Woke up this morning to see rain falling outside my window. Again. That and the disappointing Brits last night left me in a pretty bad mood. The performances on this year's Brits were a disorganised array of good artists mish-mashed with some not so good ones in the strangest combinations imaginable, basically a wall of sound which vaguely resembled a herd of cats being sat on. You might even say it was catastrophic (sorry). I was in need of something to cheer me up.
Well, I was in luck. The necessary pick-me-up came in the form of Blott, a smart stationery shop in Reading. As well as quirky hats, I have a great passion for Japanese rubbers, or puzzle erasers as they are sometimes known. For me walking into Blott was like stepping off a train and finding myself at the gates of rubber heaven. It was full of fun, brightly coloured stationery and...RUBBERS!
Reaching the centre of the shop, my eyes alighted on the piece de resistance, a table covered in thousands of pristinely organised Japanese rubbers, spanning all colours of the rainbow. Everything from green koalas to fluorescent pink unicorns and bright blue rhinos.
I set to work scouring the pots for rubbers which would satisfy my ravenous eraser appetite. And, ladies and gentlemen, it is safe to say I was not disappointed. In fact, I ended up buying so much that I earned myself a complimentary rubber and a bright blue light-up yoyo. Does it get any better than that?! I left the shop beaming, with my arms full of rubbers to add to my collection.
I was so pleased with my purchases that I knew I couldn't keep them to myself; I had to broadcast them to the world. As soon as I returned home, I set up my photo studio (two pieces of blank A4 paper...) and held my very own rubber photo-shoot, or as I like to say, a roto-shoot. So here are some of my roto-shoot favourites...
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| Marcus the monkey... |
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| Thanks to this hedgehog, I no longer feel quite so blue...or prickly... |
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| Nigel the lime green rhino... |
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| Meet Algernon. I just go ape for this one! |
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| WARNING! Radioactive koala! |
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| Jeremiah the polar bear. How cool is he?! |
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| I'm sure Horrid Henry would happily accept this purple panda into his Purple Hand Gang...or should I say Purple Paw Gang?! |
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| Nello... |
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| ...Oops! Looks like Nello's been trunkated!! |
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| Mr Penguin...just chillin'... |
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| A true fairytale ending... |
So despite the slightly rough start to the day, I managed to find a little ray of sunshine amongst the dismal English weather. If you're having a rough day too, keep looking for a ray of sunshine - there will be one there somewhere...
P.S. I really should apologise for my atrocious puns in this post...I think I should be punished...
Amazing - takes me right back to my rubber collection, which was never as fancy as this but gave me much joy, e.g. custard cream rubber, yo yo rubber, and the little animals with the coloured eyes that let the light through. Got me through age 8-12. Glad to see this line of interest is still going strong. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteWell, this cheered me up this morning. I think I need to start a Japanese rubber collection...
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