15/12/18: Music books (North London Hospice)

North London Hospice, Whetstone. Left to right: Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Roxy Music, Johnny Marr, Keith Moon, Fleetwood Mac, John Lydon. I bought the Roxy and Zeppelin books. I already have the Moon, Mac and Lydon.

22/11/18: Daily Mail Thatcher mug (Geranium Shops for the Blind)

Geranium Shops for the Blind, West Kensington.

17/11/18: Elvis Presley DVDs (North London Hospice)

North London Hospice, Whetstone.

28/10/18: Borough of Broxbourne road sign (boot sale, Brookmans Park)

Brookmans Park boot sale.

13/10/18: CD shelf (North London Hospice)

North London Hospice, Whetstone. Loads of good stuff here today: Paul Simon, the complete Simon & Garfunkel, Dylan, Van, Beatles, Beach Boys, Joan Baez. Bruce Springsteen and so on. It was a bit like finding out that someone had raided my own collection and taken it to the charity shop.

Wait a minute...

07/10/18: Model with hat (North London Hospice)

North London Hospice, East Barnet.

09/08/18: Books from Holborn Library book sale (20p each)

28/06/18: Frank Sinatra (British Red Cross)

British Red Cross, West Kensington. A lot of Sinatra and Dean Martin.

27/06/18: My new favourite charity shop (Geranium Shops for the Blind)

Geranium Shops for the Blind, High Street Kensington. There was a huge cow sitting on a chair.

17/06/18: Polar bear (boot sale, Brookmans Park)

Brookmans Park. Rather disturbing, especially since it was a real one.

07–08/06/18: Stack of 50p CDs (Geranium Shops for the Blind)

I was in High Street Kensington and tried the Oxfam. The CDs were priced at £2.99. I know it’s High Street Ken, where different rules apply and all that, but that still seems excessive for a CD these days.

Better bargains were to be had (just a few metres away and across the road) in Geranium Shops for the Blind, where I was able to buy the following CDs for 50p each:
• Booker T. & The MG’s – In the Christmas Spirit
• The Who – Tommy
• Marillion – Misplaced Childhood
• Mark Knopfler – Local Hero (the film soundtrack)
• Paul McCartney – Back in the World Live (a double set)

They also had a Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg album I would have liked, but it had the wrong disc inside the box. When I told the three kindly old people behind the till about this, the man tossed the mismatched items straight into the bin. (Let’s hope the correct disc doesn’t show up in another box and prompt a similar query from another customer.) There was a fee for using the card machine unless I spent £3, so I bought a £1 book to take the overall total to £3.50 – Michael Moorcock’s “Sci-fi Masterwork” Dancers at the End of Time.

I was so pleased with that little lot that I went back the next day and bought another CD – Ultimate Prince (a 28-track 2-CD compilation of hits and rare tracks released soon after his death in 2016.

When I was at the till getting ready to pay for Prince, the nice old lady said they had some other CDs and pulled out a large plastic bag for me. I went through those (along with another woman, who also seemed suddenly keen to rummage and possibly as thrilled as I was) and bought the following 50p bargains:
• The Beatles – Revolver
• Bruce Springsteen – Born in the U.S.A.
• Simon & Garfunkel – Greatest Hits
• Donna Summer – A Love Trilogy
• Donna Summer – Once Upon a Time
• The Bangles – Everything
• Tears for Fears – The Seeds of Love

I’m not sure I really want the Tears for Fears album, but clearly I had got slightly carried away in the excitement. Likewise, it turns out I already had the Bangles CD. But despite that, this was my best charity shop experience since Emmaus at All Saints (see HERE).

03/05/18: Life for Rent (Emmaus)

Emmaus, Chipping Barnet. Dido's Life for Rent (2003) sold 12 million copies. Quite a few of them can now be seen in UK charity shops.

23/04/18: 1980s vinyl (North London Hospice)

North London Hospice, Whetstone. No Parlez is one of the most common charity shop LPs (see HERE). Of a similar-ish vintage are the second Bucks Fizz LP (Are You Ready, 1982) and a 12" of Madonna's "La Isla Bonita" (1987).

19/04/18: Margaret Thatcher plate (All Aboard)

All Aboard, North Finchley. Price: £5.

10/03/18: Bond books (North London Hospice)

North London Hospice, Whetstone. Never read a Bond novel. Are they worth a go?

25/02/18: Celine Dion (Dogs Trust)

Dogs Trust, Whetstone. They seemed to have pretty much the complete Celine Dion discography on CD. Unfortunately, I can't stand her music.

24/02/18: The Who by Numbers (Cancer Research)

Cancer Research, North Finchley. Good to see another No Parlez. It is still THE charity shop LP. I bought the Heaven 17 album and the Sarah McLachlan CD. The album by The Who was missing the disc. But next to the empty sleeve was a different record called The Story of The Who – in badly scratched condition. I went to the till and asked if they had the record for The Who by Numbers and the sleeve for The Story of The Who, but they didn't, so they gave me both for free. So now I have an unplayable Who album in the wrong cover.

10/02/18: Carly, Art and Doris (Barnardo's)

Barnardo's, Whetstone.

10/02/18: Bruce Springsteen mugs (North London Hospice)

North London Hospice, Whetstone. It's not often that you see a Bruce Springsteen mug in a charity shop, but today I saw two. I was slightly tempted to buy them, but only slightly.

28/01/18: Royal wedding magazines (North London Hospice)

North London Hospice, North Finchley. These are the special souvenir issues of Radio Times and its rival, TV Times, brought out the week of the royal wedding of Charles (the Prince of Wales) and Lady Diana Spencer on 29th July 1981. They were going for £2 each, which may have been a bargain. That said, there would have been many millions printed. Of course the smiles and innocence would not last for long, but at the time it was presented as a modern-day fairytale. In 1992 they would be separated, in 1996 they would be divorced and in 1997 Diana would die in a car crash in Paris.

28/01/18: New charity shop in North Finchley

A new charity shop is always a cause for celebration. This RSPCA (Finchley, Golders Green, Hendon and District Branch) has just opened in North Finchey.

14/01/18: Groovy Baby Hippie costume (North London Hospice)

North London Hospice, Whetstone. Five pounds "for a far out party...man!"