Surprise of the day: Jams of Notting Hill

In our complicated world, simple things such are what makes life so amazing.

We were walking with a friend of mine from Notting Hill up to Notting Hill Gate while our conversation was interrupted by an unusual view in one of the yards. It was a nothing-out-of-ordinary house and a chair close by the gate. What made it extra ordinary was the fact that there were several jars with home-made jams and preserves on top of the chair and a note saying please leave ₤3.50 in the post box. Out of an interest, at first, and later out of a need to buy one, we started looking for a post box which actually turned out to be in the door. We dropped the money and continue our walk heavier with a jar of fig jam.

The jar we bough and a piece of paper saying: Home-Made preserves ; 3.50 per pot, Please put money in a letter box. Thank you (and bring jars back)

What amazed me in that thing was that we were in the middle of one of the biggest city in the world where international trade is thriving yet someone decided to produce jams at home and sell them off the chair. That someone didn’t even sit outside of the house and encourage customers to buy a jar but he or she just left them there trusting in people’s good will and honesty (I don’t think there was CCTV installed there to check if people actually drop the money in to the post box). It was so unexpected on our walk that we had to buy one. It’s amazing how in our complicated and complex world there still simple things which make us to smile and surprise us in the middle of such a normal day. And my friend took the jam back to Poland and swept it up within three days. I think now it’s my turn.