I spent a great deal of yesterday waiting for the salvation army truck to come and take away a table and Joan’s giant old dresser as part of our multi-staged garage clean out. The dudes wouldn’t take the table because it had a couple of (small) chips in the veneer (being that I’d guess that it is over 60 years old, you’d expect a small bit of wear and tear). I pointed out that I had seen stuff in infinitely worse condition in salvos stores, but they were un-moved. They are apparently now taking much more of a hard line with collections, which I’m a little baffled by, because you don’t go to the Salvos to acquire furniture in mint condition.

They were also initially reluctant to take the dresser, because I’d removed the mirror to make carrying easier and I pointed out there was a chip in the glass at the bottom. I had to do a great deal of persuading that the chip could not be seen when the mirror was attached. We also managed to offload a box of books, old sewing patterns, a vcr and other assorted miscellany.

I think we’re going to have to put the table on the street and call the council to remove it. Hopefully someone will take it and love it in the interim.

So after the Salvos dudes had left, I ventured out into the quite dreadful heat and walked to St Vinnies, where I found something I have been looking for for YEARS and have not been able to find anywhere in Australia – a sweater dryer! Vintage in original packaging!

Thanks universe!!

I also grabbed stuff for my newest project – which is to expose myself to a variety of reading material that I would not ordinarily choose for myself – everything is fair game. The book also has to be inexpensive, I should pay no more than $5 a book.

$4 worth of books, including a pre-1965 schoolgirl novel for Joan’s collection.

Kicking off the project:
Judith McNaught: Someone to watch over me
John Grisham: The Client
Peter Høeg: Miss Smilla’s feeling for snow
Roger Moore: Roger Moore as James Bond (an account of the filming of Live and Let Die)

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