Things I've Done Lately That Don't Involve Nearly Dying
or: Reliving My Teenage Years
I've got it down to a fortnightly round-up, now we're getting somewhere!
I went back to sunny Berkshire over the Easter weekend to see my family. As I was prepping the car for the drive home, I noticed that I'd lost a hubcap at some point during the week, which had also taken the tyre valve cap with it when it decided to depart from my wheel. I called my dad and asked him if I should bother replacing them before driving home. Little did I know that this would be the least of my automotive-related problems this weekend!
This was the first time I'd been home since Christmas, and the first time I'd ever driven through my old neighbourhoods by myself. It was kind of a strange experience, after nearly a quarter of a century being in the passenger seat.
The first thing I did when I got home was have a really long chat with my mother. We get on a lot better now that I no longer live at home, and my dad says that she's mellowed out a lot recently. When I was talking to him a few days ago, my dad tried to remember the last time they had a row - and he actually could not remember. That is really big news.
I spent a lot of time over the weekend going through my toys. Those of you who have been around a few years might remember seeing pictures of my room with shelves full of action figures. I had some sort of display up ever since I started collecting over a decade ago. Now that I am no longer there, those rows of heroes from the four-colour page have been relegated to boxes, as dust and sunlight will do to them what even their villainous counterparts could not manage.
My mind links music and memories very strongly and listening can often be like Quantum Leaping. I hear a song and I am thrown back to a particular time or place - maybe the first time I ever heard it, or just a period where I listened to it frequently. I remember what it was like to be me then, a small snapshot of my own personal zeitgeist. Opening those boxes of toys produced a very similar effect.
The main reason for me breaking open those boxes was that I need some spare cash, and some of the toys from one particular range that I am less attached to - Marvel Legends - have appreciated slightly in value since I bought them new off the shelf. Even though I'm not as fond of them as of some others in my collection. it was still hard to pick out ones to get rid of. I'm not going to exaggerate quite so much as to say everything I've got to show for some of my younger years is in that collection, but it was my main hobby for a number of years. Many things in my collection are linked in my mind to school, to friends, to lovers, to holidays, to adventures.
The Easter weekend usually roughly marks the start of the car boot sale season, as the weather becomes warm enough for people to be able to drag themselves out of bed to stand in a field early on a Sunday. I know that I am not excessively common in being someone who is willing to get up at 7am on a weekend in order to rummage through piles of other people's crap, but I love junkhunting. One of the things that I was looking forward to being able to do after passing my driving test was the ability to get to car boot sales, as I hadn't been to one in a few years.
So on Sunday morning I headed up to Caversham, where there was apparently a sale happening. These days I don't get my hopes up as much as I used to, as the advent of eBay and those "cash in the attic" type TV programmes has led to much slimmer pickings than when I first started. However, that day I struck out! A guy was selling a whole pile of boxed Simpsons playsets and loose figures, so I bought him out. I paid £100 for all the boxed stuff and £15 for the loose figures, and I should be able to make at least that again in profit.
So my room is currently filled with large boxes of stuff that I need to get rid of! I'm going to take a picture so you know what it looks like to have enough Simpsons toys to build a new wing onto your house.
On Monday morning I went to another sale, five minutes' bike ride from my house, that is on every Bank Holiday Monday. I found nothing, but I did come away with two very nice pieces of news. Firstly, I saw a familiar figure flipping through a box of vinyl - it was Jim, the owner of Just Imagine Memorabilia in Reading. He used to have his shop as part of an antiques centre, located upstairs in a wonderful old barn, which I first discovered when I was thirteen or fourteen. I absolutely adored that place, but sadly the barn was torn down a few years ago and he moved across the road to a somewhat less exciting modern retail unit. I was delighted to find out that the recession hadn't sunk him, as there are very few places left like his nowadays.
The second welcome sighting was that of my school best friend's dad, whom I haven't seen since I moved down south. Stuart has sold antiques as a hobby for many years, and he used to take my friend and I to what were my first car boot sales. It was great to hear that he is now semi-retired and happily taking his side business to a higher level.
