2004-07-19

Today Ceara and I went to Maitland to go op shop crazy!

It was freezing as I waited for the 235 bus into town. The plan was to meet at Ceara’s house and go to Civic and catch the train to Maitland. At the bus stop I got talking to a lovely old lady, a local to North Lambton for 38 years. We talked about the cold (we both dislike it), living in Lambton (we both like it) and when the road in front of it was a single lane road (now it is a dual lane road with meaty medium strip).

Soon I was at Ceara’s and we headed to Civic Station, nearby. The train to Maitland is only two carriages and the carriages we had were quite old. The lights were little white bell shaped lamps hanging from the ceiling. There were warm electric heaters, the old fashioned style, square and metal, fixed above the doors at either end. It rattled and had big leather seats.

Not sure of the correct station, we got off at East Maitland. We had no real clue where we were, but we could see the built up area of the main street and headed for it. It was a pleasant surprise to walk past the historic Maitland Gaol, and other beautiful, old buildings.

Within 10 minutes we were at the shops of East Maitland, where we found two op shops. After asking the clueless newsagent staff about buses from the bus top out the front of their shop (they had no clue) Ceara and I caught a taxi to Maitland itself. There, we found about 6 op shops and the wonderful Tea Lovers and Coffee for Others café in the Maitland Mall. At the café we had chicken burgers, with juice and tea, and enjoyed the mellow Asian music…just the tonic after a frenzy of op shopping.

What I got:

- peach zip front uniform, with embroidery around the collar for me

- pink zip front uniform, for Nods

- silver knitted sweater from the 60s

- The Ampol Touring Atlas of Australia: god, how many old map books can I collect without actually going on a driving holiday to some of these places?

- Nice brown leather belt

- 2 x books: Danse Macabre (old novel) which has the picture of the most beautiful woman on the cover, and a history book from 1969 about how the Pacific Islands were originally inhabited

- 4 x bread and butter plates with groovy geometric motif

- silver and diamonte necklace

- a pink heart keyring

- pink handbag

- green woollen tights

- pink vinyl warm gloves

- 3 long thin scarves, to be used as belts

I spent about $30. Ceara found a tote bag shaped like a roller skate for $2. TWO DOLLARS PEOPLE!!!

Then we caught the train back to Newcastle, flush with our new purchases. Though not before some of the local talent gave us shit!

“Seriously, what happened to your sense of dress?”

Said by a local young fella, dressed in a heavy metal shirt, scruffy and swigging a beer. He then went to join his mates, rolling ciggies to the Oz rock spewing from their beatbox.

Niiiiice…