…and in one case didn’t buy

1. A pen with “LET’S PLAY BASKETBALL” on it. (£1, Miniso)

   I’m pretty sure saying, “Let’s play basketball,” isn’t a thing. If it was, this pen wouldn’t be nearly as cute as it is. But the animals playing basketball on the pen (for the record, rabbit, fox, red panda?, something between a turtle and a crocodile (newt?) and a penguin with his little tongue out) are having so much fun together that perhaps it should be a thing. We’ve learnt an important lesson today. Let’s play basketball.

2. Pencil case shaped like a monster. (£4, Paperchase sale)

   It’s gone now, of course, Paperchase. We’ll never see their terrible pricing philosophy again. Everything not cheap enough to buy on a whim but not expensive enough to be seen as a ‘designer’ brand. Just notebooks for £8, and customers waiting for the sales before they bought anything. Combine that with a website that only stocked about a fifth of the products they sold in the shops and it’s hard to work out why they kept going into administration. I did love it though. And I scoured its closing down sales, in several branches, buying Christmas decorations, pens, diaries, notebooks, post-it notes, fixtures and fittings, with sadness in my heart. This pencil case was the cheeriest thing I bought during that difficult time.

3. Cool green pen. (Can’t remember, about a pound, I think, from somewhere in Leamington Spa)

   It’s just a really nice pen

4. Just a Bic biro. (Cheap. From a newsagent or similar. Probably)

   Everyone has to have a favourite biro and these are mine. Other people prefer other biros. I have no opinion on that. I think these ones are neat.

5. Paperweight (Inherited)

   I sometimes wonder about paperweights. You don’t really see them any more, do you? And yet, when was the last time you heard somebody complain about their paper blowing away? Were paperweights a scam?

   This one was my father’s and he got it for free so I don’t think he was a victim of big paperweight, but who knows. The seventies were a weird time for lots of people.