It was like a task from The Apprentice. Find a large electric fan in autumnal London.
At the start, it didn't even seem like a challenge. Local shops. Bound to have one.
Or not.
Then try online. Yes Amazon Prime showed them, but we needed it same day. Even Prime was too slow and we'd have to use a tricky address. Never mind, one of the stores in nearby Canary Wharf was showing that they had them.
We made our way along, although my misgivings that the shop would be filled with mobile phone accessories was accurate. Fan? They had one Dyson for about £400 but none of the ones in their online catalogue. Try Barking, they said.
Woof.
Then a couple more stops in Canary Wharf. All the usual suspects, but its a seasonal thing. I do get it. Fans are large and take up floor space. They impact the retail sales per square foot metric.
I briefly remembered seeing a whole pile of fans somewhere a few weeks ago, but wait. That was in Exeter.
On to our third search area and our last chance. We took the tube to Westfield in Stratford. Surely someone would have a fan?
In Apprentice terms we could have phoned around, but the reality was that listed products were not always immediately available. The fan in Canning Town (in Stock) was actually on a five day delivery.
Then we thought of healthcare. Surely some people would be hot and need cooling down? Hot and weary, we needed that treatment ourselves now.
Into Boots.
And yes. One fan remaining. The last fan in London.
Now it was ours and totally worth it.
At least we had something until we could recover the big one from Newcastle.
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