Archive for January, 2011

I emailed my mailing list telling them about the shop. I included this sample of the help I got:

Q. How can I decide which projects to say Yes to and which to say No to?

A. Claudia thought this was easy: it’s about the feeling you have when you hear of them. If it makes you feel happy it is good! If it makes you think too much – in a bad way – it is not good.

Several people replied to my mail asking me to tell them more about the help. Like the comedian and songstress Anne Lillis who said:

“Would be interesting to hear more of the advice you got – maybe that’s another show or something! Does that idea make you feel happy or think too much! ha ha!!!”

I said I would put the advice up on the blog. But maybe I should try and sell it! Or swop it and get some of my things back…. Hmm, I can feel the circular arguments growing up around me. Along with prevarication and procrastination? I once bought a book on procrastination and one of its exercises was to write down a list of 100 things you are putting off. I told a friend about this and she thought writing the list instead of doing things was even more procrastination!

Anyhow, once I have finished procrastinating, and I find a good way to communicate the help (in a post? on a page? grouped by theme or randomly? drip feed gradually or in a complete group? with images of the cards people wrote on? with words alone? ideas anyone?) I will.

I took a trip to Northern Ireland and stayed with R. and E. who are avid charity shop shoppers. They took me to a place called Nik Naks which is described as “The largest Pre-owned Goods Store in N. Ireland” and is a second-hand shop not a charity shop as the money goes to the owner. It’s one of the maddest places I have ever been.

It’s a huge warehouse sized space, and feels like 20 charity shops stuck together, with rows and rows of things. It’s dirty and dusty and some of the shelves aren’t lit at all so you wander through the aisles peering, or picking things up just to work out what they are, if you can.

Some of the areas have been sorted by category, but others are a mix of things with no order except the order you can put on it yourself. A pile of 1960s discarded plastic things here, over there some 1970s appliances, and next to them some bric-a-brac from several decades, entangled.

We browsed for ages, without seeing a member of staff. When we knew which knick-knacks we wanted to buy we had to hunt for someone to pay. We decided it was the man asleep on one of the couches in the furniture aisle and R. woke him up. He didn’t seem surprised, maybe he sleeps there regularly. It threw me a bit and put me off my haggling. I showed him my box of goods and said “4 pounds please”. He said nothing and I jumped in again with “No, 3 pounds!” He told me that I was going about bartering the wrong way, not letting him get a word in and I had to pay him my first offer of 4.

Nik Naks was a bit overwhelming, I don’t usually find second hand shops distressing but this made me think about all the possessions I’m going to leave behind me. There were so many things and no hint of the people who owned them.

It reminded me of the woman I met in St James’ hospital recently. She told me how she had almost died suddenly from an heart condition and all she could think about as she lay in her ward bed, were her kitchen appliances sitting at home, and how they’d go on working after she died.

It’s a must for prop hunters and anyone who loves to browse, especially in the dark! Have a look here Nik Nak Shop or in the blog Journey section.