I'm feeling very nostalgic and I think there might be a toy post forthcoming this weekend.
I've got it down to a fortnightly round-up, now we're getting somewhere!
I went back to sunny Berkshire over the Easter weekend to see my family. As I was prepping the car for the drive home, I noticed that I'd lost a hubcap at some point during the week, which had also taken the tyre valve cap with it when it decided to depart from my wheel. I called my dad and asked him if I should bother replacing them before driving home. Little did I know that this would be the least of my automotive-related problems this weekend!
This was the first time I'd been home since Christmas, and the first time I'd ever driven through my old neighbourhoods by myself. It was kind of a strange experience, after nearly a quarter of a century being in the passenger seat.
The first thing I did when I got home was have a really long chat with my mother. We get on a lot better now that I no longer live at home, and my dad says that she's mellowed out a lot recently. When I was talking to him a few days ago, my dad tried to remember the last time they had a row - and he actually could not remember. That is really big news.
I spent a lot of time over the weekend going through my toys. Those of you who have been around a few years might remember seeing pictures of my room with shelves full of action figures. I had some sort of display up ever since I started collecting over a decade ago. Now that I am no longer there, those rows of heroes from the four-colour page have been relegated to boxes, as dust and sunlight will do to them what even their villainous counterparts could not manage.
My mind links music and memories very strongly and listening can often be like Quantum Leaping. I hear a song and I am thrown back to a particular time or place - maybe the first time I ever heard it, or just a period where I listened to it frequently. I remember what it was like to be me then, a small snapshot of my own personal zeitgeist. Opening those boxes of toys produced a very similar effect.
The main reason for me breaking open those boxes was that I need some spare cash, and some of the toys from one particular range that I am less attached to - Marvel Legends - have appreciated slightly in value since I bought them new off the shelf. Even though I'm not as fond of them as of some others in my collection. it was still hard to pick out ones to get rid of. I'm not going to exaggerate quite so much as to say everything I've got to show for some of my younger years is in that collection, but it was my main hobby for a number of years. Many things in my collection are linked in my mind to school, to friends, to lovers, to holidays, to adventures.
The Easter weekend usually roughly marks the start of the car boot sale season, as the weather becomes warm enough for people to be able to drag themselves out of bed to stand in a field early on a Sunday. I know that I am not excessively common in being someone who is willing to get up at 7am on a weekend in order to rummage through piles of other people's crap, but I love junkhunting. One of the things that I was looking forward to being able to do after passing my driving test was the ability to get to car boot sales, as I hadn't been to one in a few years.
So on Sunday morning I headed up to Caversham, where there was apparently a sale happening. These days I don't get my hopes up as much as I used to, as the advent of eBay and those "cash in the attic" type TV programmes has led to much slimmer pickings than when I first started. However, that day I struck out! A guy was selling a whole pile of boxed Simpsons playsets and loose figures, so I bought him out. I paid £100 for all the boxed stuff and £15 for the loose figures, and I should be able to make at least that again in profit.
So my room is currently filled with large boxes of stuff that I need to get rid of! I'm going to take a picture so you know what it looks like to have enough Simpsons toys to build a new wing onto your house.
On Monday morning I went to another sale, five minutes' bike ride from my house, that is on every Bank Holiday Monday. I found nothing, but I did come away with two very nice pieces of news. Firstly, I saw a familiar figure flipping through a box of vinyl - it was Jim, the owner of Just Imagine Memorabilia in Reading. He used to have his shop as part of an antiques centre, located upstairs in a wonderful old barn, which I first discovered when I was thirteen or fourteen. I absolutely adored that place, but sadly the barn was torn down a few years ago and he moved across the road to a somewhat less exciting modern retail unit. I was delighted to find out that the recession hadn't sunk him, as there are very few places left like his nowadays.
The second welcome sighting was that of my school best friend's dad, whom I haven't seen since I moved down south. Stuart has sold antiques as a hobby for many years, and he used to take my friend and I to what were my first car boot sales. It was great to hear that he is now semi-retired and happily taking his side business to a higher level.
I'm feeling very nostalgic and I think there might be a toy post forthcoming this weekend.