Basildon Bound

I've been for a little jaunt to Basildon this morning.  I don't go there very often (about once every couple of months) but I must say I have quite a soft spot for the place. 

It is one of a series of 'New Towns' which were built in the home counties in the 1950s in order to move people out of the East End of London to more 'rural' areas with greater space.  I don't think I've ever been to any of the other 'New Towns' but I assume they are all a bit like Basildon - classic examples of the town planners of the time trying to build the 'town of the future'.  Most of Basildon is sprawling suburbia with wonderful road names like 'Great Spenders, leading to Little Spenders' and 'Matching Green'.  The town centre is completely traffic free - which makes it nice for a wander round - and oddly enough there is a huge tower block of residential flats smack bang in the middle of the shopping precinct!! 

Having been born and brought up on the edge of a city which has a past stretching back to Roman times (and with the Roman baths at Bath being only a few miles away) I find it very odd to visit somewhere which has absolutely no obvious history at all, and where all the buildings date from the same era. But like I said at the beginning I do have a soft spot for Basildon - mainly because it has some wonderful charity shops.

I had quite a good haul today with this large stack of books.

I bought all of them except two with the idea of re-selling them.  Unfortunately, only four of them made it on to Amazon, two were listed on Greenmetropolis, one will be listed on ebay, and the rest will have to go to a charity shop.  I've been selling second hand book via Amazon for a few years now and used to do really well from it.  Sadly, these last few months have seen sales fall right away - I don't know why - maybe it's the time of year or something.

I also picked up these really cute Le Creuset salt and pepper pots in the shape of miniature Le Creuset casserole dishes. 

I was hoping they would be OK for ebay and, having just checked out completed listings, it seems they sell really well - so they were a good find.

I also picked up a couple of T-shirts for DN, nothing spectacular but useful additions to his wardrobe.

Also for DN is this wonderful cuddly Spiderman doll.

DN had specifically asked if I could make him a cuddly Spiderman and I knew I would have huge problems trying to do that, so I was mighty pleased (and hugely relieved) to find this doll in one of the charity shops.  After a quick trip through the washing machine, I'll package him up and post him to DN as a surprise.

Comments

[Gill]

Some great finds there Elizabeth, especially the Le Creuset...they'll sell very well on Ebay I should think.
Hemel Hempstead (where I live) was a new town too, my parents moved here from London in the 1950's as did many of the residents. There is an old town here and some history but most of the town consists of estates surrounding the town centre. Not the most attractive of places but hey ho I don't let it upset me! My dream is to live in a small market town preferably near to the sea....maybe one day :)
I like your china collection, and nice to see it's being used instead of stored away in a cupboard.
Gill