Ground Money

I found myself on Byres Road with Doctor Scott last Saturday. We had just eaten a very agreeable lunch in the Curry Leaf when two quite extraordinary things happened. The first was that I looked down and saw a twenty pound note just lying there on the pavement. A twenty pound note! I immediately bent over and grabbed it, hoping that no-one noticed me picking it up. After all, I didn’t want the owner to be some poor old granny and that was her shopping money for the week. I’d much prefer the owner to have been some undeserving ned who would only have spent it on fags and buckie, so that’s what I convinced myself was probably the case. Doctor Scott and I both decided that the best thing to spend the ground money on was a nice chocolate cake and a blu ray film that we could enjoy as our curry digested, so we continued on towards Tesco. Before we got there, however, we had to pass the Oxfam bookshop. Sometimes the prices in Oxfam bookshops can be extortionate, for example this time they had a Doctor Who book priced up at £39.99. Inside, the first thing I noticed was a shelf full of 1970s Collins Hardy Boys hardbacks, you know, the ones in the same format as the Three Investigators small hardbacks. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any Three Investigators hardbacks, but what they did have was this:
A superb set of eleven 2nd edition paperbacks! And at only £3.00 for the lot, a bargain was had. Nice books, they appear unread, although they all have the previous owner, one Moira Leishman of Kilmarnock’s name on the title page. If you’re reading this, Moira, your books went to a good cause. In case you haven’t realised it, this was the second extraordinary thing that happened. How often do you find that many Three Investigators books in the one shop these days? Doctor Scott seemed a little bemused at me buying these books, asking me, “Will you read them?” I said that I would , even though the correct answer should have been, “probably not.”

The remainder of the ground money went on a chocolate cake, a pint of milk and a blu ray of Edge of Darkness with Mel Gibson. The film wasn’t bad, but frankly not as good as the Three Investigators books. Or the chocolate cake for that matter.

Not a bad days collecting then, as I have added ten books to the collection and one to my doubles pile. And all paid for by an undeserving ned who would have just spent it all on blaw anyway, given half the chance.