moseleymoles on In which Mr Moles muses on his life through objects
Recent changes chez Moles have thrown more focus onto the shelves, racks and piles of stuff that we – chiefly I – have filled our des res with over the years. The re-organisation of the Front Room has led Ms Moles to make what she would like to think is a ‘full and final settlement’ of the space allocated for CDs/vinyl/books/comics/DVDs. That settlement in full:
The DVDs not to exceed their allocated shelving. Roughly 650 DVDs worth.
The fiction shelving not to exceed their allocated shelving. Approximately 800-900 including overflow onto the floor below and behind the sofa.
Non-fiction and vinyl not to exceed their allocated shelving. Vinyl is one area Ms Moles does chip in with approx. a third of the total. And no, we may have been together 30 odd years and produced two offspring but those collections remain unmerged.
New shelving to be provided in the front room as part of its redecoration for the CDs – I would reckon between 1500-2000 (maybe 300 Ms Moles). And for the comics – around 2500 (er…all mine, 90% 2000AD).
Though I instinctively bridle, I know that this is for a fifty-something is enough. I’m fully in a new phase now: we’re in collection management rather than acquisition. So how did we get there? Come with me as I attempt to unravel the Six Ages of Collecting Person Like Me
ONE: AND SO IT BEGINS
You know my parents stuff. It’s rubbish. I need my own stuff, in my own room.
The school-era young collector is characterised both by penury and by a ferocious appetite to acquire. These two are of course in opposition to one another, and thus there are endless hours that can be spent in second-hand and charity shops. Because the one thing young people have no-one else does is time, lots of it. There are updated versions of this – daughter Moles for example is a devotee of the 2 for £3 sections of Music Magpie.
PORTRAIT OF THE COLLECTOR AS A SERIOUS YOUNG MAN OR WOMAN
ELO? What was I thinking. No, I’ve never liked ELO. They’re rubbish.
The transition begins in sixth form and is in full flow by university. Taste is everything. In my case it was punk, post-punk or nothing. Those copies of Out of the Blue and the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack are either hidden away under the bed at home or churned at Record and Tape Exchange. There are of course some gems that get culled, leading later to that most bittersweet of feelings, Collector’s Regret. Cashflow is still tight, as there’s beer to be bought, so admission to the collection (which is on public display as a potential Opposite Sex Attractor) is probably at its very hardest to gain. That and taking it home every term-time and back again.
THE FIFTY-POUND PERSON
Ah the world of work. Again, a double-edged sword for the collector. On the plus side there is Actual Money to spend on product that hasn’t been preloved. On the negative side time is now no longer free. Hence the lunch-hour spree and the need to drop money on some stuff in the next thirty minutes, before I have to go to the staff meeting. Job Promotions and renting, like actual places with more than one room, can super-size this process, where the collection is expanding as never before. The collector at this stage is a sucker for technology changes and upgrades: what buy everything again on blu-ray I bought on DVD 5 years ago. Of course, that seems reasonable. Even necessary. Sans mortgage, sans childcare the collector will never again be able to drop cash with so little thought.
SETTLING DOWN
S/he’s the one. They love you, but how do they feel about the boxes? On one side there’s two suitcases of clothes and a box of saucepans. On the other side an estate car full of Golden Age Marvel and Northern Soul. This leads to a new impulse: I’ll Be Good. I will. I promise I will. We can’t have a row like that again.
For the first time this results in Shadow Collections: boxes of stuff with labels on lurking in attics, cellars and spare rooms. Out of sight and thus not really here. To be half-forgotten about, until one bank holiday when it becomes absolutely essential to local those Alan Moore-era Swamp Thing comics that were stashed away a decade ago.
