The writings of Max Robinson: Am I being selfish !

Sixty-eight thousand three hundred and thirty-two....

As of 4.35am this morning that's how many people have read the daily pages we publish. That's almost as many text messages as Josh send me in an average week !

MONDAY morning so that means a new INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHT for the week. WHERE WORDS FAIL MUSIC SPEAKS.....

The CD I have playing in the car at the moment is Dreamboats and Petticoats, to wrap music into today's page I'll play tracks from that CD.

I have never worn a petticoat in my life but at yesterday's boot sale one guy was. He walked past our stall...

"Good morning, you OK love," Josh said.

"Ooooh yes, sweetie," was the reply.

NO, he/she did not buy anything !

SATURDAY ! Bletchley Irish Centre - we took the grand total of £34.74p. Not good, damn hard work !

Hard work but loads of fun.

I know I am an early bird but these 5am starts at the boot sales are taking its toll a bit.

The world's worst broadcasting station said yesterday was going to be non-stop rain all day.

I packed the car ready for Sunday's sale at Milton Keynes Bowl, went to bed thinking this would be a day off. 5am, I rang Mr & Mrs Josh to say it was dry so off we went.

After paying the £8 pitch rent we made £42,80p.

JELENA is in charge of our clothes department. She has never seen the programme ARE YOU BEING SERVED but she is our very own Mrs Slocombe.

JOSH is our best salesman. Anticipating the heatwave continuing we have started selling cold drinks. He called out to one guy... "Hey Pal, fancy a bottle of ice-cold water, only 20p."

The guy gave Josh £2 and said, "I'll have ten please !"

"Chuck that in the bin," I suggested.

"It's a designer car battery cover."

"It's still rubbish."

Josh sold it for £3.

SO, from Saturday's sale we will be taking some of the cash to buy THREE tins to donate to The Food Bank. Then from Sunday's sale we will buy another FOUR. Probably this week we need to take all of the tins we have so far collected up to The Food Bank Warehouse.

The boys at Hillsborough only managed a draw on Saturday, a HOME draw is worth £3 so we will be taking money from the kitty to send it to Ronald McDonald House working with Birmingham Childrens Hospital. Sheffield Childrens Hospital

and Ward Five Milton Keynes Hospital.

Well done Mr F for scoring the goal. Couldn't you have managed two ?

While Jelena is busy selling the ladies underwear and Josh is conning people into buying battery covers and carrier bags full of water I like to fool about and talk to the customers.

Here I am handing our freebies supporting our wonderful NHS.

I had a long and very beautiful conversation with one customer where we both stood there praising Milton Keynes Hospital or to give it the proper title UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL MILTON KEYNES.

I took this photograph at about half past three yesterday afternoon - SEE BBC there is no rain !

With the car still full of STUFF from the boot sale I went to our amazing, wonderful, incredible hospital for a meeting with those running MILTON KEYNES HOSPITAL RADIO.

I want to explore how we can help promote the music of Milton Keynes Hospital Radio and spread love for our NHS.

TWO text messages waiting for me this morning, two text messages from Josh detailing things he wants us to do today. Josh, mate, I want to talk about doing a music party somewhere for Hospital Radio and how we can feature their work in the boot sales.

You will find each Monday a fair number of pics of Josh and Yours Truly but not so many of Mrs Josh, she is usually behind the camera.

Here are a couple of rare images of the duo.

Today Mrs Josh has the task of photographing her husband and Your Truly both dressed as Father Christmas. We will soon be starting to plan our three SANTA DASH events, one for each of the three hospitals we support.

At the moment all we are basically doing are the two car boot sales but after the summer, when the BBC declares Autumn, we will be running a packed diary of music events. We will have the three Santa Dashes, three Rock and Roll parties at

Bletchley Bandstand for The Food Bank.

On 1st November we will be launching SECRET SANTA. BTW on 3rd November I will celebrate my 68th birthday, then on the 4th Josh and Jelena celebrate 7 years together. On 1st December we launch our Music Advent Calendar on YouTube.

Do you like the music we are playing today ?

NOW TO THE TITLE OF TODAY'S PAGE.......

Am I being selfish ?

Some of the money from our boot sales goes into the pockets of Josh and Jelena. Some of you know their story, in January they were part of Milton Keynes homeless rough-sleeping community. They now have a lovely home of their own. This happened entirely through the love of our readers. Without Josh and Jelena our programme of events would have closed down months ago. I co-ordinate all we do, they make it happen as a way to say THANK YOU to this beautiful world.

Josh says I am a NUTTER - he is quite right.

Am I a NUTTER to turn out at 5am to two car boot sales - one of which made £34.74 and one which made £42.80 ?

Am I being selfish when I say THAT IS NOT ENOUGH ?

I would be much happier if we were making £100 per event.

We could. We have ace salesman Josh and our very own Mrs Slocombe in Jelena ?

So many wonderful, kind, beautiful people have given us so much to sell at the boot sales.

For those who do knot know who Mrs Slocome is, here she is on the left.

We need to find more friends who will turn out their cupboards, garage and lofts to give us STUFF to sell.

TWO text messages waiting for me this morning, two text messages from Josh.

In one Josh said that Jelena has got hold of a manikin to use in the clothing department.

Josh does tend to get two words mixed up - MANIKIN and MANKINI !

Which is it Jelena has ?

It it will NOT fit me so Josh you'll have to wear it.

When we stand at the tables in the boot sales we are three but behind us are the ten or more wonderful people who give us the STUFF to sell. Am I being selfish if I say we need more friends to give us stuff ? Twenty or thirty more people ?

PLEASE NO MANKINI !