The Poppies' Blog

I am a typical woman. I love shoes. I love shopping for shoes. I love looking at pictures of shoes even... well, in a catalogue so I can buy them ha ha. Yet strangely, at home I never wear shoes. Undeterred though, I am convinced that shoe shopping, any shopping could bring even the bluest of people out of depression.

My husband does not.

He doesn't like shopping of any kind, really. Except Poundland. He has a fairly good sense of quality so I don't understand his love affair with this shop.

Dettol (albeit from China and written in Chinese) for £1, a network cable in blue £1 (we don't need another network cable so it sits unused on a shelf), he bought three rolls of laminate for £1 once (So what if we wallpapered our house with it... yes its shiny but very easy to clean). He bought a USB hub, rewriteable DVDs, rechargeable batteries (these last literally ONE minute), shortbread biscuits, non bio washing powder, Bike lights (didn't work), calligraphy set (leaked everywhere). My personal favourite was the gift he bought me - a PINK staple gun. He's bought goggles, a dust mask, hand sanitiser gel, shampoo (no thanks, I'll use my usual brand), Five (5) Litres (no you did not misread that) of Angel Delight (if this didn't taste like perfumed air I wouldn't mind). Prescision screw driver set (I think the handles fell off), hat, glove, scarf set (these would have been nice if they werent so thin), Metallic mechanical pencils (turned out to be plastic), 'damp' collectors (place in window sill to collect unwanted moisture), fibre optic pair of Christmas trees (5" tall)-given to the MIL, a theasaurus.

He loves it there! Everything's £1! He fairly regularly takes a good half hour (or more!) in that shop!

Now, I'm not a snob, not at all. I am happy to try these great finds he brings home with him. I've washed our clothes with the washing powder (this was actually okay), I've sprayed the toilet with the 'I hope this is really Dettol', I've cleaned my hands with the sanitiser gel. I pretended I had no idea what the fibre optic trees were when he asked his mum if she'd like them now that she no longer puts a tree up. I put the damp collectors in the upstairs window in the hopes to collect the last remaining moisture in all of England. I even wore the hat and scarf set one day (long enough to know that it was actually making me colder than if I'd not worn it). I even intend to use the staple gun next time I'm doing my 'lite' building work in my pink dungarees.

I guess I've now decided that its a problem. NOT because I'm a snob but because I fear for our future if we keep buying all these 'amazing' things for £1. I mean, that list is hardly exhaustive and already it's probably £25 worth of 'Poundland booty'. Even this wouldn't trouble me that much if it weren't for this.

You see, we went to the shops today. Nothing out of the ordinary, bought food and things we need. We bought a new kettle and some health shop items. I was beginning to feel the clouds part and the sunshine gleaming through. I thought I'd have a look at the craft items at Wilkinson's. I told my husband who was browsing through some of the 12 books they had that I wanted to go see what craft things they had. His response?


'Well, we don't really have time for you to look at that junk.'