The Snow Globe

It's funny what a simple object mean to you sometimes. Like this little snowglobe i have. It was given to me by a girl who made me feel that I was special, that I was the love of her life. That girl is gone now. She decided I wasn't good enough for her anymore. She said her love is dead, she fell out of love. So I say to myself, does true love really exist ? Because if someone describes you as the love of her life, it should mean you are an integral part of her life, and someone who should be at least afraid to lose you... But it so happens that when you give too much love, you get taken for granted. And that's how it went. I'm just stuck with a snowglobe, which i shake every now and then, wishing it will shake the feelings of who gave it to me too in the process...

Getting the Corporate Image...

I'm quite a careless man, I admit that. But now i have to try and organise myself a bit better. So i buy Monocle magazine, which looks like a serious one. It's designed for people who know what beautiful things are, what to buy and how to use them. One problem though, it leans a lot on minimalism. I am not a minimalist person. I like the clatter of beautiful things around me. The more the merrier as they say. But I still buy monocle. It has articles running about companies being taken over for a gazillion euros, runs adverts of watches costing more than I will earn in my lifetime. But I still buy it. If I can't have the watch, i can always admire it in an advert. I also bought a blackberry, now lying on my bedside table. It kind of bites me, I can't make head or tail of it. So Monocle and Blackberry, but i guess I'm still a Nokia and GQ kind of person....

There's treasure everywhere...

I have fallen in love with a particular auction house in Germany. It mainly deals in toy trains and military toys and memorabilia but it does manage to impress me with some curious finds then and again. Tha last auction was held last march, and as usual I tried my luck with some of the lots. One lot was for a box full of 21 TV and film related toys and memorabilia. The picture showed just a few on the items in the box, mainly a 1976 Jim Beam King Kong decanter and a few Pez dispensers. I decided to give it a try at 12 euro since I figured that the decanter alone would fetch that price if i decided to sell it again on ebay.

I won the auction, paid the buyer's premium and the delivery flat rate and I waited impatiently for my mystery box of goodies. Usually it takes around four days for their package to get here but this time it took two weeks, courtesy of Maltapost... Finally a very red faced courier man knocked on my door carrying a 4ft by 2ft box...wow... I rushed upstairs and looked for my hobby knife to cut through the layers upon layers of tape. At the first glance at the contents inside I gasped... An Aurora Robin Kit, Brand new in a very good box... The kit was complete and undone, the decals unapplied, the instruction leaflet crisp and looking new... nice start.

Then something hairy caught my eye, I reached inside the layers of bubble wrap and pulled out a gorgeous Donny Post Wicket mask from Starwars, paper label still attached and gloriously brand new. The rest of the stuff wasn't quite so encouraging but still, it was a great bargain... I found an ultra padded Darth Vader back bag brand new as well, an asterix hold all bag, the King Kong decanter, the Pez dispenser and 8 packs of Playmobil cards. Ah and an old Lassie tin lunchbox from Thermos... Quite good for a massive total of 35 euro....

A collectible a day keeps Paul happy....

I have often wondered how many objects are stored in my two little rooms, most of them things with no value at all, others with speculative value, others with proven value. I must admit I'm not rich enough to buy all the things I crave and probably will never be. I also lack foresight, many potential collectables I buy never seem to pick up value, they just stall or end up on bargain shelves.
Nonetheless I love my objects, the more my room seems crowded the happier i feel. I think some people are born to collect, others just use the object and throw it away when its not fashionable anymore. I have collected right about everything in these last 34 years, toys, comics, swatch, disneyana, books etc etc. And most of them are still here with me keeping me company and seeing me age. One of my favorite poems is 'Grow old with me' by Robert and Elizabeth Browning. Being single and mostly unloved I see these objects as my life companions, each has a story to tell, a secret to unfold. They are my source of happiness and they hardly ever betray me, maybe the only betrayal is when they fail to get their marked price on ebay. But then again I am no speculator. Its just sweet madness, or maybe just sweet love...

Getting my ass covered...

Being a big guy doesn't help much when i go out shopping for clothes. I don't fit into any of the outfits I'd like to buy and I'm usually stuck with what the particular shop has in my size, take it or leave it, 9/10 its take it even if I don't like it much. I've also noticed that since very few shops carry my sizes they usually mark their prices very high because they know their potential victim won't go home without having done any shopping, at any price.

I figured out the internet would be a good place to shop for oversized clothes, since there should be plenty more big guys out there. So I tried ebay, and discovered that some good fashion houses do the large thing. My first venture was a complete disaster though, I went for 2 Paul & Shark Bretagne sweaters, one cream and one black, both size 3xl. After waiting three bloody weeks for them to get here from Germany by DHL (!), i found they perfectly fit my younger brother who wears a size M. I hate italian sizes, I think they make their clothes so small to economise on the fabric. So there I was, two splendid sweaters I couldn't wear unless i went on a Gandhi diet for two years.

