SOLD! ITEM #10: BOOK: Perfume by Patrick Süskind

I bought this from Borders one day because I just had to buy something. This was the cheapest book I could find at $9.95.

It took me ages to read this because there is one section where he lives in a cave which I found terribly dull. It doesn’t really add much to the story though, so if you’re going to read this book and are struggling during the cave section, just skip it. It doesn’t matter.

I finished the book in October 2006 and watched the movie in January 2007. The book is better.

And, without trying intentionally to ruin the book for you, it has a killer ending. Big sex scene.

ITEM #9: BAG: Black Audrey Hepburn/Marilyn Monroe handbag

My Mum gave me this handbag because she knows that I absolutely love Audrey Hepburn. I’m fairly indifferent to Marilyn though.

I don’t like bags with a black internal lining so I rarely use this bag.

From memory, it has a mobile phone pocket and a small internal zip pocket.

ITEM #8: BAG: Clear Hamilton Island beach bag

Someone gave this to me on Hamilton Island in 2002 at that conference I organized (see item #5).

This is a great bag for the beach because it is plastic and has a small inside pocket.

I don’t really use it because I’m already mistaken for a tourist in Australia too often. You can’t really blame other people for asking “where are you from” or “where did you learn such great English” when you’re carrying around a Hamilton Island beach bag.

You could also consider gifting this to person mentioned in item #5 (photo frame) but the bag looks a little used so you may have a hard time getting away with this.

ITEM #7: BAG: White PVC handbag

I bought this bag in Sydney in 2001 during my first “business” trip.

If you have a super small mobile phone and don’t wear glasses you could probably use this bag all the time.

I personally prefer a bigger bag because I’m a nerd and like to carry my glasses, an umbrella (we’re in a drought for heaven’s sake) and my diary. You’re not a nerd, so you should consider this bag.

SOLD! ITEM #6: BOOK: The little prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

According to the inside blurb, this book is the most translated book in the French language.

I read this in March 2006 after buying it at the Lifeline bookfest for a couple of dollars. There are two short stories but I never read the second one.

Here’s a quote that I took from the book:

“Judge yourself… that is the most difficult thing of all. It is far more difficult to judge yourself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself correctly, then you are truly a man of wisdom”…

For those who don’t really enjoy reading, there are also some cute little pictures in the book.

ITEM #5: PHOTO FRAME: Green Hamilton Island photo frame

This was a gift from my old boss. We went to Hamilton Island in 2002 for a conference I organized. Personally, I think this was the best event I ever organized.

The photo doesn’t come with the frame. I can’t even remember who that person is on the right.

The next time you go on holiday and someone asks [after you’ve returned] “what did you get for me” you could give them this frame. If they say that you didn’t go to the Whitsundays, you should explain to them that it wasn’t easy to find a nice Hamilton Island photo frame for them in [insert location here] and that you hunted high and low to get them this perfect gift.

DISCARDED - ITEM #4: MAGAZINES: 15 months of Madison magazine

When Madison magazine first came out in March 2005 I subscribed for a year because it was super cheap (something like $40 for a year). I stopped subscribing because I couldn’t read the whole thing in a month because I was subscribing to too many other mags (which may appear as a future items).

I have issues 1 to 16. Sorry, issue 9 is missing.

Since the cycle of fashion is moving so quickly now, I’m sure the clothes listed in 2005 are either back in fashion or considered “vintage” by now so these mags are still probably very helpful.

NOTE: I have since discarded these. They were taking up too much room on the bookshelf. I did remove all the recipes first though!

SOLD! ITEM #3: STUFFED TOY: Dulux dog

J and I went to the RAIA National Awards dinner in Alice Springs in October. The goodie bag at the dinner included this Dulux dog. I gave one to my friend V and now I’ve got one spare.

If you’re renovating your house, you could get this dog and pretend you are a model in a dulux tv advertisement.

SOLD! ITEM #2: BOOK: The truth about Hillary by Edward Klein

I was addicted to the West Wing in 2006 and after watching the final season on TV earlier this year I started to become interested in ‘real’ American politics. So I bought this book at Borders using a $10 off voucher.

In the book I’ve underlined all the words that I wanted to look up in the dictionary. Examples include: obstreperous (page 16), consigliore (page 28), pugnacious (page 29), and gubernatorial (page 33).

I was planning to read this book, then Hilary’s autobiography, and then the books written by the other republican and democrat candidates. I couldn’t get through anything other than this book.

The full list I wanted to read is as follows:

• Hillary Clinton, Living history (Didn’t get past the intro. She loves bragging about herself)
• Barack Obama, The audacity of hope (started this, but couldn’t stick with it because he name drops a lot. And I don’t understand the reference)
• John Edwards, Home: the blueprints of our lives
• Al Gore, An inconvenient truth (saw the documentary, borrowed the book – very environmentally friendly – but didn’t read it)
• John McCain, Character is destiny
• Rudolph Giuliani, Leadership
• Newt Gingrich, Rediscovering God in America
• Mitt Romney, Turnaround
• George Pataki, Pataki: An autobiography
• Mike Huckabee, From hope to higher ground
• Chuck Hagel, Voices of war

If you ever get the chance to read any of the above books, I’d be happy to hear a book review.

SOLD! ITEM #1: BOOK: No one cares what you had for lunch – 100 ideas for your blog by Margaret Mason

My sister T gave me this book on 13 November 2007. She told me about how she saw it in the Dymocks discount bin for $3 and I told her to buy it for me. Now she’s wondering why I’m giving it away.

I have folded the corners down for the ideas that I thought were pretty good. You might see these ideas appear in my future blogs. Or you could quickly nab these ideas so that I don’t spend the rest of my life blogging. I’m sure my boyfriend J will thank you for this.

See www.itadakimasu-eats.blogspot.com for a better understanding of why my sister would think to buy me this book.

What's mine is yours... and this is why

I have been inspired by a book my sister T gave me called “Nobody cares what you had for lunch: 100 ideas for your blog” by Margaret Mason author of http://www.mightygirl.com/

I am going to combine several of her ideas for my new blog. The ideas are:

• Spill everything – catalog the contents of a space that isn’t ordinarily open to the public
• Take inventory – what do you collect? Photograph each item and explain where you got it and why (or whether) you love it
• Clean house – Time to empty your closets and fill up your blog by posting about the things you need to let go of.

I’m planning to move house in about two years time. Between now and then, I will go through my stuff and photograph what needs to find a new home.

I still actually like most of this stuff so it’s no big deal if I’m left with the lot… but I figure that there are people I know (and people they know) who could love this stuff more than me…. Or at least use it more than me.

The stuff is free for you, but if you’d like to make a donation in exchange I will donate all funds raised to Youngcare*. See side bar for current tally.

Everything given away will have to be collected because I don’t want to send anything in the mail or for it to cost me any money.

I’ll aim to post at least one item every work day to this blog… or until I run out of stuff.

My aim is obviously not to make money (so please don’t suggest I put this stuff on ebay), but to make me think more about my consumption habits, and as a fun way to recycle.

Please post a comment if you want any of these items. I’ll let you know in the heading if it has been snapped up.

Enjoy!

* Youngcare's mission is to provide suitable, dignified and relevant lifestyle/accommodation for young Australians with high care needs (http://www.youngcare.com.au/)