Do my wheels look big in this?

No honey, you look great, it really suits you.

Spring hoarding

Today’s op-shop booty will encourage me to practice my hospital corners, dry my dishes, apply sterile dressings to wounds, play chess, learn the mandolin and rescue my touring maps from being trampled to shreds on the floor of my car.

Look no further

...and that should just about cover it

(High St, Thornbury)

Under the house

It pays to look under your mum's house. Not only because you've secretly stored things there that won't fit in your own flat / house / teepee. Of course, you'll have to brave the thought of spiders and rats as you crawl under the ducted heating anacondas, but if you do, you may discover a charming rusty Marx truck like this one! Then you can put it on the shelf to remind yourself how brave you were as a teenager.

Mystery item

Every day is hard rubbish day on my flat lined street. This is mostly ugly but sometimes rewarding. I recently noticed a plastic bag on the nature strip, bulging with promise. Inside I found a bunch of obsolete phone chargers, a pair of scissors and this.....

What is this mystery object? Turns out it is an old acoustic guitar pick-up. Yes, it fits, it works, and now I can grunge-ify any ol’ folk song I choose. Or I can just amplify the dulcet tones of my parlour size guitar. I’m afraid I’m halfway to being that busker that mystifies you on the way home from work.

'Shrooms

For the princely sum of $2.50 I invested in this piece of op-shop-mod-art. 'Shroomadelic! Is this an original design? That dumpy one on the left looks wrong enough to be the unique creation of a slightly bent mind.

Deranged puppets, 1971

The best 5 cents I've ever spent...