I decided to play safer, and I went for German shirts next. I never bought german shirts before, but i figured that Eterna shirts should be a good quality make since the name sounded so cool - Eterna - as in Mum proof shirts. My mum is distinctly capable of ruining my shirts as she ignores washing and drying instructions completely. Her best friend is my dog, who has refined tastes and exclusively prefers to chew up high street label clothes. I got the shirts along with a small packet of Gummi Baren by Haribo. Nice touch I must say. But to my horror I had bought one of the shirts with extra long arm length. I guess it will fit a fat Buffon clone easily but alas not me.

Ok so till now i had two really small sweaters, 2 good shirts and one three musketeer shirt I'll never wear... I needed trousers now... So I thought Levi's jeans and Dockers pants were cool. Back to ebay, I made best offers for a pair of jeans and two pairs of flat front trousers. They all got accepted. I waited more than two weeks and decided to contact the seller. They informed me that it took 14 days to process the order. I own up, I contacted them after 11 days not two weeks, but what the heck ?, my ass was getting cold waiting... Finally got them, after another 3 weeks, the pants were ok, the jeans were the right size but the wrong fit...

Then it was the shoes' turn. I have always loved shoes, though I haven't been gifted with the most gracious feet ever. I am flat footed and my feet look like large cactus leaves. But at least my size is regarded as normal and that makes me happy. When everything you wear is regarded as oversize and abnormal, it feels good to order something normal once in a while. While on a day trip to Gozo I bought a pair of skechers boat shoes. I liked them immediately and they had a bargain price. So I got them. Only to have my girlfriend tell me that brown shoes didn't match my black Eterna shirt...damn... Then i bought two pairs of Nike trainers. One was a nice white trainer which gave me mega blisters after i decided it was the best to use for my 5km walk on my gym's threadmill (vain baby vain...), the other is a red leather ronaldinho 10 synthetic turf football boot, when i can't kick a ball and i hate Ronaldinho...

Please people. stop expecting fashion miracles from me, I give up...

Carboot sales browsing...and...Groizer X

Seeing it was a truly marvellous day, I decided to visit the carboot sale in Birgu last Sunday. It had been a while since I last visited a carboot sale, I must say I had gone cold turkey from my addiction to these sunday morning meets a few years ago, when I used to wake up at 5 in the morning to be one of the first 'sharks' looking for dubious treasure among the rummage put up for sale by the people setting up shop there.

The first few carboot sales were unique in a way, ebay was still in its infancy, and wi-fi unheard of. Therefore people used to put everything on sale without having a look at what this or that item was going for on ebay, and you could really snap a bargain every now and then. The scene is very different today. No one collects stuff for the sake of collecting anymore, everyone looks for stuff that has been seen getting high prices on ebay. Therefore we have seen a metamorphosis in the collector's person. He or she has become a hoarder, and collects to speculate, rather than to relish the enjoyment of a childhood memory or to fill an empty space in an otherwise empty space in his or her home.

Obviously enough, the prices at carboot sales have increased, because each time you try and get a bargain, the seller pulls out the ebay story, saying he has seen the particular item go for twice the price he's asking for the other day on everyone's favorite auction site. You might even find yourself with tears in your eyes faced by the seller's good heart on offering it at a much better, almost charitable price...

I am no more innocent than these same people though, I have tried my luck at car boot selling a couple of times, and have always returned home amazed at how all the non hoping items in my lot sold, while the potential sellers did not. People buy all sorts of things. I have seen loads of women buying second hand clothes for their kids at these places while holding a cigarette in one richly jewelled hand and an expensive mobile phone in the other.

So there I was, looking for a bargain. Which lot after lot, couldn't just cry out to me. I was tempted when I saw a box full of 'Shoot !' annuals from the eighties, but then lo and behold, finally, a handsome small piece of japanese gokhin. Actually I was a bit surprised. It was the small version of Nakajima's Groizer X in great condition though obviously lacking the little yellow missile, no big deal. The surprise factor was that it was... Groizer X. People my age have loved a plethora of Japanese robots, most notably Goldrake, Mazinga, Daitarn 3, Jeeg and Daltanious but Groizer X is an almost obscure figure in Malta. maybe that explains the good condition, the once little owner of this figure was busier playing with his Goldrake toys. The seller went through the normal routine of explaining that the item was very rare and hence the price. He asked for 20 euro, I offered 8 and then we settled for 15. No problems there, I had to have it, and left the place in a really happy sunny mood... Au revoir till the next...