Saturday 10 August 2013

The blue and yellow shop

I had to go in it the other day. Our pillows had become dangerous, and as we were in Toulouse, seemed like a good opportunity.
They've stopped doing rectangular ones: square, yes - about 7,000 choices of duck, goose, hamster-down and pretend stuff, but no rectangular. The human head is not that long in relation to the body and I have never figured out why the French like resting their heads on something so meaninglessly large.
Of course, the other extreme is to lodge your brain-carrier on a giant sausage filled with lumpy pieces of cake, or rock depending on how old the bolster is, or where it came from. I think IKEA do bolsters, but I didn't check the fillings as I know this is not a road I want to go down. What is wrong with rectangular?
I know we, the British, got many things wrong: Jimmy Saville, invading Iraq, arctic roll, etc, but the basic pillow shape is good. Ah yes, but did we used to have bolsters too? I think we did, but generally such things have not survived, along with copper bed-warmers and Wee Willy Winky night caps.
Anyway, I digress . . . my point about the blue and yellow cathedral is that they are now appear to be in a 50s phase; such stuff can be gleaned from just about any charity shop; why buy a new one when when you can spend about one pound fifty and get the real thing! There was whole spawn of glob-shaped 50's coffee tables on display, people running their hands over them and exclaiming as if they were pieces designed by Le Courbusier. Just get yourself down to an auction room, or the Red Cross. Honestly!
Below, some 50's relics keening for a second home down at our local 'flea place' - Parchemin. We have already housed much homeless furniture - T.V table, Hi Fi thing, chests of drawers, kitchen dressers etc, etc from there and similar establishments. In fact, a new (old) three-piece suite is arriving from Terre de Esperance (Land of hope) this week, all for a hundred and twenty euros, inc transport and built-in 'comfortably-used' look.
I do draw the line at a few things: pillows, pants and pressure cookers mainly.


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