Saturday mornings are prime time for coffee mornings, jumble sales and church fayres. Throughout the year, you can find me at any or all of these. I'll be eyeing up the home baking, buying barely read books for my rarely read pile, or looking for vintage tea towels because... Well, because.
Last week’s fayre was at St Mark’s church in Portobello. The Church sits atop a little hill, inside a walled and fenced garden. From street level, it always looks to me like there is so much going on beneath the surface that the church is being forced ever upwards.
Getting a gander inside churches I don't visit is a bonus. The donations box in St Mark’s is beautiful. Whatever it is, who wouldn't want to be in the ten bob a week club?
The smell of fresh coffee and bacon signalled a first rate fayre. The home baking centrepiece of gluten-free courgette and chocolate cake for £3 shouts "I am not afraid to move with the times."
You had me at Tombola.
For me, tombola is the heart of any fayre. I like three tickets for 50p, but am prepared to go up to a pound. I recently dragged a friend to a fayre in Fife. She had never drawn those tickets. The tombola woman kindly explained how it all worked. She will still be dining out on that story. Tickets ending with a zero or a five win. It's easy.
There’s no hiding in tombola. You walk away a winner or a loser, even if winning means rehoming someone else's unwanted gift. It's all out in the open. Raffles are a bit more secretive, and frankly, too much effort. Tombola is the instant-hit scratch card of community fundraising.
On Saturday, for £1, I won a dinky car and a half bottle of wine - 390. My party won an even smaller bottle of wine - decorated with glitter - and some travel trivial pursuits. We had coffee and biscuits (£1.50). We met lovely local people who were keen to chat. No one tried to convert us. We stepped back in time.
The tombola man - who was very dapper - was delighted that I'd won. There you go, he said. A wee bottle of wine and you can have yourself a romantic night in with a Rock Hudson film. You're a lucky lady. Indeed I am.
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