David Knight: Regenerating Aberdeen starts with saving the buildings we’re letting rot |
I was standing in my garage scrutinising a plank of wood which had been lying there for ages, wondering if we should take it with us to the Thainstone car boot market near Aberdeen on Sunday.
It was stuffed among a mountain of dubious “might come in handy one day” material hidden in my Aladdin’s Cave of mediocrity (rather than magic).
A garage collection resembling a hoarder’s paradise.
I didn’t even know what a lot of it was: technical bits and bobs left behind during various projects, and countless old instruction leaflets for putting things together, which were so old that the print wore off.
I just couldn’t let them go, but finally time for a clearout and to make a little profit at the market.
Yes, I’d take the plank with me – to walk the plank, as it were, in this basic form of commerce at the car boot.
If nothing else, it might prop up our rickety market stall.
Anyway, there I was a few days later, presiding over our emporium of strange objects – with the plank perched at one end waiting to be employed as a wedge.
A man’s voice rang out.
“I’ll take that shelf right now,” he said.
What shelf, I thought (oh, the plank).
Without further ado, he handed me £5 and........