Last week at the 'Coffee and Jumble' I spied a rather nice turquoise-colour Anglepoise lamp for sale. I picked it up and had a look, and soon realised that it was way too heavy for me to carry home in the shopping trolley along with a week's shopping. That lamp niggled and worried away at me all last week and I kept thinking what a fool I was to have left it there - especially when I checked out some of the prices they go for on ebay. And the more I thought about it, the more I decided I wanted that Anglepoise very badly and that I was going to get it home no matter what. Of course, there was always the little matter of it having already been sold.
This week I was down there nice and early and was most disappointed when I walked in and couldn't spot the lamp anywhere. Stupidly I had expected it to be in the same place as it was last week!! Anyway, having got over the initial disappointment I had a quick browse through the boxes of books for sale when, all of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the Anglepoise tucked neatly away under a trestle table. As soon as I'd picked it up one of the helpers came over and explained that as it was an electrical item they were unable to sell it to me ('elf and safety strikes again!), but that they were able to accept a 'donation' from me for it. What sort of 'donation' would I like to make? Well, I was a bit stuck at this point so I offered to 'donate' £2.50. 'Oh no,' said the helper, 'I couldn't take more than £2.00 for it.' So that was a nicely done deal. The helper did explain that the lamp worked fine and that they had tried it out. He then proceeded to fold it up nice and neatly and it fitted in to my shopping trolley a treat.
Back home I gave it a good wipe over and voila! it looks, and works, great.
Further to my annoyance with W H Smith last week about the cost of bubble wrap - and you would have thought I'd have learnt my lesson with that - I went in there again today to buy some envelopes and some thin plastic file pockets which I use as extra protection for books when I'm posting them. Last time I bought a pack of 100 in W H Smith they cost £2.99, this time they wanted £4.99!! No way! I went straight next door to Woolworths where I managed to get 200 (two packs of 100) plastic file pockets for £3.00. With such crazy price hikes I wonder how long it will be before W H Smith announce they are in financial difficulties?
How lucky that nobody else had spotted it's beauty! The colour is wonderful too.
I have abandoned Smiths/Partners/Woollies etc in favour of the Poundshop as I'm watching my pennies these days.
Posted by: French Knots | 07/22/2008 at 02:43 PM