News from our desk

18th December	Flight Deck Festivities!	2006
Christmas seems to have crept up on us again with alarming speed. With less than 7 days to go, it seems opportune for the team at the oldnautibits HQ to pass on very best seasonal wishes to all our customers and friends worldwide. Despite the strength of the sterling pound, our sales have kept us busy over the last 12 months with nautical and aeronautical shipments being despatched to all points of the compass. The market continues to change with greater emphasis on sales via our web site, which resulted in us attending less fairs this year and the trend is likely to continue into 2007 and beyond. Whilst it is always good to take the show on the road, our accountant is not so keen when it starts costing us money! We wish both new and regular customers a relaxing and enjoyable festive season and we look forward to dealing with you again in the New Year.
23rd October	Back to Business	2006
Just a line to say we have now returned from our Autumn break and it is business as normal here at oldnautibits H.Q. With Armistice Day fast approaching, Christmas will soon be upon us. We will be listing a range of fresh stock on the site in the coming weeks with festive shopping in mind. If you don't see what you want, please get in touch - if we don't have one here, we may know where to find it. Special commissions do take time, so we would appreciate early warning!
5th October	GONE SAILING! .	2006
Decided to grab a week's R & R. Will be back for business Monday, 16th October and will respond to all new enquiries as soon as possible.
19th August	Christmas Countdown!	2006
Despite it still being August, we have already received our first enquiry for a Christmas 'nautibit! This has reminded us that it is now less than 100 days to go. To this end, we have already posted a range of new aeronautical items on the site and during the following weeks we will be adding additional nautical and aviation collectables. If you are looking for a specific Christmas gift, we will do our best to help and if we don't have one here, we may know where to find it. It would, however, be appreciated if we can have a reasonable lead time. On a less festive note, we have been advised by the British Royal Mail service that effective from Monday, 21st August, they are introducing a new method of calculating rates. These are based on both volume and weight and will sadly result in some price rises. We will continue, however, to quote the most competitive rates and rest assured, unlike many eBay sellers, we do not make additional profits on our postage. With Battle of Britain day approaching once again, no doubt many of you will have caught a Spitfire display during this 70th anniversary year. If not, perhaps the one to watch will be the Spitfire Anniversary Air Show at Duxford on the 2nd and 3rd September which should be a weekend to remember!
3rd July	Holidays, Heat & Heroes	2006
Summer has arrived with the new month here at the Oldnautibits HQ. The team managed to take a couple of weeks vacation and have just returned from a very relaxing holiday on Zanzibar. We are now working to add new stock to the site and have today listed an intesting range of maritime items. We would also advise all customers we have been forced to withdraw from our next fair, to be held at the Bath & West Showground, Shepton Mallet on the 15th/16th July. We will, however, be back in our usual spot in the Mendip 2 Hall for the fair on the 23rd/24th September, so we hope to see our regular and new customers on that occasion. We cannot let July 2006 pass without a brief mention of the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. The sheer scale of the losses from both sides is almost unimaginable with 20,000 allied dead and 40,000 wounded in the first morning of the battle on July 1st, 1916. The media interest has led us to research our own family's involvement and sacrifice in this battle and we plan to publish a feature on the site very shortly. We shall remember them.
11th April	Brunel's Birthday	2006
Happy Birthday Isambard Kingdom Brunel! Celebrations to mark the 200th Anniversary are taking place throughout the Summer in Bristol, a major port in South West England during the 19th century. Brunel became the consulting engineer to the languishing docks, while designing the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Along the way he designed some great steam ships, including the Great Western and the SS Great Britain which is now being restored in Bristol docks and is well worth a visit. While marking anniversaries, we bade farewell in late March to the French fighter ace Pierre Clostermann who fought with 301 and 602 Squadron in WWII and was credited with at least 18 victories in the air and on the ground. I remember being enthralled by his books "Flames in the Sky" and "The Big Show" in the early 1960's and must dig out my dusty copies and read them again. It was great to meet so many old and new friends at our last outing at the DMG Antiques Fair at Shepton Mallet and we're now hoping for some warm weather (at last!) to accompany us at our next show on Monday, 1st May at the Popham aerojumble in Hampshire. We have finally posted some new marine stock on the site to replace items sold during the sale. Thank you for your patience and more aviation and marine nautibits will soon be listed. Happy Easter!
7th March	Happy 70th Birthday!	2006
Many thanks to all our customers for making the first Oldnautibits New Year sale a great success. We have cleared through a vast amount of stock and also found new homes for some old friends! We are about to list a range of new items, which should hopefully be posted over the next few days, so watch this space. It is opportune to wish the supermarine Spitfire a very happy birthday and on 5th March, exactly 70 years after prototype F.37/34 took to the skies, the event was commemorated by a historic flypast taking off from Eastleigh Aerodrome. Former supermarine test pilot Alex Henshaw, now aged 93, accompanied John Romain in a two seater Mk. 1X, while amongst the crowd watching from the ground was Gordon Mitchell, the son of the designer R. J. Mitchell. It is pleasing to report that today there are about 50 original Spitfires in airworthy condition, which is the most for over 30 years. We were pleased to be featured in the London Financial Times on 4th March and the article has already led to some interesting new contacts.
24th January	NEW SEASON SALE!	2006
We are pleased to announce our first ever New Year's Sale as promised! We have offered substantial discounts on nearly all listed stock in both the Marine and Aviation categories. Our aim is to clear the decks to enable us to list a wide variety of new items and so freshen our listings. All items on offer in the sale are available on a first come first serve basis and during this period we will be unable to reserve or hold back individual pieces. If you wish to buy, make your needs known as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. The team at Oldnautibits are on full alert and standing by for orders!