Something Old Something New

Something old, something new is the story of a little surprise that I found for my wife on Saturday, something that made her smile and brought back some happy memories of a trip we did together two years ago.

As some of you may know, my wife has not been well for a few months, actually since April with a bad back and then since June with Labrynthitis, which is a middle ear problem that makes you feel like you have motion sickness if you do so much as move your head.

As a result, she finds it hard to walk very far, and has even stopped going outside into the garden, in case she loses her balance and falls over. She has been doing this all the time, and so as well as being worrying, it's been really frustrating, knowing that she is virtually trapped in the house when I am at work.

In the early part of last week she really wasn't well, and didn't manage to eat anything for two days. Yes folks, the sick feeling that goes with this makes it hard for you to fancy eating anything at all. She has lost a lot of weight, but I don't recommend it as a good way to diet!

Anyhow, let me try to not digress any further, and get back to the story that I wanted to tell you, which is about something old, something new.

My wife was feeling a little better on Saturday, and as I had some errands to run, namely to take a box of things to the charity shop, and then to go to the recycling centre and see if they had any two drawer filing cabinets, as we need one for our office at home.

She still isn't up to getting out of the car while we are out, and I have to carefully hold her hand as we walk down the path to get to the car, but at least she is getting out of the house, and it was nice to just be out with her.

I made my delivery to the charity shop, then we headed to the recycling centre, but I was out of luck with filing cabinets unfortunately. They only had a couple of four drawer ones, and a small two drawer one that was rather buried, but I could see it was rusty, and not worth the effort to try and pull it out.

I decided to go into a small room that they have there, which is where they sell items that people bring in, which might be one person's junk, but of use to someone else, who can't afford something new. It's rather sad in there, since you often see collections of LP's, with records from Franks Sinatra, Val Doonican, Perry Como, those records that were popular with the older generation in the 1950's and 1960's, and you know that the owners have probably passed away and they are no longer treasured.

As usual I didn't see anything remarkable, but you never know what treasures you might find in these places, and then out of the corner of my eye I saw this poster in a cheap plastic frame.

It was a poster of New York, and it was actually in good condition. The cheap black plastic frame was actually in good condition too, and since we had both had the most amazing time during a long weekend in Manhattan two years ago (which you can read about HERE), and so for the price of 1 pound ($1.50) I purchased this, and put it in the boot (trunk) of the car.

As we drove off, Debbie inquired what I had brought, but I didn't want to say anything until we got home and she could see it, as it was a visual surprise, and just telling her wouldn't have the same effect, especially as we really aren't into posters and a lot of artwork.

From the recycling centre we headed to a farm shop, where I had to get some more bird seed to keep our feathered garden visitors happy, and I had a quick chuckle knowing that Debbie was in the car, but not up to getting out and looking in the back to see what I had bought.

Well needless to say, she was getting really frustrated by this time, with me not telling her what I had bought, so I gave her a clue, telling her it was "something old, something new", with it being an old poster of New York and also new to us.

Well that didn't make her any happier, but as we both don't peek and spoil surprises, and she wasn't really up to doing that at this time, we drove home, and when she got out of the car, I opened up the back and showed it to her.

The picture brought an instant smile to her face, which I pretty much knew it would, and while I thought it might go nicely in our office, she thought it might even look good in the hallway downstairs, or even in the living room.

So this was money well spent, and hopefully when we get back from a trip out today (another surprise that I will write about very soon), I hope to hang it on the wall.

It just shows that sometimes it's good to surprise someone, and it doesn't always take a lot of money to raise a smile on someone's face and to bring back happy memories.