We found (when I say found, I mean, it has obviously been there for years and years it’s just that I never went there before) a nice charity shop. With ALL THE THINGS. It was excellent. Partner’s eyes lit up and he bought books, because obviously we don’t have enough books and need to increase the amount as a top priority, before we sort out the garden or paint the bedroom or do anything like that.
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| The founder of Emmaus. ++ I am glad to see proper health and safety is being observed with that fire extinguisher |
It is
Emmaus, which is a community which supports people who have been homeless. We managed to miss the shop and walk round the bit where they put the furniture they are sorting for 20 minutes, until one of the companions took pity on me and directed me firmly into the correct bit. Once inside it was like an Aladdin’s cave.
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| Stuff. No need to go to Argos! |
Partner was thrilled to see some nice sturdy bookcases which we might go back and have a look at. I believe we once had a bookcase with some space on it, briefly for a few days in 2003, since then we have been playing Bookcase Catch-Up, so how thrilling to have a new source. (OT. I don’t think people actually make bookcases that you are supposed to put books on. When you see bookcases in magazines they are shown with one book and a vase on them, this is because if you put anything substantial on them the shelves bend. It drives me mad. Who buys a bookcase to put a vase on? If anyone does please let me know and I will rent some of your shelf space for Partner, he will turn up at your door at dead of night inappropriately dressed and muttering, can you fetch Lucan, I want to check a reference. Quick!).
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| Want. Shall I go back? Stop me |
I was this close to buying this tea set. This close. It is very lucky I have no cupboard space otherwise I would have a plethora of questionable seventies pottery.
I always think there are some nice places in Cambridge if you know where to look (i.e. not the centre of town on a Saturday in July. That is not a nice place. It is more of a mental endurance test and eventually a resident will crack and strangle one of the people who try to make you go on punts and then there will be a big fuss).
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8 comments:
Like you, I'm always playing bookcase catch-up. Since I started grad school, in which I basically consume more books than food on any given day, the problem has only worsened. I currently swear by Ikea's Billy bookcases. They are pretty simple and not solid wood, but they are cheap and I have yet to have shelf bend even though I usually double-stack the books on them. It helps if you attach/nail the back very firmly on with extra nails if need be when you put it together.
I admire your restraint in not going for the tea set! I wouldn't have had that self control.
Bookcases are pretty feeble, I broke my bathrrom scales trying to work out just how many books the shelf would cope with based on the weight it said it can carry. As a bonus I can now make up what I weigh as I have not scales
I need more bookcases, but first I would need more walls to put them against...
I'm also slightly fascinated with 70's tea and coffee sets, I just marvel at the fact an object can be so hideous it actually goes through to the other side and becomes attractive again. Similar to Terry Pratchett's theory of "Nurd" (getting so drunk you actually become sober again).
Oh, I love Emmaus - they opened one in Hastings shortly before I left there and moved here (to France, home of Emmaus!)... Brilliant places, and they do such such good and valuable work. Big it up for Emmaus...
You show great wisdom regarding cupboard space: you have none, therefore should not buy a tea set. How interesting and novel. I might be more like Partner, who I bet doesn't worry about bookshelf space before purchasing books. This might be a bookish person's problem.
Your tea set is much lovelier than the one it brought to my mind -- my aunt had the full set of dishes in a pattern in similar colors to the Emmaus set, but featuring a trio of mushrooms on each item. The mushrooms were embossed, if I remember correctly. (it's really quite horrifying to think about them, even after all this time... her kitchen was decorated with a mushroom motif -- OMG, the 70s -- and then 10 years later all my mother's friends had sort of a country chic thing going on in their kitchens -- ruffled curtains and ducks/geese). No wonder my kitchen looks so bare today.
Ok, I would be in some serious trobule if I had found that place - what a find!
Re: bookshelves- I have given up and am simply going to hire someone to come in and build floor to ceiling bookshelves on all the walls of the spare room. When that gets full, we shall simply move.
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