KIDS: COLLECTING NOW FOR THE FUTURE
It’s a warzone. I mean honestly in the sea of lego, biscuit crumbs, Tommy Tippees and nappy bins who cares about your complete collection of Fabric mix CDs in their shiny metal boxes. Your living room is at absolute breaking point as a world-beating collection of My Little Ponies fights for space on the shelves. One storming row about a set of jammy fingerprints on that pristine copy of The White Album is guaranteed – because what’s really important right?
There is another side though:
I mean I’m not doing this stuff just for me anymore. Someday they’ll want to watch ALL the Futurama episodes right, so we’ll need those.
The collector acquires both an altruistic purpose and a newly lengthened horizon: in a decade we can watch the Marx Brothers together: in fifteen years you’ll be ransacking my shelves during English Literature A-level; and those early Pink Floyd albums are Your Actual Inheritance.
NO IT REALLY IS QUALITY OVER QUANTITY THIS TIME – I MEAN HOW LONG HAVE YOU ACTUALLY GOT LEFT WITH ALL THIS STUFF?
So here we are. 640 DVDs at one a week would be 11 years to watch them all once through. 1500 books which would be just under 20 years at my current rate. There’s a spreadsheet to cap the collections on a ‘one in, one out’ basis.
I feel the seventh age may be giving it all away, as I enter my Assisted Living Unit with only 4 Philip K Dick novels, the Hounds of Love and Barry Lyndon for company. But I’m not there just yet.
A favourite saying of my offspring is ‘No One Cares’. They’re right. No-one does care about your Fabric mix CDs. Except you. And them once you’re gone and they have to try and dispose of them. So, please yourself. Don’t piss off those around you. Respect the shelving. And don’t get me started on the digital. That’s another post altogether.
At least you’re collecting interesting things. Check out this poor bastard. Warning: shelf-porn
.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-47828346
Excellent piece, btw.
Great OP, but has a collection ever worked as an opposite sex attractor?
It’s really an excuse to invite them in. And as Heppo asserts in his much heralded tome on vinyls, in those days that was all there was, a record collection – put a record on and take it from there. A seduction tool as it were for the right sort. A head as a double entendre. Not that that ever happened to me.
Agree. And it does work . (Or did.)
Isn’t collecting and completing just an expression of the fear of death? I read that somewhere.
Kondo your collection – hold each item and keep only those that ‘Spark Joy’
My advice, [not that you asked] sell up and spend the money on a dream holiday with Ms Moles
Excellent work. The Afterword demographic encapsulated.
I held off culling my collection but at 62 I am starting to think that David Mansfield solo and those Mark Almond records arent needed. Catch is everyone else probably tbinks so too.
culling is good definitely, or as I like to pretentiously think of it, making space for future purchases. On the out-pile this week:
CDs – Lightning Seeds and Madder Rose
Vinyl – Compositions by Anita Baker, double live album by Bob Seeger and the Silver Bullet Band.
Comics – 4 x Cheval Noir anthology
Ms Moles raises a sarky eyebrow, but Rome wasn’t disassembled in a day.
Is the Bob Seger double album “Live Bullet”? That’s a pretty good album to be dumped in the out-pile. Put it back in your lovingly curated collection, moseley!
I think limiting shelf space is a good thing to do. But regarding books, if you have read them and are unlikely to read them again, then it is pretty pointless keeping them. Donate to charity shops.
Absolutely. There is a donate shelf in the utility room where – most recently The Lightning Seeds greatest hits and Madder Rose by Madder Rose are resting prior to their last journey (to Oxfam).
A Lightning Seeds CD in Oxfam – it’s the Leo Sayer Timeless Flight LP de nos jours.
Or your local library. You’ll miss ’em when they’re gone!
Great post. I am the stage where, at just gone 69 and staring down the barrel of my 70s (hopefully), I realistically don’t need any more. I know in heart of hearts that there is stuff I will never listen to again….hell, there’s stuff I bought and never listened much to in the first place…and the thought of it all being carted down to the Chazza so some lucky bastard can find my signed Dr. Feelgood LP or Warren Zevon CDs or my Led Zep 1 first pressing for a quid makes me shudder. Do I still buy stuff…? What do you think….
