An itch scratched...

I love second-hand, used, pre-loved - whatever you want to call it - things. When living in Adelaide I frequently enjoyed rustling through op-shops (second-hand stores, thrift stores, charity shops, hospice shops, or resale shops depending on where you're from); scouring through bookshelves, fingering through clothes racks, browsing boxes of vinyl, wide-eyed and waiting for the next exhilarating find. I had my favourite (and secret) op-shops, and the whole process of rummaging, searching, discovering, finding, purchasing and then finally enjoying was as much exciting as it was comforting. Since I've moved to the other side of the world, good op-shops are hard to find. I've visited a few second-hand clothing stores but most of them import new-ish clothes from other parts of Europe and are certainly no match to a quaint Australian charity shop run by blue-haired pensioners drinking cups of tea and asking "are you okay there dear?". I've even had to resort, God forbid, to occasionally buying some things new!
I found myself quite flustered the other day with my absence of a good second-hand 'fix' and while looking through some of the enviable finds on the blog 'I op therefore I am' I realised I needed a fix and I needed it bad. Then I remembered about this rather new charity store (a part of a larger charity organisation I gather) here in Riga called 'Otrā Elpa'. I'd been there before but never with such a big itch; and it is the closest thing to a good op-shop here in Riga, with not only clothes (admittedly a poor selection for men), but books, vinyl, and bric-a-brac. So... I quenched my thirst for pre-loved gear and it only cost me 1.50 lats (3AUD).

Here's what I got:

A Soviet-era cheese slicer...

...a Russian knitting book with the title "For you, ladies" with knitting patterns so a woman can knit her man a comfy sweater...

...a home-made wooden spoon with the date of 8-6-88 on the back and a Latvian saying on the front meaning "How bread is eaten is how a song is sung"...

...and a cassette from the heyday of cigarette advertising (1988) called "Discover the Sounds of Adventure" by Camel cigarettes...

Here's the track-list which you can listen to on-line:

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SIDE ONE

The Good the Bad and the Ugly (E Morricone)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (J Williams)

Chariots of Fire (Vangelis)

Romancing the Stone (E Grant)

Eye of the Tiger (F Sullivan / J Peterik)

SIDE TWO

When the Going Gets Tough the Tough Get Going (B Braithwaite / R Eastmond / R J Lange / B Ocean)

We Don't Need Another Hero (T Britten / G Lyle)

You Take My Breath Away (G Moroder / T Whitlock)

The Good the Bad and the Ugly (E Morricone)

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I like it how 'The Good the Bad and the Ugly' features twice.