Number Five is Alive

Op Shop Road Trip number 5 started on Monday 8th October, 2018.  It was my turn to organise, so the girls had arrived from the Mary Valley the night before and over a few wines some good suggestions had been made. One of these came from my husband Michael (although he can't remember), namely that we look out for books with interesting titles and he would judge which was the best.  Challenge accepted!

Another idea was themed clothing. We decided the first of these would be animal prints, so how appropriate that we were starting at the RSPCA oppy at Wacol.  As we left the car, I said to Jo, "Now no leaving your glasses behind this year".  Prophetic words...

It's a nice little shop with lots of bric-a-brac, and we all found something there, then headed for Goodna.  Lifeline was first and it is a big one, although there are no non-fiction books at all. More successful searching and then on to the big Salvos just down the road.  When my daughter Heather and I visited this shop on the recce a few months ago, there was a young man at the counter who was slightly challenged, shall we say. She bought a DVD and it turns out he is a movie buff.  Heather couldn't escape from the shop for ten minutes.  We walked in and guess who was on duty!  Despite the large range on offer, I found nothing for me there.  

As we were getting into the car, Jo said, "I can't find my glasses". She has two pairs and one case, and was wearing the 'good' glasses.  Dig, dig...no success.  She thought she must have left them at Wacol. Anyway, we headed south on Queen Street to Goodna Street Life, quirky op shop no 1.  I was impressed that the sign outside was made from rubber tubing.

It is designed for community support through very low pricing, as well as fundraising, so there were bargains here to be found. I bought a cross-stitch book for 20c. A 2016 Women's Weekly packed with crosswords and puzzles was free.  They have a simple colour-dot pricing system, where yellow = 10c, pink = 20c etc.  I tried this at my recent garage sale, but couldn't remember which dot meant which meant which price, so the system is flawed.

The change room at this oppy is a pop-up outhouse in the storage room out the back, which is a serious challenge; just ask Heather.

While I was outside going through books, I eavesdropped on a group of local women comparing their stints in prison:  "I kept one eye open every night."

The Lifeline at Bellbird Park was next, and Jo continued her glasses search on the way.  This is an isolated shop, but a good one, and it was on their radio that we first heard the warnings for storms and possible hail.  We kept our eye on the BOM radar from then on, but the rain mostly skirted us.  

Onward to Redbank Plains for lunch and Vinnies, while Jo rang the shop at Wacol to ask about her glasses. No sign of them there.

The shops these days are full of ridiculous shoes, which people buy, wear once, find them impossible to walk in, and then throw out.  I was impressed with the display of studded ones at Redbank Plains, though.  We were all impressed with the whole shop, actually, and gave it our vote for Best of the Day.

The next stop was quirky op shop no 2, Ipswich Community Care Fund at Kruger Village.  I had promised the girls the best change room of the trip in this one.  As Jo hopped out of the car, she found her glasses tucked down next to the seat. Whew! No need for an unscheduled stop at Wacol on the way home.

The shop is tiny, with all of its clothes outside.  A door off to the side leads to their extensive book collection, and the change room is simply a curtained-off alcove in the bookshelves.  My kind of change room, but why were there crutches?

When we had finished, Jo and I couldn't find Jan.  Back into the shop to search again, and then the phone rang. "Where are you? I've searched all over the shopping centre!" It turns out she never realised that the side door led into another part of the shop, so never did see my favourite change room.  

What she did discover, however, was an Islander grocery shop. I have never seen so much tinned corned beef in my life!  There were many other exotic goodies besides.

The clock was ticking and many op shops close early, so we headed for the Big Salvos at Bundamba.  They had changed the layout since my last visit, and not an improvement, I felt.  They still have enormous quantites of clothes, though.

Our final stop for the day was the Lifeline Superstore at Booval.  Earlier in the day, at Bellbird Park, we had spotted a number of thin statuettes of Japanese ladies. On close inspection, they were rather raunchy Japanese ladies. Lo and behold, there were more of them at Booval.

It turned out that I had been rather clever, choosing to start this journey where a lot of the women must be larger than life.  There were so many goodies on the 16-plus racks that we all had plenty of clothes for day two, even me, including our compulsory animal prints.

We hadn't managed to fit in all of the shops on my list, but that's the way it goes.  We headed for the Motel Monaco at North Ipswich, dragged in our bags, and showed off our booty.  We voted the Kruger Village shop the worst of the day,

Jan started receiving messages on her phone about strong wind and hail near her home at Carters Ridge, but the hail came in quantity, not large lumps.  Others were not quite so lucky, but the worst weather was still to come.