I agree @NigelT and yet it is a sure fire banker that if you discard a cd you will end up wanting to hear it and cursing yourself like a bastard for getting rid of it. I did that with a Victoria Williams cd – didn’t like it much, hardly ever played it but a few years after getting rid of it I was desperate to hear it again. It was silly money on Amazon too so I never bothered. Probably haven’t missed anything but it still gnaws away at me.
I’m paying my son to catalogue my entire collection on Discogs, the idea being that I’ll have a realistic idea of how much it’s worth and then when I die he can literally press a button and put the whole lot up for sale (if he wants).
When you die?
Have a look now. It’s gone.
Daughter has Discog’d our vinly for free. CDs not yet. But yes, you can’t take them with you. Two options:
Viking burial – pushed out to sea off Weston-super-Mare in a burning pedalo. Those Led Zep first pressings go in smoke
Tutankhamen- build an enormous pyramid in your back garden and bury yourself in an underground chamber with Bob’s 80s output serenading you as you go into the afterlife.
The first Led Zep album would look particularly good in flames.
And the third one would drive the ship to new lands.
Solar panels on your burial pyramid so that the music need never stop.
All my records were there with me, all my past and futures
For free!? Crikey, you got a bargain there.
I think her perspective is that ‘Daughter, one day this will all be yours’, so she wanted to see what we had that was valuable and make sure we didn’t by mistake Oxfam it.
I was shifting the CDs along the shelving recently to accomodate new aquisitions, and have paused to do other things on the ‘to do’ list…’Why are there piles of CDs in the living room?’ enquires Mrs. T….’Oh…I’m having a sort out’, thereby implying that I might be getting rid of some (clue…I’m not)…’Oh good, about time’.
I may be in trouble…
I am not alone then – I too have been given the “one in one out” ultimatum
(It has been in force for about 2 years (apparently) and I have manged to ignore it every time.
Packages continue to arrive, visits to the town (any town) will involve a record shop at some point, I’ve got 3 Charity shops very nearby (and 2 more with a little bit of a hike).
Yup, I’m firmly in the Acquisition phase, and don’t honestly see it stopping.
The last “discussion” (row?) was about digitising it all and freeing up space (“Not on your nelly!” was my (perfectly reasonable response).
In summary:
– there is no room left on the DVD shelves (stuff is piling up on top of, and in front of the nicely filed DVDs)
– the vinyl shelves are heaving with no space left (and stuff piled up in front of it)
– the CD shelves are full and the overspill stands on top of the CD player (4 piles, each about 2ft high)
– books are left wherever there is a space around the bookshelves
I have put all the cassette tapes and VHS videos in the loft, so that is a sort of progress.
My biggest fear is that when I pop off, my wife and kids will sell the collection for what I told them I paid for it
I, too, am under instructions not to buy more CDs than what our current shelving will fit. I get around this by buying CD sleeves from slim-disc.com and getting rid of the horrible plastic cases. I’ve had a recent splurge on CDs from the 1990s and 2000s, so I will likely to have to buy some more soon.
Thankfully I’m single and childless, so I can indulge in “collecting” without arguments about space and finances. And when I kick the bucket I’ll leave an expensive flat in a nice neighbourhood and an art collection to my relatives, so a bit of sorting through the rest of my belongings should be well worth their time. 🙂
After innumerable recent house moves and the chore of packing/lifting hefty boxes, I’ve resorted to storing my Cds (with inserts) into files with clear plastic pockets. Each file can hold 80-100 discs, so it saves a helluva lot of shelf space. I plan to do the same with DVDs, which are still in boxes in the garage, nodoubt feeling unloved. Obviously there is a problem when I buy new CDs as they won’t have a place in my meticulous alphabetically ordered system, but I have retained the right to keep box sets and ‘interesting/unique’ CD cases intact, so new ones will have to go with those until there are enough to create a new file, possibly based on year of purchase 😉 Books are a whole other deal; most of them are again still in storage; I’ve donated quite a few to charidee and I tend now to only purchase special, coffee-table type books to have on shelves, with the rest being confined to the Kindle.
