Posh coffee and £1.40 avocados

The baby's bumper is coming along, fuelled by repeated, quasi-obsessive, playing of Oh Sister by Bob Dylan.

On Saturday, we went to Broadway Market, a 20 minute walk from where I live in Hackney, in east London. A stroll down this relatively new, busy market, always unsettles me, for a number of reasons.

1. I've lived in Hackney for seven years, and parts of it have changed a lot, Broadway Market being a prime example. Seven years ago, it was run-down and had at least a half-dozen, if not a dozen empty shops. The Saturday market now has stalls selling organic food, artisanal breads, crafts, etc. It got going a couple of years ago, and the street is a much livelier place as a result. There are coffee shops, a couple of gift shops, and even a crafty shop, Fabrications. I enjoy an expensive cup of coffee as much as the next person, but I feel the market, which attracts people with comfortable amounts of disposable income, sits uneasily with the rest of the borough, which is one of the most deprived in the city, if not the country.

2. Where did all these babies/children come from?! The place is positively heaving with them. It's enough to make me feel slightly embarrassed for having had one, too - I mean, how unoriginal can you get?

3. I always look at the crafty stalls and dust off old fantasies of having my own stall to sell screenprinted t-shirts/knitted things/collected things/cookies. There are lovely stalls there, with people doing those things much better than I ever could, but I still get the nagging, itchy feeling that I should/could get my act together and do something.

I made two small purchases: an iron-on apple patch to go on something for the baby, a hefty 40 pence, and a delicate little brooch made by a sweet-looking woman (can I call her a girl? She was born in 1983) under the name Buddug. Apparently, it's Welsh for Victoria. Her website says she does buttons, which I will definitely look out for next time.