Tuesday 3 March 2009

SENTIMENTAL ATTACHMENTS

It seems my blog of earlier today has brought a few folk out of the closet!

Here's LISAH's collection of fridge magnets...


And here's where they came from...

Top left: souvenirs from a Caribbean cruise – my only cruise.

Top 2nd from right
: Picasso plate from Malaga, beneath two of the roof of Casa Batllo in Barcelona – my favourite building – it would be worth visiting the city again just to sit in a cafe opposite and stare at it.

Top right and two below
: a visit to Dallas for a wedding followed by a lovely week touring Texas and then three days in San Francisco.

Assorted bears and animals dotted about – if they’re cute and cuddly, we like them. That particularly goes for the two chinchilla fridge magnets near the bottom left, who remind us of our adorable, cute, departed chin, Freddie.

Middle of the fridge: magnet of the BBC Horror/Mystery series from 2003, Strange, with Ian Richardson, Samantha Janus and Richards Coyle.

Right-hand side towards bottom
: gecko from Lanzarote and two magnets from Gran Canaria – a place I’d love to go back to.

Bottom: Chatsworth; my Coronation Street visit souvenir; Menorca and Costa Del Sol (the Menorca magnet wouldn’t budge and the Costa Del Sol one needs to be propped up against it to keep it straight); one from a visit to the beautiful Cotswolds; a scene from Stratford-upon-Avon – purchased during one of many visits.

Down the left-hand side: purchased during a visit to Eilat in the early ‘90’s. I’d love to have swum with the dolphins, but wasn’t quite brave enough.

From SUZANNE, here's the rest of those Tin Tin magnets!


And, in case you missed his comment on the previous blog, here's what a GOOD DOG found when he start rummaging among his collection of magnets and things...

Oh, I so shouldn’t have read this post, only because I had so much to get done today. Instead of knuckling down I pulled out the two metal tins on one of the back shelves here and had a good snoop through them. Inside... treasure!

Travelling around I’d never opt for great big souvenirs that would be difficult to manhandle, instead picking up little nick-nacks along the way like a small, four-inch high “totem pole” from Vancouver and a fridge magnet from the city’s aquarium; various badges from museums and galleries; little character models from theme parks, which include a Looney Tunes Road Runner pencil that has a plastic cactus top with a curved stalk coming out of it attached to a little Road Runner figure that can be twirled around (odd, I know).


Most of the time, when travelling all around the States and Canada, I picked up matchbooks from hotels, restaurants and bars in the various cities. So, from the pile there’s Ellen’s Stardust Diner, Ruby’s River Road and Benny’s Burritos from NYC; Sloppy Joe’s (Key West); Pat O’Brien’s (N’Awlins); Sun Dial Steak Restaurant (Atlanta); The Dubliner (Washington DC); Bull & Finch Pub (Boston); Billy Goat Inn and Ed Debevic’s (Chicago); Gold Spike (San Francisco); Duffy’s Shamrock (Denver); Barney’s Beanery (LA); Elephant and Castle Pub (Toronto); Space Needle Restaurant (Seattle), along with just about every casino in Las Vegas (at least at the time I was there).


However, there is one favourite magnet here. Though not on the fridge, it’s stuck on the side of the file cabinet beside the desk holding up photos of myself and The One That Got Away, who is striking a very enigmatic pose.
On the magnet: a round yellow face with two black eyes. Instead of a curved smile, the mouth is a horizontal black line.

Underneath it are the words: HAVE A DAY.


I can wish you all nothing better!

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