Booty

Today GG and I trekked out to Wimbledon (15 minute bike ride, 15 min wait for the train, 15 min train, 15 min walk) to Wimbledon Stadium, where they run greyhounds or 'the Dogs' as they are called.  Not, of course, to witness this travesty of barbarian entertainment (although judging from the posters around the joint it is a très classy event). Instead we went to check out the weekly car boot sale.

A car boot sale is a strangely UK phenomena. It involves everyone driving into a large dodgy looking carpark or field with their boot full of stuff that to get rid of, opening up said boot to display wares, and playing trashy dance music from crappy car speakers.  I think it might only be this last part that is unique to this country.

And did we bring home some booty.  Well, as much as you can get for the grand sum of £6.50.

Item 1, a small 1970's metallic drinks tray featuring a map of the Maltese islands, 50p. Super exciting because we have been there but would never considering purchasing such a tacky souvenir, yet somehow it seems so right 3 years later and right in our home town.

Item 2, a Midwinter green and gold stripe tea cup, £1.  Hardly a standout, but it is green, and I felt bad after the lady rummaged around to pull out a whole box full of the stuff after I picked it up for a quick squiz.

Item 3, the crowning glory, a drawing of a Rough Legged Buzzard, £5.  I've since discovered this is a hawk found in Europe, Asia and North America, with an average wingspan of 134cm and an average total length of 53cm. Thankyou Wikipedia. Its special because its the only hawk of its size to regularly hover over one spot, which (aside from those awesome beaks) is what makes hawks so interesting in the first place. Woe is the hawk who can't even hover. What a loser. This guy was part of a pair, but the his partner wasn't so cool and so he got left behind.

He's hanging in the hallway, which you may never have seen before now. A sunless, dog-legged room with 5 doorways and a warped floor thanks to the leaking roof issue before we moved in. This is the view looking towards our bedroom at the back of the flat.

 

You might have noticed GG's little addition to spice up the hallway decor, a postcard of Rocky, in which it looks like Rocky is holding hands with Michael Jackson circa 2006 wearing a long skirt.

And while I was getting busy with the screwdriver in the hallway, I thought screw it, why not hang the mirror that's been sitting in the corner of the room on a chair for the last 14 months (seen most clearly here, behind the dining room table)?  After all, doesn't matter how many pock marks we put in the walls, they're all getting a new paint job in the next few.

Voila! £35 from Camden market when we first moved over here and I got confused and thought £35 was cheap.  Its a great shape though, and will hopefully reflect a little more light around the place.

Are you loving the industrial-ness of those pipes in the hallway?  They're similar to the one running through our bedroom, but they all originate outside our flat, and are probably whisking away the cooking fumes from all the other tennants.  They all disappear into the laundry cupboard (around the corner to the right in this photo), which is a veritable spaghetti mess of gas, water and electricity pipes and meters, along with the upstairs neighbours poo shute. The joys of apartment living.