Bright Copper Kettles

I am in the middle of sorting through all my stuff...stuff at my place and stuff I have stored in my Mum's garage. I am quite amazed at the things I had kept...old bus tickets, old brochures, ALL my uni notes, lots of old school work, old clothes, old toys, etc... Although I can't quite see why I wanted to keep old bus tickets.

Anyway I am quite pleased that I am a horder. I came across a lot of things like tax returns, pay slips, employment contracts etc that may prove very useful. And I didn't even realise that I had them!

I am being very ruthless. Throwing out stuff that I would usually keep. I even have a large pile of books to sell.

Although there are some things that I just can't throw out even though I probably should. For example, there is Turtle. Turtle is a rather large stuffed toy (large enough for a small child to sit on). Turtle is quite ugly and covered in material I detest and wears a bizarre hat. I would never in a million years choose to buy Turtle new. Now you'd think that if I can't bear to part with Turtle then I must've had Turtle since I was very young or maybe someone important gave Turtle to me.

Well... no...

I bought Turtle at a school fair when I was around 15-16 years old and past the stuffed toy age. It was near the end of the fair and I wandered into the toy room. There were still quite a few toys left, but I only noticed Turtle and Dog. Turtle had a price tag of 10 cents and Dog had a price tag of 5 cents. Dog was really cheap because Dog had no hair, no eyes and no nose. Dog was basically a Dog shaped stuffed thing with a very very very worn coat.

I felt so sorry for Turtle and Dog! They were both so ugly and it was clear that no one would buy them and their price tags were much much lower than all the other toys. So I bought them. Because I felt sorry for them and I wanted them to have a nice home. I couldn't bear to think that they might be dumped in a rubbish dump or burnt. I was quite emotional about these ugly and old stuffed animals!

So, ever since then Turtle and Dog have had pride of place amongst my other well-loved toys. I have actually managed to part with various other stuffed animals, which theoretically should have a much higher sentimental value, but not Turtle or Dog. Even now, when I am being ruthless and getting rid of a lot of things with sentimental value, I can't bear that Turtle and Dog will be thrown out and not appreciated. It is ridiculous! But I can see that it is entirely possible that I will have Turtle and Dog forever.