“Bob Dylan has always paid minute attention to his verbal lyrics…”
As opposed to those that are uttered through his bottom, presumably.
Somebody might have told me I put this in the wrong thread…
The way I see it, it’s an investment. I’m not being flippant, I genuinely do.
Ah but like any investment the trick is knowing when the market will fall and getting out/into something else before then. Look at Elvis. In the 70s and 80s rare early recordings were worth £10,000s before all the Elvis fans started dying off. Now, it’s a falling market. @paul-wad has a very diversified investment portfolio it would seem, though pricing up completed Lego Batman kits may be difficult.
I knew I’d read something about this:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/shortcuts/2017/may/07/elvis-presley-memorabilia-plummeting-in-price
Excellent post. I had a purge a few years ago and got rid of a lot of CDs and DVDs so they are down to one big unit, a “currently playing” stack by the stereo and separate pile in my music room. This has worked ok but didn’t include vinyl which I culled years earlier but have been buying most actively – mostly stuff I originally had on tape. There is no place for this so the stack by the stereo is growing. Books were brought to heel a few years ago with a job lot to the chazza but have been staging a comeback so I need to wade in there again. Other than a dozen or so I keep for sentimental reasons I’m less fussed about hanging onto books.
Mrs. T is actually very tolerant but has instituted a one in / one out rule on guitars. The phase “surely 21 is enough” may have passed her lips. In fact the rule, as everyone knows, is that the right number of guitars = 1+X where X = the number you currently have.
That sounds a lot like our house. My wife’s tolerance is reaching the end. I’ve always been a collector since I was a kid. When I lived in one room for 6 years in the nurses home in Liverpool it got unbelievably cramped, but every time I asked for one of the larger rooms the accommodation officer refused, telling me that I’ll only buy more stuff to fill the space. Well, over the years I have moved several times and we now have a 5 bedroom house and, guess what, Maureen was quite right. The house is now like a museum.
I have two great big CD shelving units in the living room and for years I operated a strict one in one out system. However, when I stopped working and started stretching my musical tastes a few years ago I started buying CDs at such a rate that I soon ran out of ones I was prepared to part with. So I started moving things off the shelves and into other places, like the shelves in the office. Firstly I relegated all the wife’s CDs into a cupboard, as she never listens to them, and I moved all my Beatles bootlegs, which freed up a shelf. Then I moved CDs that just formed part of a completist collection (i.e. Stephen Duffy and Pet Shop Boys) which I will rarely/never listen to. For example, I had 5 different copies of some Duffy albums. And then last week, thanks to a sudden influx of around 40 new CDs, I cleaned out a cupboard in the living room and moved stuff that I play the least into there.
As for Blu Rays and DVDs, after a kitchen fire last year, a wooden shelving unit became free after we had the new kitchen fitted. So this is now full of Blu Rays and is standing in the passage, just outside the living room door. That relieves some of the overcrowding on the two large units in the living room. This of course means that I have two units of CDs and two of Blu Rays in the living room. As the living room walls also have things like a large 1966 World Cup signed print of the team, a few framed small Hammer movie posters, some original Batman comic artwork, etc, I really do have a tolerant wife.
Upstairs it’s even worse. I ripped out some fitted wardrobes in the spare bedroom, that were just full of boxes of stuff, and put up four large bookshelves which are now overflowing. All the available wall space in there is taken up with my signed prints (Pele, George Best, Bobby Moore, etc) and I even have a shelving unit full of completed Lego Batman sets.
