I'd rather be playing tennis! - 50 cents

I bought this when I was at St Vinnies last week but saved it for its own post.

Something about me you didn't know: I like odd coffee cups.
 I don't think I have any two the same (well, if I do, I ignore those boring ones). I have a LOT of coffee/tea cups. So many that half of them are in a box in the garage - sorry guys :(

So I saw this unique mug:

Now as you'll see, this was only 50 cents, which I think is a bargain!
It's that white material (uhh, don't know what it's called) and made in the USA. Nice.

I should let you know that I have never EVER played tennis in my life (totem tennis, yes. Real tennis, no) but this was kind of quirky and for 50 cents --- yes please! SOLD! To me!

When I got home and showed my husband he reacted quite strangely.

He HATES this mug so much, he walked past me just now as I was cropping these photos and said "OH GOD NOT THAT UGLY MUG AGAIN!"


"It's the most f*%$ing ugly thing you have ever bought!"


"What is happening with this mug? Is it just going to sit on the counter forever?"

(so much hate for the mug right!?)

 I asked him why he disliked it so much and he said that the man on the mug gave him the creeps.  Observe:

Yeah, a one-armed tennis player with weird perspective does not impress my husband.
I will, however, use this.

Keeping up appearances book - $1

Today I went out for a quick lunch and decided to stop into one of my favourite little op shops that contains geek stuff aswell as the normal clothing, books and bric-a-brac. I've always found something good at this one recycle superstore so I headed in happily.

I spotted a few bits and pieces: a vintage looking penguin toy, single issues of Spider-man and Phantom (no price on them. I hate that) and various 90s trading cards still in packets. I'll take photos of those for another post. This op shop is rather good at having a broad range of geeky items in display cases.

A WILD LINDT BUNNY APPEARS

As I looked around the toy section I found this cutie! Adorable and only $3. No marks. No stitches coming loose. It passed my second hand toy test. Perfect considering I don't often buy bunny toys over easter anyway. It even has a little pouch at the bottom (hehe bottom) where you can put chocolates. There were none in there though. Aw, can't win them all. I snatched it up under one arm and moved onto my next favourite section: Books.

First up I found a Keeping up appearances mini diary for 99c! If you haven't seen the show then you should check it out. We all know an woman like Hyacinth and if you don't then it's probably you. I bought it because I love collecting books. It's the one thing I hoard apart from cute toys. Eep.

The next book I found was a biography. It's based on Madonna and growing up with her. Written, in part, by her brother. For $1.99 I couldn't pass it up for some lunchtime reading. I'm rather interested in how Madonna became to be, how her childhood was and what growing up in her shadow must of been like.

Here is the part where I can convince you that second hand books are awesome. Look at the price comparisons from left as new to the right as second hand. This is how I save money and still enjoy buying, reading and collecting books.

Assorted kids books - $1

This is a pretty good bargain and one that I have visited many times!

My local St Vinnies Op Shop always has a good selection of kids books available. You can either pay 50c per book, or fill a plastic bag with as many books as you want for $1.

Yes, the latter is certainly more of a bargain even though whenever I take up this option I feel like I am ROBBING the poor St Vinnies. As such, I never fill the bag completely up.

(If you were a jerk you could probably fit all the books they have into one bag. And pay a dollar. JERK!)

That would be really mean!

$1!

In the past we have found some pretty awesome books here including some mint condition Transformers books from the 1980s with all illustrations in fluorescent colour! Crazy town! (someone should tell the robots they are not in disguise if they are fluorescent!)

Not in disguise!

If I had to say this Op Shop specialised in a certain kind of book I would say that it has a fantastic range of colouring books that have not been coloured in!

Today's haul...

Today I got (in order of personal excitement):

•  The World of the Future: Robots (late 70s)
• Alvin & the Chipmunks Sticker book (most stickers intact)
• My first Farm Animals Magnet book (most magnets included! Miracle!)
• Aladdin colouring book (completely clean!)
• Pirates of the Caribbean something-or-other book
• Some animal books
• Micro bugs (possibly headache inducing without 3D glasses. Damn)
• Some other random stuff

As soon as I came home and presented this assortment to my husband he quickly honed in on the Robots book and took immediate possession of it.

"I used to look at this book when I was in primary school and this one is in mint condition!" he exclaimed, before taking it back to his study.

He grudgingly gave it back to me to photograph.

(click for larger image. Don't you want to know about the future?)

Can anyone tell me if the "Replicator" has been invented yet?