What was I thinking of? Truro on Black Friday!
Dave Meneer has visited our chairity shop 8 Cathedral Lane again - enjoy!!
" Actually it wasn’t too bad once I’d navigated M&S Lemon Quay car park as you do. Then quite a nice stroll to the wonderful CLEAR shop at 8 Cathedral Lane – having a pre - Christmas snoop; may a bit too pre - pre - Christmas as it turns out…a bit early, much more stuff to come in they told me. By the time you read this it will have changed again – a moving Christmas feast, that place
What I did find was, just inside the door, a first edition of “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” – yours for a very modest three-figure sum – 100 odd quid should do it. Sounds a lot but not when you check out the internet as I did and see it going from £200 to £2000! Going . . . going . . . not gone . . . just yet. But hurry. They’ve always been good on books in 8CL – normally around a pound a pop but they change almost by the day – depends who’s passing doesn’t it? Or, rather, who knows to pop in and check the shelves out.
It's the same with jigsaws – especially at this time of year; £4 for some 1000 - piece belters; I haven’t done one for many years but get me searching for the corner pieces and then the straight lines and I’m hooked; sit me with a couple of grandchildren and I’ll never be seen again. A floodlit Eiffel Tower caught my eye (but would drive me mad with its 1000 pieces) and at 500 there was one called “The wonderful Bookshop”. Yes, the picture was of an old school bookshop, lots of shelves and lots of books on them; some the same size, some the same colour – drive you mad faster than Eiffel?
And then, just over there with the ladies’ shoes was THE most magnificent pair of high-heeled, pointy toed boots, maybe worn just once? colour? CAMOUFLAGE! You know how trendy and colourful that pattern can be – originally meant to make you blend in on the battlefield. I don’t think so! It’s from the French “camoufler’” you know – a sort of slang for disguise or blend in which this pair would do nowhere! A statement pair in size – Medium to Large it said on the sole! 5? 6? 7? Come in and check ‘em out ladies . . . or lads maybe. Unique. You’ll never find ‘em, they blend in so well!
Lots of jeans – black and blue, men’s and ladies’; all sizes. And lots of men’s shirts too – buy one get one free. Suits too – they tend to be grey.
And I was that bit early but it was getting festive and will get even moreso before closing day on Saturday Dec. 20th – handmade stockings, rag-wreaths and more hand - made ones to come next week. Unique baubles - a bag of ten for a fiver – take your pick. You can never have too many baubles!
And then my eye caught a hanging advent calendar in the shape of a Christmas tree – about a metre high and half a metre across at the base. Beautiful thing with 25 little pockets beautifully stitched on and embroidered - each about two inches square – one at the top broadening out to seven across the bottom as the 25 days ticked off – all waiting for something to be put in them to intrigue and delight an inquisitive young mind throughout December. A Rolex watch, a diamond ring, an emerald necklace maybe – the choice is yours. Ok, a satsuma, a walnut or one of those mini - Mars bars; a versatile item!
And I can’t leave this and you can’t leave the shop without checking out the surreal window decoration of a full - on nativity scene made from chickens made from folded paper and cardboard: Mary, wise – men, shepherds, the lot and they assured me they’re working on a donkey made from folded paper and cardboard too. A work of art – so the designer/maker told me. I’ve seen some nativity scenes in my time . . . "
Dave Meneer