The small office also has four shelving units. One is full of football programmes, including every Barnsley home programme (bar one) since 1954. The others are mainly full of comics (nearly all Batman ones) and Batman related books/Blu Rays/DVD’s. There are also a couple of shelves full of binders for my trading card collection (James Bond/Batman/Hammer Horror), loads of which are signed. I collect autographs and have around 500 of them. Finally I have loads of magazine collections, including many full sets of fan club magazines, etc. Actually, that isn’t the last thing, as I also have other collections standing on the shelves and shoved on top of the units, like Batman figures/cars (loads of them!), completed Panini sticker books from the 70s and 80s and all sorts of daft things that took my fancy. I also have loads of rare posters/prints on the wall, including a couple of signed Dylan ones. I guess I really collect collections! But as I point out to the wife, most of the stuff I have collected retains or even increases its value, whereas all her disposable income has gone with nothing to show for it, except a full wardrobe and a ridiculous amount of shoes and handbags.
We realised that none of my stuff was fully insured a few years ago, so we spoke with our insurer at the time (Ávila) who wouldn’t do it. We ended up using a specialist insurer, Hiscox, who were very relaxed about knowing what I had. They said they would replace everything like for like. As a lot of my most valuable stuff is made of paper, there’d be no proof whatsoever about what I had if the house burned down, so, having worked in insurance for ten years, albeit company benefits, specialising on the claims side of things, I am taking no chances.
I have therefore photographed everything and keep the pictures stored in the cloud. I have also listed everything on spreadsheets, along with a rough idea of the value. This is as much to make sure my wife didn’t get ripped off if I pop my clogs, as to price up the insurance. So last year I was going backwards and forwards with the insurer until we finally completed a full inventory of what I had and how much it’s all worth. I finished the conversation with them one Monday at 11:30 with the words “don”t worry, the only time you’d have to cough up the full amount is if we were completely cleaned out or if the house burned down and we’re not having a fire”. Four hours later, as the firemen leave my kitchen, I rang back and said “about that fire…”. I think the total they had to pay to replace the kitchen was around £12k, which they were happy to do, considering nothing from any of my collections was damaged! I’d strongly advise anybody reading to firstly ensure you have your stuff properly insured, catalogued, priced up and evidence stored in the cloud, and secondly, not to leave the house or go to bed with your dishwasher running.
My wife often jokes about a bonfire when I snuff it (for my stuff, not for me!), but now she knows the value, she’ll instead be having a sale. I have asked that if I die whilst the kids are still young to please keep everything until they are older, in the hope that some of it will interest them. They already have their eye on certain things. I imagine my CD collection, most of it that is individually pretty worthless these days, will be flogged, as the kids won’t ever listen to them. I imagine that if I ever get really poorly and get given a poor prognosis, I won’t be spending my last few weeks visiting the places I never got to see, but will be sat in front of a computer being forced to list a load of stuff on eBay.
There! I feel like I’ve just attended a meeting of ‘collectors anonymous’. Hopefully it’s the first step on the road to stopping being a hoarder and permanently skint. Once I’ve tracked down the last 27 CDs I want. And that missing Barnsley programme. And the last few autographed James Bond trading cards I don’t have. And the last two copies of 007 magazine. And…
Sheeit! I’m gonna read this out loud to Mrs. T – should get me off the hook for a few more years!
Ditto. Now I know what a civilian must feel like wandering here. That is some testament @paul-wad. Incidentally does your insurer take Discogs as evidence of a collection (having let them know the collection exists). Marie Kondo would drop dead if she walked in here now…
Some of the posts on this thread would fit just as well over on “How On Earth Do They Make A Living?”..
I guess so, but I’d take photos of everything too. I’ve photographed more valuable CDs in batches, but then just photographed the shelves so you can zoom in and see the spines.
To be honest, the insurer was incredibly laid back about it all when I first sorted it out. When I asked what proof they’d need of what I have they just said they’d trust me and I’d just need to tell them at point of claim. Having worked on employee benefits insurance claims for 10 years I know that insurers aren’t that relaxed when a claim is made, hence I set about cataloguing it all. I’ve sent the spreadsheets and totals to the insurer and keep the photos in the cloud. When the underwriter came round after the fire and I explained what I’d done he said we were an insurer’s dream customer.
