Black Friday? Black Friday Weekend? Black November?

Black Black Black!! I see black!
In the past few years a relatively new shopping period has taken over our high streets. It's called Black Friday and as far as I can ascertain, this is the term given to the first shopping day after the Thanksgiving weekend in the US when Americans were actually out spending their money again, thereby taking the sellers out of the red and into the black vis-a-vis their bank statements.
I became properly aware of it a few years ago when I took part in a selling fair in the Salvation Army hall close to Oxford Street the day after Black Friday and noticed no-one was coming inside to see all our fine hand-crafted wares. Outside I witnessed a river of shoppers almost glued together at the shoulders moving like a ice floe along the pavement in tunnel vision 'sale' mode. Shops were enticing customers to spend by offering discount prices – this confused me because it was a Saturday and the term is Black Friday. I joked that the following year it would probably be Black Friday Weekend, and then Black Friday Fortnight and then by 2018 it would be Black Friday Month.
Well, that's exactly what seems to have happened. The ads on the TV tell me just that – it's Black Friday November! Or Black Friday Month!
This make a pub's 'Happy Hour' lasting from 6-9pm seem almost pathetic!
Anyway. Here are some black things I have spotted above and along London's streets:

Friars and statues, a bell, a boot scraper, a taxi, a bull, a postbox and Stewy's dog

Jane's Advent Calendar – 6th December

Dingley Road, London EC1
Ten fags for sixpence!!
This sign must have been very vibrant 70 years ago.
At the bottom right the signwriter has left his mark: "HARRIS the Sign King"! 

Black Cat Cigarettes were made nearby at The Carerras factory on Mornington Crescent where Craven 'A' cigarettes were also manufactured. These too featured the company's iconic black cat logo.

Black Friday and Small Business Saturday

Today is Black Friday, so named because as the first shopping day after Thanksgiving in the States it marks the start of the Christmas shopping season. The word black here meaning the start of business being in profit, rather than in the red (debt).
So I thought I'd mark the day with another collection of nice black boot scrapers that I have spotted around central London.

To see some of my earlier posts about boot scraper please click here and here and here.

Then next weekend, 6th December, sees Small Business Saturday, a day to promote and buy from small traders and independent shops.
I will be selling my clay pipe creations at markets on both of these days. Today at Camden I will be offering a 20% discount. See my full market list here.

Black Cat Cabaret revisted

Last year I reported that I'd had a fabulous evening at one of the Black Cat Cabaret evenings at The Café de Paris on Leicester Square.
Well, I am glad to report that the Black Cat has spread its wings and can now be found at two more venues.
I went along to the Camden Centre last Friday and had another great evening – it was the best night out I'd had in a long time.
The show is fabulous, fascinating, frisky, faux-french and fun. After the main show there's dancing to some truly great sounds all put together by a clever DJ who mixes all sorts of genres. I found it almost impossible to leave the floor. I only paused to watch the other balancing and acrobatic acts that came on intermittently throughout the DJ set.
Find out more about Black Cat Cabaret evenings here.
I'm going again soon.... hope to see you there.

Above is a collection of my London images featuring dancers, acrobats and black cats, including two boot scrapers, Dick's Whittington's cat and Dr Johnson's cat, plus an old pained wall ad for Black Cat Cigarettes (top right) and two pics of the the actual Carreras cigarette factory at Mornington Crescent (bottom left x2).