Trade three: The painting versus pumps dilema

Here it is. The 'difficult' third trade. I'm out of my comfort zone and quite frankly nervous with this one...

Literally minutes after posting the One Pink Hairclip t-shirt trade last night, a guy called Alan, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, pinged me an email.


Now, I don't know Alan, but he seems a nice chap and a good laugh. He tells me he upped sticks in the UK and set off for Brazil five years ago but got way-laid en route, wooed an Argentine beauty, sired a handsome son and is now living in the land of the gaucho full time (okay I embellish, but who cares?) As you can tell I'm a sucker for a romantic story and on first inspection Alan's story has it all; wunderlust, romance and the meandering pampas. I like to think that Alan has gone totally native after half a decade steeped in South American culture and may look a little like this...

...but despite his appearance, locals still affectionately call him cockney Alan. Anyway I digress. Alan tells me he's in possession of a piece of fine art by the renowned St Ives artist Roy Ray. It's an object d'art he snapped up 20 years ago for a mere £250 ....and I'm thinking, doesn't this stuff tend to go up in value over time?


Now this is where I get nervous. I like art but whenever I go to a gallery I tend to spend more time reading the little plaque next to the exhibit which explains what it is. On a recent trip to the National Gallery with the nearest and dearest (N&D) we found ourselves discussing the merits of one painting's frame.


Deftly side-stepping another digression, here is Alan's generous, and I mean generous, offer of a trade. A painting entitled Ochre IV:

In the middle of wrestling with this trade-or-no-trade dilema another email appears in the OPH inbox. It's a message from a lady called Bronya who works for a firm called Freed of London. Here it is....

Subject: I'll swap ya...

Not the usual swap for a man, I grant you, but how would you like to swap your t-shirt for a handmade pair of pink ballet shoes?

I am the Marketing Manager for a company who manufactures ballet shoes for all the major ballet companies around the world. We would happily swap a pair for your t-shirt, which we will then display in the window of our London store to try to build extra publicity for you and FSID.

 

This wasn't exactly a scrap metal versus ladybug moment (see first trade), not by a long shot. But Bronya's offer definately had the 'ladybug factor'. Alan's picture may be a handsome work of art and it could be worth more (can anyone clear this up?) and he may be Don Giovanni incarnate but come on....a pair of handmade pink ballet shoes. I know someone who would have liked those!

Alan, thanks for being so generous and such a good sport but Bronya gets my trade this time.

                                         Are you a prima donna (literally or otherwise)?

Perhaps you know an unshod one?

Have you got the fourth trade?

If you fit the bill email onepinkhairclip@hotmail.co.uk now!

Thanks for reading,

Graham