I just couldn’t see how they could just take your word for it when you submit a claim. As I said, I have a shelving unit full of football programmes. Most of them would cost a couple of quid to replace (the hardest thing would be tracking them all down, as it has taken me 40 years to collect them all!), but a couple are worth £100 each and then there are others that would fetch £30-40 each. But they’re made of paper, so if there was a big fire they’d just be a pile of ash. It just seemed a bizarre way to set up an insurance policy.
But the insurance was only half the reason for cataloguing and pricing everything. Just as important was having something for my wife to work from when she finally flips and strangles me. It can’t be far off.
I’m going to read this out loud to my wife, too! Maybe she’ll realize that having a few framed maps on the wall isn’t so bad after all!
I already ripped all the CDs (all 3,500 of ’em) to a hard drive and now the CDs live in the warehouse at work. The LPs are in the living room, below the stereo on one of those Ikea racks, but at least she doesn’t mind those.
I was burgled a few years ago and they nicked all the DVDs and I never bothered to replace them. For some reason I was never bothered about not having the physical DVD disc like I am with records. All those movies are available to stream somewhere. And since I ripped the CDs, I don’t really care about those either.
An aside from Mrs F the other day, as a 12″ parcel was delivered:
“Are there any records you don’t have?”.
At least they’re cheaper than my other habit, vintage Soundcraft mixing desks.
Were your ears burning last night. I was telling the young freelancer I was working with about your 200/200B. He Googled it to see what it was like. He’s pretty much only ever used digital desks and is slightly contemptuous of my LS9 as it’s not as user friendly as the current generation of digital mixers.
BTW, I’ve got an old Powerstation mixer amp I’m getting rid of.😉
I was guerrilla recording yesterday in the loft of an 18th century water mill. Also present was a cameraman/photographer (a 19-year-old friend of the band, and student on the local uni music technology course). He was rather taken with my 8-channel 200SR monitor mixer, long-throw faders and all.
I had a nasty brush with microphone addiction and also compressor pedal acquisition syndrome. Both currently in remission.
I only dabble in microphone acquisition, and can stop whenever I want. My pal, however, has a full-blown addiction which is spiralling out of control. His matched ribbon pair came at a cost which made the Soundfield seem positively cheap by comparison.
We recorded with 28 mics (a 7-piece band, including full drum kit), and I took a dozen of mine along just in case. I didn’t even need to open my box, as he still had plenty to spare.
“I was a fiend, before I became a teen…”
Cor, wrong crowd or what….
Shelving? I have a couple of hard drives, and a Music Magpie account. You don’t need the physical discs…. you really don’t.
Order of attatchment to physical objects is as follows:
Books (inc comics)
Vinyl
CD
DVD – though it should be noted for a tech layperson ripping DVDs then getting them onto your telly is of an order of magnitude harder than CD.
It’s not really a case of need though, is it!
“O, reason not the need! Our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous.
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man’s life is cheap as beast’s.”
King Lear…wise chap.
Very good. An excellent synchronicity- I saw a play at the RSC last week about South Africa and this was a quote used and analysed onstage. Less than a week later it pops up in a thread about collecting. I’m thinking nowto pitchthis idea to them – an aged collector @paul-wad (apols) seeks to enjoy his infirmity unfettered by the cares of scanning ebay, so divides his Batman comics and CDs amongst his three daughters.
Who’s Kent then? The postman who keeps bringing all the Amazon packages ?
The Fool is his mate down the pub who thinks cassettes are coming back.
Nah the Fool is the person who’s just spent £30 on a candy floss coloured vinyl copy of a record he’s already bought in several different formats.
