These posters, originally
known as ‘Woolworths posters’, have become a design classic, epitomising the
decline of the high street. I still have one of the originals from that dark
Christmas of 2008 that I rescued from the Redcar branch. Who could have predicted
that they would still be with us six years later? This of course ruins my
chance of Ebay success with mine. As I took the above picture today, I met the
best photo-bomber ever.
If they could bottle the smell
of second hand bookshops (and record shops) then that would be the best selling
scent among the sort of people who frequent such establishments, by which I
mean us cool kids. Mandi wasn’t working today, the time-and-a-half train not
stopping at her station this week, so we spent the day simply meandering around
the shops in no particular rush. Sometimes after a busy week it is good to take
a day off and just do nothing productive. If the weather hadn’t been very nice,
or if Mandi had been working, then I would have spent the day in the office
working. However, it doesn’t matter how far behind I get, sometimes I just want
to give myself a rest from it all and come back refreshed. Besides,
self-employed people don’t see any extra benefit in working at the weekend.
If I had been on my own I
would have gone to Rob’s Record Mart for a bit of crate-digging, I haven’t been
in there for a while and I’d hate to become that person who never goes in but
one day gets all nostalgic when it is announced that they are closing, (they
are not closing). Mandi finds the shop too claustrophobic so instead we did the
rounds of charity shops buying books. I’ve no idea when I’ll ever get the
chance to read them of course, but I should give more time over to reading as
it is something that becomes so easy to neglect. My haul for the day was the
simple yet interesting array of autobiography that I mentioned yesterday; At My Mother’s Knee by Paul O’Grady, Tracks Of My
Years by Ken Bruce, The Bonus Of Laughter
by Leslie Crowther (a Nottingham man), and Driving Miss Smith
by Warren Lakin, a book written about his life with his partner, the late Linda
Smith.
Also, just to prove how eclectic
my musical tastes can be, I threw caution to my reputation as a broadcaster of
cool alternative music and prepared to hand in my John Peel badge, and bought
this:
As it mainly contains songs
from her films, and was released in 1981, I assume it was brought out in time
for the Christmas shopping market. Either that or it came out in the run up to
Mother’s Day.
My favourite purchase of the
day though, was one of those books that you see and immediately can’t believe
that such a thing exists. A lot like the magazines that are used as guest
publications on the missing words round of Have I Got News For You.
A cook book for dogs. Yes, a cook book for dogs.
Apart from the feeling that I
spoil Jack, I eventually got to wondering about the possibilities that this
book could give me, (never able to take a day off work without thinking about
work). Jack is a pain in the arse in the kitchen when we’re preparing food, which
is my fault for giving him stuff that he shouldn’t have, so if he saw me
cooking a meal and then letting him have it he would expect that all the time.
It won’t happen this year as I have too much on the go, but I feel an online video
series coming on!
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