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Thought I’d include this for anyone who doesn’t understand the Maureen Lipman reference. Still one of my favourite adverts. What a wonderful actress she is. One of our best.

https://youtu.be/NK5-2fPyCjA?si=HrJrJbMLPs6DLQsX

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I absolutely loved that! Thank you for taking the time to write it. I do love a gift shop, although I rarely buy anything because I never have any need for fridge magnets and tins of fudge but I still love them!

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Aww thank you, lovely. Days have been dark, we all deserve a smile 😊 Yes - cards are my weakness. There are so many little peculiarities to be found, though.

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Hi Julie, I really do miss you on Twitter. (X as it is now called)

That was a great post👏👏👏

I’m more into garden fates and jumbles Sales gift shops. I hope the muses you that my first wife asked me to go to the school fete to pick up some bedding Plants. I came home with an air rifle that didn’t work and a wonderful lamp made from a dried camel stomach, I loved that lamp. You could put a bulb on the inside and one on the outside so the stomach could be illuminated from within and a shade could be put over the bulb on the top.

She hated it! Absolute Philistine. !

I forgot the bedding plants😳

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Bless you and thank you.

Probably a good job I’m not on Twotter these days the way things have gotten. Better a ban than doing time! 😬

Oh happy days eh?

Fetes and jumble sales? Oh yes

please!! Then there are summer fayres too - and carboot sales are my absolute favourite- was at one last Sunday, a British institution!

A lamp made of camel stomach?

Hm… it’s a no from me😂😂

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Oh, and I have a collection of tea towels. I use them daily, and they remind me of my travels. Daughter went home with 15. Yes, 15 🤣🤣🤣

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Oh i still remember my mum’s that had a recipe for Yorkshire pudding in it ❤️

Gotta love a tea towel!

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Love it!

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Aww good. I wanted to write something cheerful 😊

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I was in one just the other day at a place called World of Country Life with my grandsons. Managed to get through , resisting the pleas to buy something just for the sake of it 😂. Incidentally this place is absolutely brilliant for anyone who might holiday with kids in East Devon. A must visit. We went to watch a bird of prey presentation and the birds flew among the audience, landing on perches really close to us while the lady told the kids all about them. The finale was an Eagle Owl (huge) My daughter had a space next to her where we were sitting and it just casually flew over and perched right next to her on the bench and just sat there looking at her. She managed to get a brilliant photo. After the initial shock the boys loved it.

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Ooh you’re reminding me now of when I used to go to Hayle Paradise Park in Cornwall as a child!

I also attended a bird of prey presentation once when I went to a council pest control convention in Ashby de la Zouch. Jeez I couldn’t have made that up😂😂

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😂😂😂😂

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Key rings and plants are my big weakness. The grandchildren love key rings💖 I also have a collection of sunhats. The cafe at Forde Abbey on the Somerset/Dorset border sells great coffee. ☕️

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The RHS one yesterday had its own mini garden centre. Some gorgeous plants in there. It’s a lovely day out too.

Never been to Forde Abbey but if I am ever down that way I shall bear that in mind! 😉

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Superb. You covered all the bases there! 👍

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Thank you :)

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founding

You paint a very pretty picture with your words, both poetry and prose.

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Thank you.

Just felt myself falling into the ‘chamber of doom’ somewhat. I have so many things I want to say about recent events in the UK, I’d be posting every day “and another thing…..”

My internal auditor had a word. 😂

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I always buy a tacky Christmas ornament to hang on my tree!! Love gift shops and this piece in every way.

PS I think I’m coming to London in the fall 😜

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For years I bought way too many Xmas decs til I had about 8 boxes in my attic and then I got it all done to two and took the rest to charity shops. Trying to convince myself I’m a minimalist 😂

Oh that’s cool you are coming to London! 😍

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I tried, but now consider myself a recovering minimalist. I put up 2 Christmas trees usually even in the smallest of spaces. Last week there was a big storm and power outage in my neighborhood . I emerged from my basement with forgotten items, a battery operated flood light, toilet paper and a Dolly Parton wig. 😂

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‘A recovering minimalist’ - I like it😂

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I love a gift shop too and they are now being placed very cleverly so you have to go through one to enable you to exit..

Last one visited was at Hever Castle (beautiful place and the gardens are fantastic). Bought a fabulous pair of sunglasses in the shop 😎, had new prescription polaroid lenses put in and they look like designer sunglasses. Result!