And don’t get me started on the conversation between my wife and the postie last week when he delivered 10 packages. I think I heard one of them calling me a Kent under their breath.
She’ll have your eye(s) out.
I started buying CD wallet things that can hold a few hundred almost 20 years ago. At the time I could only find them in the US and every time I visited (a lot of business trips) I took an empty suitcase and brought several back with me, about 1200 CDs are stored in that way. Likewise, pretty much all my DVDs are in a large sturdy box that can take about 400 (in plastic wallets) I can also stream all of them with Plex, but I hardly ever do.
My Blu-rays are starting to get out of hand now though and all of the CDs I have bought in the last 10 years or so are all over the place (and all ripped to computer so I never play them). I also have way too much vinyl (going to sell some off), and a ridiculous amount of box sets (CDs and vinyl), may have to part with some of them too.
Most of my books (and magazines) have disappeared in the approximately 7 times I have moved in the last 14 years.
The thoughts I have when buying a new CD –
“I have their other two albums, so I may as well get this one too.”
“This is part of an offer, so I should get another CD to make it worth my while.”
“I have this on iTunes, but I don’t own a physical copy – I should get one to be on the safe side.”
“I already own this, but if I buy this new anniversary edition I can get rid of my old copy.”
“I’ll just buy the albums I really like.”
“Maybe if I bought this one, I’ll really like it too.”
“I should get one to be on the safe side” doesn’t make a huge amount of sense these days, what with the low cost of large-capacity portable hard drives. If fire/flood/angry mob with pitchforks & axes should endanger your collection, a portable hard drive slips easily into your coat pocket as you flee.
Yes, I have all my music and electronic comics (and photos, videos, etc) copied and saved on three separate hard drives. One attached to my laptop and the other two at extreme opposite ends of my house. I think I have something like 140,000 tracks on it and an absolutely ridiculous amount of comics (just about everything that DC have ever issued and about the same amount of non-DC comics). I would be devastated to lose all three of those, particularly after the amount of time I have spent tidying up my iTunes library. The insurer places very little value on electronic files. In fact there is a maximum amount they will cover and it’s really quite low.
I am amongst friends !
My wife owns six Connemara ponies.
I have no domestic conflict issues at all filling an entire bedroom, half the living room, the loft and half of the garage with my CD/LP/Book crap.
My advice? Get a missus who keeps horses.
Yes, Gloria for example. That’s G-L-O-R-I-A.
I’ve got one who collects handbags. Not as many as I collect LPs, though.
Orchids. Sounds harmless doesn’t it? “Twitches”
Yeah. Orchid DI boxes are great, and you can never have too many DI boxes.
Arf…..
Mine is an arctophile – that needs plenty of shelving too. That probably uses more space than our collection of CDs (predominantly mine).
Oh, this is a great post.
Firmly at Stage 7. I can confirm that they WILL watch those Futurama DVDs. All of them, many times.
My daughter and her friends are currently obsessed with The Young Ones on DVD (the sitcom, not the Cliff film)
Bloody hell*, it’s as old now as ITMA was when I was their age.
(*….. I have to sit on the rickety chair….)
True but both my kids think today’s comedy is pretty poor but are familiar with Father Ted, The Fast Show etc
The Young Ones and Futurama have all traction with the youngers, but fair to say of parents faves Father Ted, Mighty Boosh and Larry David are the ones that have really stuck.
I love it when a thread magically springs back into life. In the intervening six months my collection of old Penguins and Pans has increased by about 50%. I’m at Category 5 Plus – my offspring aren’t in the least interested in any of it, but they’ll bloody well have to be when I cark it. I’m softening them up gently…
“I love it when a thread magically springs back into life.”
Nobody says that when I do it….. chunter chunter….
I slipped up mightily last week. I had listed 48 CD’s on eBay as a job lot, with a starting price of .99p
Can you guess what happened?
Oh, well. I was going to send them to the chazza if they hadn’t sold. *unclenches teeth*