So I was sorting through my receipts from the UK, throwing away the things that weren't deductible and remembering how much I love museums and books and charity shops (not, not, and not deductible).
I thought I would add this to the knowledge base of anyone who didn't know and might care a teensy bit: In the U.S. when you buy something from a thrift store and it wasn't worth a category of its own, they call it misc (for miscellaneous). In the UK, it's BRIC A BRAC (a term I knew for the little statues grandmothers put on little shelves). Or on a receipt that's not all upper case, capitalized with a weighty three capitals: Bric A Brac
I hope someone needs to know this and can maybe win some money on Jeopardy, or Countdown.
Here's some bric-a-brac (American spelling):
I bought that round Elizabeth II cup, second from the left, for Bea Marshall. I have the receipt sitting right here. Marie Curie Cancer Care charity shop, 107 GLoucester Rd. Bishopston, Bristol. June 30, 2011. I mailed it to her, worried that it might break, but it didn't. I sent it because when I had visited her earlier in Sheffield, she'd asked me who my favorite member of the royal family was. I said Charles, because I felt sorry for him. So I got a Charles and Diana memorial teacup. I think it was supposed to be a commemorative teacup, but poor Charles. So I thought an older Elizabeth might be good for her everyday teacup collection.
No good way to get this home, but England is swimming in cool teapots:
And egg cups:
I almost bought that one. Then I thought a photo of it was plenty.
They have a much better quality of bric-a-brac than the U.S. has:
... though maybe when it's useful like a teapot it should be dishes. According to what I can learn from my receipt, though, if it's not toys, books, or womens accessories, it must be Bric A Brac!
2 comments:
If you clicked on "Bea Marshall"—those shoes were my idea. we had made some in the hippie late-1960's, to "wear shoes" when bare feet weren't allowed, and when Bea told me she doesn't wear shoes, I told her about those and we went to a GREAT fabric and notions shop in an old building that went on in a couple of directions. She saw someone she knew, and another lady asked her whether she wasn't the one who had been in the newspaper (a different article than the one linked), and they talked a while.
In a room that seemed to once have been a lean-to/shed/porch, two older women saw a big spider in the bolts of cloth piled on a table, and I wanted to rescue them by killing it. But I lost it back into the bolts, and it surely had a tunnel system to the entire neighborhood. I never killed anything while I was in England, though I tried.
Hi Sandra,
Those shops are still here and full of new (old) bric-a-brac and we'd love to have you stay in Bristol again.
Alison and family
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