Greetings from a still rather grey Sheffield.

Everyone, myself included, is complaining about the UK weather, and with some justification it's been one of the wettest and coldest May on record. 

I called Mr Chatterjee for an update on his oxygen for the poor of his town mission. (you can still donate here) - he was telling me that they had already bought the oxygen and given it to three families in dire straits. There is also a local volunteer force of young people that own cars who are bravely taking people to hospital and back because there are not enough ambulances and taxis refuse to carry ill people. These people also can take the oxygen where it is needed. 

If this situation wasn't bad enough - the region was hit by a massive storm earlier this week, some coastal towns almost washed away, along the Ganges tornadoes raging.. He sent me a video.. check it out.

So now not complaining any more.. counting blessings instead. Last week I was telling you about "The Ultimate Gift" and the "Trial of Tomas" - if you missed it you can read about it here. 

If you are new to this newsletter - I have been writing it every Friday, from wherever I happen to be.. for over nine years.. the first was from Thailand during Chinese New Year 2011.. You can scan a selection of old blogs here.Over 73,000 people subscribe to this newsletter, all customers and fellow giftware traders - Here I tell you the trade secrets, the gossips, the adventures and mishaps. You will meet Ringo our agent in Indonesia, Mr Chatterjee our man in India. Coco our agent in China.. and of course Tomas (product and marketing wizard), Raul (IT wizard), Katka, Rodrigo and the whole team from the UK. Join me as I travel and work.. and feel free to email me your ideas and suggestions, over the years the readers of this blog have really shaped the direction AW has taken. 

So it's almost June, and the weather forecast is looking up. As it's a bank holiday and I know many of you are ready for retail action. So trade is looking up.. 

Getting supplies is hard work, disruptions on so many levels. If covid issues don't disrupt things, then Brexit issues will, and if that doesn't there is the world-wide shortage of containers and crazy prices being demanded.

Coco in China is managing with great difficulty to book containers. When we try to book with UK agents they are regularly cancelled at short notice, and we are told to rebook at a higher rate. It's marginally easier to book containers to Europe, but to the UK prices are inexplicably higher and more prone to be cancelled. I'm trying to find out why.. 

In spite of all these hurdles to overcome, two containers made it and arrived this week. One much delayed one with just Soap Flowers. I know a lot of people have been waiting for the Luxury Soap Flowers.

And amazingly a container of mango wood products from the city of  Saharanpur in Northern India. It's the woodwork craft city of India.

Years ago it used to mainly produce Sheesham wood, sometimes called Indian Rosewood.  You will remember those brass inlaid ash catchers..  But Sheesham wood is a hardwood and grows too slowly to be sustainable, a few years ago the Indian authorities regulated Shesham making it very expensive and almost impossible to export without all the proper paperwork. So it was a big upheaval for the craft industry in that city. 

The solution was mango wood..  basically mango trees produce a crop of mango's but when they get old the crop is poor. So mango farmers cut down old trees and plant new ones on a rotation basis. Hence fast growing mango wood is a by-product of mango production (a big favorite in India) and totally sustainable. Dried and treated properly this wood is also very beautiful.