautiful and picturesque and generally wonderful, it is also really old.  So old that central heating hadn't been invented when they were built in 1669.  The buildings are also really damp (they must have liked that kind of thing in the olden days), which all added up doesn't equal nice winters.  It doesn't even really equal bearable winters.  As soon as it hits about, well, about the first of September, a little oil filled radiator goes on behind SHOP's counter, and then we either stick to it like glue until June, or if we're both around at the same time, fight long and bloodily over it (like Peter Griffin and that chicken).

GOOD SIX

4. CREATIVE CHANNELING

It is our hope that part of what SHOP has been about has been enabling people to find, or encourage, their creativity - in many and varied ways. We have been told over the years, by people who have had a show, or attended a WorkSHOP, or had a stall at an Artisan Market, how taking part in these became an integral part of their flourishing. This - in a nutshell - is what it's all about for us.

(Similarly, Brett started out life as an 'Artist', and Jayne started life out as a 'Writer' - okay, well, we both started out life as tiny, screaming, hairless infants, but about 18 years after that, we both went to University and studied the above, respective subjects (Fine Art and English Literature). As is fairly usual with art/humanities degrees, as soon as we graduated, Brett became a gardener and Jayne an office temp, until that is SHOP came along and we have SHOP to thank for also flushing out and reinvigorating our own creative channels. This year, we both used the Arts Space for shows of our own and since then have not been able to stop, well - creating stuff!)

BAD SIX 

 

5.  BOYFRIENDS OF GIRLFRIENDS

Yes-yes-yes, boyfriends are possibly, *technically* people, and so should maybe come under item number one of this countdown, but it is ONLY boyfriends and not all PEOPLE that tell their girlfriends not to buy lovely vintage clothings that they look beautiful in.  Hello?!  It's the 21st century, girlfriend can spend her money on whatever girlfriends wants!  And, what happened to compliments?  To our mind, "Urrrrrrm, I don't know, it looks a bit funny." IS NOT A COMPLIMENT!

Postscript exclusively by Brett: Hey boyfriends, what's with greeting the beaming face of your loved one - wearing something she's found that she loves - with an awkward, insolent shrug? She can have another you in a minute - matter of fact he'll be here in a minute! So don't you ever get to thinking you're irreplaceable!

GOOD SIX


5. WHEN OUR PRIVATES BECAME PUBLIC

After five years of being our landlords (and only five years into a twenty five year term), our landlords decided they didn't want to be our landlords anymore (what did we do?! Maybe it was the couch surfing ... or could it have been all the (*slightly* illegal) gigs, or perhaps the constant spray painting of our step (red/gold/red/gold))!

Well, whatever it was, it worked out fabulously for us, as we went from paying private landlord rates (ie. high ones!) to becoming tenants of Bristol City Council - a social landlord! And, as your old Dad always says, you can only speak as you find, and we have found BCC to be helpful, sympathetic landlords, supportive of our vision and mission.

There is a downside though, we signed up for that remaining twenty years, so Bristol may well be stuck with us until Brett's beard turns grey.

BAD SIX

6.  DRAINING DRAINS

If you have ever walked into SHOP and been assaulted by a disgusting eggy poo smell, we swear to God and kittens, it's SO WASN'T US!  Another aspect to being on a lovely old street, is lovely, old, smelly, permanently blocked drains that have weird 'poocoustics' that means that instead of smelling by the drain, they smell everywhere, mostly inside SHOP.  So, once again, we didn't drop a silent and violent, okay?

GOOD SIX

6.  THE FUTURE!

That's right, the very best thing about the last six years is ... The Future!  We're looking forward to sticking around a bit longer, we're looking forward to some very exciting changes in 2013, we're looking forward to new plans and schemes, but most of all we're looking forward to not looking forward too much, and taking each new, strange and wonderful day at SHOP as it comes.

THANK YOU!