I regularly go to the Battersea car boot sale with a friend. We queue up for 45 minutes to be at the front of the queue to ensure we get first dibs. Once the gate opens we split up and rush around the stalls looking for the best bargains (my friend buys for his shop), leaving payment and listing all the stalls we need to return to pick up our purchases.

I have found some great bargains over the times I've been going. Last Sunday didn't seem to offer up much on first inspection. Then I spotted a plate, yes a simple plate, but one I recognised immediately.

I hadn't seen it in over 40 years as my grandmother had an identical one (back in my home country New Zealand), and used to serve her homemade lemon curd tarts on it for tea on a Sunday. It is nothing special, a Royal Staffordshire plate with a flowers and birds design, but it threw up a huge wave of nostalgia and fond memories of my beloved grandmother and those wonderful Sunday afternoons at her house. Weirdly, after all these years, I still love the design on this plate and the colours; I plan to use it rather than shove it to the back of a cupboard and I might even make a batch of lemon tarts!

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