Btw people do still like attractive pens as gifts and, call me old fashioned, I still keep a diary. It’s a way of looking back and jogging the memory for this and previous years…can’t do that on a phone!

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Not heard of Hever Castle but I do enjoy a castle.

When I went to Galápagos I bought loads of pens to give to people then forgot where I’d put the the bag with them In! One day I will find a bag of Ecuadorean pens😂😂

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Brilliant description of gift shops, Julie! I’ve been in two recently…a hospital gift shop (located across from imaging dept where you must sit and wait… or browse the shop which I’d rather be moving even if a slow pace 😅 I get ideas for displaying things, find one if a kind tees. The other I visited was at a museum gift shop where all was related to nature and plants… I didn’t but anything …the prices were outrageous.. but there’s something soothing in wandering and wondering what the heck some of the gifty things are! Thanks for putting it all into words and your poetry is wonderful! Fun piece my friend! 🥰Hugs! 🤗🤗❤️

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Thank you for your comment.

Yes some of the prices are crazy and often inconsistent. At Manchester Art Gallery however, recently I did manage to buy a little book about Valette which was amazing value at just £2.50.

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Love this! My favourite places in every museum are the gift shop and the cafe. Always. And I usually buy a rubber topped pencil or a small tin of mints. Got quite a nice collection. 😂

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Yes and it’s funny that so many museums make you exit through it, you are a captive customer, you WILL buy something damn it!😂

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It’s a clever ploy. My kids’ favourite was the shop at The Deep in Hull. Not another plastic hammerhead 😂

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😂When i went to Galápagos i in April for my 50th and swam with Hammerheads (which already seems like another life time ago!) I bought my son a T-shirt with Hammerheads on it as a gift. They’re just so cool looking, so distinctive. I think all kids love them.

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Wow! You swam with hammerheads? That’s incredible ❤️

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Lovely read Julie. My first exposure to gift shop glories was the one at Culzean Castle, on the south Ayrshire coast, where we went when I was a kid (up on holiday from Yorkshire). Leather key fobs, chunky bars of National Trust chocolate and tea towels depicting British Garden Birds. All very proper and middle class. Even as we explored the beach and walled gardens, I was building up to the main even - the gift shop! (I love a gallery shop too - even more so these days) x

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Thank you, lovely.

When I worked at the Tourist Information (which we weren’t allowed to call it - had to say ‘Visitor Centre’😂) it had a little gallery attached. A slightly pretentious but very lovely colleague of mine used to always tell people she was “a curator in an art gallery” . The humble TIC just wasn’t flash enough, bless😂 Still makes me smile.

Yes - the tea towels with birds- when I visit Bempton Cliffs near my mum’s they do an extensive range of bird themed merchandise in theirs. I seem to remember buying my son a cuddly robin once with authentic robin bird call and feeling quite smug with myself that it was more educational than your average stuffed animal 😂😂

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Lovely poem Julie, and some of my favorite treasures come from gift shops! 💝 🤗

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I bet you’ve been in many all over the world! I can only imagine! X

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Brilliant. The last sentence reminded me of the last time I was out for a dinner at a high-end steakhouse. The snobbery was like being in the basement on the Downton Abbey set. Pahfknplease! And the help wants a tip after they spend my time insulting everyone there. 🥂

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Thanks so much :)

Oh I hear ya!

Yes I have had so many customer service jobs and it’s a real eye opener for sure.

I have (as many will) experience of both how to do things and how not to do things. There are some people working in customer service who really need to rethink their careers 😂😂

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Precisely, I'm pretty sure I was their next victim after I left the 10% tip. lol

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Julie!!! I LOVE this! and the poem to follow - I heard a good beat as I read it! There's nothing like a gift shop ☺️ You described it to a "tea." 😉 Have a beautiful Monday!

Love, Sunday eve in SoCal 😘

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I have just added an audio to it so people can hear it as I heard it when I wrote it.

Thank you lovely x

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Oh, I must listen and see if I was on the beat! ox

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Wonderful little poem. Light verse used to be found in every newspaper, written by locals. Now it's like pens.

'Piccalilli' once knocked me out of a spelling bee, so I still don't like the word!

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My mum likes it, reminds me of her :)

And you’re right about verse. We didn’t used to see more of it around. I remember it too.

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