Dinner Talk

Was all about canes. Well not really all about them but quite a lot about them, not actually how they're used but more how they're made. There was other stuff too, about travel, Malaysia and the Far East as well as Europe and the US and a bit of light politics and business.
 

You see we were entertaining a retired gentleman and his daughter, a single mom. I perhaps should say he was entertaining us because he was gregarious and had lots of stories to tell but then again P picked up the bill and we'd chosen the venue so I suppose in that respect we were doing the entertaining. Anyway, long story short, the gentleman as a hobby makes wicker furniture, fruit baskets, hampers and the like......but he also makes canes, the variety that can be applied to the backside not the type for walking. He makes them for a small company in Middlesex, which sells them online alongside other related items and some not quite related but sex industry stuff which he didn't know much about. I should say he isn't remotely interested in the sex industry and has no opinion on the intended use for his canes, although his daughter thinks he should do more of them.

 We got the contact from an enquiry we'd made on the internet about sprucing up wicker garden furniture a couple of weeks ago, ours needs attention or replacing. So I emailed then spoke with him by phone, he sounded nice and lives in a village no more than ten miles from us, he has a small workshop in his garden. He dropped out the cane making thing almost as a joke, I thought, when he told me the range of stuff he could do but needless to say my ears pricked up. I told P about him and said we could get furniture from him or he would even come and refurbish ours as long as it wasn't too far gone. Then I mentioned the canes and P laughed and said we had quite enough canes. I said no, I wasn't thinking for us, I was just wondering if there might be a bit of business there. Well my husband called him, liked him, asked him to come over and take a look at our furniture and charge us for his time of course and we'd make a decision. He came, he was a really nice guy and when P asked how much we owed, he said he was happy enough to get the work from us the journey was no problem, P insisted and said if he wouldn't take anything at least let us treat him to a bite to eat some time.

 So there we were Friday night in the cosy little C18 bistro in our local town, us keeping our voices down but him not and I don't suppose it mattered much over the hubbub, chatting away as if we were old friends, he had that way with him and his daughter likewise, and we broached the subject of the possible commerciality of his little sideline in canes. I lied and told him a friend of mine had a blog which was centred around spanking and there was a considerable market for that sort of stuff in my opinion. He only showed polite interest but his daughter gave him a look that said 'told you so' without actually saying it. We talked only in vague terms testing the water not wanting to spoil a very enjoyable evening by homing in too much on commercial aspects but at the end of the evening his daughter gave me her email and said she'd love to hear more.

 She has heard more since and we've talked several times on the phone and had coffee one morning, and her dad's sorting our garden furniture out. I think we might be doing something with canes too, that would be nice, and even if we don't I'll probably get some samples. I wonder who I can get to test them:)

Have a good week.

A coincidence, PK wrote a post about canes and me being crazy liking the cane. Go check it out.

Ronnie

xx