We are, apparently, not worthy

So a holiday post will appear in the near future, I’m sure you’re very pleased to hear. At least those of you who aren’t completely bored witless by my holiday posts will be pleased to hear.

Today, however, an urgent mission of clothing was required. Of my 3 pairs of jeans, 2 had been relegated to ‘work clothing’ because of failure to fit (too big) and appearance of holes. Leaving me with one pair, my so called ‘neat jeans’; and it was these I took on holiday. Neat is somewhat of an overstatement. They were, once. They are Monsoon jeans which I got from some charity shop or other back when I was living in Brizzy, meaning that they’ve given at least 4 years of service. The trailing edge of them had started to disintegrate as a result of my shorter five-fingers and the lazyness of not turning them up; and whilst exploritorising in .foreign two holes spontaneously appeared in the legs. And further examination revealed a hole preparing to appear in a somewhat more delicate area… So it was time, I felt to obtain some new jeans.

I actually thought this before the holiday but the sparse selection in the local charity shop lead us to a failure on that account. So on returning I avowed to continue my hunt; my problem being that buying clothing from a store is (a) expensive and (b) a minefield of ethical disasters* so I prefer to buy from charity stores.

Also, people no longer wear clothes ’til they wear out, they wear them until they’re not-new-anymore, and then give them away, or so it seems. Culture of disposability ‘n all that**.

Anyway, so my quest lead me to the unnavigable town of maidenhead. Occupying at least 4, and possibly 5 or 6 dimensions as it does it took me several attempts to land the hire-vehicle even vaguely near a dimensional crossing leading to the charity shop arena. Having got there I found that it was not quite opening time and spent a little while photographing a street of very nice abandoned houses [photos to follow, as usual]; and then headed back.

Last time I went they were packed (to the gunnels, I believe) with clothing. This time the collection was a little less populated, but some quick tryings-on and swift-no-I-don’t-like-the-colour/shape/cuts managed to get me 2 pairs of Jeans. One I think is a nice fit, one’s stretch fit and I’m not so keen, but makes a handy spare pair…

I also bought a little pyrex dish, because I’d heard that real old pyrex is better than modern pyrex (so if I spot a useful size of dish, I’m inclined to obtain it). However having just read the wikipedia page I’ve found out that EU Pyrex is still borosilicate glass, and so is just hunky doory. Must not buy modern US Pyrex though.

Anyhow.

And I might, just might, have picked up a copy of Long Way Down. I really want Long Way Round, but I thought this might be interesting, and a perfect looking hardback for 4 quid isn’t too bad.

And… I had a charity shop incident. I bought a GameBoyColor. I’ve wanted a game-boy and tetris for a while. While they had no games, I’ve put a bid in (£1.37) on a copy of Tetris for it…

And then I had a very, very, very odd incident.

Many moons ago Nikki gave me a ‘Google’ shirt – having attended the Mac World Expo I think. Now, I was wearing it today – ‘cos it’s a very comfy shirt. I was walking back to the car (somewhat swiftly and sporting an Oxfam bag), when a youngish bloke ahead of me suddenly knelt down in the street and started repeating “We are not worthy, we are not worthy!” (Wayne’s world stylee, with the bending down arms outstretched). I looked behind me assuming (somewhat hopefully) that he had some friend that he’d seen. I studied his face (when he wasn’t looking at the ground) in the hopes that I might recognise him, or that he might be an ex-patient or something. He continued his protestations and I decided to go for ‘walking swiftly onward past the mad person’. Then he added “You have our data! We are not worthy!” to his chant, which meant I finally *got* the reference to the teeshirt…

…smiled at him, and fled.

Anyhow, it’s a work day today, so I must get lunch and get going…

Oooh, I nearly forgot.

[NEWS] Hey Sarah! Kathryn just read a Terry Pratchett book, of her own volition, and moved on to a second one… She was reading bits of it out to me (as one is want to do when reading Pratchett). Apparently the second book (Pyramids (I’ve not read it)) hasn’t held her attention….[/NEWS]

* Where was it made, was it made ethically, is it eco-friendly…were any badgers coerced into making buttons for it…. that kind of thing.
** On one campsite at which we stayed someone had clearly bought a barbeque for the trip, used it and thrown it away. Not a disposable one, no; a big hunk-o-metal one. If things had been less wet I’d’ve probably saved it for us to use (I noticed it the day we were leaving the site and it was full of water and charcoal).