Ginger root in the shape of Makka Pakka

People claim to find religious and celebrity faces in all sorts of things. Recently there has been Kate Middleton on a jelly bean; famously there has been Mother Teresa in a currant bun and Jesus in a slice of toast, less famously there has been the face of Mother Teresa in a gallstone. Seeing faces in things is a type of pareidolia.

Now to add to this ever growing list is a piece of ginger root in the shape of Makka Pakka! It was kindly delivered to my by the kind people at ASDA. It certainly made unpacking the shopping more interesting.

For those of you not in the know, Makka Pakka is a character from the BBC's children's show In The Night Garden, much loved by toddlers, students and some middle aged women.

The photo of the perhaps soon to be famous Makka Pakka ginger root:

The merits of (charity) shopping

When I was a child and didn't have a big appetite I used to eat off a plate that looked like the above. My mum also had a few other pieces of the set. I have fond memories of the poppy plate because it reminds me of both my mum and my childhood.

As a depressive I find it a bit of a pick me up to have a bit of retail therapy. Fortunately I don't suffer from bipolar disorder and don't get too carried away. It is even more of a thrill when you can say you've bagged an absolute bargain.

Charity shopping is akin to shopping in TK Maxx. You have to be prepared to rummage. Sometimes there will be gems and other times there will absolutely bugger all. It also depends on where your charity shop is. The Oxfam in Cheltenham was fabulous, I bought many a brilliant book from there when on holiday. The charity shops in Stirling were pretty good because they contained a lot of student cast offs and also those of some of the fairly rich folk that lived in the area. I can't imagine anything of the Queen's ended up in them though. In Carlisle I try to buy most things from the shops on Botchergate as items are priced much cheaper than in the ones in the town centre. For example you might get a set of three cups and saucers for £2.50 on Botchergate whereas in the town centre it might cost you upwards of £5. I don't think I will ever find a bargain as good as the coat I bought though - £2.75 which is amazing for a massive winter coat, and astounding once I saw the label inside and saw it was Aquascutum!

On the day I bought the Aquascutum coat (some time in late 2006) I saw a lovely dinner service in the window of a charity shop that had unfortunately closed for the day. It was made in the 60s/70s and had a green and blue bold floral motif in the centre. It was gorgeous and £10. As I'd recently moved from Stirling, and was just setting up home properly after graduating I really wanted a nice set of plates. I wondered how the hell I would get it home as I didn't have a car and didn't really have any friends in the area yet. My mum came up on another shopping trip to Carlisle very soon afterwards and went in the shop but alas someone else had nabbed it! It must have been charity shop karma saying that I couldn't get two such good bargains...

In April 2007 I blogged about trying to find a milk jug in the charity shops and to no avail. I resorted to trusty eBay instead. I saw one with a lovely retro paisley-ish pattern on it and instantly recognised it as being by the same pottery (J & G Meakin) as the poppy plate because of the similarity in colours. I bagged it for a bargainous £4.50 including postage.

Three years on my friend Sara and I have been pottering around the town centre and been for a coffee. We decide to walk home down Botchergate to browse the charity shop windows. They weren't open as it was a Sunday but we noticed a nice cake stand for her as she intends to have a retro tea party stall at Solfest this year. Further down the road there was a part dinner service in exactly the same pattern as my milk jug!




It was priced £20 for the lot. Although the photo above is not of my actual dinner service, it is identical in content. However I only have one jug and no sugar basin. Altogether there were six dinner plates, six lunch plates, seven side plates, two serving dishes with lids, serving platter and one jug. Bargainous! Especially as I came across this site when looking for photographs and you can pay £20 for one piece! The actual pattern of my set is below, called Madrid:


I swithered overnight whether I should bother going back today to buy the set as I have enough plates really. After splitting possessions with Vince I had needed to buy a few more plates and bowls and got a rather lovely set from Wilkinsons. Did I need the plates or the £20 more? Would I kick myself if I didn't buy them? Sara sent me a text message asking if I wanted to go see if they were still there this afternoon as she was bored and wanted to get out of the house for a bit, having no plans for her day off (lucky part timers). I decided that if someone hadn't beat me to it this time it was a sign I should buy them, so they are currently drying on my draining rack!

The ticking of time

Yesterday was my 24th birthday. I took the day off work to spend with my mum and go shopping. We had lunch out and I spent almost all of my birthday money.

I had a makeover done by the woman on the Benefit stall in House of Fraser. This was purely accidental and not booked. We were just browsing and the woman said why browse when you can try it on, would you like a makeover. Yes please, I said, it's my birthday. So I got made up using so many products (much more than I would normally wear) which had I bought everything would have cost about £150 easily. My mum bought me a purple mascara which I had been looking for for ages. I looked really nice and glowing with lovely greeny purple smokey eyes.

I then hit New Look and bought linen trousers and skirt and an organic cotton cardigan. My mum (who really shouldn't have bought me any more things having bought me a mac and the mascara) got me a lovely green and white summer dress.

We were ratching around charity shops and bric a brac stalls in the market trying to find a nice 70s milk jug but no luck. I might try ebay... We had lunch in Carlisle Cathedral's "Prior's Kitchen" which does very nice home-cooked food using local produce as much as possible.

I then got a shirt in H & M which is a cross between a shirt and a basque in that it has hook and eye fastenings up the front. I tried in vain to get some light summery tops that I could wear for work but all of them were too low cut and booby.

Good old TK Maxx came up trumps as I bought YSL Nu for £25 which full price is £60. I cannot afford this and it smell so nice. I still have plenty left of the bottle Vince got me for Valentines Day last year (also from TK Maxx) but you have to grab these things while they're there.

Then in the evening I went to the cinema to see 300 (which I might do a separate blog about) with Vince, a friend from work and her boyfriend. A nice round off to the day.

The only downside to the day was that two buttons fell off the above mentioned mac and I hate sewing buttons. Plus it's disgusting as full price it was £69 - just because you buy something in the sale for £34.50 doesn't mean the buttons should fall off.